INTRODUC TION TO

MASS
C O M M U N I C AT I O N
MCF-111
Baila Aftab
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to
make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's
power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” ― Malcolm X
Course Description

Mass communication today is powerful and its

effects far-reaching. The course is aimed at
introducing students to the basic concepts of
mass communication and journalism and to
help them develop a critical understanding of
mass media and mass communication by
examining the role they play in our lives,
politics, and culture.
Course Objectives

This course will help students understand and explain

mass communication and its effects on society,
culture, and politics.
Learning Outcomes

After the completion of the

course, the students will be
able to:
understand and differentiate
between different types of
communication and media,
their effects and importance.

Students should also have a

good grasp of the evolution
of mass media and its role in
shaping politics and culture.
Why Mass comm in BPA
• In either case, there is a strong and indelible
link between the media, and the political factions
that make up the government.

• Mass communication serves as a vital

conduit for information flow between
governments and their citizens, shaping
public opinion, influencing policy decisions,
and ultimately impacting the trajectory of
governance.

• Information Dissemination:
• Public Opinion Formation:
• Accountability and Transparency:
• Policy Formulation and Implementation:
Introducing mass media, defining traditional mass
communication, its importance

Lecture 1
 • NEED OF COMMUNICATION
• TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

LECTURE
CONTENT
COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION & IT’S
LEVELS
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
01
Communication
/kəmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/
nou
imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using
some other medium.
 Communication
Basic feature of human life; a learned skill
The act of sending messages, ideas and opinions from one person to another.
People interacting in ways that at least one of the parties involved understands what is
shared as messages.

WHY DO WE NEED TO
C O M M U N I C AT I O N

C O M M U N I C AT E

• Survival
• Co-operation
• Relationships
• Persuasion
• Power
• Social Needs
• Information
• Decision making
 COMMUNICATION

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION COMMUNICATION LEVELS MASS COMMUNICATION

PROCESS
 T Y P E S O F C O M M U N I C AT I O N
▪ Verbal Communication
Use of sounds and words to express yourself
▪ Non-Verbal Communication
Includes gestures, facial expressions, and body positions (known collectively as “body language”), as well as unspoken
understandings and presuppositions, and cultural and environmental conditions that may affect any encounter
between people.
❖Body movements
❖ Posture
❖ Eye-contact
❖ Para-language
❖ Closeness or personal space
❖ Facial expressions
❖ Psychological changes

▪ Written Communication
All text information you can see. E.g. books, letters, brochures, signs etc
▪ Visual Communication
Signs and symbols
Communication
Level: How people communicate

and its levels Each form of Communication involves

different numbers of people in specific
ways.
 Communication & its levels
Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Mass Communication
 Levels
▪ Intrapersonal
▪ With one’s self
▪ confined to one human entity.

▪ Interpersonal
▪ a form that involves two or three individuals signalling to each other using their voices, facial and hand gestures, and
other signs (even clothes) that they use to convey meaning.
▪ Direct sharing of messages/ Direct Communication
▪ E.g. Family setting. With friends, This lecture

▪ Other levels: Sub types of interpersonal communication;

▪ Group communication
▪ Public Communication
▪ Mass Communication
 Levels

Mass Communication
▪ From one person to a group of persons through a transmitting device (a medium) to large audiences
▪ Mass communication is the industrialized production and multiple distribution of messages through
technological devices .
▪ The process of designing ‘cultural’ messages and stories and delivering them to large and diverse audiences
through media channels as old and distinctive as the printed book and as new and converged as the
Internet.
Communication
Process
While the types of communication described before have their differences, they have a central similarity: they
involve Messages.

Messages are collections of symbols that appear purposefully organized (meaningful) to those sending or
receiving them.

Seven major elements are involved in every interaction that involves messages. These elements are the
source, encoder, transmitter, channel, decoder, receiver, and feedback.
 Communication Process
▪ Source: The originator of the message which may be a person, several people or an organization
▪ Encoding: The process by which the source translates the thoughts and ideas so that they can be
perceived by the human senses—these are primarily sight and sound, but may also include smell,
taste, and touch.
▪ Transmitter: Performs the physical activity of actually sending out the message.
▪ Medium: Part of a technical system that helps in the transmission, distribution, or reception of
messages
▪ Channels: Pathways through which the transmitter sends all features of the message, whether
they involve sight, sound, smell, or touch.
 Communication Process
▪ Decoding: The process by which the receiver translates the source’s thoughts and ideas so
that they have meaning
▪ Receiver: The person or organization that gets the message.
▪ Feedback: occurs when the receiver responds to the message with what the sender
perceives as a message.
▪ Noise : an environmental, mechanical, and semantic sound in the communication situation
that interferes with the delivery of the message.
Encoding: Feedback Noise
Transmitting the • Semantic
message • Immediate • Mechanical
• Delayed • Environmental

Decoding:
Receiving the
message
Differences in Types of Communication
Mass Communication
Mass Communication
Using a general definition, Mass Communication today shares three characteristics:
A message is sent out on some form of mass communication system such as the
internet, print or broadcast
The message is delivered rapidly
The message reaches larger groups of different kinds of people simultaneously or
within a short period of time.
Intent and purpose matter:
Telephonic Conversation between two people does NOT equal to Mass
Communication
Telephonic Conversation between the President equals to Mass Communication
 F I E L D O F M A S S C O M M U N I C AT I O N ( A N
UMBRELLA TERM)

JOURNALISM
JOURNALISM
PUBLIC
RELATIONS PUBLIC
MARKETING
R E L AT I O N S

DESIGNING RESEARCH
M a s s
Communica
t i o n F I L M / D O C U M E N TA RY
Marketing
FILM/
Corporate and ACADEMIA
DOCUMENTARY
Development
Making
Support ADVERTISING
Communication
 MEDIA

Humans use tools, and the tools we use to communicate across distances, across
time and to more people at once than we could with our own voice and body are
"media”.

MASS MEDIA
Social
Media They are the technological instruments—for example, newsprint, televisions,
radios—through which mass communication takes place.

Mass Mass Media outlets

Media Traditional: books, magazines, newspapers, film, radio,

television and outdoor media.
Digital Media: computers, the software to run them, and the
movement and storage of digital information via networks and
Traditional Digital storage (hard drives and cloud services).
Media Media Social Media : websites and applications that enable users to
create and share content or to participate in social networking.