At the end of the 20th century, the concept of mass communication became widespread. Here the connection between technical capabilities, quality and methods of information transfer is clearly visible. However, this social phenomenon has very old roots.
Even in ancient Greece, people went to the agora and spoke with various messages. The crowd that was forming around the speakers became the defining element, creating the effect of "mass". Many years have passed since the printing press was invented , and newspapers appeared. Circulation - this is what makes printed products a mass communication method due to the accessibility of a large number of masses. Then they invented radio, television and the Internet. As we can see, mass communication depends on the technical equipment with which the information is disseminated. So, at present, our civilization has a lot of tools that deliver news and other messages to every home daily for a large audience.
Mass communication is the systematic dissemination of information to large social groups that have different parameters. The transmission of information has a primary purpose, which determines its nature of impact. It can be aimed at ideological adjustment, can form the political preferences of large groups, influence the opinions and assessments of people in other areas of both public and private life. Therefore, this phenomenon should not be underestimated; it plays a really important role in our society.
Types of mass communication
There are several classifications of this type of communication. Initially, they are divided according to the principle of transmission: electronic and printed. For ordinary citizens, public information comes through television, radio, mobile communications (large-scale messaging) and the Internet. Another once-popular way of transmitting public information, and which has now given way to electronic, is print. More and more publications are translating the fruits of their activities on the Internet, and they are less likely to be profitable in paper format. They either fully open access to information and exist through advertising, or some pages offer to pay and then start reading. Each type of mass communication contains some elements that also apply to this system (for example, advertising: this is not socially significant information, but it is disseminated en masse).
Mass Communication: Feature
To better understand this phenomenon, we give its characteristic features:
- First, mass communication shapes public opinion. For this, knowledge about scientific achievements in psychology and sociology is used.
- Then the behavior of the communicants is highlighted: they imitate. For example, television shows. In them we see the penetration into the private life of people; Often these are middle-class representatives, so that the majority of viewers can correlate themselves and them. This includes all sorts of stories about how, having a beautiful voice and living in a village, someone has become a recognized talent. The situation is different with the stars: the opening of the curtain of their private life has long been of interest to the masses, and when they see this, they strive to live as wildly as most representatives of Bohemia. But these are not the guidelines that mass communication should set, because it corrupts society: everyone wants to relax, walk, have fun, but there is no one to work. Here the policy of the times of the USSR was more advantageous when there were heroes of labor in the example .
- Based on the previous paragraph, we see that the formation of values. It is with the help of changes in values that the correction of public consciousness takes place. At the same point, stereotypes and the concept of mass culture arise .
Thus, MK is an important element of social life, which to some extent forms the surrounding reality by influencing the human mentality.