THREE APPROACHES TO COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH AT UCSD - ANSWERINTERPRETIVE STUDIES
SOCIAL FORMATIONS
SITUATED PRACTICES
SITUATED PRACTICES - ANSWERStudying how humans make and share meaning through
interaction with each other, their technologies, and their
environment. Media materially shape human
agency, including how and
what we can communicate
INTERPRETATIVE STRATEGIES - ANSWERAnalyzing the ways that different
cultural texts encode patterns of
meanings and how these are
communicated to audiences. Media are forms of cultural texts
that convey meanings.
SOCIAL FORMATIONS - ANSWERStudying how key
institutions,
infrastructures, and
industries shape systems
of communication in
society. Media are a special kind of
product made within
particular historical and
cultural contexts. They are
used to structure society.
Raymond Williams, 1976, "Communication," and "Media," from Keywords: A Vocabulary
of Culture and Society - ANSWERCommunication: In the main period of development of
roads, canals and
railways, communications was often the abstract general term for these physical facilities. The communications industry, as it is now called, is thus usually distinguished from
the transport industry: communications for information and ideas, in print and
broadcasting; transport for the physical carriage of people and good
Media: has had the sense of an intervening or
intermediate agency or substance
Media became widely used when
broadcasting as well as the press had become important in
COMMUNICATIONS (q.v.)
Two ways of conceptualizing communication (Sharing meanings through signs): - ANSWER1. the process of sharing/imparting or making
common
2. the process of transporting and transmitting
Communication in the 15th, 17th, 20th - ANSWERCommunicating
Biblical lessons ;Imperial communication. ; First transatlantic radio communication: 1901
;
THE TRANSMISSION MODEL &
THE CONDUIT METAPHOR - ANSWERLanguage= channel; speakers/writers put ideas into words; listeners/readers extract ideas from words
Three meanings of Media - ANSWER1. General: an intervening agency or substance
2. Technical: a specific kind of tool or device,
e.g. print, sound or visual
3. Organizational/Institutional: economic or social
formations that serve as platform for content,
e.g. "the media"
TWO FACES OF LANGUAGE - ANSWERImmaterial and
ephemeral
"Sticks and stones may
break my bones but words
can never hurt me." ; An instrument of
power
"The pen is mightier
than the sword."
Sex vs. Gender - ANSWERSex as physical, biological difference
Sexes: Male, female, intersex, trans* or
otherwise
Gender as culturally interpreted patterns
of social behavior
Genders: masculine, feminine, androgynous, queer, or otherwise
LEVELS OF COMMUNICATION/POWER - ANSWERMicropolitical -> Macropolitica; ¡ Intrapersonal
¡ Interpersonal
¡ Intragroup
¡ Intergroup
¡ Society-wide
Robin Lakoff "Language, Politics, and Power" Talking Power: The Politics of Language in Our Lives - ANSWER
George Herbert Mead 1993 "The Self, the I, and the Me" (1929) Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classical Readings Charles Lemert, ed. Boulder, CO: Westview. - ANSWER-self is a product of society-- social interaction (we are objects to other people first, then to us by adopting the perspectives of these others.) medium or this is language. - other versions of self
Erving Goffman 1959 "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - ANSWER- individual comes in contact with other ppl, individual will attempt to control or guide the impression that others might make of him by changing or fixing his or her setting/appearance/manner
- interaction
(that is, face-to-face, interaction) may be roughly defined as the reciprocal influence of
individuals upon one another's actions when in one another's immediate physical presence. [Interaction:
"the reciprocal influence of individuals upon
one another's actions when in one
another's immediate physical presence."
Performance:
"all the activity of a given participant on a
given occasion which serves to influence in
any way any of the other participants."]
TWO VIEWS OF THE SELF - ANSWERenlightenment view & symbolic interactionist view
IMPRESSION WE GIVE VS. GIVE OFF - ANSWERGiven expressions:
Seem deliberate
Given off expressions:
Seem unintentional