The Basic Model of Communication

1
The Basic Model of Communication
Source
Message
Channel
Receiver
!!!!
Decoder
Encoder
2
The Basic Model of Communication
Receiver
Interprets the Message
Is influenced
3
The Basic Model of Communication
Noise
Source
Message
Channel
Receiver
!!!!
Decoder
Encoder
Noise causes inaccuracy (decreases in accuracy)
4
The Basic Model of Communication
Feedback
Source
Message
Channel
Receiver
!!!!
Decoder
Encoder
Noise
(responding to feedback)
Allows for Role Playing Stepping into the
listeners shoes.
5
Notes

• Mass Communication depends on an
  electronic/mechanical medium
• Mass Communication address a large and diverse
  audience

6
MC uses an electronic medium--
Feedback???
Role Playing???
Inaccuracies.
Mutual Understanding??!?!
Influence?!?!?!?
7
The Basic Model of Communication
Feedback
Source
Message
Channel
Receiver
!!!!
Decoder
Encoder
Noise
(responding to feedback)
Mass Comm Style
8
Large and Diverse Audiences

• The audience has a limited attention span
• The audience prefers to be entertained rather
  than enlightened
• The audience quickly loses interest in any
  subject that makes intellectual demands

9
It is much more profitable to reach the much
larger numbers of intellectually undemanding
receivers whose aggregate purchasing power is
immense.
10
Culture

• In short culture is learned.

11
The Mass Media

• cultural storytellers
• a cultural forum

12
The Mass Media

• Primary cultural storyteller
• Significantly shapes culture

RESPONSIBILTY!!!
Media should tell stories in most ethical,
responsible professional way possible.
We should question storytellers stories,
interpret them in ways consistent w/our cultural
values truths, and be thoughtful, critical
consumers.
13
The mass media is THE primary forum for the
debate about our culture.
Where should the power reside?
With the media audience?
With the media industry?
14
Basic U.S. Business Model

• A manufacturer produces a product for consumers
  who choose to buy or not.
• The manufacturer must satisfy the consumer.
• Power then resides with the consumer.

15
Basic U.S. Business Model for Cereal
Consumer
Product
Produced For ?
Kelloggs must satisfy us
Kelloggs makes a profit
If we buy the product
So... ?
POWER RESIDES HERE!!!
16
Basic U.S. Business Model for TV
Audience as Product / Advertiser as Consumer
Audiences (using programming)
Advertiser
Producer
Produces ?
For ?
If they advertisers buy NBCs product (us)
NBC must satisfy its consumers advertisers
Then NBC makes a profit.
So ?
Coke

Power resides here
17
Basic U.S. Business Model for TV
Programming as Product / Audience as Consumer
Programming
Us The Audience
Producer
Produces or distributes ?
For ?
Then NBC makes a profit.
NBC must satisfy us
If we watch NBC
So ?

Power resides here
18
Concentration and Conglomeration a lot of power

• 9/11 might not have caught us so off guard
• From the early 1990s until September 11, 2001,
  the U.S. news media had subtly turned foreign
  news into niche subject. By the end of the
  90s, with cable TV and the internet splintering
  audiences, and media conglomerates demanding news
  divisions make more money, broadcasters and some
  publications gradually changed their formats to
  cover more scandal, lifestyle, personalities.
  There simply were fewer shows and pages where
  hard news, much less foreign news, could find a
  home.

Thomas Ginsberg, Philadelphia Inquirer
19
Concentration and Conglomeration a lot of power

• The war in Iraq
• Investigative Reports
• Risky
• Upset the wisdom of the established order
• Expensive to produce
• Easier, cheaper, and safer to repeat the govts
  explanations
• Media companies shaping news and commentary to
  fit corporate, rather than journalistic, ends?
• Afraid to challenge the administration (loosening
  restrictions on concentration)

20
Concentration and Conglomeration a lot of
power!!!

• Does media conglomeration cause worry about
  offending people of a certain political
  persuasion especially those in positions of
  power?
• Disney Farenheit 9/11 vs. Rush Limbaugh?
• Anti-Bush during the Superbowl vs. White House
  Drug-Trafficking Supporting Terrorists ad?
• CBS cancels Ronald Reagan documentary?
• Sinclair Broadcasting no Nightline vs. Pro-war
  editorials?

21
Concentration and Conglomeration a lot of
power!!!

• The media are not just any ordinary industry.
  They are the lifeblood of American democracy. We
  depend on the media for the free flow of
  information that enables citizens to participate
  in the democratic process.

Paul Wellstone
22

• One of the great strengths of this nation is our
  sensitivity to the tyranny of the majority, our
  sense of justice for all. But the 1st Amendment,
  the miracle of our system, is not just a passive
  shield of protection. In order to maintain our
  true, nationally defining diversity, it obligates
  journalists to be bold, writers to be
  full-throated and uninhibited, and those blunt
  instruments of the free press cartoonists and
  the like, not to self-censor. We must use it or
  lose it.

Doug Marlette
23
Your assignment

• 2 page position paper on either conglomeration or
  deregulation (its either good or not)
• New paragraphs on p.3 will not be read (even if
  they are the conclusion)
• 4 CREDIBLE sources cited -- not all same
  time/source.
• Source list required (may be on 3rd page or at
  bottom of p.2)
• Cite sources properly quotation marks require a
  page number citation. If there are no quotation
  marks, there should be no page number citation.
  You will lose points if you fail to follow these
  basic rules.
• In text, cite author last names only (only use
  titles when author not avail.)
• Grades based on argument support (1), clarity and
  efficiency of writing (2) and grammar/style (3)
• We stop grading at 3rd proofreading error!
• Due 2/8