Mass Communication

We are all “mass media consumers”

Sometimes voluntarily

Sometimes involuntarily

Either way, we must consume media critically

Mass media: revenue-generating business

Book and printing press

Newspapers

Television (network and cable)

Radio

Internet sites

What is the credibility of each?

Social Media: user-generated content

Blogs (can also be part of profit-making business too)

Facebook

Twitter

MySpace

FourSquare

Others

What is the credibility of each?

Critical Thinking with Mass Media

Awareness – how media affects our lives

Access – understanding the various forms of media

Analysis – recognize how media works, understand patterns

Assessment – critical thinking

Action – be active in media consumption

Elaboration Likelihood ModelTwo persuasive techniques

CentralReceiver is an active

participant in the process of persuasion

Peripheral

Receiver agrees with a message based on the expert source or attractiveness

Both are influencers in behavior change.

Nationalist Appeal

Keyword Five Core Concepts Five Key Questions

Authorship All media messages are “constructed”

Who created this message?

Format Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules

What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

Audience Different people experience the same media message differently

How might different people understand this message differently from me?

Content Media have embedded values and points of view

What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in; or omitted from this message?

Purpose Most media are organized to gain profit and/or power

Why is this message being sent?

Mass Media Literacy:Five Questions to Ask

Speed of Media

Mistakes

Biased Journalism

Keeping up with audience attention span

Pressure on journalists

“No Time to Think” by Howard Rosenberg and Charles Feldman

The speed of thumbs: the influence of social network reporting and the US Airways example

Media Credibility

Obama is not a citizen of the United States

Michael Jackson’s body is missing

Larry Craig’s bathroom arrest in Minneapolis

Tiger Wood and the golf club episode with his wife

Be a Skeptic

A healthy tendency to delay forming an opinion until you can complete a more thorough processing of the messageConsume the same story from various news

sourcesUse media literacy techniquesLook at the source of the story and recognize the

effects of media convergence