Analysis On Mutual Actions Between Mass Communication And Audience Cognition

Under the stimulus of the same information, the audient with different mentality can make the different cognitive reactions . Scholars of Cognitive Psychology have drawn the conclusion that people are not externally passive when dealing with the outside irritation. Their knowledge , thought and experience will make function in this course. In this text, I am trying to analyze the phenomenon of mass communication with the theory of cognition psychology mentioned above.Part I: Construction of modern audience cognitive structureCognitive structure?is built during the course of the main body's socialization , in which the influence of mass communication is long-term, potential and irresistible . First, the mass media provides the audience with three compositions of cognition. In the fictitious environment built by mass media, the mutual activations of three compositions goes on and forms the basic cognition field of the audient. Knowledge and information of the main body exist in the "information bank" with the schema form. Under the impact of large mount of new information, the scheme is richer and richer.Second, the mass communication promotes the formation of audience "memory bank". Suffering from the effect of noise and forgetfulness, the time of information retained in the bank is limited. So the concept of "chunk" is put forward, which increases the information capacity of each unit. Based on the theory, modern mass communication put the related news into a large chunk in order to enrich the memory bank of audience.Last, information provided by mass media helps to activize the audience schemata. All the schemata in the "memory bank" link up into a structure net. When new stimulation appears, the mass media will remind the audience using the corresponding schemata to assimilate it into the net. Otherwise, mass media will provide the necessary information to achieve the accommodation.Part II: The feature of modern audience cognitionThe cognitive structure of modern audience is built and developed in the complex media reality. So it is also complicated and full of contradiction. The first group is confusion of passion and positivity. The positivity refers to the awaking of audience consciousness, which embodies at two aspects: An audient is not an "audient" any longer, but a "reader". Furthermore, he is the participator of information communication. The media reality is not totally accord with the objective reality. So people have to depend on the mass media to seek support.The second group is individualization and homogeneity. The individualization is due to the different cognitive structure and knowledge system. And the homogeneity is connected with the whole society environment. The audience all possess the common background, so their cognitions have no essential distinction.The third group is stability and changeability. The stability refers to the prototypes preserved in the "long—term memory". So information concerning the culture tradition and national custom are not easy to be accepted by audience. Correspondingly, the changeability refers to information still in the scope of consciousness, which changes quickly.Part III: The reaction of audience cognition on the mass communicationThe positivity of modern audience promotes the development of mass communication, which furthermore makes function on the whole society.First, the audience selection on information speeds the improvement of mass media. Along with audience participating in communication, their ability of thinking and understanding is from strength to strength. Correspondingly, they place more higher expectation on the medium . We may say that the mass communication can not satisfy the audience forever. The most typical example is the Spring Festival Party.Second, The cognitive deviation of audient asks the reporters to grasp the ability of thinking for others. There are all kinks of prototypes in audience"memory bank". When meeting certain kind of news, the audience will be...