After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

1. Discuss the five characteristics of mass communication/mass media
2. Describe and apply the elements of framing to current news stories
3. Explain the process of cultivation via mainstreaming, resonance, and symbolic double jeopardy
4. Relate the process of observational learning and modeling to media violence
5. Differentiate between three ways of reading messages, using preferred, negotiated, or oppositional codes
6. Compare and contrast major theoretical approaches to mass media
7. Provide systematic understanding of a professional situation by applying theories of mass communication