Mass communications - free course from 4brain, training 30 days, date November 28, 2023.
Miscellaneous / / November 30, 2023
Dear reader! Here is our new course “Mass Communications”. Why did we create it? The fact is that today absolutely every one of us who turns on the TV, goes online or opens a newspaper is a participant in mass communication.
And if you work as a journalist, TV presenter, run for office, run your own blog, or even just “post” photos with children or pets on Instagram or VK, you are the initiator of mass communication, and it is a fact. How? This is what our course is dedicated to!
Like any other course, there needs to be an introductory part or introductory lesson to get a basic understanding of the goals, objectives and the structure of the course, as well as the specific benefits that, if desired and with a certain amount of diligence, you can extract from the educational material. And it is with this introductory part that we will begin.
Now let's move on to the actual topics of the introductory lesson.
Goals and objectives of the course
Mass communication is the systematic dissemination of any information among numerous and geographically dispersed audience in order to inform and have some impact on assessments, opinions and behavior.
Thus, every television viewer, radio listener, reader, and consumer of content on the Internet is a participant in mass communication, whether he realizes it or not.
And everyone who creates content, which is then broadcast, posted on the Internet, broadcast in other ways to a certain audience, is the initiator of mass communication, even if he did not claim a backlash.
One way or another, any content causes some kind of reaction: interest, approval, indignation, indifference. Initiators of mass communications, reaching out to large audiences and creating content for their own purposes, must understand the laws of the process so as not to be disappointed with the reaction.
And everyone who watches news, TV series, films, videos on YouTube and TikTok, reads articles and comments on them, it is desirable to understand and realize why this or that event evokes in him exactly such a reaction, and not some other one another.
Awareness is the best prevention in order not to become a victim of manipulation of mass consciousness, to preserve a sober look at this world and avoid erroneous decisions made under the influence of artificially created for you moods.
Perhaps our course would be more accurately called “Mass Communication: Secrets of Bloggers and Politicians for Effectively Communicating with Impersonal Audiences,” because that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about. However, we still decided to go with the shorter option.
So, the purpose of our course is to give an idea of the specific techniques that bloggers use, politicians and marketers when they fight for our money, our attention, likes, subscriptions, votes on elections.
Who is the course for?
Does all of the above mean that our course is only of interest to current politicians, bloggers and marketers? Not at all! Our course is useful for anyone who creates content for an impersonal audience and would like to succeed in this field.
Everyone has their own definition of success. For some, only likes on photos are important, others would like to monetize the blog, and others decided to take their business online. Perhaps among you there are future opinion leaders and those who see their future in politics and intend to fight for a deputy mandate.
One way or another, understand the patterns of mass communications, methods of influencing the audience, ways management of mass consciousness is necessary for any initiator of mass communications if he wants to become effective.
Again, does all this mean that our course is of interest primarily to initiators of mass communications? On the contrary, our course can be even more useful to the average reader, listener, and social network user.
Understanding how politicians, bloggers, journalists, and marketers work with our consciousness and public opinion will help you avoid falling for cheap and, conversely, very complex manipulations. And, as mentioned above, it will help to avoid erroneous decisions made under the influence of momentary emotions, and subsequent disappointment due to one’s own wrong actions.
How to take the course?
Our course on mass communications covers almost all components of the process: both theoretical foundations and practical issues. Therefore, it is recommended to study all the lessons of the course without skipping.
If any of the course topics seem familiar, we recommend reviewing the lesson material, because with a high degree of probability we you will find some new nuances and aspects of the topic that you have not encountered before, or new names and ideas related to this aspect Topics.
Course structure and lessons
Now that you have figured out why you need this course, we will briefly tell you what topics we intend to cover during the course.
Lesson 1. Sociology of mass communication
In the first lesson you will study the differences between mass communication and any other, its types, characteristics, functions. We will look at the role of mass communication in society as a whole and in achieving success in politics, business, journalism and other areas related to communication with a wide impersonal audience, in in particular.
Lesson 2. Post-truth
In the second lesson you will learn ways to manipulate public consciousness, learn to recognize attempts to pass off the truth about inaccurate, incomplete or unreliable data and, ideally, understand that there is no absolute truth exists. You will also learn in what ways we are “cut off” from knowing reliable facts if the information is unfavorable to the communicator.
Lesson 3. Opinion management
The third lesson is devoted to practical techniques for managing public opinion and the reputation of brands, politicians, and artists with specific examples of how this happens. In particular, the lesson will examine the Barbra Streisand effect, the Mandela effect, and some types of reputation marketing.
Lesson 4. Manipulation techniques
The fourth lesson will to some extent continue the topic of managing public opinion, but in the context of manipulation. Here we will consider techniques that allow you not only to “lead” the audience to the desired point of view, but to directly manipulate people’s opinions. From this lesson you will learn what demagogy, maieutics, eristics, rabulistics and other methods of manipulating mass consciousness are.
Lesson 5. Psychology of the masses
In the fifth lesson, we will dwell in more detail on the topic of mass psychology, expand our understanding of the aspects of mass psychology touched upon in previous lessons, and put together a complete picture of how In practice, there is a spiral of silence, diffusion of responsibility, group identity, appeal to the majority and other mechanisms that make public opinion pliable to outsiders. influences.
Lesson 6. Qualities of a communicator
And finally, the most important thing, without which all the above information will not make any sense and will not help in any way to initiate effective communication. The last lesson focuses on the personal qualities of a successful communicator. Simply put, you will learn what qualities a successful blogger, politician, or tribune must have in order to lead people and become a true opinion leader.