ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the basic assumptions of the mediated social communication (MSC) as well as its main differences, compared to a traditional understanding of mass communication. It summarises distinctive features of the MSC model and specifies its potential contribution to mass communication theory and research. In the mediation process, journalism provides highly selected and transformed messages which are disseminated to recipients by means of mass media. The main features of mass communication were often derived from comparison with face-to-face communication. Importantly, the impartiality concept is embedded in the MSC approach and thereby in a broader theoretical framework. The MSC approach offers a theoretical conception of the many-to-many structure of mass communication, including the analytical distinction between mediation and communication processes. The MSC approach, on the contrary, is strongly grounded in social theory and historical research and takes public assemblies as a starting point for theoretical reflection.
