Communication and Information Management Assignment

Communication and Information Management Assignment

1. Mass Media Trends
Mass media consists of a large range of diversified media channels that reach a large audience through mass communication. There are seven trends that characterize modern mass media; audience segmentation, convergence, increased audience control, multiple platforms, user-generated content, mobile media, and social media (J.R. Dominick, 2011). I think mobile media has the greatest effect on society because these days people cannot live without their phones. Literally anything and everything one could imagine can be done from a smart phone and because access is so instant, transferable, and continuous, it is changing the way we live, work, and play. Before the outbreak of smart phones, audiences had to physically go to their media source, giving their time and attention in order to receive its messages. Today, people carry their media source everywhere they go and are notified by an alert sound or vibration when something that they have deemed important is available to them.

2. Classifying Mass Communications
There are two approaches to classifying mass communications. "The functional approach emphasizes the way that audiences use mass communication and the benefits people receive from media consumption" (J.R. Dominick, 2011). This approach seeks to analyze why people consume the media they do, how they feel about it; positive or negative, and how it can be improved upon. "The critical/cultural approach, examines the underlying power relationships in media exposure and stresses the many meanings and interpretations that audience members find in media content" (J.R. Dominick, 2011). This approach analyzes the meanings behind the media story and determines how that affects or encourages its audience negatively or positively. It makes