22A Mass Communication

Mass Communication is the process in which professional communicators use media to disseminate messages widely, rapidly and continiously to arouse intended meanings in large and diverse audiences in attempts to influence them in variety of ways.

The process of mass communication includes 5 stages:

1. At the first stage a message is formulated by professional communicators. These are the producers, editors, reportes, gatekeepers.

2. The message is sent out in a relatively rapid and continious way through the use of media. A medium is any object or device used for communicating a message; that is, for moving information over distances and preserving it through time. There are 2 types of nass media: electronic and print mass media. Modern media are characterised by the speed of message”s movement. Sometimes a message can be distorted by noises or interference.There three types of noises: channel, semantic and psychological noises.

3. The message reaches large and diverse audiences. The term “mass” in communaication implies large and diverse audiences, but it refers to the social nature of audiences rather than their size.

4. Feedback is given in MC. There schould be no confusion about it. It is true, for example, that television viewers or telephone a network concerning a given program. But usually those viewers will not be face-to-face with the television producer and the feedback will not be as immediate or complete as it will be on a face-to-face basic.

5. The last stage in MC is the outcome of the preceding stages. People in the audiences are changed in some way.

30 A cross cultural communication

When members of different cultures communicate, getting the codes wrong is a common experience. Throughout, intercultural communication can occur in any of the contexts. Participants may not be aware of all aspects of each others’ cultures.

Culture is a way of life developed and shared by a group of people and passed down from generation to generation. It is made up of many complex elements, including religious and political systems, customs, and language as well as tools, clothing, buildings The language you speak are all profoundly affected by your culture. Not all members of a culture share all its elements. Culture will change and evolve over time. Still a common set of characteristics is shared by the group at large and can be traced. Intercultural communication is communication between members of different cultures. As this definitions suggests, the divisions between cultural groups are not established or absolute; Culture is a complex of values polarized by an image contracting a vision of its own excellence. In a sense, then, it is the culture that provides a coherent framework for organizing our activity and allowing us to predict the behavior of others. People from other cultures who enter our own may be threatening because they challenge our systems of beliefs. A network of telecommunications, including television, telephone, radio and the news wire services, allows us to communicate across great distances. There are two intercultural changes: a shared code system, which of course will have 2 aspects – verbal and nonverbal. There will be degrees of differences, but the less a code system is shared, the less communication is possible. The last important implications for intercultural communication is the level of knowing and accepting the beliefs and behaviors of others.