Using examples of organisational communication, discuss what the four main approaches to media research explained by McQuail (2005, ch 3) offer to an understanding of company media communication. Communication is the exchange or transfer of information. It covers just about any interaction between people. It is described by McQuail as, “a process of increased commonality or sharing between participants, on the basis of sending and receiving ‘messages’. ” As communication is the sending and receiving of ‘messages’ there is a question as to whether a message sent that does not obtain any feedback can be counted as a form of communication.
The two basic forms of communication are vocal and non-vocal. We communicate in numerous different ways every day whether it be texting a friend, talking on the phone or face to face conversation, this type of communication is in general on a one to one basis or involves only a few people, in the twentieth century technology has advanced considerably leading to an increase in mass communication medium, in addition these advances make it relatively straight forward to communicate with a vast audience. Mass communication is the term given when different types of medium that are capable of engaging a large portion of the public are utilised.
These include but are not limited to television, radio, advertising, the internet, newspapers, and magazines. An early definition of mass communication by Janowitz (1968) describes this process as a fundamentally linear one, touching on the idea of the transmission theory of communication. “Mass media include all forms of information communicated to large groups of people, from a handmade sign to an international news network. There is no standard for how large the audience needs to be before communication becomes “mass” communication.
There are also no constraints on the type of information being presented. ” Jennifer Akin 2005 – Mass Media Defining mass media is by no means simple especially with the continuing outburst in technology especially digital media. McQuail describes how the mass media have changed from the early twentieth-century days of one-directional and undifferentiated flow to an undifferentiated mass. However in the twenty-first century, further emphases is being placed on targeting individuals and communicating to smaller, more select audiences using various forms of technology.
The internet for example is a type of medium where the individual is actively seeking out particular information and choosing to become part of an audience by selecting websites to view. Mass communication is particularly relevant when considering company media communication. Most organisations rely on communication just to survive. Discussing new ideas with clients, and handing out tasks to subordinates, these examples are only two of many and yet show just how crucial effective communication within an organisation is.
This communication within the organisation, where employees are communicating with one another is called ‘internal communication’. Companies use various means of internal communication; as well as the usual face to face, telephone, fax or mail; modern organisations may well use technology to communicate internally. Technology may possibly be used for e-mails or a linked internal communication system for instance the intranet which is an internet system designed solely for use by those working for the organisation.
These methods could be used for transmitting things such as direct orders to employees or maybe to inform the employees. Ineffective communication can lead to reduced output or performance levels and even a lack of motivation within the employees if they feel they are missing information vital to them. ‘External communication’ is the communication between an organisation and people outside of the organisation. External communication covers areas such as marketing, advertising and public relations, and is transmitted through a wide variety of medium such as television, internet, radio, newspaper ads etc.
Although with the internet playing such a large role in business today many companies design technological systems so that they can communicate with customers and other businesses through the internet in order to accomplish e-Commerce (customer) and e-Business (other businesses). How companies communicate with their audiences is very important to their ‘brand image’, social status, and sales. For these reasons organisations usually invest heavily in their communication efforts. McQuail suggests that exploration into media communication have suffered due to dominance in the field by one particular research approach.
A dominant paradigm emerged, fundamentally normative, and based mainly around a ‘linear transmission model of effects’, “The ‘dominant paradigm’ combines a view of powerful mass media in a mass society with the typical research practices of the emerging social sciences, especially social surveys, social-psychological experiments and statistical analysis. ” (McQuail, 2005) Although McQuail argues that three alternative communication research methods are also being more widely used now.
These are; a ‘Ritual model’, a ‘Publicity model’, and a ‘Reception model’. Each of the models have their own advantages and disadvantages, and when applied in an organisational scenario the right model has to be chosen in order to exploit the advantages of that model. As stated previously good organisational communication is crucial for a company to succeed, and by studying these four research approaches it should be possible to create a better understanding of organisational media communication and how to achieve the optimum communication skills required.
At the centre of the dominant paradigm lies the ‘Transmission Model’, “…communication as a process of transmission of a fixed quantity of information- the message as determined by the sender or source. ” (McQuail, 2005) This mechanistic approach to communications research is possibly the least easily identifiable in contemporary day media communications, due to the development of new technologies, for example the Internet which do not adhere to the idea of communication as being a one-directional flow of information.
As previously stated, communication essentially requires response and interaction. The Transmission model sees communication as a process of transmitting information and works around the concept of channels of communication. Westley and MacLean (1957) produced the earliest most complete model of mass communication, one that is in line with the dominant paradigm, “Their achievement was to recognize that mass communication involves the interpolation of a new communicator role between society and audience.
The sequence is thus not simply 1) Sender, 2) Message, 3) Channel, 4) Many potential receivers, but rather 1) Events and ‘voices’ in society, 2) Channel/Communicator role, 3) messages, 4) Receiver. ” (McQuail, 2005) The ‘sender’ referred to in the early version of mass communication is humanised to become the person sending the message, and similarly the ‘receiver’ is the individual receiving the message or the audience. The revised channel of communication takes into account the reality that the message to be transmitted rarely originates with the sender, but rather occurs and then is written about, or spoken about by the sender.
For example in an organisational context, a communicator role could be a spokesperson for the company, for example a member of their PR or marketing department, with the organisations message being transmitted through this spokesperson. The message is the information that is transmitted, and finally the receiver represents the person or audience that receives this message. The noticeable benefit of this model is its sheer simplicity in the way it breaks down the communication procedure into assessable stages. This is useful for both theorists and researchers, but is not really applicable to most types of human communication.
The linear and one-directional structure of the transmission model doesn’t allow for other flows of communication that would normally take place in everyday examples of communication, such as a conversation with a friend. With the emergence of new technologies, in particular the internet, it is difficult to see how such a model could be put into context. When using the internet, an individual is sending messages as well as receiving them, and often providing feedback on messages received. This represents a multi-directional communication flow, involving many channels of communication.
McQuail’s definition of the Transmission model as previously mentioned states that ‘the message is determined by the sender or source. ’ From a Marketing perspective this would be useful for advertising within a company, as the advertisers are sending out a message determined completely by the advertising team. The model is also useful in the context of general news media, whose primary job is to instruct and inform. Due to its lack of significance in today’s world, the Transmission model is now being challenged by three other main models of communication, the first of these being the ‘Expressive’ or ‘Ritual’ Model.
Carey made reference to this other view of a model of communication founded on shared understanding and emotions, and expressed that, “Communication is linked to such terms as sharing, participation, association, fellowship and the possession of a common faith… A ritual view is not directed towards the extension of messages in space, but the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs. ” (McQuail, 2005)
The ritual communication model is not only about the transmission of information, like the Transmission model, but it also focuses on the important satisfaction of the sender or receiver. McQuail describes how it plays a part in unifying and integrating society. It does this by calling upon culture and symbolism that the audience may recognise and understand, it can aid in building social relations and join together different groups within a society. A modern way to look at ritual communication is through the use of ‘Reality television’.
These programmes have become increasingly popular in recent years, with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of viewers taking part in the shows by ringing-in in order to try and influence the outcome. ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ highlights the success of reality television programming, and displays elements of ritual communication as the audience have a mutual understanding of what is meant by these types of programmes, and also have shared understanding of the entertainment value they provide.
This creates a sense of community and gives individuals within society a common interest. Other television programmes which involve audience participation include ‘X-Factor’, ‘Big Brother’, and ‘I’m a Celebrity – Get me out of here! ’, plus many more. All of these examples call upon culture and symbolism to create togetherness and build upon cultural values. As the Ritual model adapts with the emergence of new technologies it shows us that it is in fact highly relevant.
Through the use of the internet, many online communities have emerged, the ever-increasingly popular ‘Facebook’ is available in over 30 different languages and currently has more than 120 million active users worldwide allowing any of the users to communicate with each other anywhere in the world. Facebook was initially created for students at Harvard University as the founder created it while studying there, it soon became available for all University students and now it is available to anyone over the age of 13.
Facebook is still predominantly aimed at younger people; however the online community is now made up of people from all over society, from adults working in offices, to their children. The online community is that popular that it is now raising concerns of businesses over how much time is lost in a working day due to employees spending time socialising on these sites, “Workers who spend time on sites such as Facebook could be costing firms ? 130 million a day, a study has calculated.
According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting” time on social networking. ” (BBC news 24, 11/09/07) Online communities such as facebook and others, and the Reality Television shows, are bringing together individuals within the general public to form communities and social integration. There are also lots of sub-groups within the site meaning members can join smaller groups that are subject specific to their hobbies or interests which creates a feeling of togetherness.
When looking at these examples it is not hard to see the application of the Ritual model in today’s society, contrasting with the previously mentioned Transmission model. When looking at company media communication it is important to look at the use of symbolism within the model and the fact that it draws upon cultural values, “The message of ritual communication is usually latent and ambiguous, depending on associations and symbols that are not chosen by the participants but made available in the culture. ” (McQuail, 2005)
The Public Relations department within an organisation may use ritual communication to evoke emotion, or even simply recognition, within consumers. They can relate and communicate with an audience on a shared level of understanding using cultural values, symbols, myths and tradition. Although these principles of ritual communication can also be used to exploit potential customers in order to sell products. Organisations use symbolism in advertising to persuade the audience to relate to their product or service, and relate the product with something they may already be familiar with.
The ‘ASDA’ advert for example, shown on television, calls upon traditional family and cultural values of Christmas, with white snow outside and lots of presents inside. Eating a large Christmas dinner together around the dinning table, with the tag line ‘why pay more this Christmas’. This shows that ASDA are trying to send a message to its potential customers that you can afford to have a lavish Christmas this year if you shop at ASDA. The audience may then associate this symbol of family values and tradition with ASDA. When in truth shopping at ASDA guarantees no such thing, for example how can shopping there guarantee snow on Christmas day?
Another communication model, known as the ‘Publicity model’, is primarily concerned with gaining audience attention through the use of mass communication, “Often the primary aim of mass media is neither to transmit particular information nor to unite a public in some expression of culture, beliefs or values, but simply to catch and hold visual or aural attention. ” (McQuail, 2005) Contrasting with the previous two models referred to, the Publicity model is only concerned with the present; both the past and future are irrelevant as communication in display-attention mode only exists within the present. any advertisers believe that to catch and hold attention means to persuade or to sell, as it is believed in this context that attention leads to sales. The general public is bombarded with thousands of advertisements every day, on the television, on the radio, in magazines, on billboards, on posters, in newspapers and flyers through doors. Advertisers can reach the masses in their own homes by advertising on the internet through pop-ups and by sponsoring websites.
This can make the task of catching and holding an audience’s attention even harder as there is so much out there to choose from, people often ignore ‘pop-ups’ and they often annoy people, for this reason the media must stimulate interest, be it through catching the eye, or arousing emotion. As I said pop-ups can often annoy internet users which has lead to an increase in users using pop-up blockers and most internet security suites now usually have a pop-up blocker integrated into the software. This means advertising budgets spent on pop-ups could be wasted money, or at the very least it will not reach as large an audience as wanted.
The publicity model shows that there is the question of image and awareness. Meaning the use of ‘Celebrity’ is hugely important within the media and the use of celebrity endorsements in advertising is widespread. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is used to advertise for Sainsbury’s, as people seeing the ads may aspire to be like him. Many other celebs advertise for various other companies across all markets. The use of celebrities among an image conscious culture means, as McQuail describes, ‘the fact of being known is often more important than the content of what is known and is the only necessary condition for celebrity. Although celebrity endorsements can also have a negative affect if the celebrities don’t always use the product they get paid to use; “In the US, a lawsuit filed by a consumer group forced sports giant Nike to admit Tiger Woods does not use the Nike Tour Accuracy golf balls he is paid ? 694,000 a year to endorse. In his recent run of victories, he has used a modified ball, created especially for him. The lawsuit, brought by a non-profit organisation called Public Remedies Inc, claims Nike was misleading golfers into thinking they ere playing with the same ball as Woods, and demands the company returns its “ill-gotten gains” to the public. ” (http://www. independent. co. uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-naked-truth-about-celebrity-endorsements-710729. html) This article shows how Nike misled the customers buying what they thought was the same golf balls that Tiger Woods uses. In my opinion Nike should have known better than to let Tiger use different balls as to what he endorses and Tiger should not have accepted the endorsement deal if he was that dissatisfied with the golf balls that he would not actually play a round of golf with them.
McQuail touches on the theory that mass communication is more like spectatorship, as the media audience are often spectators of the media, rather than participants or information receivers. However if we look at the Publicity model in terms of the internet then the media audience are not just spectators they are actively engaging in the media and the information they are receiving.
A concept which is only related to this particular communication model is that attention-gaining is known as a zero-sum process, meaning that an individual’s attention can’t be in two places at the same time, “The time spent attending to one media display cannot be given to another, and available audience time is finite. ” (McQuail, 2005) I have already touched on the fact that the public are bombarded with advertisements every day and competition is fierce.
The idea of the zero-sum process is fundamental to the Publicity model as it can illustrate just how important it is for a media company to gain and maintain the attention of an audience. Essentially the model reflects the vital media goals of attracting audiences and gaining high ratings that reach widely across the masses for purposes of prestige or income. High ratings mean organisations can sell time on their television channels or space in their publications to advertisers and public relation companies easier and usually for a higher premium.
A further aspect of the publicity model in relation to this attention-seeking goal is that certain types of audiences utilize the mass media in order to escape from their everyday lives and spend some time away from reality. Watching the news in order to find out about what else is going on in the world, listening to the radio or reading a newspaper are all ways many individuals pass time ‘with the media’. The last of the alternative models of mass communication is the Reception model, “the view of mass communication from the position of many different receiver who do not perceive or understand the message ‘as sent’ or ‘as expressed’. McQuail, 2005) This model suggests that the significance of a message is interpreted in different ways by different individuals depending on the context of the message, their culture and background. It puts forward the idea that the apparent power of the media to express, shape, or even capture is partly illusionary as in the end the audience have the power to give meaning to messages rather than the media itself. Stuart Hall (1974/1980) created a critical theory for reception analysis, “emphasizing the stages of transformation through which any media message passes on the way from its origins to its reception and interpretation. (McQuail, 2005) An ‘encoder’ refers to anyone who inserts meaning into a message, and a ‘decoder’ is the public or audience who make their own interpretations of this meaning. Hall proposes that communicators may chose to encode messages for ideological and institutional purposes and so would manipulate the language and media used to do this. He also suggests that decoders can control the meaning of a message by applying an oppositional reading to it, which would be dependent upon their own experiences.
This means that one media message could have a large number of meanings depending on the decoder. This model is the most notably altered from the transmission model, as the transmission model works with the idea of a one-directional flow of communication from sender to receiver, the reception model assumes that once this initial message is sent it may be distorted, or interpreted completely differently by different individuals, and can even be reversed entirely, “While the general implication is that meaning as decoded does not ecessarily (or often) correspond with meaning as encoded (despite the mediation of conventional genres and shared language systems), the most significant point is that decoding can take a different course than intended. Receivers can read between the lines and even reverse the intended direction of the message. ” (McQuail, 2005) In an organisational situation, in terms of how an organisation would use media to communicate with an audience, this theory is the first to question whether the initial message communicated by way of an advert is received exactly how the advertisers intended it to be.
If the audience interprets media messages differently due to their background, their life experiences and their culture then it is imperative for the media to send out a clear message. There is also the problem of the audience’s growing media and cultural literacy, so an advertisement that may have been successful years ago can now be read and the ‘spin’ that is put into it by the encoder can be decoded easily by the audience. One issue that needs to be mentioned when looking at these four differing models is that they all emerged from theorists in the Twentieth Century.
At present we are faced with ever growing technology allowing easier and different forms of communication. With the growth of individuals using the internet, there is now a trend leaning towards less massification and decentralization of society, and additional emphasis on smaller, more select audiences and groups, “More than one quarter of all Americans use devices – either laptop computers with wireless modems or cell phones – that enable them to go online to surf the Web or check email” (PewInternet. rg) The recent fashion to have the internet on mobile phones and wireless is also meaning that the internet has become mobile and can be accessed from almost anywhere. For company media communication this means new ways of reaching existing customers and potential customers. It is rare to come across a large organisation without a website where customers can usually purchase their products from. It could even be said that with the widespread use of technology and the internet presently, it sends out a rather negative image if an organisation does not have their own website.
It may suggest that the company isn’t up to date or organised enough, because of this many organisations invest heavily in company media communications to ensure they are sending out the correct message to their customers. When looking at the four models of communication it is apparent that no one model is adequate to be used to define the way the media communicates with an audience. All have their pros and cons and can be used successfully in different sectors of media industries. The Transmission model, though very one-directional and linear in structure, is useful for advertisers and instructional media such as general news.
The Ritual model plays a part in unifying and creating a sense of togetherness and this is useful for company media communication as it can be a good selling point. By using cultural values and symbolism audiences will be able to relate with the product being advertised. The Publicity model is a favoured model of the media industries as it calls upon elements fundamental to advertising, such as being able to stand out and catch the eye of someone who is faced with thousands of advertisements daily. McQuail says of the Reception model, “.. s deployed as part of the resistance to media domination as well as shedding light on the underlying process. ” As mentioned, there is a rising literacy of media and it is key to remember that audiences interpret messages sent out to them by the media differently depending on aspects of their own lives. Bibliography McQuail, D. – McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 5th Edition (2005) BBC News [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://news. bbc. co. uk/> COMMUNICATION TYPES [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: < ttp://www. learnmanagement2. com/communication2. htm> Facebook [online], [accessed 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://www. facebook. com> Mass Media [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://www. beyondintractability. org/essay/mass_communication/> NEW AND OLD MAGAZINE ADS [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://www. magazine-ads. com> PEW/INTERNET [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://www. ewinternet. org> tellyAds [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://www. tellyads. com/> The naked truth about celebrity endorsements [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://www. independent. co. uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-naked-truth-about-celebrity-endorsements-710729. html> What is Mass Media? [online], [accessed 8th, 9th December 2008] Available from World Wide Web: <http://medialiteracy. suite101. com/article. cfm/what_is_mass_media> Lecture notes
