MASS COMMUNICATION

REYES,

Mass Communication
was coined in the 1920s, with the advent of nationwide radio networks, newspapers, and magazines which were circulated among the masses. refers to the process of transferring or transmitting a message to a large group of people.

Mass Communication
The term mass communications is also used to describe the academic study of the ways people and groups relay messages to a large audience. is a means of disseminating information or message to large, anonymous, and scattered heterogeneous masses of receivers who may be far removed from the message sources through the use of sophisticated equipment.

Features of Mass Communication

1.Nature of Audience 2.The Communication Experience 3.The Communicator

Nature of Audience
They are: Large

this presupposes the fact that messages that undergo mass communication process must be directed to very many people, like the ones sent through mass media of radio, TV, newspapers etc.

Heterogeneous
mass communication messages cannot be segregated. It cannot be directed towards certain people without others hearing it.

Nature of Audience
They are: Anonymous

messages sent in mass communication are not to be received by a named receiver. It is addressed to whom it may concern.

Simultaneous
even though the message is available to one, the audience might decide not to expose himself to the message almost immediately, the audience might delay his exposure to such messages for different reasons.

The Communication Experience

Rapid
The messages get to audience almost immediately

Public
It is public in that the content is for public good

Transient
fast moving nature.

The Communicator
This talks about the particular medium through which the medium will pass through.

Characteristics of Mass Communication

Impersonality
There is no personal touch or warmth of a medium

Portability and Mobility

Portability has to do with the fact that the medium through which the messages are passing could be carried from one place to another. Mobility refers to the ease with which a mediums paraphernalia (facilities) of production can be moved from one

Characteristics of Mass Communication

Transportability/Proximity
The power of the medium of mass communication to carry the recipient over to the scene of an event.

Fidelity
Capable of giving the audience a near the original form of the figure that is being transmitted

Cost
Depending on the medium being used, the cost of mass communication messages

Characteristics of Mass Communication

Universality
This refers to the extensiveness or commonness of a medium.

Permanency
This refers to the period for which a medium can hold its message thereby making the message reviewable.

References

http:// www.nou.edu.ng/noun/NOUN_OCL/pdf/pdf2/MAC%20111.pdf http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-mass-communications.htm http://images.google.com/