Sociology of Communications

Three stages of mass communication research are distinguished:

• 1920-1930 - it was assumed that mass communication has great potential for influencing public opinion and people's behavior;
• mid 1940s - early 1970s - Under the influence of a number of empirical studies, confidence in the omnipotence of the press gave way to a more restrained attitude to its possibilities of influencing a mass audience:
• early 1970s - present time - a return to the scientific paradigms of the first stage, but changed by new social realities, there is no one leading theoretical direction.

The concept of mass communication in the research of foreign sociologists

Walter Lippman in his work “Public Opinion” (1922) put forward the idea that stereotypes “come to the individual” through the materials of mass communication, in the power of which he is in one way or another. Thus, mass communication constructs the audience’s ideas about the world around them, indirectly acting through consciousness on people's behavior.

Harold Lasswell created a model of a communicative act, used in one form or another by all subsequent researchers - S - O - R. The message here acts as a stimulus (S), the receiving side - as an organism (O), the effects studied - as a reaction ( R).

Researchers at Yale University, led by Karl Hovland, came to the conclusion that increasing the effectiveness of influencing an audience is associated with the need to take into account the psychological structure of people's consciousness. The main factor is not the message itself, but the totality of the characteristics of individual perception.

One of the founders of the “minimal effect” theory is Paul Lazarsfeld , who made a number of discoveries regarding the limited influence of mass communication on the audience, according to the results of his research on public opinion during election campaigns. As a result of a study of the American radio audience, Lazarsfeld and his colleagues came to the conclusion that information from radio or print broadcasts often gets to “opinion leaders” and, from them, to less active groups of the population. These people are like generators of public opinion, and it is they who are the most active consumers of the media.

Marshal McLuhan developed the so-called "theory of means." The basis of McLuhan's concept was that he causally determines all the progressive stages in the development of society by the development of technical means of information communications. The main thesis is "a means is a message." The audience’s perception of information and reality depends on how the information was transmitted through which channel (from a technical point of view). Each medium of information thereby forms its very character, which accordingly affects the perception of the world. From this, the author concludes that technical means of communication play a decisive role in shaping a person’s thoughts, because they structure his experience and determine his opinion about the world around him.

Researchers at McLuhan’s work criticize him for the absolutization of the impact of technical means of mass communication, for the fact that he does not consider these means neutral when transmitting informational messages, although practically no one (especially psychologists), in principle, denies the fact that the message is transmitted in different ways. information channels, psychologically perceived differently by the audience. Even before McLuhan, G. Lasswell, in his becoming a classical scheme of a communicative act, singled out the link “What channel the message passed through”, thus drawing attention to the importance of the means of communication.

The Development of Domestic Communication Sociology

The domestic sociology of mass communications has developed in two directions:

1. Sociometry, that is, research was conducted on public opinion and social communities as areas that are directly influenced by the activities of mass communications (B. A. Grushin, B. M. Firsov , V. A. Yadov , T. M. Dridze and others);
2. Development of theoretical aspects of mass communication.

There are two approaches in the domestic study of mass communication:

1. Mediacentric. Mass communication is a kind of closed holistic system that operates according to its own laws and which affects the formation of public opinion;
2. Sociocentric. The activity of mass communication is determined by the audience, whose opinions and views it should express through its channels.

In 1983, the first definition of mass communication appeared in an article by Yu. A. Sherkovin in the Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary:

“Mass communication is the systematic distribution of messages (through print, radio, television, cinema, sound recording, video recording) among numerically large dispersed audiences with the goal of affirming spiritual values ​​and exerting ideological, political, economic or organizational influence on people's assessments, opinions and behavior.” ^[one]

Some authors propose to recognize that the key term “mass communication” is inseparable from synonyms - “ mass media ” (media), “ journalism ”.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in interest from the field of journalism theory to the field of mass communication sociology.

The object of study of the sociology of mass communication, like many other humanities and social sciences, is mass communication as a social process.

The subject is a set of basic concepts and problems that contribute to the discovery of the general laws of social activity, the study of which determines the structure of the sociology of mass communication as a science and includes all levels - from theoretical to the level of empirical research, extending as a study of the object of mass communication activity - a mass audience , and the study of the subjects of this activity, as well as the structures of the mass communications themselves and bov their functioning.

The main functions of mass communication in society:

1. Information function : informing about events and living conditions in society and the world; information support of innovative processes;
2. The function of social communication : interpretation of what is happening; support for existing norms and power relations; socialization; coordination of multidirectional social activity, the formation of social harmony;
3. The function of ensuring continuity : the expression of patterns of dominant culture, the "recognition" of subcultures , new cultural trends; maintaining a community of social values;
4. Recreational function : creating opportunities for recreation and entertainment; reduction of social tension;
5. Mobilization function : organization of campaigns in connection with current goals in politics , economics , social sphere.

In the framework of general sociology, the communication system as a subsystem of society is investigated. Using the methods of a systematic approach, structural and functional analysis, an activity approach, and others, one can identify the place of mass communication in the structure of society, its role in relation to society as a whole and its social subsystems.

Private sociology reveals the essence of mass communication, features, forms its function, explores the functioning, reveals the content.

There are two areas of empirical research:

1. sociometry;
2. mediametry .

They cover and explore the entire chain of a communicative act: a communicator, an information message, media channels and a mass audience. The communicator, in turn, can be personified (journalist, presenter, etc.) and impersonal (specific broadcast, channel, newspaper , etc.).

Another area is the analysis of the message, the text that is the information carrier. The frequency of occurrence of the desired characteristics is analyzed. Content analysis gives an idea of ​​the producer of the media, the intention of communicators.

Research methods - polls (questionnaires, interviews), diaries of viewers and listeners, audiometry data, blitz polls, focus groups .

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• Naumenko T.V. Sociology of Mass Communication. - St. Petersburg, 2005.
• Fedotova L. N. Sociology of mass communication. - St. Petersburg, 2003.