Genderlect Theory

Men and women are said to have different way of communication. Is this true? A study on the style and the matters concerning on gendered speech is called ‘Genderlect’ (McHugh & Hambaugh, 2010). Deborah Tannen write a book that explain why men and women talk past each other (Griffin, 2012). Tannen explained that men and women are said to be talking from “different words from different world” (Griffin, 2012). It means that men and women “just don’t understand” each other (McHugh & Hambaugh, 2010). Tannen stated that “male-female conversation is cross cultural communication (Griffin, 2012).

In the She’s the Man (2006) movie, it shows how a teenage girl copes in the boy’s world. Viola Hasting pretend to be her twin brother, Sebastian Hastings in his brother new school. Her motive is to shows people that even though she is a girl, she can beat boy’s soccer team. Since her brother is skipping the class, she got the idea to transform to be Sebastian. She learns man’s way of speaking, their walk and their attitudes. Tannen said about men and women are two different species are clearly shown in this movie (Griffin, 2012).

According to Lakoff (1975), “women use more descriptive adjectives and fewer profane words than men do; women use more polite forms; women use more intensifiers, hedges, hesitations, and hypercorrect grammar; women are more indirect in making requests and expressing opinions; women use more questioning and polite forms than men do”. The reason being perhaps according to Tannen, that woman is said seeking for human connection whereas men are only concerned with status (Griffin, 2012).

Tannen uses the term ‘rapport-talk’ for women and ‘report-talk’ for men’ (Griffin, 2012). Tannen further add in that women talk more than men. This statement can be demonstrated in the movie called It’s a Boy Girl Thing. It is a movie on how a boy and girl swap their body. Therefore, each of them has to learn how to act like a boy and girl. There is a scene where the girl (which actually a boy) have to endure doing a sleepover thing; gossiping, doing nailpolish and wearing pajamas.

Tannen also stated that men tell more stories and jokes than women (Griffin, 2012). Back to the She’s a Man movie, we can see that Viola tries to make jokes, acting tough because that is what she thinks boys do. There is also a scene where Duke, Viola’s roommate, told her unconsciously about what he thought a relationship should be. Then, he realized that he should not tell that to another guy as that may bring his status down.

In term of listening part, Tannen stated that women does the cooperative overlap - A supportive interruption often meant to show agreement and solidarity with the speaker (Griffin, 2012). Women always hold eye contact or nod when listening to the other party. They also add in their facial reaction or say umm, yeah, or it’s true words.
Women speech according to Lakoff (1975) is seen to be “deficient, as conveying weakness, uncertainty, and unimportance, in contrast to the standard or neutral language spoken by men”. At the beginning of the She’s the Man movie, Viola’s voice is not heard by the boy’s soccer team coach. When she says she wants to join the boy’s team, all the boys laugh at her.

In conclusion, Genderlect is a term suggesting that masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinct cultural dialects (Griffin, 2012). Tannen suggested that men and women speech is different. Men speech styles is called report talk while women’s rapport talk. Lakoff considered women talk as poor as compared to men. However, Lakoff work seems to be enlarging the differences between sexes by stereotyping them (McHugh & Hambaugh, 2010). Shields (1975) argued that psychological research conducted on sex differences has never been value free or neutral; historically it has been used to justify the exclusion and subordination of women.


References

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory 8th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

McHugh, M.C. & Hambaugh, J. (2010). She Said, He Said: Gender, Language, and Power. Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology Chapter 19.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454945/synopsis Retrieved on 15/04/2012

Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT)

Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) suggest that during initial interaction, individuals tend to reduce the uncertainty and increase the ability to predict the others behaviour (Dawkins, 2010).  “Uncertainty reduction is a primary motivating factors for communication” (Berger & Calabrese, 1975). Berger (1975) argues that there are three conditions that increase the need to reduce uncertainty about the new acquaintance: (1) Anticipation of future interaction, (2) incentive value, and (3) Deviance.

Berger introduced series of axiom that help explain the relationship of uncertainty and eight key variables of relationship development: verbal communication, nonverbal warmth, information seeking, self-disclosure, reciprocity, similarity, liking, and shared networks (Griffin, 2012).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n6ehVRzA-s

This essay will use Hitch (2005) movie as a media text. It will look into a scene where the main characters, Alex Hitchens and Sara Melas first meet. At a bar, Alex observes Sara from the bartender place. He saw her sitting alone. This action is what Berger called as a passive strategy, where a person is being observed. The bartender who saw this, told Alex some information about Sara. He told Alex that Sara is some kind of newspaper columnist that comes to the bar once in a while. Alex seeks for more information from the bartender. He asked what kind of drinks she usually drinks. Here, Alex is performing axiom 3: information seeking. When a person has high level of uncertainty, it will lead him to seek for more information from the others. Asking others for the person we interested in is called active strategy (Griffin, 2012).

Alex then tried to approach Sara by buying her drinks for that night. Before he could approach, some guy came first. He insists on complimenting her and talks to her even though Sara told her nicely that she is not interested in him. Alex then came in acting as her boyfriend so that the guy who flirts with Sara would go away. Since this is the first time Alex talked to her and later on have a conversation with her, that is called interactive strategy; when one talk directly to the other person (Griffin, 2012). Sara plays along with Alex, acting like she is really waiting for Alex. The guy then gets the idea that they are a couple thus left the scene.

After the guy had left them, he started to talk and introduce himself to her. They exchange information on their name and job. They then continue to talk about each other perception or thought on dating. Alex then leaves after gaining her interest by making the conversation short. A waitress then comes bringing Sara a drink. The waitress said that the drink was bought by Alex. That action elevates her interest and at the same time impresses her. Through verbal communication (axiom 1), they both now know each other’s name and job. However, the verbal communication is too short that uncertainty on each other has not yet reduces. As Berger mentioned that, the more you talk, the lesser the uncertainty is and vice versa (Griffin,2012).

In addition, during their short meeting, Alex maintained appropriate distance and give Sara a warm smile. He has a good eye contact with her which shows that he listens to her (Dawkins, 2010). He talks to her in a calm tone not. Unlike the guy that came before Alex, he keeps on attacking her with compliments and invades her space when she already told him she is not interested. In axiom 2, nonverbal warmth, it mentioned that the more one gives nonverbal warmth like what Alex did, the lesser is the level of uncertainty in that initial interaction (Griffin, 2012).

In conclusion, “Berger’s URT posits that interpersonal relationships develop as individuals reduce uncertainty about each other” (Yoo, 2009). Berger claimed that uncertainty give a position of uncomfortable to individuals that they tried to overcome it by increasing the predictability of others behaviour (Yoo, 2009). They can do so through eight key variables of relationship development: verbal communication, nonverbal warmth, information seeking, self-disclosure, reciprocity, similarity, liking, and shared networks (Griffin, 2012).

References

Dawkins, M.A. (2010). How it’s Done: Using Hitch as a Guide to Uncertainty Reduction Theory. Communication Teacher, Vol. 24, No. 3, July 2010, pp. 136 141.

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory 8th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Yoo, J.H. (2009). Uncertainty Reduction and Information Valence: Tests of Uncertainty Reduction Theory, Predicted Outcome Value, and an Alternative Explanation?

Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT)

Do we speak differently to different people? (Mirzaiyan, Parvaresh, Hashemian, & Saeedi, 2010). When one speak to a kid, one may change their voice and talk in a kid’s tone; or say Indian man who works in Brunei, they may have to speak in local language and accent in order to communicate with the local citizen. Communication Accommodation Theory suggest that “communicators are motivated to adjust their speech styles with respect to one another as a means of expressing values, attitudes, and intentions” (Streets and Giles, 1982, p. 205; see also Giles et al., 1987). In order to adjust to other party’s speech styles, the person may converge – making one’s speech styles similar to the other party – or diverge – the opposite of convergence (Buller & Aune, 1992).

CAT help “explains some of the reasons for change in conversation as individuals seek to emphasize or minimize the social differences between themselves and their interlocutors” (Mirzaiyan, Parvaresh, Hashemian, & Saeedi, 2010). Say a French man speaks in English, one sometimes can guess that this guy is a French guy perhaps through his accent or dialect. Hence, CAT states that people adjust to the other party language through the speech style, accent, or dialect of the interlocutors to gain social approval (Mirzaiyan et al, 2010).

“Converging toward the speech of another person can be regarded as a polite speech strategy while choosing a language not used by the other interlocutor can be considered as the clearest example of speech divergence” (Mirzaiyan et al, 2010). It is where the listener is trying to adapt to the conversation with intention to reduce nonverbal differences among themselves (Griffin, 2012). For example, a teacher talk to one of his student in English language, the student may also need to reply in English to. However, the student may not be fluent in speaking English, say he stutters on his words. The teacher in return may speak to him in a language that the student can speak fluently say Malay language.

Divergence is a term used to refer to the way in which the speakers accentuate and nonverbal differences between themselves and others (Giles, H., Coupland, N., & Coupland, J., 1991).  There are three types of divergence: (1) Counter-accommodation – direct ways of maximizing the differences between two speakers, (2) Under-accommodation (maintenance) – is the strategy of persisting in one original communication styles regardless of the communication behaviour of the other, and (3) Over-accommodation – demeaning or patronizing talk; excessive concern paid to vocal clarity or amplification, message simplification, or repetition (Griffin, 2012).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rl9Cxc7uZA


In the Rush Hour (1998) Movie, there is a scene where Detective Carter (Los Angeles cop) picks up Inspector Lee (a Hong Kong Detective) from the airport. One can see that there will be some culture clash scene that is about to happen. Detective Carter assumes that Detective Lee could not speak in English. Therefore, Carter speaks to Lee by emphasizing every word he is saying, as if Lee is having hearing problem. Carter may mean well – he may want to make sure Inspector Lee can catch up the words he was saying - but somehow his method may offend the partner, Lee. This is an example of divergence, specifically, over-accommodation.

There must be some reasons for why people acting – convergence or divergence – to the others. According to Griffin (2012), desire for social approval is the main motivation for convergence. However, it does not explain for why people converse in divergent way. Therefore, CAT theorists use Social Identity Theory to answer the question.

According to Tajfel and Turner, a person does not converse with others as an individual person, but as a representative of social group that define him, this is called Social Identity Theory. Tajfel and Turner further add that people used this social identity as a motivation to reinforce and defend ties to reference group and also the need to emphasize the distinctiveness. Even so, there is question of whether a person is care for his social identity or personal identity when both of identities are salient.

CAT theorist, Giles, explained that there is no strictly enforced rule but then, Initial Orientation of a person may be reliable predictor. According to Griffin (2012), initial orientation is a communicators’ predisposition to focus on either their individual identity or group identity during a conversation. Thus, there are five factors that will influence the communicator perception of a conversation as intergroup encounter: collective cultural context, distressing history of interaction, stereotypes, norms or expectations for treatment, and high group of solidarity and high group of dependence. However, Griffin (2012) stated that “No single factor determines a person’s initial orientation, but if all five factors line up in the direction of public identity, it’s almost certain that a communicator will approach a conversation with an intergroup mindset”. Put simply, people may converse in divergent way.


References

Buller, D.B. & Aune, R.K. (1992). The Effects of Speech Rate Similarity on Compliance: Application of Communication Accommodation Theory. Western Journal of Communication, 56 (Winter 1992), 37-53.

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory 8th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Mirzaiyan, A., Parvaresh, V., Hashemian, M., & Saeedi, M. (2010). Convergence and Divergence in Telephone Conversations: A Case of Persian. International Journal of Human and Social Sciences 5:3.

Social Penetration Theory

Social Penetration Theory refers to the development of social relationship from being a stranger to casual acquaintanceship and eventually to more intimate relationship that have close bond (Altman & Taylor, 1973). In other words, along the relationship, some trust will be built as people gradually reveal themselves to each other over time (Baack, Fogliasso & Harris, 2000). It is said that social penetration theory is sometimes called the ‘onion theory’ of personality, given that over time, ‘layers’ of personality is penetrated (Baack et al, 2000).

‘Layers’ of personality is penetrated when both parties self-disclose themselves. Self-disclose mean a deliberately or voluntarily reveal personal information, thoughts, and feelings to the other party (Greene, Derlega, & Mathews, 2006). As Griffin (2012) puts it, “The voluntary sharing of personal history, preferences, attitudes, feelings, values, secrets, etc., with another person; transparency.” At the beginning of a relationship with a stranger, people will self-disclose themselves by limiting themselves to fairly stereotyped and superficial behaviours (Derlega, Winstead, & Greene, n.d.). Disclosing superficial information take place rapidly but goes slowly when it comes to intimate stage in a relationship (Berkowitz, 1981).

This essay will use a movie called ‘500 Days of Summer’ as a media text. It is a story of a boy, Tom Hansen, meets a girl named Summer Finn. Day 1 is a day where Tom Hansen had a first sight love with Summer who is a new worker in the company (greeting card company). She just moved from Michigan. On day 4, in the elevator, Tom was listening to Smiths’ song through his headset and Summer came in. She heard the song and said she love the Smiths. Tom was amazed over their mutual love for Smiths.

On day 8, they meet again in a party held by the company. Tom initiates a conversation by asking a superficial or peripheral  questions to Summer such as how is she doing, when did she moved and why she moved. Summer does the same thing too by asking Tom how long did he work in the company and did he like working here. Then Tom self-disclosure that he actually studied to be an architect but then it does not work out. So she compliments him, “You’re a perfectly adequate greeting card writer”. Tom further discloses that ‘perfectly adequate Hansen’ was his nickname in college. Summer reciprocate that in college, people called her ‘anal girl’. Tom chokes his drink upon hearing that word. Summer explains that she used to be neat and organized, that is why people called her ‘anal girl’. A sudden awkward environment causes Summer to leaves the scene first.

The above story fit well with the first two observation made by Altman and Taylor: (1) Peripheral items are exchanged more frequently and sooner than private information and (2) Self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages of relationship development (Griffin, 2012). Griffin (2012) claimed that social penetration theory establish a ‘law of reciprocity’; a paced and orderly process in which openness in one person lead to openness in the other.

As time passes by, they become closer. They both share their personal thoughts and intimate stories. Tom told Summer his favourite architects and favourite spot. In return, she invited Tom to her place where very few people were invited. There, Summer told him her dreams where she was flying and felt free and safe, but realized, she was alone. She further adds that she never told anyone about that dream. Tom realized this is not something you could just tell to just anyone. It shows that Summer trust him enough that lead her to disclose that dream. According to Berkowitz (1981), what Summer just did in the above scene was that she revealed her intimate aspect of life to Tom, this is called ‘Depth’. The ‘Depth of Penetration’ refer to the extent of disclosure of one’s certain field of life (Griffin, 2012).

Depth is equally important as breadth in the process of social penetration (Griffin, 2012). Breath of penetration refers to the range of aspects in one’s life over which disclosure takes place (Griffin, 2012). In the movie, both parties self-disclosure their worldview, studies, tastes in music, which is example of breath topics.

One day, Summer asked Tom for a breakup. The reason being is that she is no longer happy with the relationship. After that day, Tom was depressed. His performance at work was poor. He keeps on thinking about Summer. Then, over time, he met her at their colleague’s wedding. Though it felt awkward to see her again after they split up, Tom tried to talk to her by pretending like nothing happened. This situation is called ‘Depenetration’; a gradual process of layer-by-layer withdrawal (Griffin, 2012). After they broken up their relationship are no more intimate, they started to avoid each other. In this case, it was Summer who avoid him by leaving the company.

In conclusion, social presentation is the process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability (Griffin, 2012). This theory explain how one gets from being stranger to casual acquaintance to close, intimate relationship. Along the process of social penetration, both parties will self-disclosure some of the aspect of their life, each parties will try to reciprocate (Law of reciprocity), and if trust is earn, one will tell other party about their more personal information (Depth). Breadth is also important in social penetration process where people will disclose variety areas in their life. However, if one or both parties started to close off part of their life, a process called Depenetration will take place (Griffin, 2012).


References


Baack, D., Fogliasso, C., & Harris, J. (2000). The Personal Impact of Ethical Decisions: A Social Penetration Theory. Journal of Business Ethics 24: 39–49.

Berkowitz, L. (1981). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 14. Academic Press, Inc: New York.

Derlega, V.J., Winstead, B.A., & Greene, K. (n.d.). Self-Disclosure and Starting a Close Relationship.

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory 8th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic Interactionism Theory is originated from the American pragmatism, George Herbert Mead, who set forward an argument that people’s selves are social products but then, these selves are purposive and creative (Bhattacahrjee, 2011). Herbert Blumer, Erving Goffman and Charles Horton Cooley are some of the notable contributors to this philosophy. There are several concepts included in this theory such as the self-concept (the ‘I’ and ‘Me’), role taking and looking-glass self. However, this essay will be focusing solely on the looking-glass self concept.

The Symbolic Interactionists, Charles Horton Cooley (1902) introduced the ‘looking-glass self’ concept. It refers to the mental self-image that result from taking the role of the other (Griffin, 2012). Cooley suggested that human beings define and develop themselves by the ways in which other people’s opinions about or reactions to them. There are three components in Cooley’s looking-glass self concept: (1) envisioning how one’s self appears to others, (2) imagining what others must think of one’s appearance, and (3) developing self-feeling, such as pride or shame, from one’s understanding of these perceived judgments by others (Bhattacahrjee, 2011).

While interacting with others, individuals monitor others’ reactions to the self and use that feedback to formulate and update their self-concept, both in terms of who they are and ‘‘how good’’ they are (Mead 1934). Individuals’ perceptions of others’ opinions about the self have a stronger impact on self-esteem than others’ actual opinions about the self (Rosenberg 1979). This is so true especially among teenagers where they are at the stage of finding their identity. These teenagers are mostly affected by opinions that come from their parents, other important adults and especially, their friends (Harter et al. 1988;
Rosenberg 1989).

In some societies, including the United States, discrimination of age mate’s self concept development is facilitated by the emergence in adolescence of peer crowds (Brown, 2008). Brown stated that crowd is reputation-based entities where it play important role in teens system in terms of one’s abilities, interests, social background (socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion), or activity patterns. Several studies consistently shows that in teens crowd there is a social status hierarchy (Brown and Lohr 1987; Deyhle 1986; Eckert
1989; La Greca et al. 2001; Larkin 1979).

Take for instance, a movie in 2004 called the Mean Girl. It is a story about girls in high school, how their social group operate affect the other girls. Others may find the movie funny, but for some teenagers, it is relatedly close to their everyday life, or perhaps, they may live the experience shown in the movie. In this movie, Cady Heron,the main character played by Lindsay Lohan, is a new girl in the North Shore High school that come from Africa. It was her first time to go to public school since she was home schooled. In her first day to school, she does not really fit in the school. She saw that there are several social status such as the jocks, asians nerd, cool asians, unfriendly black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who does not eat anything, desperate wannabes, the plastics and many more.

Later on, we will see that Cady is friend with Regina, the mean but yet the hottest and popular girl in the school. She joined Regina’s social groups called, ‘The Plastics’. Time spend with these girls teaches Cady that girls is not only fat or skinny, there could be lots of things that could goes wrong with your body. For example, in the movie, there is a scene where Regina and friends looking at the mirror and critique their images like ‘God, my hips is huge!’, ‘I’ve got man shoulders’ or ‘My pores is huge!’. This indicates that teenagers see through the mirror like ‘I am what I think you think I am’.

Since Regina took a guy that Cady likes to be her boyfriend, Cady decided to go along with Janis plan to destroy Regina. This is done by cutting Regina’s resources like her best friends, the boyfriend and her beauty. Along the way, Cady started to lose her old personality. She started to act like a mean girls herself. This further shows that self is ongoing processes. “We are not born with senses of self. Rather, self arises from the interaction with others’ (Griffin, 2012).

In conclusion, Symbolic Interactionism is the ongoing languages and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react; conversation (Griffin, 2012). Cooley’s concept of ‘looking-glass self’ describe how an individual monitors themselves from the point of views of the others. Teenagers are the best example for Cooley’s concept and impact them greatly. As mention above, the girls see differently from what they see in the mirror. Eventually, they may take the feedback of what they think the others may think they are, and develop one self.


References

Aldiabat, K.M. & Navenec, C.L. (2011). Philosophical Roots of Classical Grounded Theory: Its Foundations in Symbolic Interactionism. The qualitative Report Volume 16 Number 4.

Bhattacahrjee, D., Singh, N.K., Rai, A.K., Kumar, P., Verma, A.N & Munda S.K. (2011). Sociological Understanding of Psychiatric Illness: An Appraisal. Delhi Psychiatry Journal Vol. 14, No. 1.

Brown, B.B., Bank, H.V. & Steinberg, L. (2008). Smoke in the Looking Glass: Effects of Discordance Between Self- and Peer Rated Crowd Affiliation on Adolescent Anxiety, Depression and Self-feelings. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, v37 n10 p1163-1177.

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory 8th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Agenda Setting and Framing 

Agenda Setting Theory is concerned with explaining the extent to which the amount of media coverage of an issue has an impact upon the public’s attention to, and interest in, that issue (Watts, 2010). Media has a large influence on audiences by their choice of what stories are newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them (Watts, 2010).

News surrounding the Michael Jackson’s or MJ’s Death is an example of Agenda Setting theory.  During this historic event, the media was all about it.  The media place MJ’s Death story in a full page, colour articles and top stories on news programming that made it clear that people should place this event as important issues.  Some suggests that MJ’s death is a fake and some wondering the cause of his death. Therefore, the media aren’t very successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about. As McCombs and Shaw stated, “We judge as important what the media judge as important.”

McCombs also stated that the media can do more than that. It can influence the people and one of the ways is through framing. Framing is the selection of a restricted number of thematically related attributes for inclusion on the media agenda when a particular object or issue is discussed (Griffin, 2012). Below is an example of a story in Country X. If a journalist wants to write an article about it, how should he or she write it? What are the key ideas to frame?

The Minister of Health of country “X” is very concerned that the older citizens are spitting and urinating in public places and the younger generation believes that to be a cultural norm. This will adversely affect the image and economy of the country as foreign companies will be less willing to invest in a country that cannot manage public deviance that fosters an unhealthy environment. The government believes that public education must start immediately. At the same time, a public survey was recently conducted by an independent body and the predominant public concern is the lack of primary schools for younger children who are working and running amok in the streets, which is causing a rise in criminal activities. The public believes that public education must begin with the development of schools so that a higher educated population will curb the acts of social deviance. In the long run, these changes will attract investors and help the economy. 

A journalist may take policy agenda (government agenda) as his or her priority in an article. From the text above, he may frame on the unhealthy environment in X i.e. spitting and urinating, how this environment may affect the country’s image and economy, and also how to cater the needs of the public. He may come up with a catchy heading such as “Spitting and Urinating in Public is a Common Sight across X”.

The journalist may also need to outline the framing strategies. He could start with frame amplification, which is clarification of a set of a problems or issues. In this case, he may concentrate on public’s poor manner as one of the causes to the unhealthy environment and its economic downturn. Next, he could do frame extension. It refers to adding ideas or issues to an argument. Therefore, he should add ideas like the government of country X should introduce measures to curb the poor behaviour of the public. This may be done so by penalising the public for spitting and urinating in public, banned those behaviours, or use media to teach or create awareness on good manners to the citizens.

Hence, framing is not an option (Griffin, 2012). Journalists inevitably frame a story with the personal attributes of public figures they select to describe (Griffin, 2012). However, this does not mean, of course, that most journalists try to spin a story or deceive their audiences (Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007). In fact, framing, for them, is a necessary tool to reduce the complexity of an issue, given the constraints of their respective media related to news holes and airtime (Gans, 1979).



References

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory 8th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Scheufele & Tewksbury (2007). Framing, Agenda Setting, and Priming: The Evolution of Three Media Effects Models. Journal of Communication.

Watts, D. (2010). Dictionary of American Government and Politics. Edinburgh University Press Ltd.

Media Ecology

Say neither, it is blessed nor cursed.
Say only “It is here”.

John Brown’s Body
By Stephen Vincent Benét

Above is the point of view that McLuhan thought people should have on the modern media: it is neither blessed nor cursed, only it is here (Postman, 2000). However, Postman does not have the same view on it as McLuhan. He thought that there is no point in studying media without thinking its morality and consequences.

Postman and his colleagues in the Media Ecology Association and scholars frequently cite—that new media technologies do not just add to a culture, they transform it completely (Valcanis, 2011). There is some truth in that statement as it is clearly seen in today’s world. Technology is not something that one can or cannot live without. It is a necessity. For instance, a shoe is not just a shoe. It is part of our feet. This goes the same with the new media technology (Television, computer, Internet, social network – Facebook, Twitter and Youtube - and smartphone). It has made it easier for human to be in touch with the others at anytime and anywhere they want it to be. For example, mobile phone is one of the technologies out there that most people could not live without. Some sleep with the mobile phone next to them; some brings it with them everywhere they go, even in the toilet!

McLuhan insisted that electronic media are retribalizing the human race (Griffin, 2012).  He coined the term ‘global village’; a worldwide electronic community where everyone knows everyone’s business and all are somewhat testy (Griffin, 2012). This global village has thrust mankind into a new "information age" or era in which human communication is "growing so fast as to be in fact immeasurable," (Valcanis, 2011). Human being are constantly using technology without being aware that it has somewhat transform them. New mediums are shaping and re-shaping from day to day and even hour to hour (Valcanis, 2011). Hence, people do not shape technology, technology shape people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqp-20qJSsk&feature=related

The video above is a TV series call 'The Big Bang Theory'. In the video, one of the physicists, Raj, has started "dating" Siri, the voice of his new smart phone's voice recognition system. Since he could not talk to a woman unless he is drunk, talking to Siri makes him happy. “There’s finally a woman you can talk to,” said Howard. Raj uses Siri to act as he’s companion, as in his girlfriend. He feels much more comfortable talking to Siri instead of a real person. He thinks that Siri understand him more. Sheldon also mention that Raj is making such a great evolutionary leap by abandoning human interaction and allowing himself of having a relationship with Siri, a soulless machine.  However, Raj denies that statement. He does not seem to be aware that he is making a bond with it. Along his interaction with Siri, she has calls him sexy while he calls her darling, how can one does not realize that he is only talking to a phone? Hence, it shows that, technology does affect human being without them realize it. 

Media ecology takes a broader view, concentrating on media technologies and their place in shaping society (Valcanis, 2011). Nevertheless, Postman keeps on reminding that people see differently from the others. One does not have the same opinion on what is good or bad to them like the other. The same goes with media technology. As Postman was fond of saying, “Technology giveth and technology taketh away. . . . A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. But it is never one-sided.” (Griffen, 2012).

References

Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look At Communication Theory 8th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Postman, N. (2000). The Humanism of Media Ecology. Retrieved from http://w.media-ecology.org/publications/MEA_proceedings/v1/postman01.pdf

Valcanis, T. (2011).   An Iphone in Every Hand: Media Ecology, Communication Structures, And The Global Village. Retrieved from http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/ETC-Review-General-Semantics/254190842.html 

SEMIOTICS

Introduction

The word semiotics comes from Greek which means sign. In ancient times, the word semiotics is often used under medical circumstances. This is where sign is used to describe symptoms for diagnosis purpose. Later on, it is used in philosophy where verbal and non-verbal signs are used to represent the nature of things. For that reason, semiotics can be defined as the study of sign.

Sign can stand for more than what it seems or mean and it may relates to something else through one’s opinion or culture. For instance, a table is called TABLE. In other culture or country, they may call it differently but have the same meaning. Facial expression, body language and symbols are also part of sign. A Porsche car is often associates with luxury, expensive, class and quality. 

Sign is formed by two parts: signifier and signified. A signifier mean the things or the object itself determined by our five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. Whereas a signified is the ideas or message obtain from the signifier. A STOP sign at the road is an example of signifier. People know that a STOP sign mean you stop or else bad things happen. An accident may occur. So, this knowledge is called a signified.

Types of Signs

There are three types of sign namely, symbolic sign, indexical sign and iconic sign. A symbolic sign are abstract signs in which the relationship between the signifier and signified is subjective and based purely on principle and cultural practice.  Yin yang symbol is an example of symbolic sign. Indexical sign is where the signifier is caused by signified. For instance, smoke. Fire causes smoke. Thus, whenever one sees smoke, they think there is a fire. And the last sign is iconic sign where the signifier is similar to the signified. A portrait of a person is one good example of iconic sign.

Codes

Codes are one of the terms used in semiotics. It is a set of rules agreed upon by a community. Through codes, signs can be interpret and understand. Without knowledge of cultural codes, the interpretation of the sign cannot be understood by others. Say rupee sign. People with no knowledge of how the rupee sign look like may assume it is one of the Japanese characters.

Denotation

When a person understands sign, they tend to describe literally the meaning of the object. Hence, denotation means the literal description or dictionary definition of the sign. For example, a denotation of a rose might goes like this: Red Petals in a circular cluster is seated on a thin, green stem with leaves.

Connotation

Connotation comes after denotation process. It is a representation and concept generate from the sign. Basically, connotation is all things associate with when one sees or hears a particular sign. For instance, a rose may mean romantic gift in our culture.

Anchorage

When text and image are combined, a set of ideas or message is fixed ahead of the viewers. This is called anchorage. It is part of semiotics tool that shapes how one view or see things. The text ‘anchors’ the meaning of the image where it direct the viewers towards the signified of the image. Without it, the meaning of the image may go wild or differ from what it is supposed to mean.

Conclusion

To sum up, semiotics studies the function of sign in human culture and social interaction. It can play important role in mass media communication, politics and arts. One need to have knowledge on signifier and signified in order to be able to denote and connote the sign. Take for example, a kid. At early stage they are trying to identify several objects or signifier. Then, at later stage, when they start to grow up, they begin to denote and connote signs. Hence, understanding the signs comes first and then follows by denotation and connotation.