Briefly describe the interaction between mass communication and culture

Culture, like any other substance, has the property of spreading in all directions. Only the culture that is spread can be called a living culture, which is determined by the social nature of culture. According to the theory of the spread of culture, there must be a carrier for the spread of culture. In modern society, the mass media has become the most important and efficient carrier of cultural dissemination. It can bear the main function of culture in a more complete way.

First, the social function of culture. This includes the value integration function, norm integration function and structural integration function embodied in culture in communication. Different social groups have different cultures. The difference of culture is the biggest obstacle to communication. However, the emergence and development of modern mass media has made it possible to cross and break the cultural boundaries in the process of cultural communication. The mass media replace the sense of exclusion caused by cultural differences with its unified symbols in the social psychology first of all. Therefore, in the process of cultural transmission through mass media, the social function of cultural integration can work well. Especially in the function of value integration, it is most prominent. With the development of science and technology, especially the rapid development of IT technology at the end of the 20th century, the means of mass media has added a fourth media ---- Internet on the basis of the original three traditional media. The emergence of the Internet makes the mass media to a faster speed, a wider range of cultural dissemination to the accessible range. It has even surpassed the limitations of national borders and words that traditional media encountered in the process of dissemination. In this way, almost all cultures were able to intermingle in the mass media. Diverse social values are effectively integrated here.

The mass media can effectively embody the integrating function of culture. In addition to its unified and fixed symbolic nature, it also lies in its tremendous role in creating and guiding public opinion. Therefore, the mass media can also play its function of integrating social norms very well in the process of serving as a cultural communication tool. Simply understood, the so-called public opinion refers to the opinions and views of the general public on certain objects within a certain social scope and period of time. A considerable part of it belongs to the public's understanding of social norms and codes of behavior. The role of mass media in guiding and shaping public opinion in modern society can hardly be compared with any other means. Because of this, the policies and guidelines of political parties in a country can be publicized through the media, and the preferences of the public can be expressed by the media.

In addition, the mass media, as a special cultural carrier and dissemination tool, itself also embodies the characteristics of culture. In other words, the media itself also has a "personalized" embodiment. Each media has its own unique form to attract the audience. The media itself is an important part of culture. It embodies the diversity and characteristics of culture.

Secondly, culture has the function of social introduction. The integrative function of culture can maintain the order of society, while the introductory function promotes the progress of society. Culture's function in society is mainly reflected in the following aspects: providing knowledge, coordinating the management of social engineering, and consolidating the results of social progress.

Obviously, in modern society, mass media is the best tool for providing knowledge, which is the function of social progress. The development of modern media, especially the Internet, has made it possible for members of society to acquire knowledge no longer limited to books. In the future, if one does not know how to use the media tools to understand the world, he/she is almost illiterate. Not only that, what the media provide to the society is not simply knowledge, but information. In other words, it provides knowledge that can satisfy needs and create value. Due to the socialization of the media, the knowledge and information provided can satisfy the needs of members of society at different levels. And because of the ****enjoyment of the mass media, it makes it can play the function of disseminating knowledge and information very well.