LESSON 1-Mass Communication, Culture and Mass Media
A. Mass Communication is the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences.
B. Communication is the transmission of a message from a source to a receiver.
C. Culture is the learned behavior of members of a given social group.
D. Mass Media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication
E. Media Literacy encompasses the practices that allow people to access, critically evaluate, and create or manipulate media.
F. Society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
G. Technology is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation.
Mass communication influences both society and culture. Different societies have different media systems, and the way they are set up by law influences how the society works.
Different forms of communication, including messages in the mass media, give shape and structure to society.
Mass media plays an important role in the society by providing entertainment, information and acting as the government’s overseer.
The influence of mass media has an effect on many aspects of human life, which can include voting a certain way, individual views and beliefs, or skewing a person's knowledge of a specific topic due to being provided false information but not all effects result in change; some media messages reinforce an existing belief.
Media literacy, put simply, is the ability to identify different types of media and the messages they are sending. Therefore, we as the readers or viewers need to view the media objectively, with the goal to find out or analyze what is being presented.
The benefits of media literacy are:
teach people how to verify information and recognize other points of view encourage critical thinking encourage to share other sources of media responsibly inform readers how the media affect our culture.
Culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the “objects” of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture.
When the terms culture and society first acquired their current meanings, most people in the world worked and lived in small groups in the same locale.
a.Technology
Negative Impact-Experts have found that in addition to making our lives more convenient, but there's a negative side to technology — it can be addicting and it can hurt our communication skills. Extended screen time can result in health ramifications like insomnia, eyestrain, and increased anxiety and depression
Positive Impacts - Organizations use electronic communication in day-to-day operations, and individuals use it for personal tasks, like banking, paying bills and socializing. Communication technology has also made long-distance communication and mass communication easy and convenient.
b. Money -alters or improve communication
Negative Impact-when audiences are considered products through advertising.
Positive Impact- when audiences are considered consumers of information.
c. Writing
Negative Impact- the primary function of written communication is to facilitate slavery
Positive Impact- Writing exists only in a civilization and a civilization cannot exist without writing
d. Gutenburg Revolution
Negative Impact- the cost of printing caused the information and knowledge to be expensive.
Positive Impact- key to modern consciousness.
The characteristics of culture are:
a. Culture is learned, it means the absorption of any habit, value, knowledge, skill, and the taste of the group reflects the uniquely elaborate capacity of humans to learn.
b. Culture is transmitted by oral or in writing.
c. Culture is shared, it means the result from living and interacting with one another and emerge out of the social life of people.
d. Culture is patterned and integrated, it means the core values of the people are the basis for unity.
e. Culture is adaptive and maladaptive, this means that people can make some adjustments whether minor or major.
f. Culture is compulsory, this means that members of a society have to follow the culture in their dealings with others if they wish to get along successfully.
g. Culture is essential for social life, this means that mechanisms for solving problems of life because no man was born yet with his own life but through interactions with others.
Functions of Culture: a. it serves a purpose b. it helps categorize and classify human experiences c. helps define the world
Effects of culture: a.it limits options and provides useful guidelines for behavior-with positive or negative effects b.it has liberating effects since because cultural values can be contested c.it has defining effect d.it has differentiating effect e.it has dividing effect f.it has uniting effect
The elements of media literary are:
a. A critical thinking skill enabling audience members to develop independent judgments about media content. b. An understanding of the process of mass communication c. An awareness of the impact of media on the individual and society. d. Strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages. e. An understanding of media content as a text that provides insight into culture. f. The ability to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content. g. Development and effective responsible production skills. h. An understanding of the ethical and moral obligations of media practitioners.
The media literacy skills are:
A. The ability and willingness to make an effort to understand content, to pay attention, and to filter out noise. b. An understanding of and respect for the power of media messages. c. The ability to distinguish emotional from reasoned reaction when responding to content and to act accordingly. d. Development of heightened expectations of media content. e. The knowledge of genre conventions and the ability to recognize when they are being mixed. f. The ability to think critically about media messages. g. A knowledge of the internal language of various media and ability to understand its effects no matter how complex LESSON 2 - Convergence and Reshaping of Mass Communication
Ownership of mass media is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.
A. Sec 11 of Philippine Constitution
> ownership and management of mass media shall be limited to citizens of the Philippines, or to corporations, cooperatives or associations, wholly-owned and managed by such citizens. The Congress shall regulate or prohibit monopolies in commercial mass media when the public interest so requires.
B. Corporation Code of the Philippines
Conglomeration describes the process by which a conglomerate is created, as when a parent company begins to acquire subsidiaries.
Globalization means the speedup of movements and exchanges (of human beings, goods, and services, capital, technologies or cultural practices) all over the planet.
Audience fragmentation is used to describe the transition of a population from one comprised of few large audiences for any one media product to another comprised of more numerous smaller audiences.
Hyper commercialization is a situation that can be examined both at a micro and macro level, but refers to the fact that the media are becoming increasingly subservient to the advertisers' desires to alter the awareness, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in the media marketplace.
Convergence is a phenomenon involving the interconnection of information and communications technologies,
computer networks, and media content.
Trends in the ownership and control of the media
The mass media are generally defined as those agencies of communication that transmit information, education, news and entertainment to mass audiences.
There are broadly three types of media:
The print media, Audio visual media, Cybermedia or digital media.
Ownership and control
Some sociologist has expressed concerns about recent trends in media ownership and control. The number of media outlets available to the general public has increased dramatically (increased in the TV choice and the birth of the internet). All these changes in the in the availability of media seem to imply a greater degree of choice however some sociologist argue that this might just an illusion.
Concentration of media ownership
4 distinct features: Ownership within a single medium e.g. Company owning several newspapers, Owners have an interest in a range of media such as newspapers, magazines, book publishing, the film industry, Ownership is international: owners have media interest in many different countries, Media conglomerates: companies that have a range of interest in a wide range of interest in a wide variety of products besides the media. For example, Virgin also has an airline, train company, soft drinks, mobiles phones etc...
Global conglomerations Media companies have taken advantage of the erosion of traditional boundaries surrounding media markets. Globalization has opened up national markets and has created international competitions between media companies.
Synergy Media companies are using different interest to package their products in several different ways
Technological Convergence
A fairly new concept which refers to the trend of putting several technologies into one media product for example through the personal computer, mobile phones, digital television. LESSON 3- Media, Media Industries and Media Audiences on Books
1. Timeline of the history and development of books. (Evolution of Books)
The Evolution of the book
TIMELINE PICTURES 3500 BC - Symbols onto Tablets. ..MESOPOTAMIA
2400 BC - Papyrus Scrolls.
…EGYPT
600 BC - Standardized Left to right writing in Europe except for Hindu-
Arabic that used right to left… writing system developed. ...
500 - 200 BC - Parchment. ...made from calfskin, goatskin or sheepskin
200 BC - Wax Tablets
developed. ... Greeks and Romans made of wood 105 AD - The Paper Revolution. ...by the Chinese Eunuch
400 - 600 AD - Illustrations
added. ...popularized in Europe
868 AD - The First Printed
Book…printed on paper in China
1041 AD -1230 AD THE
FIRST Moveable Type. ….still in China
1250 AD –Block printing in
Egypt….called Tarsh in Arabic 1439-1450 AD-Moveable type in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg
1455 AD –The Gutenberg
Bible
1490 AD-1500 AD The Created the printing press and produced best sellers Printing Revolution
1501 AD The Precursor of
the Modern Paperback …in Italy 1639 AD-1640 AD America’s First Book brought by Puritans in North America
17 44 AD-Discovery of By Carl Wilhelm Scheele a Swedish Chemist…
chlorine is used for bleaching the paper Chlorine
1832 AD- Book Sleeves Detachable paper jackets for keepsake
Appear
1832 AD -1860 AD –Birth of
the Cheap Novel in Britain 1920 AD-1938 AD –The rise and fall of the Paperback in America
1933 ad Nazis began
Burning Books
1935 AD -1945 AD The
March of the Penguin-the Pelican books …educate
1971 AD The first
microprocessor invented ..Intel 4004 1985 AD First Books on CD
1989 AD Internet and
HTML arrive for public use
1995 AD Books sold online
1996 Google is born
2000 AD-2006 AD The star of e-books market
2007 AD The Kindle
becomes the first E-book reader
2008 AD Speeding up the
scanning of e-books such as booksnaps
2014 AD and beyond …
audible …allowing digital download onto tablet..
Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress ideas and information within a book.
Censorship is "the regulation of free speech and other forms of entrenched authority". Books are most often censored for age appropriateness, offensive language, sexual content, amongst other reasons.
It is considered a threat to democracy since it curtails free press and freedom of expression which is expressly provided in the constitution.
But if the censorship if for the exercise of police power of the state, then the censorship is justified. The major factors affecting the local and global production, marketing and distribution of books, magazines and electronic publications have a huge impact in political, social and economic conditions, technological changes, and changing industry practices.
The critical understanding of professional practices and current issues in various sectors of the industry in the context of global developments roles and have gained insights of what to publish.
In other words, if the standard of general practices across book, magazine and online publishing; and the responsibilities of editors, agents, designers and marketing and distribution will serve as guides as what “content or ideas are to be printed”.
Media literacy is an important skill, especially in the modern age of digital information. Facebook posts, online articles, and traditional news media can all be persuasive, even when they're not accurate.
Being able to think critically is the best way to avoid being misinformed.
