Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in the Digital Age, 7/e
Communication: Mass and Other Forms
- The elements in the communication process are a
source, encoding process, message, channel,
decoding process, receiver, feedback, and noise.
- The three types of noise are semantic,
environmental, and mechanical.
- The three main settings for communication are
interpersonal, machine-assisted interpersonal, and
- Each element in the communication process may
vary according to setting.
- Mass communication refers to the process by
which a complex organization, with the aid of one
or more machines, produces public messages that
are aimed at large, heterogeneous, and scattered
- Traditionally, a mass communicator was defined
by formal organization, gatekeepers, expensive
operating costs, profit motive, and
competitiveness. The Internet has created
exceptions to these features.
- New models have been developed to illustrate
Internet mass communication.
- Communication content has become more
specialized in the past 40 years, but the channels
of mass communication still have the potential to
reach vast audiences.
- Media have symbiotic relationships.
- The Internet makes possible disintermediation,
eliminating the intermediary, or middleman. This
phenomenon has implications for many media.