Meaning
of Mass Media and its Importance
- What are The Mass Media:
In communication studies today however
the term “Mass Media” has come to be a useful collective phrase through the
distinction among the various media “Mass” suggests that modern media are “Experienced” not by individual and
groups but as part of the “Mass” and as “Mass” culture: as generally
interpreted the “Mass” media are the
press, cinema, radio, T.V, books, magazines and pamphlets also. They are so termed because their reach extends to
vast masses of the population living in vide and extensive area of a country.
The organ of mass media is technological means
of transmitting messages to large numbers of people. They are very expensive media.
They must need be run by institutions like the government or well financed
private commercial bodies. They require a group to organize and administer to
produce, distribute and constantly maintain in working order, yet another
feature of the mass media is that they are founded on the ideas of mass
production and mass distribution the marks of an industrialized society.
Now
let’s see what are the functions of mass media.
- Functions of Mass Media
- To inform
- To educate
- To entertain
- Transmission of heritage
- Commercial etc.
Western mass communication scholars have
identified a development progression cycle called as the EPS means Elite, Popular, and Specialization.
This cycle holds that all Media Develop in three stages:
Elite:
Media
appeals to the affluent. Affluent considered as the leasers of cultural and
social trends.
Popular:
When the notions break through the barriers of
literacy and poverty, it enters the popular stage and reaches the mass culture.
Specialization:
Here
there is ‘de-massification’ of the mass media due to information explosion and
advancement in the communication technology. Media is consumed by highly fragmented
segments of population each with his own interest and cultural activities. E.g.
Cartoon Channels, Sports channel, News, Films.
What
are the impacts of Mass Media? Now let’s see it in detail.
- Impact of Mass Media:
Lots of
things impact to mass media but here we can see the major five impacts that
really impact to the mass media. When we go through these five main points that
tome we can really see that it is really impact to the mass media.
- Personal
- Psychological
- Social
- Moral
- Cultural etc.
These are main five points that really impact
to the mass media let’s see it with some examples. Bernard Berelson, an
American behavioral scientist defines the impact of media as, ‘some kind of
communication, some kind of issues brought to the attention of people under
some kind of condition have some kind of effects.’ In personal things we can
see that how the mass media impact a lot. T.V, Mobile, Cinema, Laptop, Computer
etc. These kinds of things are a part of our daily life and like an organ of
our body. In social kind of things we can see that like in politics we can see
that in election time we can see that the political leader use mass media a lot
to impress the voter. In cultural things we can see that in our culture we can
also see that the mass and media also impact in our society and culture a lot
we can see and follow the other culture with the help of mass media. So with
these kinds of examples we can see impact of mass media.
- Western Communication Theories:
In our
country we can see that we mostly follow and see the western things a lot and
in our culture we can also follow the western things and culture a lot. So in
mass media we also see some theories of western communication. It has divided
in six points. And these six points are,
I.
Lasswell Model of Communication
II.
Shannon and Weaver Model
III.
Osgood and Schramm Model
IV.
Ritual Model of Communication
V.
Communication as Dialogue
VI.
Communication as Power Relationship
- Lasswell Model of Communication
Laswell
saw communication as performing 3 functions: surveillance of environment,
correlation of components of society, cultural transmission between
generations.
- Shannon and Weaver Model
It is effects oriented approach. In this we
can see five parts: information source,
a transmitter, a channel, the receiver and the destination. Plus noise.
- Concepts:
- Entropy
- Redundancy
- Channel Capacity etc.
- Osgood and Schramm Model:
Schramm defined communication as ‘sharing of
information, ideas or attitudes.’ He endorsed 3 important elements of
communication i.e. source, message and destination. He emphasized on the encoding and decoding of
the message. He suggested communication is circular where both the sender and
receiver are involved in encoding and decoding and equal partners in exchange.
- Ritual Model of Communication:
James
Carey an American anthropologist promoted this model. ‘Role of ritual in
societies’. All members of public not just the senders are actors contributing
in some way to the pattern of meaning of a nation or a region. Objective of Communication/transmission
of messages are for the purpose of Social Control. Communication is thus seen
as a process of creation, representation and celebration of shared belief.
- Communication as Dialogue:
Communication
as a dialogic and ‘participatory’ relationship is at the heart of South American
perspective. They key elements here are ‘liberation’, ‘participation’ and ‘conscientization’.
This model challenges the Aristotelian model of communication which focuses on
‘transmission’ and ‘transportation’.
- Communication as Power Relationship:
This
perspective has its basis in Marxist ideology which sees ‘conflict’ and class
differences rather than consensus as the function of communication. In some
situations, Communication is an exercise in power relations, the power of one
individual over another, of an individual over a group, and of mass media
owners and producers/professionals over audiences.
- Indian Communication Theories:
First
we discussed about the Western Communication theory and its role in mass media
and now we discussed about the Indian communication theory. In this we
discussed about the role of Indian Communication theories in mass media.
In
recent years communication scholars in India and Sri Lanka have made attempts
to develop theories of communication based on Indian classical texts and on popular Indian culture. Indian theory of communication forms a
part of Indian poetics; and can be traced to a period between second century
B.C. and first century A.D. in the works of Bharata. It draws it central idea
from the concept of Sadharanikaran (which is quite close in meaning to
the Latin term communis, commonness, from which the word communication is
derived.) The most important assumption in the process of sadharanikaran is that it can be
achieved only among sahridayas,
i.e. only those who have a capacity to accept a message. This is an innate
ability acquired through culture, adaptation and learning. Thus communication
is an activity amongst sahridayas.
In
this Indian Communication Theories we can see the three more theories in it.
And these three theories are,
1. Bharata Muni’s
Theory
2. Hindu Theory
3. Buddhist Theory
1.
Bharata Muni’s Theory
As
per this theory human psyche is composed of ‘sthaibhava’ (permanent moods). These moods are of capable of
arousing a corresponding state of feeling, rasa there are nine permanent moods and they give rise to nine rasas or forms of aesthetic
pleasures. These Sthaibhavas are accompanied by many
fleeting or secondary moods that are common to several dominant moods and serve
the purpose of completely manifesting the permanent moods. These are called sancharis or vyabhichari bhavas. In addition there are vibhavas and anubhavas. In our Indian tradition there are nine permanent
moods.
- Permanent Moods:
1. Bhayanaka – Bhanayak (Anger)
2. Hrsha -- Hasya (Humour)
3. Din – Karuna (Compassion)
4. Saumya – Shant (Peace)
5. Shringar – Prem (Love)
6. Rudra (Terror)
7. Bibhatsa (Disgust)
8. Adbhuta (Wonder)
9. Vir – Shaurya (Valor/Heroism)
2.
Hindu Theory:
Second
Indian Theory of Communication is from the Hindu philosophical perspective. Indian
concept takes into account the place of an individual in the universal context
and considers one’s relationship with other living and nonliving elements of
the environment. Hindu concept of universe is based on the ‘Virat Purush’ (cosmic
man) view. i.e. that Dharma is the basic principle of the whole universe and is
existing eternally. This natural law of Dharma regulates human existence and
governs relations of individual beings; communication too is governed by the
same law.
3. Buddhist Theory:
Wimal
Dassanayaka draws on the Vedas, the Upanishads, and non philosophical tradition.
The primary focus of this model is how the receiver makes sense of the stimuli
he receives so as to deepen his self awareness. He argues in Indian tradition,
‘communication is an inward search for meaning – a process leading to self-awareness,
then to freedom, finally to truth.’
- Mass Communication and Mass Culture:
Culture
can be defined as the beliefs, values, or other frameworks of reference by which
we make sense of our experiences. It also concerns how we communicate these values
and ideas. The concept of Mass Culture refers to a whole range of popular
activities and artifacts to entertainments, spectacles, music, books, and films
–but has become identified with the typical content of mass media and
especially with the fictional, dramatic and entertainment material which they
provide. Mass media are centrally
involved in the production of modern culture. Reach of Mass Media is limited in
India thus Mass Culture in our country is still by and large the one that
prevails in our villages where over 77% of the our people live. Here folk media
is still predominant. Most popular entertainment medium in India is Cinema.
Nearly 800 films produced per year. Indian Cinema has qualities of a mass
culture product but it is doubtful if it is the only factor that contributes to
the ‘mass culture’.
- Features:
Unlike
‘elite’ or ‘high’ culture is an aesthetic and literary standard are low, and
commercialized, as it is mass produced programmers aim at the mass market. The
culture propagated by mass media is not necessarily the popular culture of the
masses of the majority community in the country. The ‘mass culture’ is a
complex cultural phenomenon which is a creation of the mass media. It is
therefore more precise to term it ‘mass media culture’ to distinguish it from
the majority culture or folk culture.
So at last we may say that Media has its own significance in the world and aura of globalization.