COM 100-Ch. 13-Mass Communication
Terms
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- mass communication
- all media that address mass audiences
- tribal epoch
- first era in a media history of civilization...the oral tradition reigned, and face-to-face talking and listening were primary forms of communication
- literate epoch
- second era of media history of civilization...invention of the phonetic alphabet inaugarated this era in which common symbols allowed people to communicate with writing
- print epoch
- third era in media history of civilization...invention of the printing press made it possible to mass produce written materials so that reading was no longer limited to elite members of society
- electronic epoch
- fourth era in media history of civilization...was ushered in by the invention of the telegraph, which made it possible for people to communicate personally across distances
- uses and gratification theory
- theory that claims people use media to gratify their needs, interests, and desires
- agenda setting
- media's selection of issues, events, and people to highlight for attention
- gatekeeper
- person, group, or institution that controls what topics are presented by media and how those topics are presented to viewers, listeners, or readers
- cultivation thoery
- claims that the media promote a worldview that is inaccurate but that viewers assume reflects real life
- cultivation
- cumulative process by which the media foster beliefs about social reality, including the belief that the world is more dangerous and violent than it actually is
- mainstreaming
- the effect of television in stabilizing and homogenizing views within a society...it is 1 of 2 processes used to explain television's cultivation of synthetic worldviews
- resonance
- the extent to which something (specifically phenomena on tv) is congruent with personal experience...is 1 of 2 mechanisms used to explain televisions ability to cultivate synthetic worldviews
- mean world syndrome
- belief that the world is dangerous and full of mean people
- puffery
- exagerated, superlative claims about a product that appear to be factually based but are actually meaningless and unverifiable