Mass Communication

We live today in a society structured on, shaped by, and dependent on mass communication which is itself structured and shaped in terms of a mixture of visual and auditory information. We have methods of mass communication which make use only of one of these forms of information--the printed word, the photograph, and the painting are visual means of communication, and music and the radio are auditory means of communication. Television followed the lead of the motion picture and more and more has tended toward a mixture of visual and auditory stimuli, and the computer is following this same lead by using technical innovations to produce interactive sound and image involving the user even more. Even silent films were accompanied by music which supported the mood of the image, and the sound film brought a new aesthetic to the motion picture. Television has developed a mixed style during its history, from beginnings where technical limitations on both sound and image prevented much coordination or experimentation to the technologically advanced present where sound and image can be manipulated in a wide variety of ways to enhance communication. An examination of television production today suggests that the possibilities inherent in the combination of sight and sound are not being exploited to the full and are not being used to best advantage in communicating with the viewer. My own experience as an intern on the television show Entertainment Tonight (hereinafter referred t

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94, 157). This really identifies what has come to be called "talking heads," referring to news and interview type programs so prevalent on television where we see who is speaking and hear what they are saying at one and the same time, with no outside visual or auditory information. This form of television is pervasive in the medium and is seen in television news, documentary-oriented programs like E.T., many reality-based programs where narrators appear and speak directly to the audience, talk shows of every stamp, Sunday-morning Washington interview programs, and so on. News "events" may be another form of the same format, such as in televised congressional hearings, the presentations of cameras in the courtroom, or campaign speeches in election periods. Chion notes how a slightly different form of television is found in sporting events, and he refers especially to tennis matches where "acoustic space is uncoupled from visual space" (Chion, 1994, 160): What we hear is at a stable level, always in aural long shot--even though it actually results from the sum total of points of audition of different mikes placed at strategic points on the court (Chion, 1994, 160). Chion is here referring to the sounds of the game itself, but

Category: Film - M