The principle of persuasion is prominent in all areas of communication and is one of the areas where there are similarities between mass communication and speech communication. In speech communication, persuasion is important in public speaking, interpersonal and organizational communication, to name a few. Persuading a group to adopt a certain point of view or take a particular action is often the stated purpose of a speech or presentation. A child may be trying to persuade a parent to let him take the car or stay up late in an interpersonal interaction. Business presentations often have the purpose of persuading a group to adopt a course of action or follow through on a proposal. In mass communication, whole divisions of the field have persuasion as their purpose. The foundational motivation for advertising, for example, is persuading customers to buy a product or service. In public relations, a primary focus is persuading the public of the goodness of a company or group. Mass and speech communication share many persuasion theories and practices.
Speech and mass communication overlap not only in philosophy and ideas, but also in technologies and tools. Many technological tools are used for interpersonal communications, such as cell phones, computers and conference calls or video calls. These tools are used in business, family and romantic relationships and have changed the field of communication in these areas. These same tools are used for mass communication -- television and radio is now seen and heard over the computer; and smart phones or social networking sites like Twitter have turned what might have been interpersonal communication in the past into a mass communication medium by allowing hundreds of people to "follow" an individual Tweeter. The term used in communication studies is "convergence" -- many different mediums, tools and communication purposes are blending together and being used for different purposes simultaneously. Technology shows how interrelated the fields of mass and speech communication really are.
The world of marketing and public relations is another place where the traditional definitions of mass and speech communication overlap. In some schools, the study of public relations -- the relationship of a company or organization with its different publics -- is found in the speech communication department of a college. It's sometimes called strategic communication in those departments. In other universities, the study of public relations is firmly settled in the mass communication department, since public relations often uses mass media tools such as newspapers, magazines, television and radios. The purpose of public relations is to build relationships, and this can be an interpersonal communication job. There are many times that public relations professionals work one-on-one with stakeholders and individual customers. However, much of the time PR professionals are reaching large groups of people through a press release, event or speech.
In the past, journalism was considered exclusively a mass-media forum. Journalists wrote for newspapers or magazines, then later for radio and television. A journalist rarely, if ever, interacted with his readers or viewers, and was therefore rarely accountable to them. Additionally, the reading or viewing public knew very little about journalists personally. With the age of the Internet, however, this has changed. Journalism is now a blending of mass and speech communication, with most print and broadcast news stories being posted online, readers having opportunity to comment and interact with journalists, and many journalists writing blogs. This brings an element of interpersonal communication to the traditionally mass-communication news organization.