Voice broadcasting is a mass communication

Mass communication

Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time...

 technique, begun in the 1990s, that broadcast

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...

s telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 message

Message

A message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. It is a vessel which provides information. Yet, it can also be this information. Therefore, its meaning is dependent upon the context in which it is used; the term may apply to both the information and its form...

s to hundreds or thousands of call recipient

Called party

The called party is a person who answers a telephone call. The person who initiates a telephone call is the calling party....

s at once. This technology has both commercial

Commerce

While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

 and community

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

 applications. Voice broadcast users can contact targets (whether they be members, subscribers, constituents, employees, or customers) almost immediately. When used by government authorities, it may be known as reverse 911 (since such notifications are intended only for use in emergencies).

Voice broadcast systems manage a database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 of phone lists as well as digitally-recorded phone messages. Using telephony

Telephony

In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....

 components, these computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s can simultaneously broadcast thousands of phone messages. Personalized information can be included in the phone messages through the integration of text-to-speech software.

Advanced systems include telephony boards with answering-machine

Answering machine

The answering machine or message machine, also known as the telephone answering machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries) and previously known as an ansaphone, ansafone, or telephone answering device is a device for answering telephones and recording callers' messages.Unlike voicemail,...

 detection, and the logic to properly play a unique message to answering machines without message truncation

Truncation

In mathematics and computer science, truncation is the term for limiting the number of digits right of the decimal point, by discarding the least significant ones.For example, consider the real numbersThe result would be:- Truncation and floor function :...

.

Interactive voice broadcasting

Interactive voice broadcasting (also referred to as interactive voice messaging) programs allow the call recipient to listen to the recorded message and interact with the system by pressing keys on the phone keypad. The system can detect which key is pressed and be programmed to interact and play various messages accordingly. This is a form of Interactive voice response

Interactive voice response

Interactive voice response is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF keypad inputs....

 (IVR).

The actions that can be programmed may include surveys

Customer Survey

"Customer Survey" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office, and the show's seventy-ninth episode overall. The episode aired in the United States on November 6, 2008 on NBC...

, information confirmation, contact preference confirmation, or navigation through a phone menu

Menu

In a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served....

. An example of the use of this technology is automated phone surveys, where professional polling

Opinion poll

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

 organizations place automatic calls to conduct surveys. Respondents are provided survey questions that are answered using DTMF-tone keypad

Keypad

A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which usually bear digits, symbols and usually a complete set of alphabetical letters. If it mostly contains numbers then it can also be called a numeric keypad...

 responses http://www.hhh.umn.edu/img/assets/23538/A%20Quick%20Guide%20to%20New%20Survey%20Methods.pdf.

More qualitative results can be captured by allowing call recipients to leave their own voice message instead of just button presses. This function can not only be used for "grassroots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

" lobbying

Lobbying

Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...

, but can be used to allow loved ones to leave voice messages for each other when separated after a disaster

Disaster

A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...

.