Functions of mass communication

Harold Lasswell (1948/1960) noted three function of the mass media;

Surveillance of the environment, the transmission of social heritage, the
correlation of the part of society in responding to environment. Charles
Wright (1959) adds a fourth, entertainment. Lippmann added public
opinion as a function of mass communication.

 Surveillance
 Linkage or correlation
 Transmission of values
 Entertainment
 Public opinion
Surveillance
Surveillance the first function informs and provide news. It includes the news the media
provide that is essential to the economy, the public, and society such as stock market reports,
traffic reports, weather condition and so on
The surveillance function can also cause several dysfunctions. Panic may result through the
overemphasis of dangers or threats to the society

 Linkage or correlation
The second function correlation is the selection and interpretation of information about the
environment. The media often include criticism and prescribe how one should react to events.
Correlation is thus the editorial and “propaganda content” of the media.
Managing public opinion and Serve as an avenue to be a watchdog of the government and
other people.
The correlation function can become dysfunctional when media minimize criticism, become
biased and enforce majority view while ignoring minority opinions.

 Transmission of values
As a transmitter of culture, the media function to communicate
information, values, and norms from one generation to another or from the
members of a society to newcomers. The function of transmission of value
is to continuous socialization, reduces the sense of estrangement
 The dysfunctional of transmission of value is reduces variety of subcultures
(in speaking, dressing, fashion, thinking we follows the media),

depersonalize(isolation), lack of personal contact (as media takes place of

it), likelihood for standardization.

 Entertainment
Another function of the media is entertainment to fill the free time, private
break, escapism. It creates mass culture art, music, mass exposure, it raises
taste and preference.
The dysfunction of the entertainment is that it encourages escapism,
anxiety with leisure, corrupts fine arts sometimes as well as lowers the
taste.

 Public opinion
Walter Lippmann (1922) pointed out that most of what we know of the
environment we live in come to us indirectly but whatever we believe to be
a true picture, we treat as if it were the environment itself.
In public opinion, Lippmann deals with the reasons why pictures inside our
heads often mislead us in our dealings with the outside world.
Among the factors that limit our access to the facts he lists the following:
censorship , limitation of social contact , little time available each day for
paying attention to public affairs , misrepresentation as a result of
compressing events into short messages , the use of small vocabulary to
describe a complex world, and the fear of facing facts

Dysfunctional means incorrectly, abnormly which may harm the society