Mohammed V University Introduction to Media Studies /S4

Faculty of Education Sciences Pr. R. Bougtib

Mass Communication Development

I. Understanding Mass Communication

Mass communication is a process in which individuals or institutions use technology to send

messages to a large, diverse audience, most of whom are unknown to the sender. "Mass
communication is a process in which professional communicators use media to disseminate
messages widely, rapidly, and continuously to arouse intended meanings in large and diverse
audiences in attempts to influence them in a variety of ways." DeFleur & Dennis, 2002.
Examples of mass communication include nationally broadcast speeches by politicians, stories about
crime in newspapers, and popular novels. These forms of communication differ from others because the
sender is typically separated from the receiver both in space and, possibly, in time. For instance, when a
communicator appears on television or writes an article for a newspaper, they do not know who will be
watching or reading. The audience can include an older woman in a nursing home, a child eating
breakfast, or someone preparing to meet with speech students at the office. The message reaches all of
these individuals and thousands or millions of others. Mass communication has traditionally provided
limited opportunities for feedback, as communication channels are one-way. However, with the rise of
interactive communication networks, opportunities for feedback are increasing rapidly. For example,
Ahmed engages with diverse mass communication throughout his day. He binge-watches series on
platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Go, watches video game streamers and Twitch tournaments,
plays games on Blizzard, Steam, and the PlayStation Network, and listens to music through YouTube or
Spotify.
By mass communications, we mean communicating with many people, perhaps millions of people,
often simultaneously. Mass communications are messages; the means of communicating these messages
is through the mass media. In many ways, mass communications rely more on quantity than quality,
while interpersonal communications rely more on quality than quantity. Mass communications can reach
more people at one time (a greater quantity) than interpersonal communications can. For example, the
debate between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on September 26, 2016, drew
84 million television viewers in the United States, and millions more watched the debate online.3
Millions of people in other countries also watched the debate, either live or recorded. Today, nearly any
event can be transmitted around the globe instantaneously. Global digital communications also allow

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newspapers and news magazines to print stories as they occur, although the distribution of print media
creates a time

lag in delivery of this information. The potential audience of an event can approach spans nearly all of
the world’s population.
However, the quality of mass communications rarely attains the quality of effective interpersonal
communication. One of the key differences between interpersonal communications and mass
communications is that we are much more likely to have feedback in interpersonal communications than
we are in mass communications. As in Schramm’s model of communication, feedback is part of a loop:
we encode messages and transmit them to others; they decode our message, encode their response, and
transmit that response back to the original sender, who begins the decoding, encoding, and transmitting
process again. Even when we silently look at the other person who has just spoken to us and walk away,
we are sending a message.
In interpersonal communication, we can repeat or rephrase something that another person did not hear,
did not hear correctly, or did not understand. Based on the verbal or nonverbal reaction of the other
person or persons during the communication, we can see if our message is being interpreted the way we
want it to be and whether it is being accepted the way we want it to be. As part of the feedback process,
the other person may display nonverbal communications (such as smiling with delight or looking away
with disinterest) while we are communicating with them. They can reply to our questions and ask
questions of their own. Based on this feedback, we can adjust the message as necessary. Though lacking
the level of feedback that interpersonal communication possesses, the mass media attempt to assess their
ability to connect with audiences. For example, print publications collect readership figures and
television networks collect viewership numbers. Newspapers and magazines also solicit letters from
readers and publish some of them.
Advertisers receive both direct and indirect feedback on their advertisements that can significantly
impact sales. Successful ads often increase sales, while unsuccessful ones can decrease sales, serving as
valuable consumer feedback. Consumers may also proactively communicate their dissatisfaction, as
seen with Ms. magazine, which highlights objectionable ads and provides advertisers' contact
information for reader complaints. Additionally, negative feedback can also result from the channel
effect. The medium in which an advertisement is placed affects how consumers perceive the
advertisement. In this case, if the medium is viewed as unacceptable, the advertisement in that media is
also viewed unfavorably.

II. The Evolution of Mass Communication

a) Mass Communications and Communities
The quality of mass communications raises the question of whether they foster community or
undermine our sense of connection. While mass media facilitates discussions around shared interests
like movies or hobbies, it often leads to reduced interpersonal interactions during consumption.
Advocates argue that these communications can reconfigure community by connecting individuals with
niche interests despite geographical limitations. However, the profit-driven nature of mass media often
results in a one-dimensional flow of information. In response to the rise of social media, traditional mass
media have adjusted by encouraging audience engagement through digital platforms, highlighting a
contrast between the interactivity of new media and the quality of traditional communications.

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b) Mass Communications and Technology: Gutenberg
Mass communications require technology. Today, many forms of mass communications rely on
electronics. However, the first important event in mass communications was movable type and the
printing press, which was originally operated by hand. The German printer Johannes Gutenberg (1398–
1468) is

often credited with inventing movable type, around 1440. While many scholars today believe that
movable type originated in China centuries earlier, Gutenberg did popularize it in Europe. Movable type
was a significant improvement over earlier forms of book making, which involved either handwritten
manuscripts or the use of carved woodblocks. Movable type made printing faster and easier, as a printer
could quickly set up lines of type and quickly print documents. This new efficiency in printing reduced
the cost of printing documents, and the cost of the documents themselves. When books became less
expensive, more people could buy books. The first important book that Gutenberg published was the
Bible in 1455. Prior to this, few people owned bibles. Few people could read, as there was little reading
material, and there was little need to read. Even if one could read, printed documents were quite
expensive. As a result, rich people and some clergy within the Roman Catholic Church were among the
few Europeans who could read prior to Gutenberg’s work.
Movable type not only expanded the market for reading material but also led to the spread of
discoveries and ideas. Thus, the printing press helped advance the European Renaissance, which saw
startling new advances in the arts during the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries, as well as the
Scientific Revolution, which began in the mid-1500s. The printing press also fostered the
Reformation, a religious movement that began in Germany in the early 1500s. The Reformation, an
effort by some members of the Roman Catholic Church to change what they saw as wrongful beliefs and
practices within the church, resulted in many followers leaving the Roman Catholic in protest (thus, they
were “Protestants”) and forming new Christian sects. One of the key figures in the Reformation was
Martin Luther (1483–1546), a dissatisfied Catholic monk in Germany who distributed printed
documents to promote his religious arguments.

c) Mass Communications and Technology: The Industrial Revolution

Our quick look at the history of mass communications jumps from the 1500s to the 1800s. The
nineteenth century saw the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. Borrowing
technology and techniques from the British, whose Industrial Revolution began earlier, the first
American industrial factories, built in New England in the 1810s and 1820s, produced textiles. Other
factories soon followed throughout the United States. To explore the relationship between mass
manufacturing and mass media, we use the chocolate industry as an example. Baker’s Chocolate of
Dorchester, Massachusetts, is believed to be the first branded, packaged grocery item in the United
States, beginning in the 1840s. Once a product has a brand name (as opposed to being a generic item)
the owner of that brand is motivated to advertise that product. It would do little good for a chocolate
maker to advertise for chocolate in general, as that advertising would help the advertiser to only a small
degree, while also helping its competitors in the chocolate-making business. With a brand name on a
product or its package, advertising that product by name helps boost the sales of that particular brand.
Years after the Baker’s Chocolate brand was introduced, Milton Hershey created an inexpensive way
of producing milk chocolate, and built what was then the largest chocolate factory in the world,

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introducing the first molded chocolate bar in 1900.5 The Hershey chocolate bar exemplifies two
conditions for the rise of the mass media. The Hershey bar has a brand name, and the product is mass-
manufactured. If a firm manufactures 100,000 branded candy bars a day (or cans of paint, mobile
phones, etc.), it needs to sell 100,000 of those items every day. This requires mass marketing. In order
to mass-market items, an advertiser needs mass media in which to place its advertising. Thus, the rise of
mass manufacturing in America led to the beginning of mass media.