THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION

1. THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION

2. The mass media (a plural form) refer to the organized meansof communicating openly, at a distance, and to many in a short space of time. Key features of mass communication: • They have a capacity to reach the entire population rapidly and with • same information, opinions, and entertainment, • They hold a universal attraction • They can stimulate both hopes and fears in equal degree • It is assumed that they have a great impact and influence.

3. Related to the sphere of politics, the mass media provide an arena of debate and a set of channels for making policies, candidates, and ideas more widely known and for providing politicians, interest groups and agents of government with a means of publicity and influence. In the realm of culture, the mass media are the main channel of cultural representation and expression and the primary source of images of social reality and materials for forming and maintaining social identity. Regarding the sphere of everyday social life, it can be maintained that the mass media shape everyday social life by means of the routines of media use and media contents. Mass media influence our leisure time and our lifestyles. Gradually, the media have grown in economic value because more international media corporations is dominating the media market, the influence of mass media is extending through sport, travel, leisure, food and clothing industries, and the mass media have interconnection with telecommunications and all information-based sectors.

4. There are diverse perspectives within media theory. For example, there are significant differences between leftist and rightist approaches. While leftist theory is criticizing the power exercised by large global media corporations, rightist or conservative theorists draw attention to the damage done by media to traditional values.

5. Media-centricapproach • attributes much more autonomy and influence to communication and concentrates on the media’s own sphere of activity. • This approach perceives media as a primary force in social change, occurred as a result of irresistible developments in communication technology. • In addition, it gives special emphasis to the specific content of media and the potential consequences of the different kinds of media like print, audiovisual, and interactive media.

6. Socio-centricapproach • mainly sees the media as a reflection of political and economic forces. So media theory is seen as a special application of broader social theory. • For this perspective, mass communication theory is tending to respond to each major shift of media technology and structure.

8. A media-culturalistperspective that pays special attention to media content and form and the subjective reception of media messages by audiences. • A media-materialistapproach that emphasizes the organizational, financil and technological aspects of the media. • A social-culturalistperspective that underlines the influence of social factors on media production and reception and the functions media in social life. • A social-materialist perspectivethat considers media and their contents as a reflection of political-economic and material forces and conditions.

9. The structural approach • Receives mainly from sociology but it also includes perspectives from history, politics, law, and economics. • Its starting point is “socio-centric” rather than “media-centric.” • It deals primarily with media systems and organization and their relationship to the wider society.

10. The structural approach-2 • Regarding the matter of media content, the structural approachfocuses on the effects of social structure and media systems on patterns of content. • Related to the media use and effect, it emphasizes the consequences of masscommunication for other social institutions. This includes, for instance, theinfluence of political marketing on the conduct of elections or the role of news management and public relations in government policy. • The main dynamics of media phenomena are located in the exercise of power, in the economy and the socially organized application of technology.

11. The behavioral approach • has its principal roots in psychology and social psychology but it also has a sociological variation. • In general, the primary topic of this approach is individual human behavior, especially in relation to choosing, processing and responding to communication messages. • The behavioral approach treats the mass media use as a form of rational, motivated action that has a certain function and has some objective consequences.

12. The behavioarl approach - 2 • Psychological approaches generally use experimental research methodsbased on individual subjects. • The sociological variant focuses on behavior of socially defined group members and uses multivariate analysis of representative surveydata collected in natural conditions. Individuals are classified according to relevant variables of social position, disposition, and behavior.Inthe study of organizations, the sociological variant of the behavioralapproach adopts participant observation method. Media textsare analyzedbymeans of content analysis.

13. The cultural approach • has its roots in the humanities, in anthropology, and in linguistics. • This approach mainly focuses on questions of meaning and language, details of particular social contexts and cultural experiences. • The study of media is part of a wider field of cultural studies. It is more likely to be “media-centric”, sensitive to differences between media and settings of media transmission and reception, more interested in the in-depth understanding of particular contents and situations than in generalization. • It chooses the qualitative and in-depth analysis of social and human practices and the analysis and interpretation of “texts”. • The cultural approach utilizes a wide range of theory including feminist, philosophical, semiotic, psychoanalytic, film and literary studies.