mass media(大众传媒)

Mass mediaMass media are institutions of mass communication; they serve as the channels through which messages are passed from the source to the destination. From the founding of the United States to the present day, mass media have played an important role in nearly all the important events of the nation. Nowadays, new media has become a significant element in everyday life. The global network of the Internet connects people and information via computers. Mass media unquestionably influence every dimension of people’s lives.Mass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks,mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries.Mass media includes Internet media (like blogs, message boards, podcasts, and video sharing) because individuals now have a means to exposure that is comparable in scale to that previously restricted to a select group of mass media producers. The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda.The term public media is less used and is defined as "media whose mission is to serve or engage a public." Marshall McLuhan, one of the biggest critics in media's history, brought up the idea that "the medium is the message".Mass media are very important tools of communication, through which information is passed to even the farthest end of the world. They enable us to communicate with each other by helping us to overcome the barriers of time and apace.Kinds1、TVAfter World War II, people’s homeswere invaded by a powerful new force --television. The idea of seeing "live" showsin the living room was immediatelyattractive. The effects of this powerfulmedium are still being measured.Television has developed since World WarII into the most popular medium in the USand UK, one that has had great influenceon American way of life. Virtually everyAmerican household -- 98% in 1999 -- has at least one TV set. Seven in ten Englishmen in 1991 reported getting most of their news from TV. Three large privately-owned networks -- NBC, CBS and ABC -- claimed 90 percent of the TV market from the 1950s through the 1970s with free broadcasts.Cable TelevisionHowever, the rapid spread of pay cable TV in the 1980s broke the hegemony of the big three. By 1999, close to 70% of American households had subscribed to cable TV. Cable TV, carried by coaxial and fiber-optic cables, originated in 1948 to better serve individuals in mountainous or geographically remote areas who could not receive over-the-air TV stations. The genesis of cable as it is known today stems from development of the domestic communications satellite, approved by the Federal Communications Commission in January 1973.The new technology offered cable programmers a cost-effective method of national and international distribution. In December 1975, Home Box Office, an all-movie channel owned by Time, Inc., became the first programmer to distribute its signal via satellite. The next service to use the satellite was a local television station in Atlanta owned by Ted Turner. It became known as the first "superstation," bouncing its signal off a satellite to reach a nationwide audience. The same technology allowed Turner in 1980 to found the Cable News Network, CNN, the world's first 24-hour all-news channel. By early 1993, MTV, the leading American rock music TV network, had an audience of 46 million in the United States and 32 other countries. Cable television has also been successfully used to reach very defined audiences. Beginning in the late 1970s, a growing number of U.S. cable systems began "narrowcasting" or offering television programming with an entire channel tailored to a narrow section of the audience.Advancing digital technology and increasing wiring of U.S. cities with fiber-optic cable that permits massive transmission of digital signals are giving cable TV subscribers a host of new interactive services. The convergence of the computer with TV is permitting a host of new "interactive" services in which the viewer no longer watches passively, for example "Movies on demand" which allows a viewer to choose between several thousand videos is one interactive service. Another example is "shop-at-home" channels.Public TelevisionU.S. public television stations are independent and serve community needs. All public television organizations are linked nationally, however, through three national organizations: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), created by Congress in 1967 to channel federal government funding to stations and independent producers; the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), formed in 1969 and which today distributes programming and operates the satellite system linking all public TV stations; and the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), which helps member public TV stations with research and planning. In addition to these public TV stations, there area growing number of noncommercial stations run by Christian evangelistic ministries, which are, for the most part, supported by donations from viewers and member churches.2、MagazinesThe late 1800s saw the start of opinion journals still influential a century later, including the Atlantic Monthly, the Nation, and Harper's. The largest readerships were won, however, by magazines that catered to people's increasing leisure time and appetite for consumer goods, magazines such as Cosmopolitan, the Ladies Home Journal, and the Saturday Evening Post. Publishers were no longer just selling reading material; they were selling readers to advertisers. Because newspapers reached only local audiences, popular magazines attracted advertisers eager to reach a national audience for their products. By the early 1900s, magazines had become major marketing devices.At the same time, a new breed of newspaper and magazine writer was exposing social corruption. Called "muckrakers," these writers sparked public pressure for government and business reforms. Yet magazines did not truly develop as a powerful shaper of news and public opinion until the 1920s and 1930s, with the start of the news weeklies. Time was launched in 1923 by Henry Luce (1898-1967). Intended for people too busy to keep up with a daily newspaper, Time was the first magazine to organize news into separate departments such as national affairs, business and science. Newsweek, using much the same format, was started in 1933. Other prominent news weeklies are Business Week and U.S. News and World Report.Magazine publishers have increasingly tried to appeal to clearly-defined audiences. Computer technology has helped publishers to target special-interest audiences. As a result of this specialization, the number of periodicals published in the United States jumped from 6,960 in 1970 to close to 10,000 in 1999.3、RadioThe beginning of regularcommercially licensed sound broadcastingin the United States in 1920 ended theprint monopoly over the media andopened the doors to the more immediateand pervasive electronic media. By 1928,the United States had three national radionetworks - two owned by NBC (theNational Broadcasting Company), and oneby CBS (the Columbia BroadcastingSystem).Though mostly listened to for entertainment, radio's instant, on-the-spot reports of dramatic events drew huge audiences throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt recognized the potential of radio to reach the American public, and during his four terms (1933-1945), his radio "fireside chats" informed the nation on the progress of policies to counter the Depression and on developments during World War II. After World War II, television's visual images replaced the audio-only limitation of radio as the predominant entertainment and news vehicle. Radio adapted to the new situation by replacing entertainment programs with a format of music interspersed with news and features. In the 1950s, automobile manufacturers began offering car radios as standard accessories, and radio received a big boost as Americans tuned in their car radios as they drove to and from work.The expansion and dominance of FM radio, which has better sound quality but a more limited range than traditional AM, represented the major technical change in radio in the 1970s and 1980s. FM radio, aided by the invention of ever smaller portable radios and inexpensive "Walkman" headsets, dominates music programs, while AM has shifted to "talk" and news formats. Barely in existence 25 years ago, "talk radio," in which celebrities and experts from various fields answer listener "call-in" questions and offer their advice on various topics, has grown spectacularly in recent years. It has contributed to the comeback of AM radio. Both FM and AM radio have become increasingly specialized. Music formats, for instance, comprise a variety of specializations -- the top five in 1991 being "country and western," "adult contemporary," "top 40," "religious" and "oldies."In an era in which TV is clearly the glamour medium, the reach of radio is still awesome. Ninety-nine percent of American households in 1999 had at least one radio; the average is five per household. Every day, radio reaches 80 percent of the U.S. population at one time or another. Revenues more than doubled from $8.4 billion in 1990 to more than $17 billion in 1999.In 1998, the number of U.S. commercial radio stations had grown to 4,793 AM stations and 5,662FM stations. In addition, there are 1,460 public radio stations in the United States. Most of these stations are run by universities and public authorities for educational purposes and are financed by public and/or private funds, subscriptions and some underwriting. NPR (National Public Radio) was incorporated in February 1970 under the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act. NPR was created to provide leadership in national newsgathering and production and to act as a permanent nationwide interconnection of noncommercial stations.4、NewspaperThe first U.S. newspaper, PublickOccurrences: Both Foreign andDomestick, first published on September25, 1690 lasted only one day before itwas suppressed by British colonialauthorities. Other newspapers quicklysprang up, however, and by 1730, thecolonial press had gained sufficientstature to seriously challenge Britishgovernors. Historians consider the birthof America's free-press tradition to havebegun with the 1734 trial of John PeterZenger for seditious libel. After theRevolutionary War (1775-1783), thisconcept found a home in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press..." These 14 words made it possible for a free press to develop over the next two centuries as one of America's strongest watchdogs over government actions and protectors of individual rights. In fact, one of America's greatest political journalists was one of its first, Thomas Paine. Paine's stirring writings urging independence made him the most persuasive "media" figure of the American Revolution against Britain in 1776.By the early 1800s, the United States had entered a period of swift technological progress that marked the real beginning of the "modern media." The inventions of the steamship, the railroad and telegraph brought communications out of the age of windpower and horses. The high-speed printing press was developed, driving down the cost of printing. Expansion of the educational system taught more Americans to read. Publishers realized that a profitable future belonged to cheap newspapers with large readerships and increased advertising. The press went from a small upper class readership to mass readership in just a few years. It was a time that shaped a breed of editors who set the standard for generations of Americanjournalists. Many of these men were hard-headed reformers who openly sided with the common men, opposed slavery and backed expansion of the frontier. They combined idealism with national pride, and their papers became the means by which great masses of new immigrants were taught the American way of life.By the 1820s, about 25 dailies and more than 400 weeklies were being published in the United States. Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune in 1841, and it quickly became the most influential newspaper in America. Other important dailies, such as the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, and Chicago Tribune were founded in the 1850s. Two media giants, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, began building their newspaper empires after the Civil War (1861-1865). Their fierce competition produced "yellow journalism" -- sensational and often inaccurate reporting aimed at attracting readers. "Chain" newspapers under the same ownership became a dominant feature in the early 20th century. In addition to the front-running Hearst chain, the Scripps-Howard and Cowles chains grew following World War I. That trend accelerated after World War II, and in 1990, a total of 135 groups owned 1,228 daily newspapers, accounting for about 75 percent of all U.S. dailies. In 1971, there had been 66 cities with two or more dailies owned by separate companies, while in 1995 there were only 36.In spite of the serious competition from television after World War II, more than two-thirds of American adults read a daily newspaper on an average weekday. The top five daily newspapers by circulation are: the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. The number of dailies dropped from 1,763 in 1946 to 1,438 in 1999. However, the number of Sunday papers rose from 497 in 1946 to 905 in 1999, bringing total daily and Sunday papers to 2,388. This figure represents the highest number of newspapers with the highest total circulation -- 115 million -- for any country in the world.Today, American newspapers face competition not only from network TV, but from a whole spectrum of targeted and specialized media, including personalized web services, local cable programming, interactive television, special-interest publications, catalogs and other direct-mail initiatives. Newspapers are relying on new technology to meet the challenge. Through the Internet, electronic newspapers can be transmitted to hand-held computers and printed using personal computers.FunctionMass media function in various ways. Below are listed the most commonly seen.First, mass media keep us well informed of the happenings of the world which would otherwise remain unknown.Second, mass media persuade us mostly through advertisements. As we can see, newspapers, magazines and TV are filled with all kinds of colourful, persuasive advertisements which tempt us to buy their products.Third, mass media give us entertainment. Television and radio broadcasting provide us with a big variety of programmes every day. Films, books, magazines, etc. give us daily amusement.In a word, mass media will be all the more important in the future and their fufietions will enormously expand. Limited by apace, only a few examples are mentioned here.。