The 5 steps of Mass Communications- lecture

There are many situations where the five steps come into play.  For example when you read a book there are many steps before you even read it.  First there is stimulus, then encoding, transmission, decoding and finally internalization.  Stimulus is when, in the case of a book, the author come up with the idea for the plot in their brain.  Then it goes to encoding, which is where the author puts the idea to paper or computer any place outside of their head.  Transmission is the next step in the mass communication process.  This is where the author gets his/her book published from the encoding stage, so that others can read it.  The second to last step is decoding, and this is where someone else reads the author's published idea that is in the form of a book.  The last step is internalization and it is the step after decoding where the author's idea is now taken in and understood in that person's brain.  These are the steps that must be taken when an idea is made so that a large group will be able to see it.

There are also the impediments during the encoding, transmission and decoding processes that could stop the idea from being internalized by all people.  One of the impediments is environmental noise, it effects the decoding process.  This can be any noise from outside or inside the environment the person is in that keeps them from seeing your idea.  A couple of examples would be a drill going off while watching a movie, or your book left out in the rain.  Another is semantic noise which is something that prevents you from being able to encode the idea.  Like your computer dying while your typing or losing the notebook with your idea in it.  The last one is channel noise and this effects the transmission stage this maybe something like having problems editing or being unable to publish or find a publisher. These are problems, in the early stages, that could stop the idea from becoming known to a mass audience.

In the last stage of mass communication there are filters that can prevent people from seeing your idea and understanding it.  In the internalization stage there are three filters physical, psychological and informational.  The physical filter is a actual problem in a person's body that prevents them from internalizing the data.  For example a blind person could not see a movie, nor could a deaf person hear a talk show.  This filter can be proven wrong some times like a blind person can read a book as long as it is in braille.  Also, a deaf person can still see a movie and understand most of it, especially if they can read lips.  The next filter is a psychological filter, which is not a physical but mental problem that keeps someone from internalizing an idea.  An example would be if a very strong voiced environment protector tried to internalize a pamphlet of why we should have more nuclear power stations.  It's not that they physically can't, its' that they just won't because their personal views stop them from taking in the idea.  Lastly there is the informational filter this one is more of an educational block, because its not  physical nor personal views that keep the person from understanding it.  It's things like the ability to read, to understand a different language or , and an example would be, if an elementary school student read a college student's thesis they just wouldn't be able to understand the idea.  All these filters are other problems that keep a medium from being mass communicated.