Communication is considered to be the art by which information, ideas and attitudes are transmitted from one person to another. In modern times, complex and sophisticated machinery has been built to deliver messages. Scientific achievement makes it possible for men in space to send us radio reports of their experiences. We receive close-up televised photographs of the moon’s surface through cameras mounted on rockets. Computers and instantaneous transmission systems help us to bend time and space to our will. By means of mass communication, we are able to deliver information, ideas and attitudes to a sizable and diversified audience through a variety of modes.

The oldest medium is the printed word. Thus newspapers, books, magazines and pamphlets carry their message through the sense of sight. Radio is that medium of mass communication, which appeals to our sense of sound. Television and films attract our visual and auditory senses together. All these means work towards a free flow of ideas. These channels certainly play an important role in American politics.

Index

8.0 - Introduction
8.1 The Evolution of the Mass Media
8.2 Structure of the Mass Media and Government Regulation
8.3 The Functions of the Mass Media
8.4 The Mass Media and Political Coverage

Chapter 9