What is (mass) communication?

To me, communication means a being transferring knowledge to another, whether that be a dog barking to another dog or my mom picking up a phone and calling me. Due to the technologies of today, communication is easier than ever before and has therefore changed society. A person in Japan can easily call someone in New York and a person in Peru could easily video chat someone in Paris. . Media, such as the internet or television has now incorporated communication to be faster and more efficient than ever before. These technologies have changed even the simple theories of communication that use to exist.
The Shannon-Weaver model of communication that is described by Chandler stated that information travels through a simple five part process. This model, although simple, is more complex than the average person thinks about when wondering about communication. However, now that technology has improved, this model doesn’t seem as effective because communication has turned into mass communication. This means that rather than going through the five step process, information is sent in different patterns, with more noise sources (which could be as simple as a pop-up ad on the internet) and channels.
But communication has become something more than this. With the abilities of current technology, mass communication has come into play in a way never seen before. This type of communication is no longer just a way for people to talk, but it affects many aspects of today’s society, whether it is political, economical, or social. Hardt discusses the differences between communication and mass communication to be related to democracy. “Mass communication and the world of the media are by tradition tied in Western societies to the rhetoric of democracy…the guarantees of freedom of speech and press relate the functioning of democracy to the performance of (mass) communication” (Hardt 4). Therefore, mass communication has developed because democracy has developed.

Chandler, D. (1994). The Transmission Model of Communication. Retrieved January 4, 2011, from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/trans.html

Hardt, H. (2004). Myths for the Masses: An Essay on Mass Communication. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.