EXAMINING THE CONCEPTS OFMASS COMMUNICATION^ MASS MEDIA AND MASS AUDIENCE, AND SUGGESTING SKILLS FOR MEDIA LITERACY
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The mass media and mass audiences are central and integral to the study of mass communication as a discipline. According to lhebuzor (2014), the mass media of newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet are high amplifiers and interpreters that make sense of experiences. Thus they shape the pictures in people’s heads. The uses and gratifications model stresses that different people use the media in diverse ways to obtain various sorts of pleasure or meet varied sorts of needs (Haralambos & Holborn, 2014). In this connection, individuals are viewed as active interpreters and choice makers, rather than as passive receivers of media output. Therefore, it is indispensable to examine and understand the nature of mass communication and the mass media, and to consider the need for mass audiences to become informed media consumers. As noted by Marcuse (1964) in Haralambos and Holborn (2014, p. 843) “The hypnotic power of the mass media deprives people of the capacity for critical thought which is essential if people are to change the world”. The conclusion drawn in the paper is that people with high levels of media literacy have a great deal of control and judgment over the vision of the world they notice through the media, and can decide for themselves what the communication means. Hence it recommends, among other things, that as people expose themselves to the various media of mass communication for information, education and entertainment, they should be media smart