Lesson 2 Overview

 

Introduction

Chapter 1 of Shirley Biagi’s text is the recommended reading for Lesson 2. Her selected title, Mass Media and Everyday Life, is appropriate. In the chapter, she takes the reader through a copious discussion of the pervasiveness of the mass media and the way in which this form of communication, with the capability to reach multiple audiences in dispersed geographical locations at the same time, has changed over 5,500 years to its current state. In the current state, end users, audiences of and/or subscribers to mass mediated communication outlets, now enjoy instant communication. To understand the way in which the changes that culminated in today’s mass communication occurred, you have to appreciate the roles of wireless communication and the resultant outcome of media convergence, both at the technological and at the business-merger levels. Technological aspects of the changes enabled new ways of producing, delivering, and consuming media messages. It should be easier, then, to attempt to figure out whether or not the technological capabilities pushed media business mergers or vice versa. Whichever side of the push-pull between technological innovations and business mergers you are on, you should not miss the fact that certain factors remain constant, in spite of all these changes.

First among the constant factors is that fact that the mass media, regardless of our many social, political, and cultural expectations of them, remain profit-centered businesses. As such, the mergers that mentioned above must at all times make business sense. In addition, the mechanics of who pays the bills for the overhead and profit margins of media businesses has remained constant. Shirley Biagi makes it abundantly clear that advertisers and consumers continue to foot the bill for the operations and sustenance of mass media industries.

A second constant factor is the influence that the mass media will continue to have on the context, or societies, within which they operate. Scholars have in the past, and will in the future, continue to measure new ways in which the mass media influence society via politics, social life, and culture.

A third constant factor, which draws directly from one of the reasons why this course has explicit value, is the need for those who take it to appreciate and understand the nature and influences of the mass media. This overriding factor will explain the focus of the Supplemental Notes for Lesson 2 on Media Literacy. While Media Literacy was necessary in 1960, the need has become increasingly so in today’s era of media pervasiveness. You should partake in, and appreciate, an exercise in the creation of a “media diet” included in the Supplemental Notes.

Objectives

Here are the Objectives for this lesson:

• Recognize the pervasiveness and wireless nature of mass communication.
• Understand the communication process.
• Identify the Mass Media Industries and how they have converged.
• Understand impacts of technologies on Mass Media message delivery and consumption.
• Appraise symbiotic relationship between media and society.

Lesson Readings and Activities

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.