Communication

Communication can be described as simply the transfer of information between people, but there are many intricacies about the process itself that make it much more complicated than this. For example, consideration of the purpose of communication can lead to a wide variety of theories ranging from philosophical to Darwinian. In modern times, people use communication as a tool to gain information about scenarios which they have never experienced from perspectives they have no other means of acquiring. The world news, presented by various newspapers and TV channels, is their way of connecting with the world, which of course is biased by the institutions serving as the middle man in this process. (1)

Communication is also diverse in the means and methods that it utilizes. It can either be from one person to another, or something more akin to a dialogue and sharing between the two. (2) It can also move beyond the sphere of the individual to encompass the masses, even the entire globe. However, there is a curious paradox that seems to result in “the increasing isolation of the individual by private (economic) media interests” (3) even as technology improves to provide greater opportunities for interconnectivity. One explanation for this phenomenon is the fact that mass communication has monopolized communication in all forms, neatly excising the individual from the process while simultaneously feeding them a prescribed standard ideology of the masses. (4) As mass communications expands to include more and more people, it is necessary to remember that these people are still individuals who should have the right to shape the systems they are a part of as much as these systems shape them.

(1) Hardt, Hanno. Myths for the Masses: An Essay on Mass Communication. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Print, pg 6.

(2) Hardt, Hanno. Myths for the Masses: An Essay on Mass Communication. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Print, pg 8.

(3) Hardt, Hanno. Myths for the Masses: An Essay on Mass Communication. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Print, pg 2.

(4) Hardt, Hanno. Myths for the Masses: An Essay on Mass Communication. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Print, pg 15.