MASS COMMUNICATION MEDIA

The Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition



The Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in Transition

Introduction

Mass media has an omnipresent in our lives because it performs various functions and has different primary uses. People belonging to different backgrounds use mass media content for different reasons keep up with progression of the world affairs.

A society cannot exist without its communication needs being fulfilled and that is exactly what mass media does. These communication needs are met by performing certain functions along with dysfunctions by mass media tools. The macro functions of mass media communication include the following:

Surveillance - providing news and information to the world through keeping an eye out on all the current happening all across the globe.

Interpretation - of facts and data to present it to the world in the form of organized information.

Linkage - Connecting the different elements of society and parts of the world.

Transmission of Values - is an understated function, also called socialization as it consciously tries to instill values and behavior in the target audiences.

While, the individual level functions of mass media includes aiding cognition, creating diversion, providing social utility, and withdrawal (Dominick, 2011).

Discussion

Newspapers

The first mass newspaper was printed in 1830s, namely New York Sun by Benjamin Day. The major types of newspapers are national, large metro dailies, midsize dailies, town dailies, weeklies, special-service newspapers, and minority newspapers. Almost all of the newspapers now have online versions.

In the modern day world, newspapers are struggling for their existence in the modern age. A part of their survival tactics include content sharing with other newspapers so as to provide coverage to a wider number of happenings.

Moreover, the advent of online papers has further diminished the power of traditional newspapers because their limitation of printing a certain amount of news only in an edition. Whereas, in online newspapers you can publish as much content as you want along with transcripts and even tables and graphs. Another advantage online newspapers have over the traditional ones is that they can be updated ad infinitum with no edition deadlines.

According to Rauch (2010) online newspapers offer interactivity through e-mails, bulletin boards, and chat rooms where readers can provide instant feedback. They have searchable archives and external websites' links for additional information.

Another critical feature of contemporary mass media communications is mobile advertising i.e. updating interested audiences through news and ads via their cell phones. Since, the youth of today are heavy users of cell phones, they are slowly mobbing towards completely abandoning the traditional newspapers. Mobile media offer publishers one way to reach this valuable audience.

A recent survey by the Audit Bureau of Circulations found out that the readership of traditional newspapers has declined for the past several decades as the online readership grows. The future of traditional newspapers is not very bright as they are nearing extinction now. Meaning, a lot of traditional newspapers will not survive, and that is why they are moving towards their digitization (Rauch, 2010).

Radio

According to Dominick (2011) linking radio stations into a network is good economically ...