This summary is organized around the questions found at the beginning of the chapter. See if you can answer them before reading the summary paragraphs.

1. What is the distinction between mediated and mass communication, and why might this distinction be important?

Mass communication refers to the creation of meaning through messages sent to a large, unseen, and anonymous audience. The more resources used to produce a message, the larger the audience needed to make a profit. Although many of us consume mass communication, we also participate in mediated communication, which includes any communication that is sent or received using technology.

2. What are the stages in the coevolution of communication technologies and audiences?

Over the centuries we have moved from an oral to a literate and finally to an electronic society. With each new era of media have come fears about their effects and hopes for a better society. Before the advent of writing and printing, communication was based on speaking and listening. Oral communication became mediated when language first moved from spoken to written form. In some parts of the world oral culture is still dominant, but in most parts of the world, literacy became dominant with the development of the printing press. The reproduction of the Bible has been called the first form of mass media.

Literacy brought with it changes in thinking, social structure, and commerce. Some of these changes still exist in the electronic society of the 21st century. Electronic society has brought back some features of oral culture, such as focusing on listening, using personal appearance to evaluate believability, and sharing public events with large audiences. Several communication technologies, such as telephone lines, digital satellite services, and personal computers have been combined to bring us new ways to communicate with mediated messages.

3. Why is there so much concern about the effects of media?

With every new mass medium has come a concern about media effects. Direct effects of media are difficult to prove, because competing factors such as selective exposure can often explain behavioral change. However, some research does suggest that mass media can have a direct effect on audience beliefs and behaviors, particularly among children and consumers of sexual and violent media content.

4. What are the functions of mass media?

Through media we can learn what remote parts of the world look like; how we expect others to behave in work, education, and leisure; who appears fit to run our country; what behaviors we will tolerate; and even how we should look on a date. Mass media fulfill audience desires for surveillance, information, entertainment, and social utility. Media managers function as gatekeepers who decide which messages will be produced, and when media turn human events into stories, they can build public agendas.

Media also cultivate worldviews by providing audiences with a steady stream of recurring stories, themes, and images. For instance, the patterns of portrayals on prime-time television reinforce stereotypes about sex roles, contribute to fear of crime, and encourage acceptance of violence. The most profitable and common images are repeated, and the potential diversity of images and voices can be lost.

5. Why is media literacy important, and how can consumers and users of media communicate responsibly?

Media literacy requires becoming knowledgeable about media production, acquiring the skill to evaluate media messages, and encouraging the creation of ethical communication. It requires the ability to identify underlying interests behind messages, understand production techniques in mediated communication, assess beliefs and values that are reinforced by media, and create responsible communication through authentic portrayals of self and others, providing opportunities for feedback, and responding to objectionable media content. Only by becoming careful, responsible, and critical media consumers can we ensure that the creative and liberating potential of media be achieved.