Mass communication serves many important functions including identity formation, satisfying social needs, and sharing information. It allows people to define themselves through their interactions with others, fulfill needs for affection, inclusion and control through social interaction, and obtain necessary information to make decisions and solve problems. Mass communication also helps express emotions, convince and influence others, entertain, provide instructions, socialize members of society, and educate people about the world.
Mass communication serves many important functions including identity formation, satisfying social needs, and sharing information. It allows people to define themselves through their interactions with others, fulfill needs for affection, inclusion and control through social interaction, and obtain necessary information to make decisions and solve problems. Mass communication also helps express emotions, convince and influence others, entertain, provide instructions, socialize members of society, and educate people about the world.
Mass communication serves many important functions including identity formation, satisfying social needs, and sharing information. It allows people to define themselves through their interactions with others, fulfill needs for affection, inclusion and control through social interaction, and obtain necessary information to make decisions and solve problems. Mass communication also helps express emotions, convince and influence others, entertain, provide instructions, socialize members of society, and educate people about the world.
Mass communication serves many important functions including identity formation, satisfying social needs, and sharing information. It allows people to define themselves through their interactions with others, fulfill needs for affection, inclusion and control through social interaction, and obtain necessary information to make decisions and solve problems. Mass communication also helps express emotions, convince and influence others, entertain, provide instructions, socialize members of society, and educate people about the world.
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Introduction to Mass Communication
Lecture III
Topic: Mass Communication- Facts &Importance.
Communication is our basic need. It plays a variety of roles in our daily life. Some basic functions of communication are given below: 1- IDENTITY
Communication helps humans to define who they are. In other words, it is how we communicate with others that help us formulate the parameters of our identity.
“Some scholars have argued that we are most attracted to people who confirm our identity. This confirmation can come in different forms, depending on the self-image of the communicator.”
The roles we play in our relationships help us establish identity. So too does the face, the public self-image we present to others. Both roles and face are constructed based on how we interact with others. 2- SOCIAL NEEDS
Researchers have identified several social needs that are satisfied through communication: affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation and control. These are needs that must be filled, and only communication with others can satisfy that need.
3- INFORMATION Information is considered as a most important function of communication. Information is necessary for the individual to have a harmonious relationship with their environment. On the other hand, employees need information as to what needs to be done, how and why in order to achieve the goals of the organization. At some level, all messages are informational. When we communicate something to one another, the transfer of information is involved. We obtain information about the recent happenings through communication. 4- DECISION MAKING Communication has a significant function in decision making. Without the necessary information, problem cannot be solved nor can a decision be reached on any issue. Without information about any issue or a problem, we cannot take any decision about that problem. Therefore, we have to communicate to one another to obtain information about that issue or problem. In this way, we can better understand the problem or issue and we can make a better decision.
5- CONVINCING & INFLUENCING
Convincing is the process of affecting and changing the behaviors, attitudes and opinions of the persons an individual is in interaction with. Influencing is an attempt to change people’s attitudes and behaviors without contradicting their will or aims over a longer period. Communication helps in convincing and influencing the persons. Through communication, we can convince the person according to our ideas and point of view and we also influence the persons towards our behavior or attitudes. 6- EMOTIONS
Communication also plays an important role to express our emotions. Through
communication, we can communicate our inner states and emotions. An individual can understand the emotions and feelings of another individual through communication. Our face expressions can also understand by others when they communicate with us. We also engage in interpersonal communication to help us better understand what someone says in a given context. The words we say can mean very different things depending on how they are said or in what context. Content Messages refer to the surface level meaning of a message. Relationship Messages refer to how a message is said. The two are sent simultaneously, but each affects the meaning assigned to the communication. Interpersonal communication helps us understand each other better. 7- INTERACTION Communication helps people in interaction with each other. Interaction is possible only through communication. We need interaction in our daily life. When we interact with each other, we can understand each other easily. We can easily understand the ideas, behaviors, attitudes and nature of others through interaction. We get information about the world or any other topic through each other. We can exchange our ideas and opinions by interaction. We can make good decisions about any issue by interaction because when we interact with people, we can get better information about that issue by others which enable us in making good decisions. 8- ENTERTAINMENT Communication events whose function is to give us pleasure are called entertainment. People celebrate different events together. People use to go to different places for entertainment such as restaurants, parks, etc. People need entertainment to escape them from their daily routine which made them bore and tired. People need to laugh, relax and fantasize which could only possible through entertainment. Functions are organized at national level to bring people together from different cities for entertainment. 9- INSTRUCTIONS Instruction is one of the important functions of communication. It may be defined as facts plus some organizing or interpretive principles. Communication helps us in receiving instructions on different works or subjects or topics. Communication is a source of giving and receiving instructions. Media plays an important role in giving instructions on different important issues or problems. It can help in bettering children health by instructing mothers how to take care of their children. It gives instructions to farmers about their fields and crops. It instructs females how to take care of their health and what things and precautions are important for their health. 10- SOCIALIZATION Socialization is one of the important functions of communication. Communication plays an important role in socializing the members of society. People make societies and communities. When we live in a society, we communicate with the members of society. In this way, we can understand the nature of people and we come close to each other. Relationship becomes stronger through communication. Communication makes people social. People take part in social activities. 11- PERSUASION Communication’s persuasive function plays a significant role in our interpersonal relationships and in the life of our groups. Most of us are only too aware of how persuasive our friends can be when they want to borrow money or to get us to quit working and go play with them. Sometimes we may be unaware that we are being persuaded by a communication event. 12- WARNING Communication is also used for warning against a danger or a natural disaster that is about to occur. People are put on red alert and are advised to leave the place suspected of the danger immediately. Such things happen during volcano eruption, tsunamis, earthquakes etc. 13- EDUCATION
There are a lot of incidents when communication helps us in gaining education.
There are special channels or programs on the television that might educate us in a variety of ways. A number of documentaries are played and aired which are specially made for educational purposes. 14- Transfer of Ideas
To transfer ideas from one person to another, communication plays a vital role. Every human being has some ideas that are unique to his own mind. Many of these ideas can be implemented in real life and can turn into major creations too. But to make the transition from just a thought to an implementation, it requires effectual communication. Hence, the idea should be communicated as a plan, drawing or description so that it can be created further. 15-For Education To educate someone, we need to communicate the ideas in the syllabus or the study material to the student. Education involves a collection of all kinds of communication i.e., audio, video, books and lectures. However, herein the deal is not just to communicate, but to communicate effectively. Inefficient communication can lead to transfer of ambiguous knowledge.
16- To Understand the World
Unless we communicate with the world, we will never understand the way things function and how things are piled up and related to one another. People are just a fragment amongst these things. Did you know that other elements of the world also communicate to us, but in their own ways? We need to interact with the environment in order to understand life. People who do not communicate tend to get isolated, which thereby leads to many problems.
