The simplest definition of mass communication is “public communication transmitted electronically or mechanically.” In this way, messages are transmitted or sent to large, perhaps millions or billions of people spread across the world. Whenever I heard mass communication, the first thing that gets through my mind is wide. Why wide? As what I have remembered, it covers a very wide range of audience and it uses different forms of media to disseminate its messages. The main functions of mass communication are informing, educating and entertaining even a wide range of people.

There are two forms of media, the Traditional Media and Electronic Media. Traditional media are part of a country’s rich heritage. There are several forms of it like storytelling, folk songs, street theater and puppetry. Right now, when we say traditional media, it points to the foundations or base of the media industry like television, print, photography, radio and film. Electronic media on the other hand are the technologies used nowadays by media practitioners like the online writings, digital media, information technology. These types of media are considered as new media. Television, radio, film, print and photography are also considered as Electronic Media.

There are different institutions that make up the Mass Communication industry. Each institution specialize a specific field. Each specialized field use media technologies depending on their field. Each field has their own way or strategy on how they will transmit the message that they want to convey to their audience. One field may look for the help of the other field in order to make the presentation more attractive and interesting. For example, a TV production may look for a help of a photographer to shoot beautiful angles of pictures which can be use in the television.

An understanding of media richness theory is useful in when examining the impact that different communication media types potentially have on the message. Media richness theory comes primarily from the literature on computer-mediated communications (CMC) and is most often associated with business communication. In this context, media richness theory is used to analyze communication media choices and to help reduce ambiguity of communication through the appropriate selection of communication media.

Media richness is explained by some researchers (Trevino, Lengel et al. 1987) as the ability of a medium to carry information. Sitkin, Sutcliffe, and Barrios-Choplin, (1992) identify two components of a medium’s ability to carry information. These two components are the data carrying capacity and the symbol carrying capacity. Data carrying capacity refers to the medium’s ability to transmit information while symbol carrying capacity refers to the medium’s ability to carry information about the information or about the individuals who are communicating.

Researchers who work with media richness theory often rank communication media on their abilities to carry both information types, but especially the second type, symbolic information. The criteria for ranking a medium’s ability to carry information can be based on the ability of the media to, relay immediate feedback, provide feedback cues such as body language, allow the message to be created or altered specifically for an intended recipient, and transmit the feelings or emotions of the communicators. (Daft and Lengel 1984). In discussing communication in online classes, Newberry (2001) builds on the work of these researchers to construct the following table which attempts to place seven different types of communications media in a three-position matrix (high, medium, and low) expressing the media’s performance or its ability to carry: feedback, multiple cues such as body language, message tailoring, and emotions.

Attempting to rank different media choices does not imply that one is better than the other. Each media type has its own advantages and disadvantages and each is probably more appropriate than the others in different situations. In fact that is the point of much of the media richness research; one should choose the media type that offers the greatest efficiency and the greatest opportunity for the intended message to be conveyed accurately. In educational activities the choice of media can be influenced by many factors. Some of which include, technology availability, time constraints, familiarity with the technology, task appropriateness of the technology and desired outcomes of the learning activity. 

Credits :

http://sirmarteliascarlo.tumblr.com/post/13437136724

http://download.nos.org/srsec335new/ch2.pdf

http://learngen.org/Resources/lgend101_norm1/200/210/211_3.html

http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=media+clipart&hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1366&bih=705&tbm=isch&tbnid=ZI7VceK2uDnqcM:&imgrefurl=http://photoshop.backata.com/2010/08/page/2/&docid=yyzUBQC732DB8M&imgurl=http://photoshop.backata.com/uploads/posts/2010-08/1283202277_91.media-business-icons.jpg&w=1000&h=667&ei=99vkTq_WFuepiAfAx7i3BQ&zoom=1

People love to eat. We have different varieties of food to choose. Each specific place has a specialty when it comes to food. Like in the Philippines, we have different types of food in each type of food. We made these foods differ from the other by doing some twists and adding more spices.

Food industry is one of the most in demand to the consumers. Places who love to eat like in our country; this kind of industry is really one of the most in demand. If we look around, there are lots of fast food chains, restaurants, food stalls, carinderia, etc. which shows that people loves to eat. I can say that in our country, when it comes to food, there are inconsistencies. Why?  In my own observation, it is because of; we love to make experiments on our foods to make it more special and unique from the other.

For example, yogurt became one of the most in demand dairy product nowadays. One of its reason because people now became more aware of their health so they have discovered that yogurt is a health-friendly food. It is said that it contain less fat than any ordinary dairy products.

Different frozen yogurt or FroYo parlors were established in different parts on the cities especially in malls. In order to get attraction to the customers, they offered self-service stations. These self-service stations allow their customers to choose or customize their yogurt. Customers will now have the freedom to choose of what toppings they would like to add to their dessert according to their taste.

FroYo parlors’ owners found out that the freedom of the customers to choose from different choices and customize their food really attract customers. So they come up with the strategy of putting different varieties of toppings and syrups in order for the customer make their own style of food which will fit to their taste. If the customer will like this kind of service, the customer will come back to the store.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”¹ and his subsequent book, Motivation and Personality.² This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other needs.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid. Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, water, sleep and warmth. Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and security.

As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Soon, the need for love, friendship and intimacy become important. Further up the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of accomplishment take priority. Like Carl Rogers, Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as a person to achieve individual potential.

In this hierarchy of needs, I think that if one of the needs of the consumer has been satisfied by a store or company, the costumer has the tendency to go back to that store. For me, food is not only the satisfaction of the customer in that kind on FroYo parlors’ strategy. Because of the “do-it-yourself” FroYo, customer also satisfies their aother needs like creativity, contentment, etc. With the satisfaction they got, it helps for them to properly process their growth and development as a person to reach their potentials.

Credits:

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm

http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=frozen+yogurt&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=677&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=kug8oJFJJCsaKM:&imgrefurl=http://www.sodahead.com/fun/frozen-yogurt-vs-ice-cream/question-850683/&docid=XowyO-kX7CBogM&imgurl=http://kdforconsumerism.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/frozen-yogurt.jpg&w=640&h=396&ei=LZ7bTvmSNueiiAf30fihAQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=343&sig=100215530400373106967&page=1&tbnh=106&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:21,s:0&tx=91&ty=37

http://sirmarteliascarlo.tumblr.com/post/13444657081

Technology has been one of the greatest inventions of all times. Almost every one of us is using it. It has been part of our daily living so as doing our different activities. Technologies made are life easier and more accessible. One of the greatest technologies I can consider is the creation of computers and establishments of internet connections.

With the use of computer and internet connection, people became more informative. They use it to get different information like news, articles, etc. These information do not cover only local area but also the global scene. People can now easily access different websites containing different facts even if the websites originate from the other countries. People nowadays tend to explore more about the things around them.

Connectivity has been also one of its great uses. People use it to connect from other people even if it is living outside the country. People use different social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to connect with their families and friends living in far areas. Because of different social networking sites, many people tend to re-connect again with their families and friends who haven’t had any in touch with them for a long time.

Facebook has been one of the most used social networking sites in the world.  Facebook is still improving to be the all-in-one of users when it comes to social connectivity. Facebook have different features like chat (personal, group, and video), group list, photos and video (tagging and sharing), and many more.

Because of the different features and millions of people are using it, facebook has been used for marketing campaigns. Marketing practitioner discovered that with the use of facebook with different strategies to get the attention and interest of the consumers, they can easily promote their brands and products. Practitioners used often the “LIKE this PAGE” strategy where they named their fan page something that is very catchy to the customers where there are some promos like creating your own, photo-liking, and picture comments where they can get different prizes. With this kind of strategy, while interacting with their participants online, their brands have been promoted also which made facebook use as promotional tool of the brand. Consumers participated in different promos tend to spread it in order to gain more LIKES or support a contestant which made the brand name promote also.

The Interactive Advertising Model shows what processes actually take place in the visitors mind and what the possible outcomes are when viewing an online ad.   Obviously with any form of advertising, some consumers are influenced more than others.

Online advertising clearly contributes to a greater brand awareness, causing incremental shifts in consumer thinking - creating awareness, fostering association between the product/business and the message, and finally creating intent to purchase.  Your business is your brand.   Increased brand awareness and increased brand image will ultimately increase your market share.   

The interactivity feature means that, for this new form of advertising, there are additional and different structural features of interactive ads as compared to traditional ads. In addition, there are additional and different kinds of responses to the advertising that people can make in an interactive (versus non-interactive) environment.

So this article has shown that the more interaction with the customer, the more the customer become aware, and informed about the product being endorse. With just a click away, the product or brand endorsed was spread instantly.

Credits:

http://www.wn12.com/interactiveadvertisingmodel.htm

http://jiad.org/article5

http://www.google.com.ph/imgres?q=facebook+marketing&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=677&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=7oGMQetHiAsAjM:&imgrefurl=http://iamronel.com/blogging/facebook-marketing/&docid=hzmpvDzQe2JoNM&imgurl=http://iamronel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Facebook-Internet-Marketing.jpg&w=383&h=313&ei=L53bTrb-MqStiQeOlLzDDQ&zoom=1

http://sirmarteliascarlo.tumblr.com/post/13437191705