Class Notes 2/2/21

1. Interview with Classmates

Nawaf is from Saudi Arabia. He is a Senior Digital Comunications Major with a minor in Advertising and PR. He came to the United States in 2015. However, he currently is in Saudi Arabia due to the pandemic. He is attracted to Communications because of experience in photography and hopes to carry out a career in that. Also, he has a cat named Beasty.

Initially, I asked him about his outlook on American politics. He views there is not much difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates and parties. Neither side is more right, or more wrong than the other. He also said the more you look into the current politics of the U.S., the less you want to get into.

Then, I carried on to ask him about the politics of Saudi Arabia. Nawaf gave me a short history lesson in which he explained the government is a monarchy. There is one king, who is the lone survivor of four siblings. For Nawaf's standards, the king is quite progressive and allows a lot more freedom for women than that is advertised. For example, women can have driver's licenses and learn to drive now.

2. Class Discussion on the Article:

- According to this Times article, there seems to be a education divide closely tied with the voting pattern and party allegiance of the country.

- Referred to as the "diploma divide"

- Those who received some form of higher education show signs of siding with more left, democratic, or liberal ideas.

-Those lacking a college degree or form of higher education seem to show signs of siding with conservatism, right, or republican ideals (Trumpism).

Opinion: I personally think this is too general. Of course, I understand this does not represent all of the individuals of the country but from personal experience I think to make that divide is a little too simplified.

Class questions: Have you noticed any clear divide within your surroundings that model the diagram of how the country's past 5 years have changed?

Yes, within my own home. I do not want to out anyone of my family for their political beliefs. But in short, there is a divide between those who voted red and who voted blue. In terms of realization, it puts it into perspective what happens on the internet happens can surround you. I will only speak for myself and I am one of those who voted blue (accompanied by another relative). When it came to most of my family NOT seeing the same as I did, I could not understand. I am grateful to not succumb to those experiences I kept seeing on my social media of abandoning family members (cutting them out) because they support a certain individual Trump. It's weird to think that the political climate has turned into some psychological minefield of some sort but that is what it felt like for the past year or so building up to election year (well actually since 2016). I could not see my family with those same eyes. I have a very particular lens. I am a Native born, POC, hailing from a low income upbringing. I could not understand how my relatives, same as I, could not agree with me. Then I heard them out and realized things were more complicated then what I have perceived in digest. I started developing questions. However, I was not swayed...I was just more confused. (I can go more in depth for forever). I may not be all that eloquent in the political territory but I try to listen as much as I can.

Reading Notes:

Culture- "define culture as everything that occurs in a society—all of the customs and practices handed down from generation to generation"(4). (as defined by anthropologists)

-elite culture- "high culture"

developed in the Middle Ages to divide the cultural interests and hobbies of the elite vs folk culture of peasants. However, the elite could enjoy both, but not the other way around.

-popular culture- or "pop culture"or mass culture

defined as the culture for everyone in a society

"Pop culture scholar Ray B. Browne defined it as the cultural world around us, that is, our attitudes, habits, and actions: how we act and why we act; what we eat and wear; our buildings, roads, and means of travel; our entertainment and sports; our politics, religion, and medical practices; our beliefs and activities and what shapes and controls them. In other words, it is to us what water is to fish: It is the world we live in." (4)

the rise of political democracy, the Industrial Revolution, and public education to the masses are particularly responsible for the blur between classes and enjoying culture

However, mass culture more accurately describes that of popular culture that is mass produced

Media Literacy - the need for the consumer of media to realize the impacts of media on our culture

to be a media literate person, one must know:

- who creates the content for the media

- what the purpose of that content is

- what effects the media have on our society, the role of consumer in the mass communication process

- how media has evolved over time

THE EPS CYCLE

- the media progression cycle - describes how new mass media gets adopted into our culture

- John Merrill and Ralph Lowenstein:

-mass communication scholars who first pointed how media developed in three stages

- elite-popular-specialized cycle

- the elite stage: mass communications medium becomes appealing and consumed by the affluent leaders in the culture

-the popularized stage: As the nation goes beyond trials of poverty and illiteracy, is made available to a mass majority and is popularized

- the specialization stage: "In this stage the media are consumed by highly fragmented segments of the population, each with its own interests and cultural activities." (6)

The Communication Process

- Is ongoing and dynamic

-the way/ process individuals take to share ideas, information and attitudes.

- example job interview

-source: the person who shared information with another

-message: whatever the source attempts to share

-originates with an idea that is converted into symbols, words/ objects the source uses to represent ideas

-channel: way we send message

-receiver: individual with whom the message is intended to be shared. Without a receiver, there is no communication.

feedback- provides the source with an opportunity to determine if the message was correctly understood and, if it wasn't, with an opportunity to modify it.

Psychological noise- entering a conversation with preconceived ideas of feelings about a certain topic, internal factors that lead to misunderstandings in the communication process.

-the concept comes from consistency that people usually prefer to seek out information and ideas that align with their beliefs, attitudes and behavior, and tend to avoid info that isn't (Wilson 4).

selective perception: We tend to see, hear, and believe only what we want to see, hear, and believe

Selective exposure- holds that, as a general rule, we expose ourselves to information that reinforces rather than contradicts our beliefs or opinions

example:

"The Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget, who was influential in 20th-century educational philosophy, called this phenomenon autistic thinking and defined autism as“thought in which truth is confused with desire.” (11).

Selective retention: is the third basic psychological defense. It means that we tend to remember those things that reinforce our beliefs better than those that op-pose them

-Channel noise- refers to external interference in the communication process. The message doesn’t make it through as sent.

-Semantic noise- occurs when you clearly hear the message but can’t understand it.

-influence-in the third part of this process refers to the effect the mass-communicated message has on the audience.

-mass communication- is a process whereby professional communicators use technological devices to share messages over great distances to influence large audiences.

ex of devices: books, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, direct-mail circulars, newsletters, radio, compact disks, audiotapes, television, motion pictures, videotapes, and computer networks

Information Processing by the Media:

- Agenda setting: a process where the mass media determine what we (the people) think and worry about

the mass media agenda setting theory challenges itself to determine what will and will not be news

- Agenda setting is one of the most important aspects of mass communications ; the media isn't so effective concerning how we think, but, extremely successful in persuading the viewers what to think about according to researchers Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw

- professional communicators who work for the mass importance information based on it's media attention

- these people also decide how much time will be spent on delivering stories as well as what day it will be reported on

Gatekeeping- news must travel through a series of checkpoints (gates) before reaching the public.

"This sociological term was coined in 1947 by Kurt Lewin, who used it to describe the fact that news must travel through a series of checkpoints (or gates) before it reaches the public" (11)

It works by:

example newspaper--before reaching the public, the news item passes to the reporter as a news release or press conference. If they decide that this story is important, here are the options:

1. Rewrite press release

2. write a story about the press conference

3. dictate the item over a telephone to a rewrite person at the newspaper

-copy editors edit the item and judges its importance along with maybe even the entire editorial board,....and then finally it gets released

- television- the story must go through a similar set of gates including editors who all make judgements as to what part of the story with be aired

-if not interesting enough, or no videotape footage complements the news item it will be stopped at this gate because tv depends on visuals to keep the news interesting