Current communication textbooks proffer conflicting, vague, or incomplete definitions of the core concepts of "mass communication" and "news," contributing to confusion among students, and subsequently in the public sphere, of what experts in the field mean when discussing news and mass media. The analysis in this article disentangles a clear definition of mass communication from the related concepts of mass media and mediated communication, as well as clearly differentiating the concept of "news" from the adjacent concepts of journalism and entertainment. Discussion concludes with implications for communication education and improved public understanding of the field.