ATLAS OF LANGUAGE

AT-ADD-20261020-0137 · ATLAS 261

Mass communication

Mediated communication addressed to extensive, dispersed publics, examined through its production, circulation and differentiated reception.

Part of the subject path Language Change, Contact and Diversity

Why is this entry in the Atlas?

A · Analytical concept R1 · Distinct contribution to understanding

The profile supplies a level between an individual rhetorical move and a whole public sphere: organised production, distribution and selective uptake.

Colours and admission grounds

The rectangular label identifies the entry function: F – linguistic figure or procedure; A – analytical concept; G – foundational concept; E – selected concrete case. The rounded badge indicates the admission ground: R1 – distinctive contribution; R2 – necessary foundation; R3 – justified illustrative case. This editorial rationale explains the current selection rather than claiming an undocumented original selection history.

Explanation

The same announcement can reach people as a headline, a broadcast extract or a forwarded message. Each route changes what is available and what receives attention. A large audience does not thereby become one interpretive subject. Reach, access, reading, understanding and agreement require different evidence. Older models often foreground institutional senders and limited immediate feedback. Digital circulation complicates these arrangements without automatically abolishing selection or unequal visibility. The useful question is how a particular statement is produced, made available and taken up, not whether one slogan about old or new media explains every case.

Movement of thought

1. Trace the production and editing of a statement. 2. Identify channels, selection and access conditions. 3. Separate exposure metrics from reception evidence. 4. Describe opportunities and limits of feedback.

Scientific use case

A study could compare versions and distribution records with interviews or observed information use. It must not infer individual beliefs directly from channel-level statistics.

Example

A council announces a temporary bridge closure. A radio bulletin includes the pedestrian exception; a shared screenshot omits it. Both concern the same closure but do not supply the same usable information.

Counterexample

Ten thousand page requests do not establish ten thousand complete readings or changes of mind. A visible comment does not establish equal participation.

Distinction

Agenda-setting concerns possible issue priorities, audience concerns addressees, and public sphere concerns participation. Mass communication examines the organised relation of making, circulating and receiving messages.

Effect on thought and perception

Readers learn to ask where selection happened before attributing a uniform message or effect to “the media.”

Resonance

A public statement returns through many voices; its echoes can preserve, narrow or alter the original invitation to understand.

Etymology

“Mass” and “communication” form a field label, not a literal theory of a single collective mind.

Provenance

The HWdR dossier spans press, broadcasting and rival research approaches. Its historical media diagnoses are not treated as observations of current platforms or universal effects.

Cite this entry

Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Mass communication“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-ADD-20261020-0137. ATLAS 261, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-ADD-20261020-0137

https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-ADD-20261020-0137

The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-20. Include your access date for precise references.

Guiding question

What travels widely, and what evidence shows how it was actually received?

Five coordinate questions

These descriptions explain the entry. They are not controlled register values and do not generate shared register results.

Where can the process be observed?

A council announces a temporary bridge closure. A radio bulletin includes the pedestrian exception; a shared screenshot omits it. Both concern the same closure but do not supply the same usable information.

What happens to the material?

Trace the production and editing of a statement.

Identify channels, selection and access conditions.

Separate exposure metrics from reception evidence.

Describe opportunities and limits of feedback.

At what level does a change occur?

Readers learn to ask where selection happened before attributing a uniform message or effect to “the media.”

What temporal structure is explicitly described?

The steps offer an order of analysis, not an asserted real-time sequence of mental events. Read the particular example sequence separately from the historical development.

How can the description be tested?

Ten thousand page requests do not establish ten thousand complete readings or changes of mind. A visible comment does not establish equal participation.

Historical context

The HWdR dossier spans press, broadcasting and rival research approaches. Its historical media diagnoses are not treated as observations of current platforms or universal effects.

Cross-language distinction and terminology

The English plural “communications” may indicate institutions or services. Neither grammatical number settles the unity of actual reception.

Scholarly comparisons and distinctions

These entries are editorial comparison anchors for the distinctions made in this article. They are not new canonical relation edges or shared register results.

Proposed thought pathway

  1. Trace the production and editing of a statement.
  2. Identify channels, selection and access conditions.
  3. Separate exposure metrics from reception evidence.
  4. Describe opportunities and limits of feedback.

An editorial exploration, not a necessary sequence of thought or experimental evidence of an effect.

Source scope and provenance

Both specialist versions are editorially accepted. The recorded scope of the reference-work research is retained; this is not a fresh full verification of every primary source. Examples and analytical steps are Atlas applications.