Media Studies Chapter 01 Homework Encoding Requires Least Two Steps Turning The

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Hanson, Mass Communication 8e

SAGE Publishing, 2022

Lecture Notes

Chapter 1: Living in a Media World: An Introduction to Mass

Communication

Learning Objectives

1-1 Identify and describe the four levels of communication

1-2 Define the term media literacy and identify the four dimensions of media literacy

1-4 Explain the historical evolution of the media world

1-5 Describe the “Seven Secrets” about the mass media

Annotated Chapter Outline

I. The Four Levels of Communication

A. Communication: social interaction through messages; how we interact with the world

B. Intrapersonal Communication

i. Intrapersonal communication: communication with the self; how we think and

assign meaning to all the messages and events that surround our lives

C. Interpersonal Communication

i. Interpersonal communication: one-on–one communication; the intentional or

accidental transmission of information through verbal or nonverbal message

systems to another human being

D. Group Communication

i. Group communication: when a network of people are communicating with each

other

ii. Can range from a leader who dominates the communication to a more evenly

E. Mass Communication

i. Mass communication: a society-wide communication process in which an

individual or institution uses technology to send messages to a large, mixed

audience, most of whose members are not known to the sender

ii. Fundamentally different because the sender is separated in space, and possibly

in time, from the receiver

iii. Rising opportunities for feedback with interactive communication networks

SAGE Publishing, 2022

iv. Always a Mix of Levels

II. Understanding Our Media World

A. Influence of growing amounts of content and easier access

B. Media literacy: people’s understanding of what the media are, how they operate, what

messages they are delivering, what roles they play in society, and how audience

members respond to media messages

i. Something people have in varying levels

C. The Cognitive Dimension

i. Deals with the ability to intellectually process the information being

communicated by the media

ii. Includes the skills necessary to access media

D. The Emotional Dimension

i. Covers the feelings created by media messages

E. The Aesthetic Dimension

i. Involves interpreting media content from an artistic or critical point of view

ii. Can require extensive learning to understand more than the surface dimensions

of media content

F. The Moral Dimension

i. Consists of examining the values of the medium or the message

ii. Developing our Media Literacy

a. Requires hard work and practice

b. 8 skills developed across the lifetime

a. Acquiring the fundamentals of communication

b. Acquiring language

c. Developing an understanding of narrative

d. Developing skepticism

III. Models of Mass Communication

A. Mass media: technological tools used to transmit the messages of mass communication

B. See Table 1.1

C. Transmission Model

i. Sender Message Channel Receiver (SMCR) or transmission model: portrays

mass communication as a largely one-directional flow of messages from the

ii. Sender: the source of messages that go out through mass communication

iii. Message: the content being transmitted by the sender and reacted to by the

receiver

iv. Encoding: requires at least two steps: 1) turning the sender’s ideas into a

message and 2) preparing the message for transmission

v. Channel: the medium used to transmit the message

vi. Receiver: the audience for the mass communication message

vii. Decoding: the process of translating a signal from a mass medium into a form the

receiver can understand

viii. Noise: things that interfere with the delivery of the message

a. Semantic noise

b. Mechanical noise

c. Environmental noise

D. Ritual Model

i. Ritual model: puts audience members at the center; looks at how and why

audience members consume media messages

E. Publicity Model

i. Publicity model: the mere fact that a topic is covered by the media can make the

topic important, regardless of what is said about it

F. Reception Model

i. Reception model: looks at how audience members derive and create meaning

IV. Evolution of the Media World

A. The first major communication network in the Western world predates the mass media

and was developed by the Roman Catholic Church in the twelfth, thirteenth, and

fourteenth centuries

B. The first major expansion in communication beyond the Church was the development of

the printing press and the subsequent mass production of printed materials

i. The addition of steam power to the printing press dramatically increased the rate

at which printed material could be reproduced

C. The telegraph was the start of electronic communication in the media world

D. The invention of radio freed electronic communication from the limitations of telegraph

wires

E. With the advent of television, people gradually became used to the idea that news,

information, and entertainment could be delivered into their homes

F. The internet rose as a mass communication network and was designed for two-way

communication

G. Online and Mobile Media: Interactive Communication

i. Significant implications for interactivity

V. The Seven Secrets About the Media “They” Don’t Want You To Know 2.0

A. SECRET 1: The Media Are Essential Components of Our Lives

i. Media use is a universal experience and is part of our everyday lives

B. SECRET 2: There Are No Mainstream Media (MSM)

i. All media have significant presences in our world

C. SECRET 3: Everything From the Margin Moves to the Center

D. SECRET 4: Nothing Is New: Everything That Happened in the Past Will Happen Again

i. Media face the same issues repeatedly as technologies change and new people

come into the business

a. Repeated fears of new media technologies

ii. Four major aspects of public concern about the media

a. Concern that media can control and manipulate people

b. Fear that those in power will use the media to reinforce the existing

E. SECRET 5: All Media Are Social

i. News shared socially will become the news that matters most to us

F. Secret 6: Online Media Are Mobile Media

G. Secret 7: There Is No “They”