Reaction to Chapter One
The history of communication was a tad on the boring side in my opinion. Most people realize that people first communicated through word of mouth, then through writing, and later technology. I've learned in countless history classes about the impact of the printing press and the Socratic method. However, I did find it interesting how recent the book was written. The mentioning of the war in Iraq, the O. J. Simpson trial, the Bill Clinton scandal, and other stories caught my attention. I realized that this textbook isn't one of those everyday texts in which the context stops fifty years earlier than the present day. This book has taken into account every aspect of the media from it's early beginnings to the present day.When mentioning "high culture" vs. "low culture", I found that the skyscraper analogy actually did help me understand my personal tastes in "low culture". I find most of the things at the top of the skyscraper to be boring and old. However, I did find it interesting how the book brought up The Simpsons TV cartoon, which included references to both high and low culture. I never realized that a show I have watched for years simply for the comedic relief included so many cultural references.
I also found the Case Study: Mixed Messages Bombard Teens on Sex and Violence in the text to be quite interesting. The article explained how it is not necessarily the teenagers fault that their current sources of enjoyment seem to be radical and unwanted at the time. The last paragraph in the article really caught my attention in mentioning the survey by Students Against Drunk Driving and Liberty Mutual Insurance. They found that while teenagers were more concerned with problems like drunk driving and suicide, their parents worried about car accidents and casual sex. The fact that only 5% of parents though that their kids would drink and drive, while 21% of teenagers surveyed actually had was quite surprising. I seems to me that parents need to talk to their children more.
I agree with the argument stated that the main sources of media try too hard to entertain the masses rather than teach them. I now want to watch PBS's Frontline for recent news updates. I agree with the quote by Robert Thompson of Syracuse University, "Whatever cable does, the networks and studios will do, and right now television, just like a little kid, is dropping its pants to attract attention."
Vocabulary :
1. communication: the process of creating symbol systems that convey information and meaning
2. culture: the symbols of expression that individuals, groups, and societies use to make sense of daily life and to articulate their values
3. mass media: the cultural industries - the channels of communication - that produce and distribute songs, novels, newspapers, movies, Internet services, and other cultural products to large numbers of people
4. mass communication: the process of designing and delivering cultural messages and stories to large and diverse audiences through media channels
5. digital communication: when images, texts, and sounds are converted into electronic signals which are then reassembled as a precise reproduction of itself
6. media convergence: the appearance of older media forms on the newest media channels
7. senders: the authors, producers, and organizations of communication
8. messages: the programs, texts, images, sounds, and ads pertaining to communication
9. mass media channel: newspapers, books, magazines, radio, television, or the Internet
10. receivers: readers, viewers, citizens, and consumers of the media
11. gatekeepers: editors, producers, and other media managers
12. feedback: when citizens and consumers return messages to senders or gatekeepers through letters to the editor, phone calls, e-mail, Web site postings, or as audience members of talk shows
13. selective exposure: when audiences typically seek messages and produce meanings that correspond to their own cultural beliefs and values
14. high culture: a symbolic expression that has come to mean "good taste"; fine art
15. low culture: a symbolic expression allegedly aligned with the questionable tastes of the "masses", who enjoy the commercial "junk" circulated by the mass media
16. modern: a historical period spanning the time from the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the present; its social values include celebrating the individual, believing in rational order, working efficiently, and rejecting tradition
16: postmodern: a contemporary period spanning the 1960s to the present; its social values include opposing hierarchy, diversifying and recycling culture, questioning scientific reasoning, and embracing paradox
17: critical process: the process whereby a media literate person or student studying mass communication forms and practices employs the techniques of description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and engagement
18. media literacy: an understanding of the mass communication process through the development of critical thinking tools - description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, engagement - that enable a person to become more engaged as a citizen and more discerning as a consumer of mass media products
posted by maggie @ 7:36 PM
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