Mass media and media literacy

Describe the relationships among communication, mass communication, culture, and those

who live in the culture.
3) Evaluate the impact of technology and economics on those relationships.
4) List the components of media literacy.
5) Identify key skills required for developing media literacy.

a source to a receiver.
For over 60 years now, this

view of communication has been identified with the writing of political scientist Harold Lasswell (1948). He said that a convenient way to describe communication is to answer these questions:
• Who?
• Says what?
• Through which channel?
• To whom?
• With what effect?

process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and

their audiences.
Mass medium is when the medium is a technology that carries messages to a large number of people— as newspapers carry the printed word and radio conveys the sound of music and news.

a given social group. Many writers and thinkers have offered

interesting expansions of this definition. Here are four examples, all from anthropologists. These definitions highlight not only what culture is but also what culture does:
Culture is the learned, socially acquired traditions and lifestyles of the members of a society, including their patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Culture lends significance to human experience by selecting from and organizing it.
Culture is the medium evolved by humans to survive.
Culture is an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbolic forms.

and divide or liberate and unite, it offers us infinite

opportunities to use communication for good— if we choose to do so.
Together we allow mass communication not only to occur but also to contribute to the creation and maintenance of culture.
Everyone involved has an obligation to participate responsibly. For people working in the media industries, this means professionally and ethically creating and transmitting content.
For audience members, it means behaving as critical and thoughtful consumers of that content.

press was the key to the education and literacy for

the whole nations. With the spread of printing mass communication became more available.
The ability to read became less of a luxury and more of a necessity
Print was responsible for building and disseminating bodies of knowledge, leading to scientific and technological developments and the refinement of new machines.
Print created something heretofore unknown to most working people — leisure time.
By creating leisure and with the spread of literacy a new market of leisure appeared and had a significant impact on the economy.

the Process of Mass Communication
Awareness of the impact of media

on individual and society
Strategies for Analyzing
Media Content that provides insight to our culture
Ability to enjoy and appreciate media content
Development of Responsible Production Skills
Ethical and Moral obligations of media practitioners

ability to slow down and process the media
Finding the source
Exploring

media as a creator
Understanding bias