Mass Communication

Mass communication does not operate in a social vacuum as a machine does. When a computer receives a massage, for instance, it will provide an answer based on that original massage. If the computer is functioning properly, the same answer will appear every time we sand it the identical massage. Now contrast this process with that occurs in mass communication. Imagine that you, a consumer of mass media, read the newspaper story about a politician’s speech. After you talked with your family, friends and co-workers, about it, you decided to write a letter to the politician. It is thus possible that three social groups, your family, friends and co-workers, affected your reaction to the speech.

Now imagine that you are the newspaper reporter responsible for writing about the politician’s speech. Social groups will affect your reporting of the story to the public. Perhaps you are a member of a union that goes on strike just as you return to your office to write the story. Or perhaps you belong to a journalism association with a code of reporting ethics to which you personally adhere. The code states that you cannot accept as part of your job as a reporter, and your morning mail brings an invitation from a major oil company to be their guest on a flight to Alaska for as one-the-spot story about oil exploration. You are faced with accepting the free trip and doing the story or rejecting the free trip and permitting other media in your city to obtain the story. You obviously are faced with a dilemma attributable at least in part to the influence various social groups have on you.