Mcquail_mass comm_7e_aw.indd 7 11/02/2020 12:10 00_MCQUAIL_7E_FM.indd 1 19/03/2020 10:19:18 AM CONTENTS Preface vii How to Use this Book xi PART 1 PRELIMINARIES 1 1 Introduction to the Book 3 2 The Rise, Decline and Return of Mass Media 29 PART 2 THEORIES 65 3 Concepts and Models for Mass Communication 67 4 Theories of Media and Society 103 5 Media, Mass Communication and Culture 143 6 New Media Theory 169 PART 3 STRUCTURES 199 7 Media Structure and Performance: Principles and Accountability 201 8 Media Economics and Governance 233 9 Global Mass Communication 269 PART 4 ORGANIZATIONS 301 10 The Media Organization: Structures and Influences 303 11 The Production of Media Culture 337 PART 5 CONTENT 369 12 Media Content: Issues, Concepts and Methods of Analysis 371 13 Media Genres, Formats and Texts 403 PART 6 AUDIENCES 431 14 Audience Theory and Research Traditions 433 15 Audience Formation and Experience 463 00_MCQUAIL_7E_FM.indd 5 19/03/2020 3:05:26 PM PART 7 EFFECTS 501 16 Processes and Models of Media Effects 503 17 A Canon of Media Effects 531 PART 8 EPILOGUE 571 18 The Future 573 Glossary 587 References 615 Author Index 657 Subject Index 663 vi CONTENTS 00_MCQUAIL_7E_FM.indd 6 19/03/2020 10:19:18 AM HOW TO USE THIS BOOK The text serves two purposes and can therefore be best used on two levels. First, it is a narrative – a ‘grand narrative’ even – of the field of media and mass communication theory and research: where it comes from, what traditions of thinking and studying have shaped it, how we come to observe and interpret media and the mass communication process today. Secondly, it can be used by readers as a resource for learning about a particular topic. There are several ways this can be approached. The table of contents provides an initial orientation, or map, to the book, and each chapter begins with a list of the main headings to help you orient yourself. The subject index at the end of the book includes all key words and topics and can also be used for an initial search. Each chapter contains boxes to help you explore the background to, relevance of and research on the themes and theories discussed in the book. At the end of every chapter you will find a curated list of further readings, intended to provide a guide to follow-up study of the particular issues outlined in that particular chapter. The extensive Reference list at the end of the book can be seen as your initial library, from where you can chart your own path through the literature. 00_MCQUAIL_7E_FM.indd 11 19/03/2020 10:19:18 AM PART 1 PRELIMINARIES 1. Introduction to the Book 3 2. The Rise, Decline and Return of Mass Media 29 01_MCQUAIL_7E_CH_01.indd 1 19/03/2020 10:20:11 AM 01_MCQUAIL_7E_CH_01.indd 2 19/03/2020 10:20:11 AM 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK 01_MCQUAIL_7E_CH_01.indd 3 19/03/2020 10:20:11 AM OUR OBJECT OF STUDY 5 THEMES AND ISSUES IN MEDIA AND MASS COMMUNICATION 8 MANNER OF TREATMENT 11 LIMITATIONS OF COVERAGE AND PERSPECTIVE 12 DIFFERENT KINDS OF THEORY 16 THE STUDY OF MEDIA AND MASS COMMUNICATION 18 TRADITIONS OF ANALYSIS: STRUCTURAL, BEHAVIOURAL AND CULTURAL 23 THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK 24 CONCLUSION 28 01_MCQUAIL_7E_CH_01.indd 4 19/03/2020 10:20:11 AM OUR OBJECT OF STUDY At the heart of media and mass communication in society lies the realization that there is nothing ‘outside’ media anymore. In some way, all the experiences in everyday life are connected to media. Some of this refers to the professionally produced media at our dis- posal: from the smartphone to the television, from newspapers and books to motion pic- tures, digital games and recorded music. Yet much of the media that play such a profound role in people’s daily lives consist of data, content and experiences that are produced by us – via logins and uploads to social media and platforms, voluntary (and involuntary) participation in all kinds of digital surveillance mechanisms, and by making our own media. Although ‘mass’ audiences for the most part may be a thing of the past, the potentials of ‘mass’ media and ‘mass’ communication are still part of almost all our engagements with media. Sonia Livingstone (2011: 1472) considers that the significance of media and mass com- munication theory lies in the fact that ‘everything is mediated—from childhood to war, politics to sex, science to religion—and more so than ever before […] Nothing remains unmediated’. Her analysis of the human condition in the context of a media environment that is both ubiquitous and pervasive underscores our decision to expand the coverage in this book from mass communication theory to include the media more explicitly than before. As Livingstone suggests, (mass) communication has always been constitutive of society, fundamental to all human action. However, what is particular about the last few decades is how a whole range of rapidly expanding media technologies have amplified and accelerated human communication on an unprecedented scale. In the process of this ‘mediation of everything’ (Livingstone, 2009), media have permeated not only the world but also, and perhaps more importantly, the ways in which we (as humans) have access to, act in, and make sense of that world. The study of media and mass communication can therefore be seen as contributing to understanding their role in ‘the ordering of social life more generally’ (Couldry, 2004: 128). Media and mass communication theory is crucial to consider, given the fundamental challenges of our time regarding big data, the role of algorithms and the dissolution of individuals into endless databanks, samples, targets and markets, the ‘Internet of things’ and a renewed scholarly as well as public interest in the political economy of digital culture, and the many efforts in the field (especially since the 2000s) to rethink and re-theorize the profound role media and mass communication play in everyday life, in politics, and in the construction of reality itself (Couldry and Hepp, 2016). The (continued and growing) significance of media and mass communication theory and research in part follows from its status as a ‘practical discipline’ (Craig, 2018), in that the field primarily concerns itself with what people and social institutions actually do with media – and is generally committed to answering societal communication problems with research of real-world relevance. Additionally, Jensen (2019: 144) considers the role media and communication INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK 5 01_MCQUAIL_7E_CH_01.indd 5 19/03/2020 10:20:11 AM research play as ‘a strategically important (secondary) institution-to-think-with about the performance of media as (primary) institutions-to-think-with’. This is a ‘double hermeneutics’ typical of the field – as media scholars interpret a reality (such as a media text, a production process or audience behaviour) that has already been interpreted by the senders and receivers of media. In the process, both theory and practice – scholarly analysis and lived reality – (can) change. The study of media and mass communication follows a few fundamental assumptions (paraphrasing Lang, 2013): • First, media and mass communication are pervasive and ubiquitous. • Secondly, media and mass communication act upon (and are acted upon by) people and their social environments. • Thirdly, media and mass communication change both the environment and the person. • Fourthly, the primary goals and questions of media and mass communication research- ers are to demonstrate the various elements (production – content – reception), roles, influences and effects of media and mass communication, and, if possible, explain how they come about. The foundational assumptions of the disciplined study of media and mass communication are grounded in a set of basic definitions. Mass communication, first and foremost, refers to messages transmitted to a large audience via one or more media. Media are the (tech- nological and formally organized) means of transmission of such messages. Media theory considers how these messages mean different things to different people as determined by the different channels used to communicate them. Given the proliferation of media in people’s everyday lives, it becomes crucial not only to understand and explain how medi- ated (mass) communication works, but also to appreciate the role specific media play in bringing about certain meanings and impact. The term ‘mass communication’ was coined, along with that of ‘mass media’, early in the twentieth century to describe what was then a new social phenomenon and a key feature of the emerging modern world that was being built on the foundations of indus- trialism and democracy. To some extent similar to the early twenty-first century, this was an age of mass migration into cities and across frontiers and also of struggle between forces of change and repression and of conflict. Mass media were born into the context and conflicts of this age of transition and have continued to be deeply implicated in the trends and changes of society and culture, as experienced at the personal level as well as that of society. The early mass media (newspapers, magazines, phonogram, cinema and radio) devel- oped rapidly to reach formats that are still largely recognizable today, with changes mainly of scale and diversification as well as the addition of television and the Internet in the MCQUAIL’S MEDIA AND MASS COMMUNICATION THEORY 6 PRELIMINARIES 01_MCQUAIL_7E_CH_01.indd 6 19/03/2020 10:20:11 AM twentieth century. What were regarded as the key features of mass communication a cen- tury ago are still foremost in our minds today: their capacity to reach large swaths of the population rapidly; the universal fascination they hold; their stimulation of hopes and fears in equal measure; the presumed relation to sources of power in society; the assump- tion of great impact and influence.