The current research systematically reviewed the core assumptions and basic hypotheses of Dual Coding Theory (DCT), followed by a synthetic review of the applied research in the field of mass communication. Large amount of quantitative studies were used to exemplify the following issues: two code systems— verbal and nonverbal codes; the basic units of each code system—logogens and imagens; three system-level functional relations: representational, associative, and referential processing; two basic hypotheses: conceptual-peg hypothesis and the additive effects. Next, the current research examined the applied studies in the field mass communication under the framework of DCT. Finally, research directions of DCT in mass communication were analyzed.