week one- what is comminication?

Question 1

what is communication?

Answer 1

Transmission perspective- Communication as the transmission of information

Semiotics perspective- Communication as the production and interpretation of meanings through signs and codes (semiotics

Cultural practice perspective- Communication as a cultural practice (social semiotics)

Question 2

how did Political scientist Harold Lasswell (1948), define the transmission of information?
What did it not account for?

Answer 2

Who? 
Says what? 
In which channel? 
To whom? 
With what effect?
Doesn't account for- anything other than verbal language, doesn't mention intention, only human communication, assumes there is one speaker and one receiver, assumes direct affect, no context.

Question 3

what is Shannon and Weaver’s (1949) model? (transitional model)

Answer 3

Mathematicians working for a telephone company and looking for the most efficient way of transmitting information with the least interference (‘noise’).

information source–(message)–transmitter–channel–(noise source)– receiver– (message)– destination

Question 4

Examples of the transmission perspective

Answer 4

‘Communication takes place when there is information at one place or person and we want to get it to another place or person.’ (Psychologist George Miller)

Communication is ‘a process in which there is some predictable relation between the message transmitted and the message received’ ( Managing Information in Public Organizations )

Question 5

what is semiotics?

Answer 5

the study of signs?

Question 6

what is a sign?

Answer 6

anything humans use in a meaningful way. eg: sounds, facial expressions, gestures, body lang, imagine etc.

Question 7

what is the semiotic perspective?

Answer 7

Communication is about how meaning is shared through the production and interpretation of various types of signs.
Includes both verbal and non-verbal signs (e.g. gestures, clothes, writing, images, material objects), but focus on finding regular patterns, rules, or ‘codes’ of sign systems

Question 8

what is cultural practice perspective

Answer 8

• About all the different resources of human interconnectedness (both interpersonal and at a distance, eg: social media)
• Includes not just explicit information/messages, and verbal and non-verbal signs, but also ‘experience, emotion, and the unspoken’ (Finnegan 2002: 5)
• Focus on the contextual, negotiated, creative and deeply social, cultural and political nature of communication, rather than on fixed sign systems, rules and codes.

Question 9

what is an example of cultural practice perspective

Answer 9

Trump’s background in the entertainment business enabled him to develop a ‘new hybrid of politics and comedy’ (Hall et al. 2016: 75)
His campaign used insults, exaggerated gestures and impersonations to style himself as ‘spontaneous’ and ‘anti-establishment’

Question 10

what did a study done before the 2004 presidential elections show about biased reasoning?

Answer 10

‘The political brain is an emotional brain’ (Westen 2007)

Study during 2004 US Presidential elections showed not only (unconscious) biased reasoning but also positive reinforcement of this biased reasoning by the brain (brain scans showed the pleasure parts of the brain lighting up)
- We are much more influenced by our emotions and pre-existing values and beliefs than by facts and figures

Question 11

what did Kress say about culture and communication?

Answer 11

‘Culture and communication are two sides of the same coin’ (Kress 1998)

Every cultural practice is a communicative event
Every act of communication is a cultural event

Question 12

what is culture?

Answer 12

• Narrow meaning: culture is ‘valued learning’ (literature, art, theatre, music…)
• Broader meaning: culture is what we do in and with nature

Question 13

what is culture always about?

Answer 13

A collective phenomenon SOCIAL ORGANISATION 

Shared values, beliefs, norms, behaviour IDEOLOGY 

Learned, not inherited SOCIALIZATION

Question 14

what is social organisation?

Answer 14

 ‘Culture is always a collective phenomenon, because it is at least partly shared with people who live or lived in the same social environment’ (Hofstede 2003: 5)
 Some social groups/categories we are born into (e.g. nationality, ethnicity, language) and others we choose more freely (e.g. profession, subculture, class?, religion?)
 These different aspects of our individual culture are often in conflict and change over time

Question 15

what is ideology?

Answer 15

 Tangible culture: e.g. food, clothes, furniture, car, pets…
 Intangible culture:  Beliefs: What is the world like? What is true/false? Why do we live/die?
 Values: ‘the weights with which people evaluate or judge their worlds’ (Cushner and Brislin 1996). Often organised in binaries (good-evil, normal-abnormal, natural, unnatural…). Desirable (how the world ought to be) and desired values (what people want for themselves)
 Norms: standards for how to behave: absolute (how people feel everybody should behave) and statistical (how people actually behave)

Question 16

what is socialization?

Answer 16

Formal education
Informal learning:  How children are treated by their parents and other adults, what they are told (‘you are good/bad because —-‘), for what they are rewarded/punished, what stories they are told/toys they are given
Peers, role models, celebrities are also important vehicles of socialization