Types and functions of mass communication. The structure of mass communication in modern society. See what "Mass Communications" is in other dictionaries

After reading this chapter, you will know:

o the concept of mass communication;
o the role of attitude and stereotype in the process of mass communication;
o psychology of rumors and gossip.

The concept of mass communication

Communication is one of the central components of modern society. The status of the country, firm, organization in real world is also determined by its status in the information space.

mass communication- the process of dissemination of information (knowledge, spiritual values, moral and legal regulations etc.) using technical means(press, radio, television, computer technology etc.) to numerically large, dispersed audiences.

The main parameters that distinguish mass communication from group communication are quantitative. At the same time, due to a significant quantitative superiority (increase in individual communicative acts, channels, participants, etc.), a new qualitative essence will be created, communication will have new opportunities, a need will be created for special means (transmission of information over distance, speed, replication, etc.). .P.).

Conditions for the functioning of mass communication (according to V.P. Konetskaya):

o mass audience (it is anonymous, spatially dispersed, but divided into interest groups, etc.);
o the availability of technical means that ensure the regularity, speed, replication of information, its transmission over a distance, storage and multi-channel (in the modern era, everyone notes the predominance of the visual channel).

The first mass media in history was the periodical press. Her tasks have changed over time. So, in the XVI-XVII centuries. dominated by the authoritarian theory of the press, in the XVII century. - the theory of free press, in the XIX century. along with others, the theory of the proletarian press arose, and in the middle of the 20th century. the theory of socially responsible printing appeared. From the point of view of information perception, periodical printing is a more complex form in comparison with computer networks, radio and television. In addition, newspapers are less efficient than other types of media in terms of reporting. At the same time, periodical printed means of delivering mass information have undeniable advantages: a newspaper can be read almost everywhere; one and the same material of the newspaper can be repeatedly returned; newspaper material traditionally has all the signs of legal legitimacy; a newspaper can be passed to each other, etc. According to sociological surveys, the average citizen in the morning prefers radio as a means of mass communication, since in conditions of time pressure it creates an unobtrusive informational background, provides information and does not distract from business. In the evening, television is preferable, as it is the easiest in terms of information perception.

Mass communication is characterized by the following features:

o mediation of communication by technical means (providing regularity and replication);
o mass audience, communication of large social groups;
o pronounced social orientation of communication;
o organized, institutional nature of communication;
o lack of direct connection between the communicator and the audience in the process of communication;
o social significance of information;
o multi-channel and the ability to choose communication tools that provide variability, normativity of mass communication;
o increased demands for compliance with accepted standards of communication;
o one-pointedness of information and fixation of communicative roles;
o "collective" nature of the communicator and his public identity;
o mass, spontaneous, anonymous, disparate audience;
o mass character, publicity, social relevance and frequency of messages;
o the predominance of the two-stage nature of the perception of the message.

The social significance of mass communication lies in the compliance with certain social demands and expectations (motivation, expectation of evaluation, formation of public opinion), impact (training, persuasion, suggestion, etc.). At the same time, the expected message is better perceived when separate messages are prepared for different target groups, taking into account the interests of the target audience.

The relationship between source and recipient in mass communication is also acquiring a qualitatively new character. The sender of the message is a public institution or a mythologized individual. The recipients are the target groups, united according to some socially significant features. The task of mass communication is to maintain communication within groups and between them in society. In fact, such groups can be created as a result of the impact of mass messages (the electorate of the new party, the consumers of the new product, the clients of the new firm).

Mass communication, according to W. Eco, appears at a time when there is:

o an industrial-type society, outwardly balanced, but in reality saturated with differences and contrasts;
o communication channels, ensuring its receipt not by certain groups, but by an indefinite circle of addressees occupying different social status;
o Groups of manufacturers that produce and release messages in an industrial way.

G. Lasswell names the following functions of mass communication:

o informational (survey of the surrounding world),
o regulatory (impact on society and knowledge of it through feedback);
o cultural (preservation and transmission of cultural heritage from generation to generation);
o A number of explorers add an entertainment feature.

V.P. Konetskaya speaks of three groups of theories focused on the predominance of one or another leading function of mass communication:

o political control;
o indirect spiritual control;
o cultural.

The globalization of mass communication, predicted by M. McLuhan, at the end of the 20th century. expressed in the development of the worldwide computer network Internet. The possibility of almost instantaneous communication with the simultaneous use of visual and auditory channels, textual and non-verbal communication has qualitatively changed communication. The concept of virtual communication appeared. In the literal sense, the network itself is not a mass medium, it can be used for both interpersonal and group communication. At the same time, the opportunities that it opens up specifically for mass communication testify to the beginning of a new era in the development of communication systems.

We can say that communication in nature and society has gone through the following stages:

1) tactile-kinetic in higher primates;
2) oral-verbal among primitive peoples;
3) written-verbal at the dawn of civilization;
4) printing and verbal after the invention of the book and the printing press;
5) multi-channel, starting at the present moment.

Mass communication, especially in the modern era, is characterized by multi-channel: visual, auditory, auditory-visual channel, oral or written form communications, etc. There is a technical possibility of bidirectional communication, both open (interactivity) and hidden (reaction of the listener or viewer, behavior), mutual adaptation of the sender and recipients. Because both channel selection and accommodation are influenced by society and recipient groups, it is sometimes said that the media is ourselves.

Mass character as a defining characteristic of mass communication actually creates new entities in the communication process. Participants in the communication process are considered not individual individuals, but mythologized collective subjects: the people, the party, the government, the army, the oligarchs, etc. Even individuals appear as image mythologemes: the president, party leader, media magnate, etc. Modern researchers come to the conclusion that the function of informing in mass communication is giving way to the function of association, and after it - management, maintaining social status, subordination and power.

The emergence and development of technical means of communication led to the formation of a new social space - mass society. This society is characterized by the presence of specific means of communication - mass media.

Mass media (MSK) are special channels and transmitters, thanks to which information messages are disseminated over large areas. Technical means in mass communication include the media (mass media: press, radio, television, the Internet), mass media (SMV: theater, cinema, circus, spectacle, literature) and technical means proper (mail, telephone, telefax, modem). ).

Mass communication plays the role of a regulator of the dynamic processes of the social psyche; the role of an integrator of mass sentiments; channel of circulation of psycho-forming information. Thanks to this, the organs of mass communication are a powerful means of influencing cash and a social group. The uniqueness of the communication process in the QMS is associated with its following properties (according to M. A. Vasilik):

o diachronism - a communicative property, due to which the message is stored in time;
o diatopicity - a communicative property that allows information messages to overcome space;
o multiplication - a communicative property, due to which the message is subjected to repeated repetition with relatively unchanged content;
o simultaneity - a property of the communication process that allows you to present adequate messages to many people almost simultaneously;
o replication - a property that implements the regulatory impact of mass communication.

The rapid development of mass media in the XX century. led to a change in worldview, transformation, the formation of a new virtual world of communication. There are two main directions in the theory of mass communication:

1) a person-centered approach that supported the minimum effect model. The essence of this approach is that people are more likely to adapt the mass media to their needs and requirements. Proponents of a human-centered approach proceeded from the fact that people selectively perceive incoming information. They choose that part of the information that matches their opinion, and reject the one that does not fit into this opinion. Among the models of mass communication here are: the constructionist model of V. Gamson, the "spiral of silence" by E. Noel-Neumann.
2) media-oriented approach. This approach is based on the fact that a person is subject to the action of mass media. They act on him like a drug that is impossible to resist. The most prominent representative of this approach is G. McLuhan (1911 - 1980).

G. McLuhan was the first to draw attention to the role of mass media, especially television, in shaping mass consciousness, regardless of the content of the message. Television, collecting on the screen all times and spaces at once, collides them in the minds of viewers, giving significance even to the ordinary. By drawing attention to what has already happened, television informs the audience about the end result. This creates in the minds of viewers the illusion that the demonstration of the action itself leads to this result. It turns out that the reaction precedes the action. The viewer, therefore, is forced to accept and assimilate the structural-resonant mosaic of the television image. The effectiveness of the perception of information is influenced by the life experience of the viewer, memory and speed of perception, his social attitudes. As a result, television actively influences the spatial and temporal organization of information perception. The activity of the mass media ceases to be a derivative of any events for a person. The means of mass communication begin to act in the mind of a person as the root cause, endowing reality with its properties. There is a construction, mythologization of reality by means of mass communication. The mass media begin to perform the functions of ideological, political influence, organization, management, information, education, entertainment, and maintenance of the social community.

Mass media functions:

o social orientation;
o social identification;
o contact with other people;
o self-affirmation;
o utilitarian;
o emotional release.

In addition to these socio-psychological functions, according to the French researchers A. Catl and A. Kade, SM K performs the functions of an antenna, amplifier, prism and echo in society.

Among the methods of research of mass communication stands out:

o text analysis (using content analysis);
o advocacy analysis;
o analysis of rumors;
o observations;
o surveys (questionnaires, interviews, tests, experiments).

Content analysis (content analysis) is one of the methods for studying documents (texts, video and audio materials). The content analysis procedure involves counting the frequency and volume of references to certain units of the text under study. The resulting quantitative characteristics of the text make it possible to draw conclusions about the qualitative, including the hidden content of the text. Via this method one can study the social attitudes of the mass media audience.

G. G. Pocheptsov, describing the models of mass communication, singled out the standard classical unified model of communication, which consists of the following elements: source - encoding - message - decoding - recipient.

Note that, since the process of transition to the message is often built with some delay, including the processes of various transformations of the source text, an additional stage is introduced - "coding". An example would be a speech delivered by a group of assistants to a company executive. In this case, there is an encoding of the original intentions into a message, which is then read out by the leader.

constructionist model. American professor W. Gemson believes that different social groups they try to impose their own model of interpretation of this or that event on society.

The predecessors of the W. Gemson model were two models: 1) minimal effect and 2) maximum effect.

The maximum effect model was based on the following factors for the successful use of communications:

1) the success of propaganda in the First World War, which became the first systematic manipulation of mass consciousness;
2) the emergence of the public relations industry;
3) totalitarian control in Germany and the USSR. Considering it, the researchers came to the conclusion that communication can affect a person and nothing can be opposed to it.

The minimum effect model was based on the following factors:

1) selective perception. People selectively perceive information, they perceive what coincides with their opinion, and do not perceive what contradicts their views;
2) the transition to considering a person as a social molecule from considering him as an individualized atom;
3) political behavior during elections. Researchers of electoral technologies have paid attention to the resistance of voters. The conclusion they made is that it is impossible to change the stereotype, the predisposition of the voter, the struggle can be waged only for those who have not yet made a final decision.

These two models - maximum / minimum effect - can be represented as an emphasis either on the source (in the case of maximum understanding, everything is in his hands), or on the recipient.

W. Gemson bases the constructionist model, relying on some modern approaches. Considering that the effect of the mass media is not the same and minimal, he lists the following components:

1) work with the definition of "idea of the day", revealing how the mass media gives people the keys to understanding reality;
2) work within the framework of presidential races, where the press influences people's assessments;
3) the phenomenon of the spiral of silence, showing how the press, by giving a voice to a minority, makes the majority feel like a minority and not pretend to speak publicly;
4) the effect of cultivation, when artistic television, with its massive display of, for example, violence, influences municipal policy, dictating priorities.

W. Gemson distinguishes two levels of functioning of his model: cultural and cognitive.

Cultural level - it is about "packaging" messages in ways such as metaphors, visual images, references to morality. This level characterizes the discourse of mass media.

The cognitive level is related to public opinion. It adapts the information received to the psychological prerequisites and life experience of each person.

The interaction of these two levels, functioning in parallel, gives the social construction of meanings.

mass communication audience as an object of information impact can be divided into mass and specialized. Such a division is carried out on the basis of a quantitative criterion, although a specialized audience in some cases may turn out to be either more or less numerous than a mass one, based on the nature of the association of people that make up the audience.

Theoretical ideas about the mass audience are quite ambivalent.

This term is most commonly used for:

o all consumers of information distributed through media channels (readers, radio listeners, TV viewers, buyers of audio and video products, etc.), where mass character is the main attribute of this audience;
o random associations of people who do not have common professional, age, political, economic, cultural and other characteristics and interests (a crowd of onlookers who have gathered to listen to a street speaker or musicians, etc.).

In the scientific community that studies the processes of mass communications and their means, there are conceptual interpretations of the concept of a mass audience. In some cases, it appears to us in the form of an inert, unorganized mass, passively absorbing everything that the media offer. Here we are talking about the mass audience as an amorphous formation, poorly organized, without clear boundaries and changing depending on the situation.

In other cases, the mass audience looks like a social force capable of actively influencing the "mass media", requiring them to satisfy their own special (age, professional, cultural, ethnic, etc.) desires and interests (meaning organized, systemic, well-structured education).

Verification of these interpretations is carried out within the framework of two approaches. The theoretical basis of the first is the concept of two-stage communication by P. Lazarsfeld and a number of other specialists in this field. They proposed to study the mass audience not as an amorphous set of consumers (atoms), but as a system consisting of groups (molecules). These groups have their own "opinion leaders" who are able, through interpersonal (interatomic) connections, to streamline and structure the mass audience, to form certain ideas about the media and about the information itself - its content, form and purpose. However, most modern theories fix attention on the increasing massive indifference of the audience, its destructuring, entropy, the result of which is the increasing manipulation of its consciousness by the media.

Quantitative socio-structural characteristics of the audience (i.e., data on gender, age, education, occupation and place of residence, their interests and preferences), of course, are necessary, but this is only the first stage of knowledge. This is explained by the fact that with this perspective of its study, many processes that arise in the minds of people as a result of the perception of media products remain out of sight. Thus, television ratings answer the questions "what" and "how much", but do not answer the questions "why" and "with what result". The answers to these questions require a qualitative analysis of both the audience itself and the processes of the functioning of the media, which includes the study of communication technologies and their influence on the pictures of reality that arise in the minds of viewers.

A specialized audience is a fairly definite and stable whole with more or less defined boundaries, including many individuals. People in them are united by common interests, goals, value systems, lifestyle, mutual sympathy, as well as common social, professional, cultural, demographic and other characteristics. This audience can be considered as a wide segment of the mass media audience if it is, for example:

o about the audience of a certain type of mass communication (only about radio listeners or only about TV viewers, newspaper readers, etc.);
o about the audience of a particular mass communication channel (about viewers of ORT or RenTV; about radio listeners of Retro-FM or Radio Russia; readers of Vesti or Kommersant newspapers, etc.);
about the audience certain types messages (headings) - news, sports, criminal, cultural, etc.

The presence of specialized audiences is an indicator that the public perceives information depending on their social, cultural, educational, professional, demographic, age and other characteristics. The ability to structure the audience, identify the necessary segments (target groups) in it largely determines the success of communication, no matter what specific form it takes - party propaganda, election campaign, advertising of goods and services, commercial transactions, environmental or cultural events.

The creation and consumption of mass information is directly interconnected with the psychological processes of perception and assimilation. The main role in the process of consumption is played by the audience - the direct consumers of this information.

Audiences can be stable or unstable in their preferences, habits, frequency of appeal, which is taken into account when studying the interaction between the source and recipient of information.

Features of the audience largely depend on its socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, income, level of education, place of residence, marital status, professional orientation and etc.). Also, when receiving mass information, the behavior of the audience is mediated by factors of an objective nature (uniqueness of circumstances, external environment, etc.). The relevance for consumers and the significance of the mass information itself and the source of its transmission are often indicated by the quantitative parameters of the audience: the larger the audience, the more important the information and the more significant its source.

Audience types. The typology of the audience is based on the possibility of access of certain groups of the population to specific sources of information. Based on this, the following types of audiences can be named:

o conditional and non-targeted (whom the media does not directly target);
o regular and irregular;
o real and potential (who is actually the audience of this media and who has access to it).

Audience analysis carried out in two directions:

1) according to the form of information consumption by different social communities;
2) methods of operating the received information.

Stages of interaction between audiences and information:

o contact with the source (channel) of information;
o contact with the information itself;
o receiving information;
o development of information;
o formation of attitude to information.

By access to the source of information and the information itself, the entire population is divided into an audience and a non-audience. Currently, most people in developed countries relate to the actual or potential audience of the QMS.

Non-audience happens:

o absolute (those who do not have access to the QMS at all, there are already few such people);
o relative (who has limited access to the QMS - no money for newspapers, a computer, etc.).

It should be noted that SMC products, which are formally available to the majority of the population, are consumed in different ways.

Features of consumption and assimilation of mass information directly depend on the level of readiness of the audience to accept information, which can be identified on the basis of the following features:

o the degree of proficiency in the vocabulary of the media language in general;
o the degree of understanding of a particular text;
o the degree of development of internal operation (adequate semantic interpretation of the text);
o adequate reproduction of the meaning of the text in speech.

The French sociologist A. Touraine identified four cultural and informational strata of modern society:

1) the lowest level - representatives of the outgoing forms of social life, peripheral in relation to the modern information production those who are actually excluded from the sphere of mass media consumption (immigrants from developing countries, representatives of the elderly population, degrading rural communities, lumpen, unemployed, etc.);
2) low-skilled workers (mainly focused on entertainment products);
3) active consumers QMS products- employees oriented towards superiors, executing other people's decisions (this includes journalists and PR managers);
4) "technocrats" (managers, producers of new knowledge and values, combining professional interests and aristocratic art).

Nowadays, people need social information, as a result of which the information and consumer activity of the audience is activated. It includes the reception, assimilation, evaluation and memorization of information and manifests itself in the following forms:

o complete - complete reading, viewing, listening and analysis;
o partial - superficial review without analysis and serious conclusions;
o refusal to receive a message in case of its irrelevance (disinterest in an article or transmission) or an overabundance of information of a certain direction or topic, when there is a threat of "satiation of information" on a particular issue.

An acute problem of information-consumer activity of a mass audience is misunderstanding. There are usually two types of misunderstanding:

1) subjective - the unwillingness of the audience and individual subjects to understand the problems, to learn and remember the terminology;
2) objective - due to ignorance of new words, peculiarities of personal perception and social stereotypes, as well as all kinds of distortions in the transmission of information in the media.

Modern media strive to qualitatively improve the process of information and consumer activity. For this purpose, feedback is established between communicators and audiences:

o epistolary (by mail);
o instant (" hot line", "hot phone", an interactive survey over a telephone or computer network);
o questioning the audience;
o conferences are held (discussion of media products), consultations and joint preparation of materials for issues of the author's asset "editorial" and representatives of the QMS audience;
o assessment of the activities of a particular media outlet (study of reviews, reviews and reviews of a mass media source);
o rating studies ("measurements" with the help of sociological research daily dynamics of the real audience of publications and programs).

In general, the consumption of mass information is a complex and psychologically active process that divides the audience according to economic, socio-demographic, cultural and other characteristics. The process of mass information consumption is associated with the fact that the audience themselves produce mass social information, both directed through certain channels (for example, letters or requests to the media or government bodies), and "non-channelized" (diffuse), circulating in poorly structured networks of interpersonal communication ( rumors, conversations, etc.).

Mass Communication Functions. In 1948, G. Lasswell identified three main functions of mass communication:

1) review of the surrounding world, which can be interpreted as an information function;
2) correlation with social structures society, which can be interpreted as the impact on society and its knowledge through feedback, i.e. communicative function;
3) the transfer of cultural heritage, which can be understood as a cognitive-culturological function, a function of the continuity of cultures.

In 1960, the American researcher K. Wright proposed to single out the following function of mass communication as an independent one - entertainment. In the early 1980s McQuale, a specialist in mass communication at the University of Amsterdam, singled out another function of mass communication - mobilizing, or organizational and managerial, referring to the specific tasks that mass communication performs during various campaigns.

Domestic scientists-psycholinguists distinguish four functions typical of radio and television communication: 1) informational; 2) regulatory; 3) social control; 4) socialization of the individual (i.e. education in the personality of traits that are desirable for society).

The information function is to provide the mass reader, listener and viewer up-to-date information about various fields of activity - political, legal, business, scientific and technical, medical, etc. A large amount of information allows people to expand their cognitive capabilities, increase their creative potential. Knowing the necessary information allows you to predict your actions, saves time, and increases motivation for joint actions. In this sense, this function contributes to the optimization of the useful activities of society and the individual.

The regulatory function has a wide range of impact on the mass audience, from establishing contacts to controlling society. Mass communication influences the formation of the public consciousness of the individual and the group, public opinion and the creation of social stereotypes. It also makes it possible to manipulate and control public consciousness, in fact, to exercise the function of social control.

People tend to accept those social norms behavior, ethical requirements, aesthetic principles that have been promoted by the media for a long time as a positive stereotype of lifestyle, clothing style, form of communication, etc. This is how the socialization of the subject takes place in accordance with the norms desirable for society in a given historical period.

The culturological function includes acquaintance with the achievements of culture and art and contributes to the awareness of the society of the need for the continuity of culture, the preservation of cultural traditions. With the help of the media, people get acquainted with the characteristics of different cultures and subcultures. This develops aesthetic taste, promotes mutual understanding, the removal of social tension and, ultimately, the integration of society. The concept of mass culture is connected with this function.

Given the above characteristics and main functions of mass communication, its social entity is reduced to a powerful impact on society in order to optimize its activities, integration, socialization of the individual.

The concept of communication comes from the Latin communicatio - exchange, connection, conversation. mass communication-- the systematic dissemination of messages among numerically large dispersed audiences with the aim of influencing the assessments, opinions and behavior of people"; "Mass Communication represents the institutionalized production and mass distribution of symbolic materials through the transmission and accumulation of information. "Mass communication is a kind of spiritual and practical activity, i.e. the activity of broadcasting, transferring to the mass consciousness (public opinion) assessments of current events recognized as socially relevant. The essence of mass communication as an activity is the impact on society by introducing a certain system of values into the mass consciousness. Its essence always remains unchanged, and the phenomenon, content and forms of implementation can change depending on the conditions for the functioning of the entire mass media. The purpose of mass communication is to change social actors in the interests of other entities or society as a whole.

In modern scientific and everyday language, along with the concept of mass communication, the concept is used "media". The concept is of Latin origin. The means of communication occupy a middle, intermediate position in the communication chain sender - channel - recipient of the message. Media is a communication mechanism between the sender and receiver of a message.

Mass communication is an activity based on a system of rules and norms, as well as on developed control over their implementation. Features of mass communication are:

The sender of the message is part of an organized group, and often a representative of the institution.

The individual acts as the host. It is often considered by the transmitting organization as part of a group with inherent common characteristics.

The message channel is technologically complex systems dissemination of information. They include a significant social component, since their functioning depends on the legal norms of society, the habits and expectations of the audience.

Messages usually have a rather complex structure.

Public character and openness

Limited and controlled access to transmission media

Mediation of contacts between the transmitting and receiving parties

A certain inequality in relations between the transmitting and receiving parties

Multiple message recipients

The complexity of mass communication as a phenomenon predetermined its study within various research disciplines. The sociological study of the reality around us assumes that the individual is a product of social relations. Accordingly, when evaluating the role of the QMS in connection with various manifestations of human activity, we must necessarily take into account the peculiarities of the political, social, economic, cultural and technological context of this activity.

The differences between mass communication and interpersonal communication are manifested in almost all components of the communication process. The source of the message in interpersonal communication is the family, neighbors, etc. In mass communication, it is a kind of institution. The channel of distribution of interpersonal communication can be called “face to face”. The mass channel implies the presence of distribution technologies. The transmission time in interpersonal communication is direct, the distance is minimal, closed; in the mass - the transmission time is direct or with a delay in time, the distance is significant, or even unlimited. The receiver in interpersonal communication is the family, neighbors, i.e. immediate environment; in the mass - an anonymous heterogeneous audience. With interpersonal communication, there is the possibility of a direct reaction of the addressee (feedback). In mass communication, the reaction is predominantly “delayed” (in some cases, direct). The nature of the regulation of interpersonal communication is personal, individual; mass - using systems of rules and control.

1. Media as a social institution. The concept of a social institution. Definition of a social institution. Characteristics of a social institution. Characteristics of the media as a social institution

“Institutions of public life are considered to be a special type of integrative groups , the integrity of which is based on impersonal objective connections, the nature and direction of which does not depend on the individual properties of the people included in these institutions. Unlike non-institutional groups (like a friendly company), institutions such as the state or the army are not a collection of living people, but a system of interrelated social roles, performed by such people and imposing severe restrictions on their possible and acceptable behavior.

A social institution is “historically established forms of organization and regulation of public life (for example, family, religion, education, etc.), which ensure the performance of vital functions for society, including a set of norms, roles, prescriptions, patterns of behavior, special institutions , control system.

After analyzing various points of view in the definition of a social institution, we can conclude about the main characteristics of the latter, which are:

* role-playing system, which also includes norms and statuses;

* a set of customs, traditions and rules of conduct;

* formal and informal organization;

* a set of norms and institutions that regulate a certain area public relations;

* a separate set of social actions.

A social subject is a source of purposeful activity, an individual or a group of individuals that implements independently chosen action programs that contribute to the achievement of independently chosen and set goals. This is the main difference between the subjects - only the subject carries out goal-setting activities and determines the conditions and means of achieving it. At the same time, to achieve the goal, the subject may involve other individuals or groups of individuals with different goals.

The social subject has specific interests and needs, which, as a rule, are in conflict with the interests of other social groups. The subject is a social instance whose need is satisfied by the product of this activity. For the subject, his needs are most important, but in order to satisfy them, he must realize his interest, i.e. perform the type of activity that the system needs. That. for the subject, interests are a means of satisfying his needs, and for the system, satisfying the needs of the subject is a means of realizing his interests.

The subjects of MC as such are social groups that realize their needs related to ensuring the conditions of their own existence. These needs are connected with the need to introduce social attitudes expressed in their own ideology into the mass consciousness. Based on these needs, social groups are interested in producing mass information.

The subjects of mass communicative activity do not have the goal of comprehensive and complete informing the audience. For them, their goals and their need for profit or special treatment for a mass audience always remain in the first place.

In the process of mass communication activities, the quality of subjects acquires:

Carriers of social interests (their goals are to influence the mass consciousness)

Owners of individual QMS as subjects of realization of commercial interests

Journalists (communicators) as subjects of realization of creative and professional interests

Mass audience as a set of subjects having a common goal - obtaining information for orientation in the environment of existence.

Subjects of MK as a species social activities, as a rule, social groups are involved in the translation of spiritual values into the mass consciousness. Each of the participants in this activity is also a subject, but the subject of a different activity series. Any subject himself determines his goals and ways of their implementation.

There are two types of social subjects - institutionalized (i.e. backed by legislation - minors, pensioners, students) and non-institutionalized (youth, elderly) subjects.

The main social subjects of society:

1) power and citizens

2) employers and employees

3) rich and poor

4) employed in social production and unemployed in social production

The type and features of the functioning of mass communication are determined by the type of society, its social, and above all, political structure, the institution of mass communication is most associated with politics as a social institution and a certain type of social activity. Politics is not the only kind of regulatory activity related to power. Another such type is administrative regulation, which in essence is not the relationship of people about power, but the direct actions of power, that is, power structures of various levels that administratively regulate the functioning and interaction of various parts and structures of society.

Social communication throughout a long period of human history has existed in the form of information activities that serve to establish links between various structures of society. However, the quality and organizational forms(as a social institution of mass communication) this type of activity was formed relatively recently - from the moment of the emergence of mass media, the difference between which and simple communications is not quantitative, but qualitative, determined by the impact of mass communication precisely on the mass, that is, the practical consciousness of society.

MC is a type of regulatory activity, characterized as a subject-object relationship, where the object is mass consciousness as a level of consciousness of society, directly included in practice. The object of mass communication is such a state of mass consciousness, which is characterized by appraisal, namely public opinion, the formation of which through the implemented assessments is the goal of spiritual and practical mass communicative activity, the products of which satisfy the subjects of this activity. The subjects of mass communication can be not only the subjects of political activity, but also any other, for example, economic, subjects with the goal of evaluative impact on the mass consciousness.

Content:Introduction ................................................................................... 2 1 . The structure of mass communication.............................3 2. Mass media…............. 7 3. Mass Communication Functions ............................ 17 Bibliography ............................................................ 21

Introduction

Communication is the transfer of information from the subject to the object with its subsequent assimilation.

Mass communication - the transmission to representatives of all fragments of society of a message that was perceived and assimilated by a multitude of unrelated audiences

M but ssovaya kommunik but tion (eng. mass communication), the systematic dissemination of messages (through print, radio, television, cinema, sound recording, video recording) among numerically large, dispersed audiences in order to assert the spiritual values of a given society and provide an ideological, political, economic or organizational impact on assessments , opinions and behavior of people.

The material prerequisite for the emergence of M.K. in the first half of the 20th century was the creation of technical devices that made it possible to quickly transfer and mass replicate large volumes of verbal, figurative and musical information. Collectively, the complexes of these devices, serviced by workers of high professional specialization, are usually called "mass media and propaganda" or "means of M. to."

M.K. is a system consisting of a source of messages and their recipient, interconnected by a physical channel for the movement of messages. These channels are: printing (newspapers, magazines, brochures, books of mass publications, leaflets, posters); radio and television - a network of broadcasting stations and audiences with radio and television receivers; cinema, provided with a constant influx of films and a network of projection installations; sound recording (a system for the production and distribution of records, tapes or cassettes); video recording.

The structure of mass communication

Different approaches to understanding the structure of mass communication and its functioning are reflected in models - generalized schemes that represent in descriptive and / or graphic forms the main components of mass communication and their connections. With all the variety of models, each contains as mandatory components that were presented in the model of the communicative act, developed in 1948. American political scientist G. Lasswell.

The classical model of communication is presented by G. Lasswell in his work "The Structure and Function of Communication in Society", where he singled out the following links in the communication process:

The communicator is a source of information. In the conditions of mass communication, this role is most often played by an organization with its own division of roles - a customer, a speechwriter, an announcer, etc. All these persons act as communicators if they manage to make a message.

A communication channel is the means by which a message is conveyed from a communicator to an audience. Unconventionally, the concept and classification of channels occurred technically, depending on the method of information transmission used. V this manual the channel is considered as a separate organization with its own audience and its own style of presenting information (including technical methods).

4. Audience - a community of people whose perception of the message is achieved by the communicator. The audience can be considered as a set of all addressees; but it is possible to single out many audiences of one act of mass communication, understanding their social differences. A separate communication object will be called a recipient.

5. Effect - the result that the communicator achieves as a result of the act of communication.

Lasswell presented this formula schematically as follows: "Who - reports What - through which Channel - To Whom - with what Effect?". Subsequently, Lasswell added additional characteristics to his model: the goal and strategy, the communicator and the background (situation) on which the communication process takes place.

Despite the extreme prevalence of the concept of "mass communication", there is no standard definition of it; moreover, most of the proposed ones do not look clear. So, L. Fedotova gives the following definition: communication can be called mass communication if it technically covers the entire population and obtaining information for it is more financially accessible - This approach calls the conditions necessary for the emergence and spread of mass communication - technical and financial access to the audience. They show that in a traditional society, mass communication could not have arisen, thus, it follows that cash communication is a consequence of modernization. But in general, the definition is not suitable and is certainly narrowing. First, the term "population" is not precise enough - it can be perceived from the national level to the group level. Secondly, if we take the national level (the mass of society as a whole is the audience of MK), then books, films, magazines and the Internet fall out of the zone of mass communication, since the users of a particular channel are a clear minority of society. Thus, in the summer of 2001, 10.5% of the urban population used the Internet at least once a month (at the same time, 30% of Runet users were outside the Russian Federation); the total number of Internet users in the summer of 2006 reached only 16%, compared to 12% in 20005. At the same time, the question is, from what to measure the mass audience - from TV users in general, a separate channel (ORT), program ("Times") or even a plot. The issue of frequency is secondary here and is easier to measure, but this issue seems to be controversial; another criterion is needed, not related to the size of the actual audience in relation to society.

L. Volodina and O. Karpukhina offer the following definition, referring to X. Ortega y Gasset, G. Le Bon and M. McLuhan: the process of transmitting information using technical means to numerically large dispersed audiences. Indeed, mass communication is characterized by the use of technical means, and present stage with its huge competition between communicators, the rejection of technology will be disastrous for the market participant and will not occur to anyone. Nevertheless, this is an attributive and not an essential property of mass communication. It was carried out as an integrator even before the construction of the technosphere, only with much lower capabilities and efficiency. As in Fedotova's version, here the concept is based on a freely interpreted dimension: which audiences are numerically large. It is fundamentally important that there are several audiences and they are dispersed; one can clearly distinguish between mass and group communication. So, mass communication simultaneously addresses several dispersed audiences, for which it turns to technology and which is financially costly.

All this is true, but does not show the very spirit of mass communication and historical background. In my opinion, communication is diagnosed as mass communication by the volume of the addressee, and not by the volume of the recipient - not to whom the message reached, but to whom it could reach in principle. Communication is mass if it is addressed to representatives of all classes, ethnic groups and regions and can be closed only to the excluded. This also shows that mass communication could not have arisen before the effect of broken partitions, when different classes had different morals, and information had different significance.

Mass Information- this is social information transmitted to wide audiences dispersed in time and space with the help of artificial channels.

The nature of the mass media directly depends on the nature of the activities of people in various social spheres. At the same time, social information is divided into subspecies reflecting its specificity - economic, political, artistic, religious, etc.

The social nature of mass information circulating in society is due to the following factors that determine its essence and specifics: content (how this information reflects social processes); the subject of use and purpose (how this mass information is used by people in someone's interests); the specifics of the appeal (how this information is obtained, recorded, processed and transmitted).

The goals of mass information are determined through the subject using this information; through the prism of the mass media itself; through the tasks that are supposed to be solved with its help. Under the conditions of the existence of a social organization, any social information has a direct or indirect goal - the management of society or its subsystems, communities, cells, etc.

The quantitative characteristic of mass information is a measure of its consumption and assimilation, depending on the time that an individual or group allocates for contacts with the CMC, as well as on the individual characteristics of real consumers.

The value of mass media is based on the following principles:

dialectical unity of its quantitative and qualitative characteristics;

organic interconnection and interdependence of all types of mass information circulating in society;

efficiency postulation information processes that meet the needs of recipients of information;

the presence of an objective side in the evaluation of mass information (when the value is considered as a property of the information itself);

the presence of a subjective side in its assessment, since values reflect the views of individuals and do not make sense without their supporters.

Communication is one of the basic components of modern society. The status of an organization, firm, country today is also determined by its position in the information space.

Mass communication is the process of disseminating information (knowledge, legal and moral norms, spiritual values, etc.) using technical means (television, press, computer equipment, radio, etc.) to dispersed, numerically large audiences.

The main parameters that distinguish mass communication from group communication are quantitative parameters. Due to a significant quantitative superiority (an increase in individual communication channels, acts, participants, etc.), a new qualitative essence is being formed, communication has new opportunities, and a need for special means is formed (replication, transmission of information over a distance, speed, etc. ).

Conditions for the functioning of mass communication (according to V.P. Konetskaya):

mass audience (it is anonymous, dispersed, divided into interest groups, etc.);
the availability of technical tools and means that ensure the speed, regularity, replication of information, transmission over a distance, multi-channel and storage.

History…

The first mass media in history was the periodical press. Its tasks have changed throughout history. So, in the XVI-XVII centuries. there was an authoritarian theory of the press, and in the XVII century. - the theory of free press, in the XIX century. the theory of the proletarian press appeared in the middle of the 20th century. the theory of socially responsible printing emerges.

From the point of view of information perception, periodical printing is a more complex form in comparison with television, radio and computer networks. In addition, from the point of view of the presentation of material, newspapers are less efficient than other types of media.

Periodic printed media delivery media have undeniable advantages:

one and the same material of the newspaper can be repeatedly returned;
the newspaper can be read almost everywhere;
the newspaper can be passed to each other;
newspaper material traditionally has all the signs of legal legitimacy, and so on.

The average citizen, according to sociological surveys, prefers radio communications as a mass medium in the morning, as it creates an unobtrusive information background in conditions of time pressure, provides information and does not distract. In the evening, the preferred type of media is television, as it is the easiest in terms of perception of information.

Mass communication is characterized by the following features:

mass audience, communication of large social groups;
mediation of communication by technical means (providing regularity and replication);
organized, institutional nature of communication;
pronounced social orientation of communication;
one-pointedness of information and fixation of communicative roles;
multi-channel and the ability to choose communication tools that provide normativity, variability of mass communication;
lack of direct connection between the audience and the communicator in the process of communication;
social significance of information;
increased demands for compliance with accepted norms of communication;
the predominance of the two-stage nature of the perception of the message;
the "collective" nature of the communicator and his public individuality;
mass, scattered, anonymous spontaneous audience;
publicity, social relevance, mass character and periodicity of messages.

The social significance of mass communication is the compliance with certain social expectations and demands (expectation of evaluation, formation of public opinion, motivation), impact (suggestion, persuasion, training, etc.). The expected message is better perceived when separate messages are formed for different target groups, taking into account the interests of the target audience.

The relationship between the recipient and the source in mass communication is also of a qualitatively new nature. The sender of the message is a mythologized individual or public institution. The beneficiaries are the target groups, which are united in a number of social significant features. The task of mass communication is to maintain links within groups and between them in society. Such groups can actually form due to the impact of mass messages (customers of the new firm, the electorate of the new party, consumers of the new product).

The conditions for the emergence of mass communication, according to W. Eco, are:

communication channels that ensure its receipt not by certain groups, but by an indefinite circle of addressees who occupy a different social position;
an industrial-type society, outwardly balanced, but in fact saturated with contrasts and differences;
groups of producers who produce and issue messages in an industrial way.

G. Lasswell names the following functions of mass communication:

regulatory (impact on cognition and society through feedback);
informational (survey of the surrounding world),
cultural (preservation and transmission of cultural heritage from generation to generation);
some researchers add an entertainment feature.

V.P. Konetskaya describes three groups of theories that are focused on the predominance of one or another leading function of mass communication:

indirect spiritual control;
political control;
cultural.

Predicted by M. McLuhan at the end of the 20th century. the globalization of mass communication has been transformed into the development of the worldwide Internet. The ability to connect almost instantly with the simultaneous use of the auditory and visual channel, non-verbal and text messages has significantly changed communication.

A category has arisen "virtual communication". The network itself is not literally a mass media, it can be used for both group and interpersonal communication. However, the possibilities that it opens up directly for mass communication speak of new era in the development of communication systems.

Stages of development of mass communication

Communication in society and nature has gone through a number of stages:

tactile-kinetic in higher primates;
oral-verbal among primitive peoples;
written-verbal at the dawn of civilization;
printing and verbal after the invention of the printing press and the book;
multi-channel, starting in the modern world.

In the modern era of mass communication, multi-channel is characteristic: an auditory, visual, auditory-visual channel, a written or oral form of communication, etc. are used. There appeared technical possibilities of bidirectional communication, both open type (interactivity) and covert type (reaction of the viewer or listener, behavior), mutual adaptation of recipients and sender. Since both channel selection and accommodation are influenced by recipient groups and society, it is sometimes said that the media is us.

Participants in the communication process are considered not only individual individuals, but collective subjects: the party, government, people, oligarchs, army, etc. Even a number of personalities are presented as image mythologemes: party leader, media mogul, president, etc. Modern scientists have come to the following conclusion: the function of informing in mass communication is giving way to the function of association, as well as management, subordination and power, maintaining social status.

The emergence and development of technical means of communication became the reason for the formation of a new social space - the space of mass society. Mass society is characterized by the presence of specific means of communication - mass media.

Mass media

Mass media (MSK)

These are special channels and transmitters, thanks to which information messages are distributed over large areas.

Technical means in mass communication consist of:

mass media (media): television, press, Internet, radio,
means of mass influence (SMV): cinema, circus, literature, theater, spectacles,
technical means (mail, telefax, telephone).

Mass communication plays the role of an integrator of mass sentiments; the role of the regulator of the dynamic processes of the social psyche; information circulation channel. It is for this reason that the organs of mass communication are a powerful means of influencing the individual and the social group.

The uniqueness of the communication process in the QMS is associated with its following properties (according to M. A. Vasilik):

diatopnost - a communicative property that allows information messages to overcome space;
diachronicity - a communicative property, due to which the message is preserved in time;
replication - a property that implements the regulatory impact of mass communication;
simultaneity - a property of the communication process, which makes it possible to present adequate messages to many people almost simultaneously;
multiplication - a communicative property, due to which the message is subjected to repeated repetition with relatively unchanged content.

The development of mass media in the XX century. led to the transformation of worldview, the formation of a virtual world of communication.

In the theory of mass communication, there are two main approaches:

a human-centered approach that supports the minimum effect model. The essence of this approach is that society rather adapts the mass media to its needs and needs. Supporters of this approach were based on the fact that people selectively assimilate incoming information. They accept only that part of the information that is similar to their opinion, and that which does not agree with this opinion is rejected. The models of mass communication here are: the "spiral of silence" by E. Noel-Neumann, the constructionist model of V. Gamson.
media-oriented approach. The essence of this approach is that a person is subject to the influence of mass media. SMC act like a drug that cannot be resisted. The representative of this approach is G. McLuhan (1911 - 1980). He was the first to study the role of mass media, mainly television, in the formation of mass consciousness, regardless of the content of the message. Gathering all spaces and times on the screen at once, television brings them together in the perception of viewers, while giving importance even to ordinary things. By drawing attention to what has already happened, television tells the public about the final result. This forms in the minds of the audience the illusion that the action itself leads to this result. It turns out that the reaction precedes the action. The viewer is thus forced to assimilate and accept the structural-resonance disunity of the television image.

The level of efficiency of information perception can be affected by the viewer's memory, life experience, his social attitudes, and the speed of perception. As a result, television strongly influences the spatio-temporal perception of information. The activities of the QMS have ceased to be for society a derivative of any events. The means of mass communication begin to act in the mind of a person as the root cause, which endows reality with its own properties. The process of construction, mythologization of reality by means of mass communication is carried out. QMS begin to realize the functions of political, ideological influence, organization, information, management, education, maintenance of social community, entertainment.

Mass media functions

Mass media functions:

contact with other people;
social orientation;
social identification;
emotional release
utilitarian;
self-assertion.

In addition to these socio-psychological functions, the QMS, according to the French scientists A. Catl and A. Kade, perform the functions of an amplifier, antenna, echo and prism in society.

Methods and models of mass communication research

Among the methods of research of mass communication stands out:

observations;
propaganda analysis;
text analysis (using content analysis);
surveys (tests, questionnaires, experiments, interviews);
hearsay analysis.

Content analysis (content analysis) is one of the methods for studying documents (texts, audio and video materials). Conducting content analysis involves counting the volume and frequency of mentions of certain units of the analyzed text. The obtained quantitative characteristics of the analyzed text provide an opportunity to form conclusions about the qualitative, as well as the hidden content of the text. Using this method, you can analyze the social attitudes of society.

G. G. Pocheptsov, when describing the model of mass communication, developed a standard unified classical model of communication, consisting of a number of elements:

a source,
coding,
message,
decoding,
recipient.

Often the transition to the message is built with some delay, which includes the processes of various transformations of the primary text, an additional stage is introduced - "coding". As an example, consider a speech delivered by a group of assistant directors of a company. In the analyzed case, the coding of the original ideas into a report is clearly presented, which is then read out by the director.

constructionist model. W. Gemson, an American professor, believes that various social groups want to impose on society their model of interpretation of an event.

Prior to the W. Gemson model, two models were developed:

maximum effect,
minimal effect.

Maximum effect model based on a number of factors successful use communications:

the success of propaganda during the First World War, which is the first systematic manipulation of the mass consciousness of society;
the emergence of the PR industry - public relations;
totalitarian control in the USSR and Germany. Considering it, scientists concluded that communication can influence a person and nothing can be opposed to it.

Minimal effect model based on factors such as:

transition to considering a person as a part of society from considering him as a single individual;
selective perception. People perceive information selectively: they perceive the information that coincides with their opinion, and they do not perceive the information that contradicts their views;
political behavior during elections. Scientists in the field of electoral technologies became interested in the resistance of voters. They made the following conclusion: it is impossible to change the predisposition of the voter, the stereotype, the struggle can be continued only for those who have not yet made a final decision.

These two models (minimum / maximum effect) can be represented as an emphasis either on the recipient or on the source (in the case of maximum understanding, everything is in his hands).

W. Gemson forms a constructionist model based on some modern approaches. Based on the fact that the effect of mass media is by no means minimal, he lists a number of components:

work with the category "ideas of the day", reflecting how the mass media gives people the keys to understanding what is happening;
work in the presidential elections, where the press influences people's assessments;
the phenomenon of the spiral of silence, reflecting how the press, giving a voice to the minority, forces the majority to feel in the minority and not pretend to speak publicly;
the effect of cultivation, when, with its massive display of artistic television, for example, violence, it influences municipal politics, dictating priorities.

W. Gemson singled out two levels of his model:

cultural,
cognitive.

The cultural level is the level at which messages are "packaged" in ways such as visual images, moral references, metaphors. This level characterizes the style of mass media.

The cognitive level is based on public opinion. At this level, the available information is adapted to the life experience and psychological prerequisites of each person.
The interaction of these two levels, which function in parallel, forms the social construction of meanings.

Mass communication audience

The audience of mass communication as an object of information impact is divided into specialized and mass. Such division is carried out on the basis of a quantitative criterion, although a specialized audience in some cases may be either more or less numerous than a mass one, based on the nature of the association of people who make up the audience.

Theoretical ideas about the mass audience are ambivalent. This term refers to:

random associations of people who do not have common professional, political, economic, cultural, age and other interests and characteristics (a crowd of onlookers who gathered to listen to street musicians or a speaker, etc.),
all consumers of information that is distributed through media channels (radio listeners, readers, buyers of audio and video products, viewers, etc.), where mass character is the main sign of the audience.

In the scientific community that studies the processes of mass communications and their means, there are a number of interpretations of the category of "mass audience". In a number of cases, the "mass audience" is defined as an inert, unorganized mass, passively absorbing everything that the media offer. In this case, we are talking about a mass audience as a kind of amorphous formation that does not have clear boundaries, is poorly organized and changes depending on the current situation.

On the other hand, the mass audience is presented as a social force that is able to actively influence the "mass media", demand that they satisfy their own special (cultural, age, ethnic, professional, etc.) interests and desires (meaning a systemic, organized , well structured education).

The separation of these interpretations is carried out within the framework of two approaches.

The theoretical basis of the first is the concept of two-stage communication by P. Lazarsfeld and other researchers in this field. They studied the mass audience not as a set of consumers, but as an integral system that consists of groups. These groups have their own "opinion leaders" who are capable of structuring and ordering a mass audience through interpersonal connections, developing certain ideas about the media and about information - its purpose, form and content. However, many modern theories pay attention to the increasing massive indifference of the audience, its destructuring, entropy, the result of which is the increasing manipulation of its consciousness by the media.

Quantitative socio-structural characteristics of the audience (i.e. data on age, gender, education, place of residence and occupation, their preferences and interests) are undoubtedly needed, but this is just the first stage. This can be explained by the fact that with this spectrum of its study, a large number of processes that arise in people's minds as a result of the perception of media products remain out of sight. For example, television ratings answer the questions "what" and "how much", but do not answer the questions "with what result" and "why". Answers to these questions require a qualitative analysis of both the audience and the processes of the media, which includes the study of communication technologies and their impact on the pictures of reality that arise in the minds of viewers.

A specialized audience is a fairly definite and stable whole with more or less clear boundaries, which includes a large number of individuals. People join them common goals, interests, mutual sympathies, lifestyle, value systems, as well as common cultural, demographic, professional, social and other characteristics. This audience can be considered as a wide segment of the mass media audience if, for example, we are talking about:

about the audience of a certain mass communication channel (about viewers of RenTV or ORT; about radio listeners of Radio Russia or Retro-FM; readers of newspapers Kommersant or Vesti, etc.);
about the audience of certain types of messages (headings) - sports, news, cultural, criminal, etc.;
about the audience of a particular type of mass communication (only about newspaper readers, TV viewers, or only about radio listeners, etc.);
etc.

Each of the groups requires its own strategy, its own ways of informing and forms of communication. And the more accurately the audience differentiation is carried out and the parameters of the target group are determined, the more successfully communication will be carried out.
The creation and consumption of mass information is directly interconnected with the psychological processes of perception and assimilation.

The main role in the process of consumption is played by the audience - the direct consumers of this information.

Audiences can be stable or unstable in their preferences, habits, frequency of appeal, which is taken into account when studying the interaction between the source and recipient of information.

The characteristics of the audience largely depend on its socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, income, level of education, place of residence, marital status, professional orientation, etc.). Also, when receiving mass information, the behavior of the audience is mediated by factors of an objective nature (uniqueness of circumstances, external environment, etc.). The relevance for consumers and the significance of the mass information itself and the source of its transmission are often indicated by the quantitative parameters of the audience: the larger the audience, the more important the information and the more significant its source.

Audience types

The ability of population groups to access certain sources of information underlies the typology of the audience. Based on this feature, the following types of audiences can be distinguished:

potential and real (who is the audience of this media in fact and who has access to it).
irregular and regular;
non-targeted and conditional (to whom the media does not directly target).

Audience analysis occurs in two directions:

methods of handling the information received,
according to the form of information consumption by different social communities.

Stages of interaction between audiences and information:

contact with the channel (source) of information;
contact with the information itself;
receiving information;
development of information;
formation of attitude to information.

The entire population is divided into audience and non-audience by access to the information itself and the source of information. Today, a large part of society in developed countries belong to the potential or real audience of the QMS.

Non-audience happens:

relative (people with limited access to the QMS - no money for a computer, newspapers, etc.),
absolute (who do not have access to the QMS at all, but there are already few such people).

It should be noted that SMC products, which are formally available to a large number of the population, are consumed in completely different ways.

Features of assimilation and consumption of mass information are directly proportional to the level of readiness of the audience to accept information, which can be determined based on the following features:

the degree of understanding of a particular text;
the degree of proficiency in the vocabulary of the media language in general;
adequate reflection of the meaning of the text in speech;
the degree of development of internal operation (rational semantic interpretation of the text).

A. Touraine, a French sociologist, described four cultural and informational strata of modern society:

"technocrats" (managers, producers of new values and knowledge, combining aristocratic art and professional interests);
active consumers of QMS products - employees who are oriented towards superiors who carry out other people's decisions (this includes PR managers and journalists);
low-skilled workers (mainly focused on entertainment products);
the lowest level - peripheral in relation to modern information production, representatives of forms of social life that are fading into the past, actually excluded from the sphere of mass information consumption (representatives of the elderly population, immigrants from developing countries, degrading rural communities, lumpen, unemployed, etc.).

Today, people need social information, the consequence of which is the activation of information and consumer activity of the audience. It includes the reception, assimilation, memorization and evaluation of information and is expressed in the following types:

partial - superficial view without analysis and significant conclusions;
full - full listening, viewing, reading and analysis;
refusal to receive a message due to its irrelevance (disinterest in the program or article) or oversaturation with information of a particular direction or topic.

Misunderstanding information

A significant problem of information-consumer activity of the mass audience is misunderstanding. There are two types of misunderstanding:

objective - due to social stereotypes and peculiarities of personal perception, ignorance of new words, as well as various kinds of distortions in the transmission of information in the media;
subjective - the unwillingness of individual subjects and the audience to understand the problems, memorize and assimilate the terminology.

Today, the media are trying to qualitatively improve the process of information and consumer activity. To do this, establish feedback between communicators and audiences:

audience survey;
epistolary (by mail);
instant ("hot phone", "hot line", interactive survey via computer or telephone network);
assessment of the activities of a particular media outlet (study of reviews, reviews and reviews of a mass media source);
rating studies ("measurements" based on sociological studies of the daily dynamics of the real audience of programs and publications);
conferences are held (discussion of media products).

Mass Communication Functions

G. Lasswell in 1948 identified three basic functions mass communication:

the transfer of cultural heritage is a cognitive-culturological function, a function of the continuity of cultures;
relationship with the social structures of society - the impact on society and its knowledge through feedback, i.e. communicative function;
review of the surrounding world - an information function.

K. Wright, an American researcher, in 1960 proposed to single out the following function of mass communication as an independent one - entertaining.

In the early 1980s McQuail, a specialist in mass communication at the University of Amsterdam, introduced another function of mass communication - organizational and managerial, or mobilizing, meaning the specific tasks that mass communication performs during various campaigns.

Domestic scientists-psycholinguists distinguish four functions that are characteristic of television and radio communication:

informational;
social control;
socialization of the individual (i.e. the education in the personality of the traits necessary for society);
regulatory.

Informational the function is to provide the mass listener, viewer and reader with up-to-date information about various fields of activity - scientific, technical, business, political, medical, legal, etc. A large amount of information gives people the opportunity to increase their creative potential, expand their cognitive capabilities. Possession of the necessary information saves time, increases motivation for joint actions, and makes it possible to predict one's actions. In this sense, this function contributes to the optimization of the activities of the individual and society.

Regulatory The function is characterized by a wide range of impact on the mass audience, from establishing contacts to controlling the society. Mass communication influences the organization of the public consciousness of the group and the individual, the creation of social stereotypes and the formation of public opinion. It also makes it possible to manipulate and control public consciousness, in fact, to exercise the function of social control.

People, as a rule, accept those social norms of behavior, ethical requirements, aesthetic principles that have been promoted by the media for a long time as a positive stereotype of lifestyle, clothing style, form of communication, etc. This is how it goes socialization subject in accordance with the norms desirable for society in a given historical period.

Culturological the function is to familiarize with the achievements of art and culture and forms the awareness of the society of the importance of preserving cultural traditions, the continuity of culture. With the help of the media, people learn the characteristics of various subcultures and cultures. This contributes to mutual understanding, develops aesthetic taste, helps to relieve social tension and, ultimately, contributes to the integration of society. The concept of mass culture is interconnected with this function.

Taking into account the main functions and characteristics of mass communication presented above, its social essence lies in a powerful impact on society in order to integrate, optimize its activities, and socialize the individual.

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