Media channels and their importance in mass communication

Facebook In Mass Communication

Mass communication can be described as a process a message is created and transmitted by an individual, group of persons, or an organization. This usually involves the use of some medium and the message is spread to a large, anonymous, heterogeneous audience (Pearce, 2009). Mass communication has undergone a lot of evolution from the prehistoric forms of art and writing to the current methods of communication such as the internet. The term mass communication became relevant when messages could be transmitted from a single source to multiple receivers. The study of mass communication is therefore viewed as an application of diverse media options such as television, radio, advertising, and social media among others.

The growth of social network sites has been very significant for the last two decades and over thirty major sites being launched since 1997. In the midst of all these developments came the now popular site Facebook. These social network sites cannot be ignored in the study of mass communication since they have been embraced widely in spreading information and have led to the participation of a larger population leading to what may be referred to as "citizen journalism." For instance, the spread of messages such as emergency warnings, or even activism campaigns have been done reliably through Facebook. This is because many people focus on such sites to obtain news, facts, product information, and entertainment. Content that is posted in such sites by friends are easily trusted as compared to news from the conventional media. It is also important to note that relaying messages via Facebook easy, cheap, and rapid (Hodge, 2006).

Like any other new communication network, Facebook has influenced other media in various ways. Since the messages posted or shared on Facebook are instantly accessed by the targeted population it ranks as one of the fastest means of communication, this makes it necessary for individuals using other media to think of a way of improving so that they can relay information as fast. Facebook also has a worldwide coverage whereas other media like television and radio are limited in range which has greatly reduced the popularity of these media. Advertising has also shifted to Facebook whether commercial, political campaigns or general awareness campaigns. This is forcing other media come up with more creative ways of presenting their advertisements to lure clients to choosing them over Facebook. Generally, the growth of Facebook has led to the other media being considered second in line especially when the message involved is urgent.

With the popularity of Facebook increasing every day, a number of changes take place in the society or in terms of policy. Information flows easily and globally through Facebook thereby exposing the society to a lot of information some of which may be harmful. This is especially a concern where underage children are involved (Hodge, 2006). Some members of the society also join Facebook for the wrong reasons like tracking the activities of an individual or stoking. The society has also been victims of misinformation since some people post or share wrong information, either intentionally or otherwise, and the unsuspecting users take it as the truth. Facebook has also been used to spread hate messages against governments and institutions leading to serious uprisings. Subsequently, various authorities have come up with policies to control the use and access of Facebook and in some instances the use has been banned.

The popularity of Facebook has been gained over a period of time since its inception in February 2004. The main man behind this web site is Zukerberg working hand in hand with Andrew McCollum and Eduardo Saverin, all students at Harvard University at the time (Croft, 2007). It was first known as "The Facebook" and was started for Harvard campus with its community growing to 1200 students within 24 hours. Its demand outside came within weeks and barely 2 months after the inception it was available for other universities. With this growing demand, the founders' target was to connect all university campuses in America to this network. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard within 4 months of the inception of this idea and together with McCollum and Dustin Moskovitz they moved to Silicon Valley. It was clear they needed financial help to continue with their dreams and the first breakthrough came from PayPal founder Peter Thiel and this was followed by another from Jim Breyer and Accel Partners who provided the much needed capital. Following this, Zuckerberg had at his disposal the money, manpower, and the institutional support to venture into the world just 8 months from inception (Croft, 2007).

For over a year beta-testing was confined to American university population after which Facebook.com was registered dropping the "The" in the name. First it was open to those having valid institutional email address from a number of organizations including high school students. Two years later there was the major expansion which allowed anyone with a valid email address to sign up and populate their profile with their stats; this led to a massive signup. Until 2007 Facebook was a closed network, this ended when the founder made it open allowing users to integrate all their internet activities into their single Facebook profile (Croft, 2007). With the dream of translating the popularity of Facebook into bigger profits, Zukerberg ventured into direct advertising whereby advertisers have a direct access to the demographic consumers they target. This constant introduction of new features played a major role in the growth of this site since users always had a reason to stay connected.