Social Media Means
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What are the 4 major functions of mass communication?

Mass media has four functions: surveillance, correlation, cultural transmission, and entertainment.

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Mass Media Purpose

The purpose of mass media is to offer quick exchange and transmission of information to a large group of people. Without the media, it would be very difficult for a person to try to get information from another person, especially if they are physically far apart. This would be similar to the process of getting a physical object or package delivered, which could take weeks or even months, and easily get lost or damaged. With mass media, information can be printed, reprinted, produced, and reproduced efficiently and shared quickly through a daily paper or on air through radio or television.

Newspapers could be mass produced with the invention of the printing press.

Functions of Mass Media

Mass media allows people to feel connected to what is happening locally, nationally, and even internationally. Mass media can give out emergency information such as a natural disaster. Mass media can also provide music and stories to add enjoyment to people's lives. As technology improves, these connections become faster and more plentiful. The four functions of mass media are:

Surveillance

Correlation

Cultural transmission

Entertainment

Surveillance

American political scientist Harold Lasswell (1902-1978) theorized the first three reasons why mass media existed. The first function of surveillance includes the actions of surveying, watching, observing, scrutinizing, collecting evidence, and reviewing. The nightly news is an example of surveillance, as camera crews and reporters survey areas and collect information for news stories that are considered important for an audience to watch. Although the surveillance component of Lasswell's functions of mass communication has changed over the years, receiving accurate news is just as important today, especially regarding emergency or natural disaster reports that can help save lives. Although the word surveillance has negative connotations because of privacy issues, Lasswell's surveillance of the environment component is proof of the importance of mass communication to help people stay informed and safe.

Surveillance allows the audience to see places that they cannot go.

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Correlation

Correlation means the connection, relation, or association of two or more ideas or perspectives. The role of correlation, as part of Lasswell's functions of mass communication, is how information is collected, told by the media, and interpreted by the viewer. This means a viewer needs critical thinking skills for the information they are exposed to; a viewer needs to be able to rationally judge how close to the truth the information they are seeing is. Traditional media is supposed to use professional journalists who interview reliable sources and experts in the fields they are writing and talking about to try to get to the truth of information. In the media today, anyone can post information and take audio and video footage to send out to the world on the Internet. Perhaps more than ever, critical thinking skills are needed when a person is getting their news and information from a non-traditional news outlet, such as an online forum that anyone can join and which may not be monitored.

Cultural Transmission

The role of cultural transmission, as the third of Lasswell's functions of mass communication, refers to cultural elements such as social values, lifestyles, and cultural norms. This includes how people look and act, including their cultural fashion, foods, language, and mannerisms. The cultural information that people see is often what influences the culture to be reinforced, spread, or copied. The effects of the transmission of culture are frequently seen on social media today. Social media is a major influence on cultural transmission because of its speed at connecting people, as well as the fact that any individual can be a transmitter, not only a receiver, of cultural information.

Magazines are a transmitter of cultural information through their articles and images.

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