ABSTRACT
Mass communication research is, perhaps, the most widespread area of communication study throughout the world. People’s attitudes about media and their content influence exposure and outcomes. Media use or utility is a core concept in mass communication. Researchers have developed viable measures to examine relations among media consumers such as TV viewers and between consumers and media content. A significant part of mass communication research focuses on the effects of exposure to media or media content. Characteristics of media professionals were studied because of concerns about their unintentional or conscious influence on news selection and coverage. Communication research, including mass communication research, draws heavily from the work in related social science disciplines such as psychology and sociology. The most comprehensive content analysis scheme is that of the Cultural Indicators Project, whose cultivation hypothesis suggests that media, especially TV, cultivate shared cognitive and affective images of roles and behavior in the surrounding world.
