MASS COMMUNICATION AS CULTURAL PROCESS; A CULTURAL

APPROACH TO COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTION

The paper by James W. Carey examines communication as a ritual process and

transmission process, but we cannot understand the topic without a clear understanding
of the terms used.
1. Mass communication
2. Cultural process
3. Approach to communication
1. Mass communication is the process by which a person, group of people, or large
organization creates a message and transmit it through some type of medium to a
large, anonymous, heterogeneous audience (Pearce 2009).
Mass communication is the transfer of opinion, ideas and feelings from one person
to a heterogeneous audience through a channel or medium of communication.
(Sandra 2014).
2. Cultural process is a deduction approach to archaeological research that is
designed to study the changes and interactions in cultural systems and the process
by which human cultures change throughout time. (http://www.answers.com).
3. Approach to communication is a set of principles about teaching including
recommendations about method and syllabus where the focus is on meaningful

communication not structure, use not usage. In this approach students are tasks to
accomplish using language, instead of studying the language. The syllabus is
based primarily on functional development, not structural development.
The study is about the different views on the definition of communication. In the paper,
the writer explained that it is simply about the transmission of information from a
source to a receiver or that mass communication is a ritual process, involving the
shared construction of the patterns of social behavior, social interaction and social
significance.
CONTRIBUTION OF THE PAPER
This paper contributes that to study communication is to examine the actual social
process where in significance symbolic forms are created, apprehended and used. It states
that we not only produce reality, but we must likewise maintain what we have produced
for there are new generations coming along for whom our productions are incipiently
problematic and for whom reality must be regenerated and made alternative.
However transportation and communication is said to share the same moral meaning.
The paper portrayed communication as a symbolic process whereby reality is produced,
maintained, repaired and transformed through its intellectual power and scope.
Discipline that influence this paper
1. History

2. Religion
3. Social science
The paper was influenced by history, religion and social sciences.
As such, communication should be viewed not just as a process [transmission] also as a
model which produces the behaviour it describes [cultural representative].
CONTENT OF THE STUDY
The cultural approach to communication sees mass communication as a ritual process,
involving the shared construction of the patterns of social behavior, social interaction and
social significance.
As earlier stated, the paper views communication in two ways:
i.

A transmission view of communication

ii.

A ritual view of communication

THE TRANSMISSION VIEW OF COMMUNICATION

The paper present the transmission view of communication as the commonest in our
culture perhaps in all industrial culture and it dominates contemporary dictionary entries
under the term. It is defined by terms such as imparting, sending transmitting, or giving
information to others. It is formed from a metaphor of geography or transportation
(pg234).

The centre of this idea of communication is the transmission of signals or messages

over a distance for the purpose of control which is aimed at increasing the speed and
effect of messages as they travel in space.
The constraint observed here is that, messages eventually produced and controlled
through monopolization of writing or the rapid production of print carried in the hands of
a messenger or between the binding of a book which has to be distributed if they are to
have their desired effect by rapid transportation (Carey pg 234).
The paper also sees communication as a process whereby messages are transmitted
and distributed in space for the control of distance and people. Stating the purpose of
communication as political and merchantilistic it likens communication and
transportation as the same means to life. (page 235). Transportation particularly when it
brought the Christian community of Europe into contact with the heaven community of
the American was seen as a form of communication with profoundly religions
implication.
The paper present the moral meaning of transportation and communication as the
establishment and extension of Gods kingdom on earth (pp 235).

A RITUAL VIEW OF COMMUNICATION

The paper examines communications as a ritual process; the ritual view of
communication is directed not towards the extension of message in space, but towards the
maintenance of society in time, not the act of imparting information but the
representation of shared belief.
In a ritual definition, communication is linked to terms such as sharing, participation,
fellowship and the possession of a common faith, this definition exploit the ancient
identity and common roots of the terms commonness, communion, community and
communication (pg 236).
This view focused on a different range of problems in analyzing a newspaper
-

It viewed newspaper less as sending or gaining information and more as attending

a mass, a situation in which nothing new is learned, but in which a particular view
of the world is portrayed and confirmed.

News reading and writing is a ritual act and moreover a dramatic one.
UNIT OF ANALYSIS

Newspaper
The paper is limited to newspapers, analyzing the transfer of information in two forms,
the transmission view and the ritual view, stating categorically the function of newspaper
content on readers, while examining news as historic reality.

WHAT IS THE UNDERLYING ASSUMPTION?

-

The paper believes that mass communication is a ritual process, involving the
shared construction of the patterns of social behavior, social interaction, and social
significance.

Communication is made through the construction of variety of symbol our

attempts to construct, maintain, repair and transform reality are publicly observable
activities that occurs in historical time (pg 241).

Communication models have dual aspect- an of aspect and a for aspect. Model
of communication are not merely representation of communication but
representation for communication (pg 241). According to Daramola (2003;76)
model is define as a device representing the essential features of a phenomenon.

James W. Carey in this paper believes that mass communication is a ritual process
involving the shared construction of the patterns of social behavior, interaction and
significances A ritual view does not exclude the processes of information
transmission or attitude change; it merely contend that one can not understand these
processes aright except in so far as they are cast within an essentially ritualistic
view of communication and social order. (pg 238).

The paper assumed that there are differences between reality and fantasy (pg 239)

CONCEPTUAL PAPER
This paper is a conceptual paper and as such no research method was used. The writer
uses existing works and studies to explain his point.
A conceptual paper is an analyzing tool with several variations and contexts. It is used to
make conceptual distinctions and organized ideas. Conceptual frameworks are abstract
representations connected to the research projects goal that direct the collection and
analysis of data. This is indicated on (page 239) suppose one had to teach a child of six
or seven how to get to school from home. The child has driven by the school which is
some six or seven blocks away, so he recognizes it, but he has no idea of the relation
between his house and school. This can be seen within these conflict frameworks,
visible and invisible variables function under concepts of relevance. (hedgehog 1953).

OUR STANCE
The paper explained the realities of communication projecting it to the acts involve in
the processes of communication viewing communication from the ritual angle, we agree
that the process of mass media is ritual in the sense that all that has to do with news flows
in a chronological order. News reading and writing is a ritual act and a dramatic one.
What is arrayed before the reader is not pour information but a portrayal of the
contending forces in the world. Moreover as readers makes their ways through the
papers, they engage in a continued shift of roles or of dramatic focus (pg 237). It is true

that mass media has a regulation; an in-house style meant to guide broadcasting and
publishing of every media house, which can be seen as a ritual process.
Communication in the transmission view deals with how news are conveyed to the public
(the use of telegraph in the paper to transmit information) making the receiver to believe
the information or news

sent to them. This can be portrayed in the functions of these

theories of media effects.

1. The agenda setting theory
2. The gate keeping theory
In the agenda setting theory, one of its assumption states that; the mass media such as the
press, do not reflect social reality because news is filtered, chosen and shaped by news
room staff or broadcasters.
Gate keeping theory; assumed that, media organization as well as key media professional
act as gates to the flood of information coming in from the larger society.

References
Adepoju J. (2003) Mass Communication Research: An Introduction.
Daramola, I. (2003) Introduction to Mass Communication 2nd Ed, Lagos: Rothan Press
Ltd.
http://www.ukj.edu/-drlane/capstone/mass/agenda.htm
http://www.z.niu.edu/acad/gunkel/coms456/carey.htm
Isaiah Berlin, (1953). The hedgehog and the Foc: An Essay on Tolstoys view of history,
London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; (1986) New York: Simon and Schuster,
Introduction by Mr. Walzer.
James, W. ( ) Communication as Culture.
Solomon George, et al (2008) Models and Theories of Communication.

A REVIEW ON THE PAPER; MASS COMMUNICATION AS A

CULTURAL PR0OCESS: A CULTURAL APPROACH TO
COMMUNICATION.

BY
JAMES W. CAREY

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MASS COMMUNICATION

MAS 805

GROUP 11
1.

SANDRA UKWURU

139083095

2.

ADEYEMI BOLUWATIFE

139083035

3.

KUTI EYITOPE OLUFEMI

139083071

4.

ANOKE SUCCESS

1390830

LECTURER:
DR. ISMAIL IBRAHEEM

DATE:
JULY, 2014