SUMMARY OF INTRODUCTION TO MASS

COMMUNICATION BY STANLEY BARAN

PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Media Communication Culture and Media Literacy.
In this chapter, mass communication is defined as the process of creating shared
meaning among two or more people.it criticizes the one way model of
communication as it does not wholly reflect the communication process, rather it
agrees with the theories of Osgood and Shramm which states that there are no
permanent receiver or sender, rather an interchanging of roles exits.
It defines culture a learned behavior of members of a given social group. He
suggests that culture helps us categorize and classify our experiences and also
helps define us, our world and the people in it. According to him culture cannot
survive without communication, as communication is the only means that it can
be transferred. Therefore the media plays a very special role in the culture of the
people.
Furthermore he defined media literacy as the ability effectively and efficiently
comprehends and use any form of mediated-communication. In a bid to explain
media literacy further he traced the history of writing starting from the oral
period when the meaning of language is specific and local. As a result
communities were closely knit and their members were highly dependent on
each other for all aspects of life knowledge was passed orally and people were
shown and told how to do things. Having a good memory was also crucial as
myths and history were intertwined.
He writes that more than 5000 thousand years ago, alphabets were developed
independently in several places around the world. Picture based appeared in
Egypt, Sumer, and urban China etc. he noted that the syllable alphabet as we
know it today developed slowly and was aided by greatly by ancient semantic
cultures and eventually flowered in Greece around 800 B.C. like the Sumerians
the Greek perfected the easy alphabet of necessity.
As modern writing developed, meaning and language became more uniform,
communication could occur over a long distance and long periods of time with
knowledge being transmitted in writing, power shifted from those who could show
others their special talent to those who could write and read them.
Elements of medical literacy
i. A critical thinking skill enabling audience members to develop independent
judgment.
ii. An understanding of the process of mass communication.
iii. An awareness of the impact of the media on the individual and the society.
iv. Strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages.
v. An understanding of media content as a text that provides insight into ones
culture.
vi. The ability to enjoy, understand and appreciate media contents.
vii. Development of effective development skills
viii. An understanding of the ethical moral obligation of media practitioners
According to him, for a person to be media literate means the ability to
understand content, and filter out noise and the ability to distinguish emotional

from reasoned reactions when responding to content and to act accordingly.

CHAPTER TWO
The Evolving Mass Communication Process
This chapter traces the history of the mass media and also deals with current
trends in the mass media. It discusses concentration of ownership,
conglomeration, globalization, audience fragmentation, hyper commercialization
and convergence.
He noted that the mass media system we have today has exited ever since
1830s. He opined that it is a system that has weathered repeated significant
change with the coming of increasingly sophisticated technologies. The penny
press newspaper which was the first newspaper was soon followed by a mass
market books and circulation magazines. As the 1800s became 1900s these
popular media were joined by motion pictures, radio and sound recording. A few
years later came television combining news and entertainment, moving images
and sound all in the home, ostensibly for free. The traditional media found new
functions and prospered side by side with television. Then more recently the
internet and the World Wide Web came, this has given rise to the media
industries alliterating how they how they are structured and do business. The
nature of the content and how they interact and respond to the audience
In this chapter problems media outlets currently face such as, declining revenue
and viewership were equally discussed and solutions suggested. The solutions
include:
i. Audience fragmentation: also known as narrow casting or niche marketing.
Baran suggests that individual stations should narrow their programs to a specific
audience, thus given the selected audience attention. Example before the advent
of cable television, people could choose from among the three commercial
broadcast networks- ABC, CBS, NBC, one
noncommercial public broadcasting station, but today have thousands of viewing
options. So to retain audience and attract advertisers each channel must now
find a more specific group of people to make up its viewership. Example
Nickelodeon and Disney junior targets kids, Disney XD targets older teens while
Bravo channel upper income older people.
ii. Hyper commercialization: this is a process of writing brands into production
instead of going for separate advert in between programs. Example ABC writes
Revlon cosmetics into the story line of its popular soap opera all my children,
on desperate house wives the females stars shop regularly at Macys.
Finally ends with developing media literacy skills were it places emphasis on
proper interpretation of the content i.e. message as a vital tool in developing
media literacy.

PART TWO
CHAPTER THREE
Books

In this chapter history of books and printing presses, is discussed. Problems they
face are also considered and solutions suggested.
The first printing press arrived on North American soil in 1638 only 38 years after
the Plymouth Rock landing. It was operated by a company called Cambridge
press. Printing was limited to religion and government documents. The first book
printed in the colonies appeared in 1644the whole book of psalm sometimes
referred to as the Bay psalm book. Among the very few secular titles were those
printed by Benjamin Franklin annually. The almanac contained shorty story,
poetry, weather forecasts and other facts and figures useful to a population now
in command of its environment.
The 1800s saw a series of important refinements to the process of printing:
continuous roll paper which permitted printing of standardized pages was
invented in France at the very beginning of the century. Soon after in 1811,
German inventor Friedrich Koenig converted the printing press from muscle to
steam power, this speed up the production of printed materials.
Baran notes that the book industry is bound by many of the same financial and
industrial pressures that constrain the media but book more than the others are
in position to transcend the constrains.
Functions of books
i. Books are agents of social and cultural change.
ii. Books are important cultural repository.
iii. Books are our windows on the past.
iv. Books are important sources of personal development.
v. Books are wonderful sources of entertainment.
Because of their affluence as cultural reposition and agents of change, books
have often been targeted for censorship. A book is censored when someone in
authority limits publication of or access to it. Censorship occurs in all media. This
is a major challenge book face today, examples of books censored are The
outsiders, fallen angel by Walter Myer etc. there are different categories of
books: Higher education books for colleges and universities, El-hi books for
elementary and secondary school etc.
In the concluding part of the chapter, new trends in book printing and publishing
such as; e-books, conglomeration, convergence etc. were discussed. Like other
chapters, the chapter ends with developing media literacy skills with J. K.
Rowlings Harry potter in focus.

CHAPTER FOUR
Newspapers
This chapter examines the relationship between the newspaper and its readers, it
looked the mediums root beginning with the first papers following them from
Europe to colonial America were the traditions of today free press were set. It
also studies the cultural changes that led to creation of Penny press and the
competition between these mass circulation dailies that gave rise to yellow
journalism it also reviewed the modern newspaper in terms of its size and scope
discussing different types of papers plus the importance of newspapers as an
advertising medium. Finally the positive and negative impacts of technology such

as the rise in online newspapers and changes in the nature of newspaper

readership are discussed.
History
Ii Caesars time Rome had a new paper the Acta Diurna (actions of the day)
written on a tablet and was pasted on the wall after each meeting of the senate,
its circulation was one. The newspapers we recognize today have their roots in
the 17th century Europe. Corontos a one page news sheet about specific
events, were printed in Holland in 1620 and imported to English by British
booksellers who were eager to satisfy public demand for information about
continental happenings that eventually led to what we know today as thirty
years wars.
English man Nathaniel Butter, Thomas Archer, and Nicholas Bourne eventually
began printing their own occasional news sheets using the same title for
consecutive editions. They stooped publishing in 1641. The same year that
regular daily accounts of local news started appearing in the news sheet, these
for runners of daily newspapers were called Diurnals
Political power struggle in England at this time booted the fledging mediums as
partisans on the side of the monarchy and those on the side of the parliament
printed Diurnals to bolster their positions. When the monarchy prevailed it
granted monopoly rights to the Oxford Gazette; the official voice of the crown
founded in 1665 and later renamed the London Gazette. This journal; used a
formula of foreign news, official information, royal proclamation and local news
that became the model for the first colonial newspaper.
The concept of Yellow journalism is a study in excess or sensational reporting of
sex, crime and disaster news it is dine with grant headlines, heavy use of
illustrations and over reliance on cartoons and color. It derived its name from the
Yellow kid ,a popular cartoon character of the time.
Type of Newspapers.
i. National daily Newspapers: this type of paper enjoys wide readership and
unlimited circulation across towns in the country.
ii. Large metro Politian dailies
iii. Suburban and small town dailies
iv. Weeklies and semi weeklies
v. The ethnic press
vi. The alternative and dissident pressthis type of newspapers is mostly weekly
and is available to readers at no cost.
vii. Commuter paper- modeled after a common form of European newspaper, this
paper is a free daily designed for commuters.
CHAPTER FIVE
Magazines
The dynamics of the contemporary magazine industry; paper and online and its
audience was discussed in this chapter. The mediums beginnings in the colonies,
its pre-war expansion and explosive growth between the civil war and world war
were also highlighted. Finally the chapter examines some of the editorial
decisions that should be of particular interest to media literate magazine
consumer.
Magazines were a favorite medium of the British elite by the mid- 1700s. Two
prominent colonial printers hoped to duplicate that in success in the new world.
In 1741 in Philadelphia, Andrew Bradford published American magazine or a

monthly view of the political sate of British colonies. Followed by Benjamin

Franklins General magazine and Historical chronicle composed largely of
reprinted British materials. These publications were expensive and aimed at
small number of literate colonist. Lacking an organized postal system distribution
was difficult and neither magazine was successful American magazine produced
three issues, General magazine six. Yet between 1741 and 1794, 45 new
magazines appeared although not more than three was published in the same
time period. Entrepreneurial printers hoped to attract educated, cultured and
moneyed gentlemen by copying the London magazines. Even after the
revolutionary war, U.S magazines remained clones to their British forerunners.
These early magazine were aimed at literate elites interested in short stories,
poetry, social commentary and essays. The magazine did not become a true
national mass medium until after the civil war.
The modern era of magazines is characterized by a different relationship between
medium and audience. Magazines were truly Americas first national medium and
like books they served as important force in social change especially in the
muckratry era of the 20th century. This name was coined by Theodore
Roosevelt as an insult to the government.
Scope and structure of magazines
i. Trade magazines; carries stories, feature and ads aimed at people in specific
professions and are either distributed by media professional organizations
themselves or by media companies.
ii. Individual company and sponsored magazine; produced by companies
specifically for their own employees, c customers and stockholders or by clubs
and association. Specifically for its members.
iii. Consumer magazines; they are sold by subscription at newsstands, books
stores etc.
Trends and convergence in magazine publishing
Online magazine: this is made possible by the convergence of magazine the
internet most magazines now produce online editions offering special interactive
feature not available to their hard-copy readers.
Custom magazines: custom publishing is the creating of magazines specifically
designed for an individual company seeking to reach a very narrowly defined
audience. There are two broad categories of custom publishing: brand magazines
and magalogue.
The developing media literacy segment focused on Recognizing the power of
graphics it criticized the over use of graphics by media houses. Baran pointed
out that such alteration in pictures restructures the reality the events they
represent.
CHAPTER SIX
Film
The chapter begins with the history of films, from it entrepreneurial beginnings
through the introduction of its narrative and visual language, to its establishment
large, studio run industry. It details Hollywoods relationship with its early
audience and changes in the structure and content of films resulting from the
introduction of television. It also looked at the contemporary movie production,
distribution and exhibition systems and how convergence is altering all three, the
influence of the major studios and the economic pressures on them in an
increasingly multimedia environment. It also highlights on the special place
movies hold for us and how ever younger audience and the films that targets
them may affect our culture.

History
In 1873 former California governor Leland Stanford needed help in winning a bet:
he had made a bet with a friend convinced that a horse in full gallop had all feet
of the ground, he had to prove it so he hired photographer Fadweard Maybridge
who worked on it for four years before finding a solution. In 1877 Maybridge
arranged a series of still cameras along a stretch of racetrack. As the horse
sprinted by, each camera took its picture. The resulting photographs won
Stanford his bet and also sparked an idea on Maybridge causing him to develop
Zoopraxiscope- a machine for projecting slides into a distant surface. The
Lumiere brothers made the next advancement. In 1895 they patented the
Cinematographic device that both photographed and projected action. By 1890s
French filmmaker George Melies began making narrative motion pictures
exhibiting one scene, one shot movies but soon began making stories made on
sequence. He made the film A trip to the moon in 1902. Other scientists such as
Edwin S. Porter improved on using movies to tell a story. The first sound films
were that ones produced by warner brothers in 1920.
The industry prospered not just because of its artistry, drive and innovation but
because it used these to meet the needs of a growing audience. Movies like
books are a culturally special medium. They hold very special place in the
peoples culture.
Trends and convergence in movie making.
Conglomeration and blockbuster movies
Concept moviesmaking movies simple and easier to understand
Audience researchbefore movies are released, the concept, plot and
characters are subjected to market testing. Often trailers are produced and
tested with sample audience.
Sequels, remakes and Franchisethese are movies produced with the intention
of producing several more sequel e.g. prison break.
Merchandise moviesthis are movies produced to generate interest for nonfilm products as for their intrinsic value as movies.
The developing media literacy segment discussed recognizing product
placement were it emphasis recognition of advert placements in scripts as a
valuable literacy skill.

CHAPTER SEVEN
Radio, Recording and Popular Music.
Technical and social beginning of both radio and sound recording is discussed in
this chapter. It highlights the coming of broadcasting and hoe the growth of
regulatory organization led to the mediums golden age the heart of the chapter
covers how television changed radio and produced the medium with which we
are now familiar with. It also reviewed the scope and nature of contemporary
radio especially its rebirth as a local, fragmented, specialized medium. It
examines how these characteristics save advertisers and listeners. The chapter
then explores the relationship between radio, the modern recording industry,
popular music and the way new technologies serve and challenge all three.
History
In 1906 on Christmas eve, the first radio broadcast was aired at Bran rock, this
was as a result of cumulative success by scientists such as Guglielmo Marconi,
Reginald Fessenden, James Clark Maxwell, Henrich Hertz, etc. his listeners were

sailors at sea and a few newspaper houses equipped to receive the transmission.
Later that same year American Lee De Forest invented audion tube as vacuum
tube that amplified wireless signals. This made possible for reliable transmission
of clear voices and music.
Sound recording started in 1887 with the invention of the talking machine a
device for replacing sound by that used a hand cranked grooved cylinder and a
needle passing along the groove of the rotating cylinder and hitting bumps was
converted into electrical energy that activates a diaphragm in a loud speaker and
produced soundthis invention was made by Thomas Edison.
On September 30, 1920 a Westinghouse executive, impressed with press
accounts of the number of listeners who were picking up broadcasts from the
garage radio station of Frank Conrad, asked him to move his operation to
Westinghouse factory expand his power and on October 27 1920 experimental
station 8XK in Pittsburgh received a license from the department of commerce to
broadcast. On November 2 KDKA made the first commercial radio broadcast
announcing the results of the presidential election that sent Warren G. Hardy to
the White House.
Scope and Nature of the Radio Industry
Radio is local
Radio is Fragmented
Radio is specialized
Radio is personal
Radio is mobile
Radio as an advertising medium: advertisers enjoy the specialization of radio
because it gives them access to homogenous groups of listeners to whom
products can be pitched.
Trend and Convergence in Radio and Sound Recording.
Emerging of changing technologies has affected the production and distribution
aspects of both radio and sound recording.
The impact of television: television fundamentally altered radio structure and
relationship with its audience. Television specifically MTV introduction in 1981
altered radiorecord relationship as music are now released on MTV instead of
radio.
Satellite and Cable: the convergence of radio and satellite has aided the rebirth
of radio as music and other forms of radio content can now be distributed in
expensively to audience through satellite.
Mobile phone
Terrestrial digital radio
Web radio and podcasting
In the chapters developing media literacy skills segment- the issue of shock jokes
was discussed. This Baran poses a question as to whether literate individual
would allow this shock jokes to exits.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Television, cable, and Mobile Video
This chapter details the change that happened in the television from the early
experiments with mechanical scanning to the electric marvel that sits in ours
homes to the mobile video screen we may carry in our pockets. It traces the rapid

transformation of television in to a mature medium after World War II and

examines how the entire television industry was altered by the emergence and
success of cable and satellite television. It discusses the reach, the structure,
programming and economics of television and cable industries. The new
technologies and their convergence with television and how they promise to
change the interaction between the medium and its audience are also explored.
History
In 1884 Paul Nipkow, a Russian scientist living in Berlin developed the first
workable device for generating electrical signal suitable for the transmission of
scene that people could see. His Nipkow disc spinning in front of a photoelectric
cell produced 4000 pixels per second producing a picture composed of 18 parallel
lines. Although the mechanical system proved too limiting Nipkow demonstrated
the possibility of using a scanning system to divide a scene into an orderly
pattern of transmission picture element that could be recomposed as a visual
image. British inventor John Logie Bard was able to transmit moving images using
a mechanical disc as early as 1925 and in 1928 he successfully sent a television
picture from London to Hartsdale, new, New York. Other people that contributed
to the development of television are Vladimir Zworykin, David Sarnoff etc.
The coming of cable
John Walson was having problem trouble selling television in 1948: the Pocono
Mountain sat between his town and Philadelphias three Stations; he erected a
tower from new Boston Mountain to his store. The cable was a twin lead wire
much like the cord that connects a camp to an outlet. To attract more subscribers
ha had to offer improved picture quality. He accomplished this by using coaxial
cable and self-manufactured Bolster.
Trends and convergence in television and cable
VCR
Introduced commercially in 1976, video cable recorders quickly became common
in homes. VCR allow time shift, taping a show for later viewing.
DVD
In March 1996 digital video disk went on sale in stores. Much like VCR but better
in retaining quality of films.
Digital television
Digitalization of video signals has reduced their size; therefore, information can
now be carried over telephone wires and stored.
Television on the internet
Because broadband offers greater information carrying capacity television on the
internet is increasingly common.
Interactive television
Cable and satellite television have created programs to allow viewer talk back to
content consumers
Movable video
The newest way to receive and view television is on mobile device either, either
on cell phone or other portable video player
In the developing media literacy segment, mews stagingrecreating of events
that is believed to or could have happened, was discussed and criticized. Baran
urged media literate viewers to wholly reject this type of news reporting as it

makes mockery of the intelligence of viewers.

CHAPTER TEN
The internet and the World Wide Web
The chapter begins with an examination of the internet, the new technology it
studies the history of the internet, beginning with the development of the
computer, and then looks at the Net as it exits today, examining its format and
capabilities especially the popular World Wide Web. The number and nature of
todays internet users are also discussed. It also looks at the new technologies
double edge ( ability to have both good and bad effects) the internet ability to
foster greater freedom of expression, changes in the meaning of and threats to
privacy and the promise and perils of practicing democracy online.
History
The title originator of the computer resides with Englishman Charles Babbage,
lack of money and unavailability of the necessary technologies stalled his plan to
build an analytical engine a steam driven computer. But in the mid 1880s aided
by the insights of mathematic lady Ada Bryon Lovelace. Babbage did produce
designs for a computer that could conduct algebraic computation using stored
memory and punch card for input and output.
Using Honeywell computers at Stanford University, UCLA, the University of Santa
Barbara, and the University of Utah, the switching network called Arpanet, went
online in 1969 and became fully operational and reliable within 1 year, other
development soon followed, in 1972 an engineer. Ray Tomlinson created the first
e-mail program (ubiquitous@) in 1974. Stanford Universitys Vinton Cerf and
militarys Robert Kahn coined the term Internet
The internet is most appropriately thought of as networks of networks that are
growing at an incredibly fast rate. These networks consists of LANS (local area
network) connecting two or more computers, usually within the same building.
And WAN (wide area network) connecting several LANS. In different locations.
The internet is different from traditional media, rather than change the
relationship between audiences and industries, the Net changes the definition of
the different components of the process and as result changes their relationship.
The internet induced the redefinition of the elements of mass communication
process refocusing attention on issues such as freedom of expression, privacy,
responsibility and democracy.
Effects of the internet. (Good and bad)
i. Copyright abuse
ii. indecencyography
iii. Lack of privacy
iv. Virtual democracy
v. Bridging information gab
vi. Broader communication network
vii. Faster information transmission
Making our way in an interconnected world was the topic for the developing
media literacy segment were it raised question as to what level media consumer

understand the double edge communication technologies of the internet.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Media freedom, regulation and ethics
This chapter studies how the logic of a free and unfettered press has come into
play in the areas of broadcast deregulation. It also detail the shift in the
underlying philosophy of media freedom from libertarianism to social responsibly
theory providing the background for discussion on the ethical environment in
which media professionals must work as they strive to fulfill the social
responsibility obligations.
The United States is the first country to allow free press with its first
amendment which stated that congress shall make no law abridging freedom of
speech or of the press this first law gave the press so much freedom that caused
damage such as sensational report of court proceedings thereby finding the
people on trial guilty before they are actually found guilty by the jury. This lead to
a modification of the law by the Supreme Court were it held that although the
free press has been a mighty catalyst in awakening public interest in
governmental affairs, exposing corruption among public officers and employees
and informing the citizenry of public events and occurrences, including court
proceedings, while maximum freedom must be allowed the press in carrying on
this important function in a democratic society, its exercise must be subject to
the maintenance of absolute fairness in the judicial process.
Today the U.S press is guided by the social responsibility theory which holds that
the media must remain free of government control, but in exchange media must
serve the public. Media should be self-regulatory within the frame work of the
law.
Media industry ethics
Ethic is rules and behaviors or morale principles that guide purr action in given
situations. Media ethics specifically refer to the application of rational thought by
media professionals when they are deciding between two or more competing
moral choices. The application of media ethics almost always involves finding the
most morally defensible answer to a problem for which there is no single correct
or even best answer. There are three levels of ethics;
I. Met ethics: are fundamental cultural values. They define the basic starting point
for moral reasoning
II. Normative ethics: are generalized theories, rules and principle of ethical or
moral behavior. They serve as realworld frame works within which people can
begin to weigh competing alternatives of behavior
III. Applied ethics: involves balancing conflicting interest. In applying ethics, the
person making the decisions is called morale agent.
Some interest that often conflict.
i. The interest of the moral agents individual conscience
ii. The interest of the object of act; a particular person or group is likely to be
affected by media practitioners actions.
iii. The interest of financial supporters
iv. The interest of the institution: media professional have company loyalty and
pride in the organization for which they work.
v. In mass communication these conflicting interests play themselves out in a
variety of ways.

Areas which media should enforce ethics:

Truth and honesty
Privacy
Confidentiality
Personal conflict of interest
Profit and social responsibility
Offensive content etc.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Global media
This chapter focuses specifically on globalization and its impact, looking at the
beginnings no international media and examines the impact of satellite in
creating a truly global mass media system. It also studies todays, global media
using comparative analysis of media systems in Britain (the western concept),
Honduras (the development concept) Poland (the revolutionary concept) and
china (the authoritarian, communist concept). It also discusses the programming
available in other countries and global media influence on cultures that use them
both negatively and positively. It looks at the debates over cultural imperialism.
World war II brought the united states into the business if international
broadcasting, following the lead of Britain which had just augmented its world
service. The United States establishment in 1940 what would eventually be
known as the voice of America to counter enemy propaganda and disseminate
information about America. The VOA originally targeted countries in central and
South America. Friendly to Germany, but as the war became global it quickly
began broadcasting to score of other nations, attracting along with Britains world
service, a large and admire ring listenership first in countries occupied by the
axis polar and later by those in the Soviet sphere of influence. The satellite
revolution began in 1957 with the successful launch and orbit of Soviet Unions
Sputnik. The U. S followed with the launch of COMSAT, AT & Ts tester, INTELSAT,
etc.
Different countries mass media systems reflect the diversity of their levels of
development and property values and [political systems. It is logical that a
countrys political system reflects in the nature of their media. Authoritarian
governments need control of the mass media to maintain power. Therefore they
will institute a media system very different from that of a democratic society with
a capitalist, free economy.
Hantan (1992) offered five concepts that guide the worlds many media systems
western, development, evolutionary, authoritarian and communism.
The western concept: the western concept is an amalgamation of original
libertarian and social responsibly models. It recognizes two realities: there is no
completely free system on earth and even the most commercially driven systems
include the expectations not only of public service and responsibility but also of
significant communicationrelated activities of government to ensure that the
media professional meet this responsibility.
The development concept: this system is mostly used in the developing
countries. Here the government and the media come in partnership to ensure
that the media assist in the planning beneficial development of the country. The
media content is designed to meet specific cultural and societal needs, for
example teaching new farm techniques.
The revolutionary concept: this means that a nations media will never serve the

goals of revolution. The aims of revolutionary media are against contents like:
ending government monopoly over information, facilitating the organization of
opposition to the incumbent power, destroying the legitimacy of a standing
government.
The authoritarian and communist concept: in this concept government has total
control of the media and media contents.
The developing media literacy in this chapter focused on making our way in the
global village. It discussed the importance of maintaining our cultural ethics and
standards in an ever changing global world.