Perception and Language Issues in the Mass Media Viewing communication from the point of view of the receiver-the person who is exposed to countless messages-raises some important questions regarding how individuals receive and process messages,how they assign meaning to those messages,and what kinds of fac- tors can increase or decrease understanding.The starting point for the processing of mes- sages is the individual act of perception.Chapter 4 discusses scientific research on the process of perception and relates it to the act of communication. Messages are often,although not always,encoded in language.Chapter 5 focuses on what perspective the area of general semantics provides for the study of encoding and in- cludes some important information on the ways language can be used and misused in the process of communication. Messages can be put together with different strategies,and some of these are basic and well known.Among the strategies for message creation are the propaganda devices identi- fied in the 1930s by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis.These devices,which are still rele- vant to communication,are discussed in Chapter 6.Analysis of propaganda led to early theories of how we are affected by mass communication