what do communication researchers mean when they talk about media content ?
are they talking about tv or print , news or entertainment ? do these kinds of distinctions matter to our theories of mass media ?when we talk a bout media effects , to what kind of content have different effects and result from different audience needs and organizational pressures . yet most studies do not explicitly examine content ; rather , they look at time spent with tv as opposed to other activities, the number of newspapers read , and so on . to find useful answers to our questions about content , we nee first to suggest a useful framework for discussing it .
there are countless ways in which we could attempt to categorize media content . we might lable it based on audience appeal particular effects , the medium used sexual content , or any of a dozen other ways . one common approach is based on the use , or function , that content is designed to serve . harold lasswell , in the same essay in which he proposes his components of communication model , identities three important functions that communication serves in our society : 1- the surveillance of the environment ; 2- the correlation of sparts of society in responding to the environment ; and 3- the trasmission of social heritagw from one generation to another