Mass communication
When mass communication is referred to in the communication studies a type of communication or a communication form that the public communication is attributable, in statements "publicly (ie without limited and personally defined readership) by technical means of distribution (media), indirectly (ie in space or in time or spatiotemporal distance of the communication partners) and unilaterally (i.e. without changing roles between the person making the statement and the person recording) to a dispersed audience [...] " . (Maletzke 1963, with Hickethier 1988).
The American political and communication scientist Harold Dwight Lasswell formulated the Lasswell formula in 1948 , which describes the basic model of mass communication. The learning and research field of communication science can be spanned using this model. It reads: Who says what in which channel to whom with which effect? (Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?)
Concept history
Mass communication takes place, for example, in the mass media ; the term is to be distinguished in particular from individual communication (e.g. conversation ).
The Maletzke definition, which was taught to generations of journalism and communication science students as the “legal definition”, is now flanked by other theories. In particular, the trend towards systems theory-oriented communication science, which has emerged since the early 1990s, and the now stronger research focus on forms of communication such as public relations , advertising and the Internet , lead to the need for more open definitions. In 1980 Manfred Rühl defined the production and provision of topics for public communication as a function of journalism in his habilitation thesis . However, in the tradition of newspaper science, this again restricts to classic news journalism. The definition by Franz Ronneberger , 1980, is more open and expandable . For him, mass communication is: "The context of action for the production of public statements". Finally, in 1997, Theis-Berglmair, under the influence of the Internet and network communication, emphasized in her actor and relationship model of mass communication the reciprocity of a network of relationships between organizational and natural recipients and actors who constantly switch between their communicator roles of production and reception. An exemplary example of these new approaches, which are no longer “one-way street models”, is this Wikipedia project.
As before, the exact boundaries of the subject and thus the subject matter of the discipline are not completely undisputedly clarified in communication science . This always relates to the question of what is actually covered by a definition of mass communication.
Since 1964, ARD and ZDF have published the so-called mass communication study approximately every five years .
Today the terms “ disperse audience ” and “indirect and one-sided” coined by Gerhard Maletzke are being questioned in communication studies. The media are increasingly aimed at specific target groups, and new direct forms of audience participation mean that the terms “indirect and one-sided” are no longer clearly applicable .
Mass Communication Theories
There is no comprehensive overall theory for mass communication, but there are different approaches:
- One-sided linear approach : In the early days of communication science, research regarded mass communication as the one-sided linear conveyance of the message from the communicator to the recipient , the “ recipient ”. Accordingly, communication here takes place in a "one-way street", similar to a transmission belt (" transmission belt theory ").
- Variable approach: When science realized that the one-sided linear approach was oversimplifying, the variable approach was “invented”. Suddenly the recipient was no longer perceived as a variable in the communication system, but as a bundle of a multitude of factors, and the other basic factors of mass communication began to be expanded into more and more variables. In the meantime, communication researchers have worked out such a large number of variables that an overall overview is hardly possible. Nevertheless, the variable approach is the dominant basic pattern in communication science today .
- Theories of the connections between personal communication and mass communication: Here one deals with the question of how influential personal communication (e.g. with neighbors) is compared to mass communication (e.g. BILD newspaper). It also examines the role of opinion leaders (an inconsistent term) and the spread of new ideas and practices.
- Benefit approach (= uses and gratifications approach ): Here come together three components, namely the doctrine of the use by the satisfaction of needs, the thesis of the active recipient and the theory of symbolic interaction. The idea: The recipient seeks the satisfaction of needs in experiencing media statements. This satisfaction means a benefit ( gratification ) for him . What media products the recipient consumes depends on the benefit he expects from them - hence the term "benefit approach". By using some media or individual articles heavily and not others, the user gives feedback. Therefore, the utility approach allows us to speak of an interaction between users and the media. For a while, the utility approach was seen as a true revolution. Today one thinks that it is above all a complement to the effect approach.
- System approach: With the system approach, there are no longer any “people”, only systems that interact with each other. So one no longer speaks of journalists, but only of the “journalism system”.
- Constructivism : based on the knowledge that people form their own worldview from their experiences. Radical constructivism denies that a person is even able to recognize “true reality”. According to this theory, the media can at best offer drafts of reality. The question of “objective reporting” would therefore be meaningless from the start.
- Critical theories : Almost all of these theories draw on the teaching of the Frankfurt School ( Max Horkheimer , Theodor W. Adorno ). Many lean on Habermas' theory of communicative action . The research here focuses on ownership and production conditions, one wonders: Who owns which publishing house? Who controls the reporter? How did the media influence social awareness? And finally: What connections are there between media companies and other institutions, e.g. B. parties? “Critical” scientists often criticize the fact that the conventional scientific community does not deal with socially relevant issues because they have come to terms with the rulers and put themselves at their service.
A subgroup is the "dialectical-critical" or "critical-materialist direction, which draws its thinking and vocabulary from the Marxist-materialist doctrine.
- Theory of cognitive dissonance : originally a purely psychological approach. Here one concentrates on the correction factors in the recipient, which weaken the effect of the media. The idea: People don't like contradictions between their own attitudes and what the media tell them. This is z. B. the reason why citizens usually only consume statements from their favorite parties during election campaigns. However, this theory neglects human motives such as B. Curiosity. After a brief hype, this theory is now found to be helpful, but no longer as explaining everything.
See also
literature
- Wulf D. Hund : Commodity news and information fetish. On the theory of social communication. Luchterhand Verlag, Darmstadt 1976
- Franz Ronneberger: Communication Policy, Volume 2 - Communication Policy as Social Policy . From Hase & Koehler, Mainz 1980.
- Manfred Rühl: Journalism and Society . v. Hase & Koehler, Mainz 1980.
- Gernot Wersig : The communicative revolution. Strategies for Overcoming the Crisis of Modernity . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1985, ISBN 3-531-11734-3 .
- Anna-Maria Theis-Berglmair: The media penetration of communication spaces - impact research in the light of the delimitation of communication spheres . Inaugural lecture University of Bamberg SS 1997.
- Tabea Jerrentrup: Media power - media effects related to perception, society, communication and the individual. Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86553-135-0 .
- Christian Heger: mass communication. A terminological inventory: Concept - Theories - Models . In: Ders .: In the shadow realm of fictions: Studies on the fantastic history of motifs and the inhospitable (media) modernity, AVM Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-86306-636-9 , pp. 227–244.