Mass Communication And Mass Media Essay

Chapter 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter discusses (a) mass communication and mass media, (b) Pop Fiction books, and (c) Uses and gratifications theory.

Mass Communication and Mass Media

Foss and Littlejohn (2010) defined mass communication as a process whereby “media organizations produce and transmit messages to large publics and the process by which those messages are sought, used, understood, and influenced by audiences.” Similar to this is a meaning posted on the Education Portal website saying that “mass communication is a process in which a person, group of people, or an organization sends a message through a channel of communication to a large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people and organizations” (education-portal.com,

The Uses and gratifications theory originated from the study of media effects.

The effects of mass media have been a hot topic for scholars over thepast century. According to a study done by Ballard (2011), “with the rise of film and radio in the early part of the 1900’s,communication researchers began to study what effects media messages have on thosewho receive them.”

Early theories on media effects include the Mass Society Theory which was defined by West and Turner (2011) as the “idea that average people are the victims of the powerful forces of mass media.” This is similar to the Magic Bullet model that Sparks (2012) explained by saying that “once the message reaches the audience, it will exert, powerful relatively uniform effects on everyone who processes it.” But, as West and Turner (2011) explained, “this notion was eventually discredited, in large part because social science, and simple observation, could not confirm the operation of the all-powerful media and media

Paired with the concept of gratifications are media uses which pertain to “the function of media that fulfills the need of the audience” (West, 2011). Katz, Gurevitch, and Haas (1973), as adapted in West’s (2011) book, listed five kind of needs answered by media: cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative and tension release.

Moving on, the second assumption of the Uses and gratifications theory was described by West and Turner (2011) as an “assumption that likes need gratification to a specific medium choice that rests with an audience member… the implication here is that audience members have a great deal of autonomy in the mass communication process.”

Then, the third assumption, also explained by West and Turner (2011) means that “the media and its audience do not exist in a vacuum… the relationship between media and audiences is influenced by that society.”

Next, the fourth and fifth assumptions, as West and Turner (2011) described, are both for researchers so that “they will be provided with an accurate picture of that use reaffirms the belief in active