Chapter 1 - Living in the Media World

1.  Using the Communication Model, define how each component could be applied to a newspaper article, a magazine article, a radio program and a television show. Does the model work more efficiently for some media than for others?

Newspaper Article:

sender/endcoding - journalists, advertisers, photographers, and Editors.

message - news

noise - biased views, false information, complicated concepts, and any outside noise while you are reading the actual newspaper.

Decoding/Receiver - You (the reader)

Magazine Article:

sender/encoding: Editors, writers, and photographers

message: news on movie stars, health information, modern clothing styles, etc.

noise - false information, unrealistic pictures of models, and opinionated articles.

Decoding/Reciever - You (the reader)

Radio Program:

sender/encoding - radio DJs, commercials, and news announcers

message - new music details, hollywood news, new products to buy, and news.

noise - false information, biased opinions, etc.

Decoding/Reciever - You (the listener)

Television Show:

sender/encoding -  producers, screen writers, and actors.

message - stories of unrealistic lives

noise - false view of reality, overly exaggerated story lines, drama, and liberal views.

decoding/reciever - You (the viewer)

I don't think that one model works more efficiently than the others.  All of them have noise that interfere with the real meaning, and all of them have distractions that can cloud the real message that is being sent.  The media's goal is to create shared meaning, but sometimes that doesn't always happen.  It just depends on the audience, who is sending the message, and what message is being sent.

2. Which of the mass media perform the informing the best? Entertaining? Persuading? Explain.

I think the television does the best with informing and entertaining.  Not only can you hear the information being presented, but you can see it, through pictures and video.  It uses more senses which I think engages the viewer much better.  For example, on the news there has been plenty of coverage of hurricane Ike.  It's more powerful to see and hear what Ike has done through video, pictures, and live footage from reporters on television, rather than just reading it out of the newspaper with less quality pictures. Now for the persuading, I think that newspaper media would do the best.  I think when you actually read something, you can internalize it much better than watching someone speak to you.  When you read a newspaper you have to do the work of actually making sense of the words, so if someone was trying to persuade you, using the newspaper would be a good way to do it.  You can present written facts, stories, etc, to explain your point.  Words are so powerful when you want to persuade someone, so you need to get through to them through a media form that will make the reader really analyze what you are saying.