Functional Analysis of Mass Communication
Functional Analysis of Mass Communication
Functional Analysis of Mass Communication
MASS COMMUNICATION*
BY CHARLES R. WRIGHT
With the aid of functional analysis, this article directs attention to a variety
of pertinent questions in the sociology of mass communication, few of which
have been systematically explored to date.
Charles R. Wright is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of
T
HIS PAPER discusses certain theoretical and methodological
points relevant to the growth of a functional theory of mass
communications. In recent years various studies have explic-
itly or implicitly used a functional framework for examining
different aspects of mass communications. The current discussion occa-
sionally draws from such studies to illustrate the problems at hand,
with no attempt, however, at a comprehensive survey of the field. Three
specific topics are explored here:
1. Items suitable for functional analysis. There is a need for specifica-
tion and codification of the kinds of phenomena in mass communication
which have been, or can be, clarified by means of the functional ap-
proach, together with formal statements of the basic queries which are
raised in each instance. A few examples of such basic functional
queries—there are others, of course—are presented in the first section.
2. Organization of hypotheses into a systematic functional frame-
work. Future research and theory would be helped by the introduction
of a larger organizing framework into which can be fitted a variety of
hypotheses and findings about the functions and dysfunctions of mass
communication. One such organizing procedure—a functional inven-
tory—is proposed in the second section.
3. Rephrasing hypotheses in functional terms. Additional hypotheses
need to be formulated in terms which are specifically related to such
important components of functionalism as, for example, functional
requirements and the equilibrium model. A few hypotheses of this sort
are suggested in the third section.
What is meant here by "mass communication"? In its popular usage
the term refers to such particular mass media as television, motion pic-
• This is a revised version of a paper contributed to the Fourdi World Congresi
of Sociology, Milan and Stresa, Italy, September 1959. It is my pleasure to acknowl-
edge an indebtedness to Herbert H. Hyman, Leonard Broom, Mary E. W. Goss, and
Raymond J. Murphy for their thoughtful and critical readings of earlier drafts of
the paper.
606 PUBLIC OPINION QUARTERLY
tures, radio, newspapers, and magazines. But the use of these technical
instruments does not always signify mass communication. To illustrate,
a nationwide telecast of a political speech is mass communication;
closed-circuit television over which a small group of medical students
observe an operation is not. Modern technology, then, appears to be a
necessary but not sufficient component in defining mass communication,
which is distinguishable also by the nature of its audience, the com-
munication itself, and the communicator. Mass communication is
directed toward relatively large and heterogeneous audiences that are
anonymous to the communicator. Messages are transmitted publicly;