Nature of Mass Communication Part - 1

Hello, I am Amrita Ghosh. As a media consultant, Mass Communication has

been a subject after my heart for over one and a half decades. Let us
explore today the true nature of Mass Communication and its effects on the
individual, society, and the global economy. Actually, we are talking of how
it is affecting and changing our lives every day.

Okay, let us start with answering a question which you are probably thinking
of as mass communication students- What is communication?

Communication, in its simplest form, is a human relationship, involving two

or more persons who come together to share, dialogue and to commune, or
just be together say at a festival or at mourning.

As all of us experience, it is an ever continuing process and an integral part

of the world of all living things. In fact, the need for communication is as
basic as hunger for food and drink.. This observation is also true for animals,
birds and bees as well as other land and sea creatures. The singing and
chirping of birds, the croaking of frogs, and the many visual and olfactory
signals among birds and beasts are all forms of communication; some simple
others very highly sophisticated. The dance of the honeybee, for instance, is
an advanced means of communication for it conveys to other bees the
precise direction and distance of the place where nectar will be found.

So, we can safely say communication is both an individual as well as a social

need. Communication helps us to share experiences. The severest
punishment for a child is to be isolated, to be left alone, not to be spoken to.
Imagine how you would feel if the world stopped communicating with you?
There is enough research to demonstrate how life processes wither and die
when communication is halted.

The right to communicate is also essential to human dignity. It is

communication that ensures a just and democratic society.

Derived form the Latin word communis, meaning common, communication

is a synonym for interchange, dialogue, sharing, interaction or communion.
It is the passing of meaningful messages and the receiving of feedback.

Writer and academic Denis McQuail who authored a book called “Towards a
Sociology of Mass Communication,” says that ‘human communication’ is the
sending of meaningful messages from one person to another. These
messages could be oral or written, visual or olfactory. He also includes laws,
practices, customs, ways of dressing, gestures, military parades and flags as
methods of communication.

Human communication went through many stages of development. At first

this development was driven by the process of mankind’s evolution from the
lower species to a more developed being, later it was also driven by
technological innovations.

Let us now look at The Stages of Communication

First, we look at The Age of Signs and Signals: Prehistoric humans were
physically unable to talk. Communication was limited and determined by
instincts. It was the age of signs and signals - drum messages, smoke
signals, music, dance and so on.

This was followed by the Age of Speech and Language. Man’s first big
achievement was speech and language. From non-verbal gestures, grunts
and grimaces to being able to verbalize his needs was a very big
achievement for man. It gave him an eminent position over others. Growth
of different languages gave birth to different expressions that denoted
distinctions within communities. Certain languages acquired the traits of
others, e.g., the language of conquerors was absorbed into the local dialect.
This then became the language of administration and commerce.

This was followed by the Age of Writing : About 5,000 years ago,
hieroglyphic writing was developed by the Mayans and the Chinese. They
used pictures with a standardized meaning. The Sumerians developed a
different form of writing that represented sounds by symbols. This allowed
information to be stored and for traditions to be passed on in writing. Clay,
stone and later papyrus was developed and used as a portable media.
Writing gave permanence to the spoken language. Writing was slow to
develop. This was mainly because the clergy as they were virtually the seats
of power, they wanted it to be their sole privilege.

After that, came the Age of Printing : In the 1st century A.D, China invented
paper. In the 8th century the Arab world began to manufacture paper. In the
15th century, the Gutenberg press was invented and printing began in
Europe. As a consequence, information could be copied much faster and with
far fewer mistakes than before. Availability of information was no longer
restricted to the Roman Church and to nobility, but open to a wider section
of European societies. This was the basis for further historical development
that culminated in the Thirty-Years-War. Books were followed by the
development of pamphlets and then newspapers in the 17th century. Some
newspapers began to be edited by the then subjugated Asians and Africans
in spite of severe opposition. Revolutionary journals began to see the light of
day and enjoyed wide readership.

Subsequently, came the Mass Communication Age : It was only in the 19th
century, that communication was determined by several media forms. The
most important form was the print media. Newspapers burst on the scene.
This was supplemented by the growth of telegraph and the telephone. The
introduction of radio, film and television in the 20th century finally saw the
emergence of the Mass Communication era.

Mass Communication is generally identified with these modern mass media,

but it must be noted that these media or individual mediums are only the
technology and must not be mistaken for the phenomenon of communication
itself, which is the process- the process of creating the information which will
then be relayed through the mass media to large segments of the population
at the same time.

Today, we are all witness to the Age of Information Revolution. Since the
20th century rapid technological inventions and innovations happened. At
present, we are living amidst an information revolution. As digital
communication technology has developed, integrated multimedia
applications are now possible.

Consider the mass media menu that an Indian has today. Instead of one or
two national channels most Indians today receive more than fifty channels.
Radio in urban areas deliver dozen of stations; satellite radio probably brings
in a few more and video streaming on the web or internet is carried out by
quite a few broadcasts. The advent of home computers, VCRs, DVDs and
CDs have brought in more of the global world to the average Indian. See
how the internet has changed our lives. It is being used by Indians to
interact with each other and also source news and entertainment from all
over the world. The print media also has a wide variety and one could
choose on reading whatever they want as now even niche magazines are
available to suit everyone’s taste and needs.

Research indicates that most of us typically spend an enormous amount of

time with the mass media. We spend at least 30 hours a week watching
television, probably spend about 20 hours a week listening to the radio. And,
what about the time spent reading newspapers, books, and magazines?
Studies show that on an average we spend about 8 hours per week reading
one of these, both their printed versions and their online pages.

Earlier, we used to perceive print, television, radio and internet as different

mediums. Today, we see it differently as they merge so seamlessly with new
technology coming to their aid. Technology has blurred the distinction and
will blur it even more in the days to come. Different types of media have
blended together today and are referred to as convergence journalism.
Convergence takes place when content that has been traditionally confined
to one medium appears on multiple media channels. For example, we can
read the newspaper on our mobile today as well watch our favourite TV
shows on the internet.

The media of mass communication, we can then say are an integral or vital
part of our lives, occurring in a wide variety of settings. Although the newer
technologies have completely changed the mass communication landscape,
the term mass communication stays relevant even in this century, contrary
to what some writers say.

Let us now understand why suddenly in the 20th century there appeared a
debate about the term “mass” in mass communication.

Over the past one hundred years, people largely used the term mass
communication tending to relate it the size of audience. In other words
through the media of mass communication you were reaching out to the
masses. This made a lot of sense then. The last few decades have ushered
in new technologies, such as films and radio, satellite television, the high
speed newspaper presses, , were providing access to huge populations. Not
only were these audiences very large they were also dispersed
geographically, quite diverse in their characters. More importantly, these
viewers were completely anonymous to the corporations that created the
material. So, the essential reason why radio, television, and other such
media were considered different from other forms of communication had to
do with the size and composition of the audience.

This perspective of communication worked very well in the earlier years. But
in the last few decades, the traditional meaning of mass communication as
something that reached large diverse groups no longer made sense. Why did
this happen? With the arrival of media channels, including the growing
number of radio and TV stations, the rise of the VCR, the multiplication of
cable networks, and rise of the web, all led to what is known as “audience
fragmentation”. That is as people watched or read these new divergent
media channels there were fewer people watching the same content. Now
the viewer had a choice in what to watch depending on his interest. He could
watch soap opera if he wanted or could watch channels specializing in
religion or finance or reality TV, whatever. And because with this audience
fragmentation, these new media channels do not necessarily individually
reach large number of people, in other words, “the masses”, some writers
felt that we can abandon the term “mass” from mass communication.

However, the term mass communication is still a critical part of society.

What really separates mass communication from other forms of
communication is not the size of the audience – it can be large or small –
but the way the content of the communication message is created.

Mass Communication or the process of creating the communication is carried

out by organizations working together in industries to produce and circulate
a wide range of content – from entertainment to news to educational
materials. It is this industrial mass production process that creates the
potential for reaching the millions, even billions of diverse, anonymous
people around the same time. For example, see how the Olympic games are
televised. And it is the industrial nature of the process that brings various
companies working together in the television or Internet industries – that
make mass communication different from other forms of communication
even when the audience is small. For example for producing and televising
Olympics, a company would have taken the help of producers,
cinematographers, reporters, video editors, music professionals, illustrators,
voice artists and so on.

Let us now explore how mass communication relates to or is different from

other forms of communication.

Different types of communication are basic features of human life. In

general, the word communication refers to people interacting in a way that
one of them understands as messages.

Communication has been classified into several types: in terms of the verbal
and the non verbal; the technological and the non –technological, the
mediated and the non-mediated, the participatory and the non-participatory
and so on. However in the real world there is much overlapping and mixing
of the various types.

Let us now see what Messages actually mean.

Messages are basically a collection of symbols, symbols organized in such a
way, that they appear meaningful to people who are sending or receiving
them. Think about the various ways that you signal to others what you want
to do or how much you care about them. The signals are often verbal. But,
they can also be conveyed through body language. When Anita shouts with
joy and runs into Amar’s arms after winning a quiz competition, that’s a
communication. She wants to share the joy with him or thank him for his
support. Amar understands the message in Anita’s shout and hug.

People who study communication would typically term this interaction as

inter-personal communication.

Let us try to understand Interpersonal or Face to Face Communication:

Interpersonal Communication is an interactional process between two

people, either face-to-face or through mediated forms. It is, in other words,
a dialogue or conversation that is personal, direct and intimate. A lot
depends on the relationship between the two individuals, their equality of
status, the socio-cultural environment in which the exchange takes place
etc. Face to face can be definitely considered as the highest, the most
perfect form of communication that two persons can attain. It is more
persuasive and influential than any other type of communication such as
group communication or mass communication, for it involves the interplay
of words and gestures, the warmth of human closeness and in fact all the
five senses. It is total communication for it takes within its compass words,
body movements, physical characteristics, body odours and even clothes.
Here the feedback is instantaneous and easy to measure.
Inter-personal Communication could be Relational or Qualitative

Communication in which the roles of sender and receiver are shared by two
people simultaneously in order to create meaning. For example,. 2 dear
friends chatting.

Situational or Contextual

Communication that occurs between two people in a specific context. For

example., 2 colleagues from the same company trying to discuss how to
improve sales of their assigned product.

Quantitative

Dyadic interactions, including impersonal communication. For Example, a

Lecturer lecturing a class.

Functional or Strategic

Communication for the purpose of achieving interpersonal goals. For

example, one singer and one drummer trying to create music.

When a device, mediates in an interpersonal exchange, it is termed

interpersonal mediated communication. The device could be anything. It
could be a pen, a computer or a telephone. When you write a letter to your
friend, or an email or call a friend on the telephone, you are participating in
a mediated kind of interpersonal communication. In this kind of
communication the people you are interacting with you can’t touch them.
The technology, the pen, the paper, the computer, the telephone becomes
the vehicle or the medium that allow you to interact with them.