Mass Media: Influence and Functions in the Information Age

Posted on Nov 11, 2024 in Arts and Humanities

Mass Media (MCM)

The Information Age

Our era is defined as the “Information Age,” not only because information has become a commodity, but also because of the diverse media disseminating it.

Functions of Mass Media

Mass media serve several key functions:

  • Reporting: Presenting facts as they occur.
  • Educating: Shaping cultural understanding.
  • Shaping Opinion: Fostering shared perspectives.
  • Entertaining: Providing amusement and enjoyment.

Mass media connect people, offering multiple viewpoints on the same event through diverse platforms. These platforms can be categorized as collective/simultaneous (television, radio) and multiple/serial (newspapers).

Key Forms of Mass Media

Press

The press primarily informs readers quickly and accurately about global, national, or regional events. It can also entertain and shape reader opinion.

Informational Text in Newspapers

Newspaper informational text is characterized by clarity, conciseness, and objectivity. Key examples include:

  1. News: Direct, objective information about a fact, structured around six basic questions:
  • What? (Facts)
  • Who? (Actors)
  • When? (Time)
  • Where? (Place)
  • Why? (Cause)
  • How? (Description)

News articles follow a specific structure:

  • Caption: Generates reader interest with essential information.
  • Headline: The title of the story.
  • Summary: Key takeaways.
  • Lead: The first paragraph, answering the first five questions (what, who, when, where, why).
  • Body: Develops the news from most to least relevant, answering “How?”
  1. Feature: Presents a theme with direct and documentary information (interviews, analysis, etc.), often complemented by photographs. A variant, the Interpretive Report, incorporates interpretation and value judgments.
  2. Interview: Reproduces a dialogue between a journalist and a person providing information on a specific subject or event. Can be part of a report.
Opinion Text in Newspapers
  1. Editorial: Expresses the media outlet’s opinion on a public interest matter.
  2. Column: A signed text expressing an individual’s viewpoint.
  3. Letter to the Editor: A section for readers to express opinions or complaints.
Hybrid Genre
  • Chronicle: A narrative incorporating elements of assessment, offering the journalist greater freedom of expression. Covers current events, often temporary or specific. Intermediate length between news and features. Dominated by reporting, with implicit viewpoints.

Other Media

  • Radio: Delivers free oral information via radio waves, informing, entertaining, and guiding. Characterized by concise, clear, and dynamic language. Repetition and sound elements maintain listener attention.
  • Television: A primary source of information, entertainment, and advertising. Combines visual (images), auditory (verbal and nonverbal), and textual (information) elements for a striking message.
  • Internet: Provides instant access to global information.
  • Cinema: A sequence of images creating the illusion of movement, considered the art of moving images. Combines verbal and nonverbal language, music, and sound effects. Also an artistic medium, spectacle, and industry.
Cinematic Techniques
  • Frame: The space selected by the camera, including what’s inside and outside the frame. Different levels include:
    • Close-up: Character’s face and shoulders.
    • Extreme close-up: Focus on a detail (eye, lips, hand).
    • Medium close-up/American shot: Characters to the knees.
    • Medium shot: Characters cut at the waist or chest.
    • Full shot: Entire body, from head to feet.
    • Long shot/Wide shot: Emphasizes the environment; figures appear small.
  • Advertising and Propaganda:
Advertising
  • Persuades the receiver, primarily for economic purposes (promoting product consumption).
  • Key factors in advertising production:
    • Slogan: A short, attractive phrase.
    • Logo: Characteristic symbol of a brand.
    • Target Audience: The intended recipients of the campaign.
    • Spot: Short film or message.
  • Common advertising resources:
    • Creative language use
    • Use of icons
    • Varied registers
    • Connotative language
    • Brevity
    • Interrogative and exclamatory sentences
    • Appeals to emotions and sensations
Propaganda
  • Promotes adherence to a specific ideology.
  • Comics: Storytelling through sequential illustrations.
Comic Elements
  • Panel: Basic unit of meaning, containing drawings and text.
  • Verbal Language:
    • Speech balloons: Contain dialogue.
    • Captions: Provide additional information.
  • Sound:
    • Onomatopoeia: Representation of sounds through words.
  • Iconic Language:
    • Kinetic figures: Lines expressing movement.
    • Character gestures
    • Visual metaphors: Indicate feelings (e.g., lightbulb = idea).