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Introduction:
In our contemporary visual
society, every great communicator must apprehend and apply the use of media. For the effective communicator, the use of media may indicate a large television audience or a single Web-site visitor.
Each makes use of an intermediated (media) communication force.
Symbols, images, and channels intermediate communication, on both individual and mass levels. The ability to craft effective
messages and convey them via an intermediary are crucial communication skills.
Lesson 6 explores the use of intermediary forces to create and deliver communication messages.
Reading Assignment: Please read, in your course
text, the chapters entitled "Using Media to Communicate Interpersonally" and "Understanding Mass Communication" from DeFleur et al's "Fundamentals of Human Communication" Third Edition
Study Questions: (to accompany reading assignment): Review these questions and
keep them at hand as you complete this lesson's readings. These questions will help you internalize the reading materials and apply the concepts.
Writing Assignment:
Position Paper: The Influence of Mass-personalized Media (100% of writing assignment value)
Your have been asked to contribute a
position paper to an upcoming conference on societal development and change. Your topic area is "Media and Information Technology." Specifically, you have been asked to comment on the advent of
"personalized mass media" and its influence on the lives of individuals and societies.
In general, "personalized mass media" can be considered any combination of media and information resources that can be tailored to
the consumer's unique tastes. (That is, the consumer can create a significant information or entertainment experience without changing media.) For this paper, please consider the following to be
examples of "personalized mass media:
- The Internet, including Web, email, blogs, forums, and chat
- Satellite radio
- Satellite television
- Premium cable television
- Wireless and mobile computing and telephony
Your assignment is to comment on the impact of such media resources. Please do so in the context of this Lesson's readings. Be sure
to comment on the extent to which personalized mass media involves personal communication (ie, the first reading's topic) and has the characteristics of mass media (ie, the second reading's topic).
Pay especially close attention to the potential long-term imapct of personalized mass media as it relates to the issues discussed in
"Understanding Mass Media" and summarized in the Chapter Review on page 402.
Practice: Groups such as the Media Research Center and the Center for Media and
Democracy concern themselves deeply with media issues, often from divergent social perspectives. Their insights, and those of groups like them, will provide helpful background for completing this Lesson's assignment.
Final Exam: Once you have completed the reading
and writing assignments, please arrange to take the final exam in a proctored setting. The final exam is this course's last component.
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