Comm 1a03

Introduction - What is Communication?

What is communication?

* “The process by which a message (content, meaning) is encoded, transmitted and decoded and the manner in which a message… is transformed by that… process” (p. 30)

* Lorimer, Gasher & Skinner believed:

* “Communication studies are concerned with the dynamics of the invention of meaning, what some call symbolic production (p. ix)

* They emphasize that there are few absolutes or concrete meanings

* If this is so, then the way we communicate is subject to many diverse ways

Readings: Lorimer, Gasher & Skinner, Chapters 1 and 2

Definitions of communication, mass communication

Mass Communication:

* Possibly “the centralized creation, production, and mass distribution of information and entertainment” (p. 30)

* “Encompasses the transmission and transformation of meaning on a large scale” (p. 32)

* This is our ability to transfer and communicate on a larger scale with one another

Mass media and new media

Mass Media

* “The mass media are technologies, practices, and institutions that make possible information and entertainment production and dissemination through newspapers, magazines, cinema, TV, radio, advertising, book publishing, music publishing, recording and performance” (p.33)

* These are just some forms of communication that we use in everyday life

Dimensions, modes of communication

Dimensions of Communication

* From the MacBride Report:

* Social

* Political

* Economic

* Educational

* Cultural

* Technological

* Familial

* Individual

Oral Communication

* Oral societies

* Based on everyday communication

* Speaking, inflections, facial expressions used with one another

-Characteristics:

* Associated with belief systems- chants, religious expression

* Centralized: built around groups that are like minded-...