• comes from the Latin word communis and refers to the sharing of commoness.
• the process of sharing information, ideas, culture, feeling
• ongoing process
• involves sharing achievement and seeking understanding

• the process through which messages reach an audience

• 4 Traits

1. Large Numbers
2. Scattered Geographics
3. Anonymous Nature
4. Wide demographics

1. Source
2. Message
3. Channel
4. Receiver

• also involves Gatekeepers, Regulators and the Gartekeeper/regulator hybrid

feedback from an audience is

• desired but not essential
• immediate and delayed
• verbal and nonverbal

• channel/mechanical noise
• semantic noise (meanings)
• personal barriers
• ideological/political barriers
• language differences (jargon)
• socio-cultural barriers
• environmental conditions
• no environmental overlap (shared experience)
• empty message

• no two events or people are the same
• etc. concept
• subjective adjectives tell about ourselves and not about what we are discussing
• words do not have meanings, the meanings are in our minds

1. General audience- nonCable TV, newspapers, demassification
2. Special Audience- "individualized"

• Leisure time
• state of health
• political orientation
• finances
• curiousity
• loneliness

a cycle that describes the natural law of global media development

• 3 Stages

1. Elitist Stage- media are consumed by opinion leaders
2. Popular Stage- media are consumed by a nations population
3. Specialized Stage- media are consumed by fragmented pieces of the population

1. Authoritarian theory
2. Libertarian theory
3. Social responsibility theory
4. Communist theory

• oldest form of gevernment and media control
• media exist to serve the state, not the people
• truth is not for the masses
• government censorship
• media are privately owned but must answer the state

• started in the 17th C
• people are most important in society
• media exist to serve the people and truth is no longer the property of the state
• people have the unalienable right to search for truth
• press serves as a check on the government
• John Milton's free marketplace of idea
• media can be an opportunity to make profits

• 20th C take on libertarianism
• shift from media freedom to media responsibility
• addresses the pitfalls of the libertarian theory
• Hutchin's commision of 1947 states that freedom comes with responsibility, media must be responsible to society
• freedom is not a natural right, but a conditional right

1. owners have spread their own opinions at the expense of the oppsoing view
2. media have let advertisers control content and policies
3. entertainment often lacks substance
4. media have invaded the privacy of people without just cause
5. media are controlled by one socio-economic class thus the free market of ideas is endangered

• provide truthful, full account of a day's happenings
• media should carry views contrary to its own
• media should accurately portray social groups

• an extension of the Authoritarian theory
• media are not just controlled by the government but are literally a part of the government
• media take a serious role in promoting social and political programs
• exists today in China, Vietnam, Cuba, and N. Korea
• media are state owned with the purpose of continuing the socialist system by serving the party

• predominantly by word of mouth
• travelers, strolling bands, ships, town criers, letters and gov. notices
• writted communication was slow
• but as Renaissance expanded so did the need for news about government activities

1. colonial press
2. revolutionary war press
3. political party press
4. penny paper press
5. yellow journalism
6. jazz journalism
7. age of mergers and consolidation

Ben Franklin

• most sucessful editor/publisher in the colonies
• considered the father of American journalism
• promoted press freddom and balanced news
• responsible for the first trademark, political cartoon, and printed money
• Poor Richard's Almanac

The South Carolina Gazette

• started by Ben Franklin and Thomas Whitmarsh in 1732
• Later published by Lewis Timothy and his wife Elizabeth
• Elizabeth became the first woman to publish

• small
• ads occupied little space
• circulation 200-6000
• trained apprentices
• letters/foreign papers were sources for news

• publisher of the New York Weekly Journal
• behind the 1st landmark legal case for free press in the USA
• Andrew Hamilton, his lawyer, defended him saying it was his right to publish a truthful complaint against England
• outcome resulted in the freedom of papers to criticize public officials based on truth

• marked the beginning of advocacy journalism
• editors had to choose which side they supported
• 70 papers; 15 Tory the rest Patriot
• Isaiah Thomas was the most famous printer during the period

• followed the Rev. War and lasted into the 1820's
• papers had replaced pamphlets and used their power to politically influence people
• press played a dominant role in the split between federalists and republicans
• rise of the daily newspaper (such as the Penn. Evening Post)

• went into effect after the Federalists took control of Congress and the Presidency
• stated that one could not publishor say anything malicious against the federal government
• voters and states rebelled against the law
• Jefferson was voted in in 1800 and a libertarian theory took over with the consent of the people
• Changes in media included larger papers, competition between dailies, iron presses

• followed the Party Press (1830's)
• catered to the masses by lowering the costs of daily newspapers
• sensation was added in the form of human interest stories-- crime,sex,emotion

The New York Sun

• published by Benjamin Day
• funded almost primarily on advertising
• emphasized local news with a specialized staff
• newsboys sold papers on the streets
• included the ridiculous Moon Hoax in 1835

• papers tried to educate blacks and improve relations with whites
• few papers made profit because 90% of blacks were still slaves
• laws in the south made it illegal for blacksto read/write
• most northern blacks were too poor to buy a paper
• most famous pre-Civil War paper was the North Star by Frederick Douglas

• slave in the south who was secretly taught to read and write
• escaped to the north in 1838 and began to speak out against slavery
• published the North Star in NY after a speaking tour inEurope
• 3,000 circulation though many Rochester locals were hostile

• stories often gave away too much military information and distrubed northern generals
• censorship became a serious problem
• Copperhead Papers- northern papers that sided with the south
• emergence of theAssociated Press and the Confederate Press Association
• rumors, propoganda
• first photography
• beginning of Sunday Papers and bylines

• High time for sensationalism
• lots of photographs, many faked
• overstress on promotion and circulation
• scare headlines
• the term "yellow journalism" comes from the comic strip, "The Kid"
• dominated by the competition between Pulitzer and Hearst
• cause of the Spanish American War and the sinking of the Maine

• readers revolted after the turn of the century
• the NY Times and the Christian Science Monitor emerged as credible papers

• serious censorship problems after US entered the war
• espionage act of 1917
• trading with the enemy act of 1917
• sedition act of 1918 (similar to the sedition act of 1798)
• Government established a Committee on Public Information
• many papers folded due to high costs

• censorship appeared in Dec. 1941 and the media went along with it
• Black press wrote out against racial discrimiation in the military and was harrassed by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI

1. Edward R. Murrow
2. Ernie Pyle

• censorship under Douglas MacArthur was not a problem until the U.N. Retreat
• Marguerite Higgins fought for the right to report from the front lines

• contrary to popular opinion, it was not lost by the press but by a flawed strategy and mounting casualties.
• 1st 20th C War without censorship
• Media failed to make the most of the legitimate news that existed

• emerged from Yellow Journalism with responsible, objective newspapers
• sensationalism still existed in the form of tabloids
• Joseph Medill Patterson started the NY Illustrated Daily News and it becomes the nations most popular paper.

• newspapers started to decline after the 1930's
• introduction of radio took money from the papers
• people tried to prevent the radio from airing news, but could not
• newspapers began buying radio stations, beginning the trend of cross ownership of media properties