Mass media
Mass media are means of communication that are used to distribute content to the public, that is to communicate with a large number of people. The mass media include both printed media ( so-called print media, such as newspapers, magazines, posters, flyers ) and electronic media (eg, radio and Internet services since the 1990s ).
The scientific subject that deals with the history and impact of the mass media, ie media studies. With the actors, structures and performance of journalism, the journalism, a branch of communication science deals. The scientific observation and study of mass media is so interdisciplinary in the tension of both the humanities and the social and cultural sciences instead.
Definition
A well-known definition is: " The mass media are means of communication that convey technical reproduction and distribution by means of written, audio or video content to an indeterminate number of people and thus to pass on an anonymous public, spatially scattered audience. "
Through mass media, mass communication is possible. The mass communication is done publicly, which in principle everyone has access to the services offered by mass media. In this sense, includes the social scientific definition of mass media:
- Typographically reproduced media (eg, leaflet, poster, book, press)
- Film, radio and television
- Masses of used storage media (eg CD, DVD)
- Websites on the Internet.
Gerhard Maletzke defines five key factors for mass communication: " In mass communication, we understand that form of communication in which statements publicly (without limited and personally defined readership ) by technical means of dissemination (media) indirectly ( ie in spatial or temporal or spatio-temporal distance between the communication partners ) and unilaterally (that can be transferred to a dispersed audience without role change betw giving evidence and receptive ). "
This definition includes, for example, theater events as mass communication, because the audience is not sufficiently dispersed ( dispersed ) is. Should also be noted that the mass media have become complex social institutions, which are influenced by politics, law and economy in their design. Without this dimension a meaningful international comparison of media and media systems is hardly possible.
However, while this criticism may be said to be controversial, as well as the traditional mass media " by politics, law and economics " were influenced in their design, and continue to be, so that this character does not have to be necessarily seen to define Maletzkes contrary, see Kunczik and tip the weak point is the lack of compatibility with the technical development that has taken place over the past decades:
" These criteria are suitable for the description of mass communication through media such as the press, radio and television. For the so-called ' new media ', this definition is, however, no longer adequate as va have interactive services and components of interpersonal communication. "
Building on developed Ulrich Saxer attempts a definition to capture the media not only as technical artifacts, but in its social dimension 1998. "Media are complex institutionalized systems of organized communication channels of specific performance " and are characterized by five more or less distinct features:
The role of technology
Harry Pross tells media depending on their production and reception conditions in Group:
- Primary media are means of elementary human contact without device.
- Secondary media require for their production, but not to their perception, devices.
- Tertiary media set on the part of producers ahead as on the consumer devices.
Can be supplemented quaternary media that require devices on both sides, but not limited to mass communication or communication dissemination actions. The Internet is, for example, a medium from users in other service which requires active decisions about the use and allows some direct feedback of the user to the provider. This results in rapid and spontaneous change of assignment due to the changing Benutzungsmodi: Switch between tertiary and quaternary properties are something new to be inserted into this structure. Digitization allows the integration and mixing of the first three stages of media in the fourth. Quaternary media provide a close link mass media properties ( tertiary media), but allow at any time, quickly switch between individualer and group speech or communication, but always under conditions which relies on both sides of the connection to devices.
But the mere technicality of a medium defines this not as a mass medium, but this medium has to be integrated in the social process of mass communication. Thus, a non-produced for the market, but intended for a private group of recipients book is, for example, although produced as print media technical, but it does not function as a mass medium. The same is true for radio technology, when used in coastal radio stations, or television technology in the context of video surveillance.
History
Media history in a general sense refers to the historical development of the means of communication. It focuses primarily on mass media such as press, radio and television. The term " media " was first produced in the 1960s. The word has been transferred from the term "mass media", which already emerged in the 1920s.
There are many different approaches to media history. In addition to influencing factors and characteristics, there are also a number of fundamental problems that make it difficult writing a media story. Media are diverse and complex in itself. In addition, their occurrences are nationally specific and the media development of highly different. With media history as a science have in Germany especially Klaus Merten, Knut Hickethier and Werner Faulstich dealt.
Recipient
The associated with mass media mass communication is compared to the individual communication characterized by a lack of choice of the recipient, that is, the recipients are not determined in advance, they are spatially dispersed (as opposed to "Presence audience " for example, in a play, a lecture or a concert ) and their number is in principle unlimited. This dispersed audience is not about lasting social construct, the recipients or groups of recipients are mutually anonymous, unstructured, disorganized and inhomogeneous ( people from different social classes, with different attitudes, lifestyles and interests ). The term " mass " indicated in this respect to the indefinite large number of people, are transmitted to the statements without personally individually to address - in contrast to the sociological concept of mass in its mass psychological or cultural-critical dimension.
Accordingly, the Internet acts not necessarily as a mass medium, since here individual communication is possible (eg in the use of e -mail systems ).
Most comes to a physical distance, such as in live broadcasts on radio and television, or a spatial and temporal separation between communicator and recipient, such as when reading a newspaper or seeing a pre-recorded television broadcast.
Social function
In democratic countries the mass media, especially journalism is often assigned the task of contributing to the information and opinion formation of the population and to exercise control and criticism. Some of them also have a role as the fourth estate are attributed.