The New Mass Media

Credit: Pixabay

In mass media, there is a distance between those who are sending and receiving messages in that the communication is impersonal and lacks immediacy (Livesay, 2011). Mass media has generally been a one-way communication technology in which information flows to consumers who cannot provide producers with immediate feedback (Sullivan, 2009). While watching a presidential debate or even a movie, it doesn't matter if I yell at the screen because I cannot directly affect what’s unfolding on the screen. However, the Internet and the proliferation of social media has created a means for consumers to respond and engage in a two-way dialogue. Solis and Breakenridge (2009) writes, “The Web has changed everything. And the Social Web is empowering a new class of authoritative voices that we cannot ignore” (p.1). Consumers are able to create, publish and share information online and wield a power of influence because of this technological advancement.

The advent of social media has changed the one-way model. A message can be disseminated across large populations and those people can have an impact on what happens. Livesay (2011) proposes that we redefine mass media into two categories:

• Old (or traditional) mass media, such as television, books and magazines, that involve ‘one-to many’ communication, based on a one-way process of producers creating information that is transmitted to large numbers of consumers, and:
•  New mass media, such as peer-to-peer networks, involving ‘many-to-many’ communication based on two-way communication with participants as both producers and consumers of information. ‘New’ forms of mass media can involve two-way communication within a mass audience who are both producers and consumers. (p.3).

In the last week alone, we witnessed the influence the public has because of new mass media. Starbucks decided to stop writing “RaceTogether” on coffee cups, an effort to start a conversation about race within its more than 20,000 stores (Contrera, 2015). Criticism ranged from Starbucks’ role in gentrifying neighborhoods and the lack of diversity of company executives to the images used in marketing materials. Although Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said the purpose was the be a catalyst for a broad conversation about race in the United States and it was scheduled to conclude after a week, the reality is that the conversation revolved around Starbucks’ naiveté in trying to make baristas hold a productive discussion about deeply rooted social issues with customers waiting for their coffee.

Not sure what @Starbucks was thinking. I don't have time to explain 400 years of oppression to you & still make my train. #RaceTogether
— April (@ReignOfApril) March 17, 2015

The new mass media allows for those who consume information to also be the producer, blurring the line on a hard-and-fast distinction with traditional forms of mass media (Livesay, 2011). An example would be the tweets and blog responses from critics that consumed content in learning about Starbucks’ campaign, while also producing content that was viewed by others; the most popular responses being used as a source of content in news reports. Our technological advancements of digital media has allowed communication to occur in a one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many format. 

References

Contrera, J. (2015, March 22). Starbucks will stop writing ‘Race Together’ on your cups now. Washington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/03/22/starbucks-will-stop-writing-race-together-on-your-cups-now/

Foster, K. (2015, March 22). No, Starbucks, I don’t want to #RaceTogether. I’m tired of talking. Retrieved from: http://www.forharriet.com/2015/03/no-starbucks-i-dont-want-to.html#axzz3VpGp5P9O 

Livesay, C. (2011). Defining the mass media. Retrieved from: http://www.sociology.org.uk/media_defined.pdf

Rothkopf, J. (2015, March 17). Starbucks’ cringe-inducing #RaceTogether campaign has caused a Twitter firestorm. Salon. Retrieved from: http://www.salon.com/2015/03/17/the_best_twitter_responses_to_starbucks_ill_considered_racetogether_campaign/

Solis, B., & Breakenridge, D. (2009). Putting the public back in public relations: How social media is reinventing the aging business of pr. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.

Tesfaye, S. (2015, March 26). Journalism professors issue letter critical of 60 Minutes Ebola coverage. Retrieved from: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/03/26/journalism-professors-issue-letter-critical-of/203060