Distinctive Characteristics of Mass Communication (1)
Mass communication is affected by its context—the industrial, affluent, mass society—and mass communication differs in important ways from other forms of communication. It differs not only because it is commercial but also because of its audience, its messages, and its sources.’
The Audience
Traditionally the audience for mass communication has been defined as large; mass communication addresses massive audiences. This means that the audience is made up of so many people that it would be MBT Shoes On Sale impossible for them to meet and interact face-to-face. Traditionally, the members of the audience are also anonymous; that is, audience members know others are watching, listening, or reading, but they do not know just who the others are. Note that the mass audience is thus the opposite of a group, which is defined as a small number of people who can meet and talk face-to-face, who come to know one another, and who develop attachments to one another. Finally, the mass audience is heterogeneous; it is made up of all sorts of people. The mass audience is so varied because nearly everyone has access to these media—you can read, watch, listen, or go online whether you are old or young; rich or poor; educated or uneducated; in a city, suburb, town, or on a farm. Although upper-income, well-educated individuals are more likely to own a computer and be online, those who cannot afford computerized access to the Web can do as those who cannot afford books can do—access this new medium through the public library.
In spring 1999, there were 99.4 million television households in the United States. There were television sets in 98.3 percent of U.S. households, radios were in more than 99 percent, and most Americans could afford a newspaper, a magazine, or a paperback book.2 this saturation of the mass media reflects our affluent society; although there is an admission fee, nearly all Americans can pay it. The print media re-quire literacy, which narrows their audience somewhat, but electronic media can be consumed and enjoyed by nearly everyone. Some cable television channels target specific audiences, a phenomenon called “narrowcasting,” but MBT Shoes Best Prices even these audiences are very large. The audience for traditional mass communication is, then, large, anonymous, and heterogeneous. The interactivity of the Internet, however, is changing some of these assumptions.
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