Unit 4: Communication mind map

Meaning and nature of communication, its functions, the process, types and levels, interpersonal and group communication.

Meaning and nature

Definitions of communication

Communication is the process of sending, receiving and interpreting messages, and also social interaction through messages.

• Process of sending, receiving and interpreting a message.
• Social interaction through messages.
• McQuail: a process that increases commonality but needs some commonality to occur.
• 'Ideating, searching and telling' is not an accepted definition.

Both accepted definitions stress a process between people. A definition that leaves out the receiver or the message is incomplete.

McQuail's line says communication needs some shared ground and also builds more of it.

Communication is continuous and evolving

Communication never stops, and it keeps changing as people, contexts and technology change.

• It is a continuous process.
• It is continuously evolving.
• It is not stagnant.
• New media keep reshaping it.

A message is never a single, closed act. Each reply starts the next message, and the meaning keeps developing.

Positive aspects of communication

Modern scholars treat communication as positive when it creates knowledge and supports change.

• It helps create knowledge.
• It defines human goals.
• It supports efforts to change social norms.
• It does not simply promote propaganda all the time.

These are the useful things communication does for people and for society. Making simple tasks complex is not a positive aspect.

What is true of communication

Communication is inevitable, irreversible and cultural.

• Inevitable: we cannot not communicate, and silence also speaks.
• Irreversible: a message sent and received cannot be taken back.
• Cultural: meanings come from culture.
• It is not non-social.

Because even silence carries meaning, you are always communicating. Because it cannot be undone, you must choose words with care.

What human communication involves

Human communication involves sending messages, receiving them, and using both verbal and non-verbal messages.

• Message transmission.
• Message reception.
• Verbal and non-verbal messages.
• Not only power-packed messages.

Both words and body language carry meaning. A model of communication that ignores either is incomplete.

Meanings are in people

Meanings are not in words. They are in a person's internal response to a message.

• Meaning is a person's internal response.
• The same word can mean different things to different people.
• Meaning is not only an external response.
• Shared meaning is the aim of communication.

A word is only a sign. Each listener fills it with his own experience, so two people may understand the same word differently.

Abstraction

Abstraction is forming a general idea from experience by leaving out details.

• A high order of inference drawn from experience.
• Example: from many dogs we form the idea of 'dog'.
• It is not the same as generalisation.
• It is not the same as simplification.

Abstraction lets us talk about whole classes of things. But it also drops detail, which is a common source of misunderstanding.

Communication, society and culture

Communication, society and culture are tied together. People are socialised and enculturated through communication.

• No social activity is possible without communication.
• Communication and socialisation come together.
• Communication promotes values that help enculturation.
• Language is inseparable from culture.

People learn the values of their group by communicating with it. So communication and socialisation are not two separate dimensions of society.

The arts also grow out of the basic need to communicate.

Functions and contexts

Referential function

The referential function is communication that conveys new information.

• It refers to things in the world.
• Its main aim is to inform.
• It is a function of communication, not a type.
• Other names like 'subliminal function' are not standard.

When a news bulletin tells you what happened, it is using the referential function.

Phatic function

The phatic function is communication used to open and keep the channel open.

• It begins or continues a conversation.
• Example: saying 'hello'.
• It does not carry facts.
• It does not give orders.

A greeting does not teach you anything. It tells the other person that the channel is open and that you are ready to talk.

Contexts of communication

Every message happens in a context. The main contexts are physical, cultural, social and psychological, and temporal.

• Physical context: the tangible setting.
• Cultural context: the value system.
• Social and psychological context: group norms.
• Temporal context: the sequence of events, or when the message comes.

The same sentence can mean different things in a different room, culture or moment. That is why context must be matched to the message.

The general context of communication is called the communication situation.

Cognitive domain of communication

The cognitive domain of communication is about knowledge, thinking and understanding.

• It involves matters related to knowledge.
• Emotions belong to the affective domain.
• It is not fantasy or escapism.
• It links to learning and teaching.

When a message adds to what a person knows, it works in the cognitive domain. When it moves feelings, it works in the affective domain.

Process and elements

Elements and the linear sequence

In the linear model between teacher and students, the sequence runs from encoding to the channel.

• Encode the idea.
• Turn it into symbols.
• Form a message.
• Send it through a channel.

The teacher first codes the idea, which is encoding. The idea becomes symbols, the symbols form a message, and the message travels through a channel.

When communication is complete

Communication is complete only when the receiver understands the message.

• Sending the message is not enough.
• Entering or leaving the channel is not enough.
• Understanding by the receiver completes it.
• Feedback tells the sender that it is complete.

A message that is sent but not understood has not communicated. All earlier steps are only stages on the way.

Face-to-face communication

Face-to-face communication is the richest and most successful form of communication.

• Called social integration for local, face-to-face contact.
• Channel richness is highest in face-to-face conversation.
• The chances of success are far better.
• It carries words, tone, gestures and instant feedback.

Participants can see each other, get immediate feedback and use non-verbal cues. Television, newspapers and formal reports carry less.

Signs and meaning

A sign has no meaning by itself. It gets meaning from its relations with other signs and from context.

• Signs derive meaning through the network of inter-relations.
• Signs are considered secondary products of channelisation.
• The decoder's objectivity does not decide meaning.
• This is the view of semiotics.

The word 'bank' means one thing next to 'river' and another next to 'money'. Meaning comes from the network around the sign.

Communication, language, society and civilisation

Human history moves from communication to language, to society, and then to civilisation.

• Communication first.
• Language develops from it.
• Society forms through language.
• Civilisation grows from society.

People first communicated by signs and sounds. That led to language, which let them organise into societies and build civilisation.

Variables in a model of performance

In a model of performance, the communication variables are encoding, decoding and channelisation.

• Encoding.
• Decoding.
• Channelisation.
• Passive resistance and indifference are not variables.

These three are the steps that carry the message. Passive resistance and indifference are attitudes, not variables of the model.

Metacommunication

Metacommunication is communication about communication.

• It is a message about a message.
• Example: 'let me put it differently'.
• Types: explicit, implicit, verbal and non-verbal.
• It is not always intentional and often happens spontaneously.

Explicit metacommunication comments directly on how others communicate. Implicit metacommunication is indirect, such as sarcasm. Eye behaviour can also give metacommunicative cues.

Every communication has both content, what is said, and a relationship, how the people stand to each other.

Types and levels

Intrapersonal communication

Intrapersonal communication is communication within oneself.

• Talking to oneself, contemplating or dreaming.
• Reflection, contemplation and meditation.
• The medium is the central nervous system.
• 'Intra' means within.

A person weighing a decision is sharing meaning between two positions of thought inside one person. That is intrapersonal communication.

Interpersonal communication

Interpersonal communication is direct, face-to-face communication between two persons.

• Direct and face-to-face.
• Between two persons.
• Both focused and unfocused.
• Communication with oneself is not interpersonal.

A talk can be focused on one topic or be casual chat. Interpersonal communication can be both.

Group communication

Group communication takes place among the members of a small group who interact with one another.

• Examples: a classroom discussion, committee deliberations, a team meeting.
• Not examples: posters and self-talk.
• A teacher teaching a class is group communication.
• It occurs between three or more persons.

There is no mass medium in a class. The teacher speaks and students respond, so it is group communication, not mass communication.

Levels in order of complexity

Levels of communication run from the most personal to the most complex.

• Intrapersonal.
• Interpersonal.
• Intragroup.
• Intergroup.
• Institutional.

Each level adds more people and more rules. Communication within oneself is the simplest, and communication between institutions is the most complex.

Types and their meanings

A match list often links each type of communication with its meaning.

• Intrapersonal: communicating with oneself.
• Interpersonal: face to face between two persons.
• Group: many people communicating with each other.
• Public: one person speaking to a large number of people.

Learn the number of people and the setting for each type. These two clues solve most match lists.

Formal and informal communication

Formal communication follows official channels. Informal communication follows personal ones.

• Formal: official channels, such as a memo.
• Informal: personal channels, such as a group chain.
• Outward communication goes to outside bodies.
• Inward communication comes into the organisation.

Outward communication goes from the organisation to outside bodies, such as government agencies. Inward communication comes in from outside.

Written communication as evidence

Written communication leaves a record, so it is valid as documentary evidence.

• A record can be kept and checked later.
• Verbal and gestural communication leave no lasting record.
• Non-verbal communication leaves none either.
• House journals are written communication.

Because writing lasts, courts and offices accept it as proof. Spoken words vanish unless they are recorded.

Interpersonal and group communication

Stages of interpersonal communication

Interpersonal communication moves through three stages: phatic, personal and intimate.

• Phatic: exchange of greetings.
• Personal: sharing of information.
• Intimate: sharing of deep feelings.
• There is no 'Plato stage' or 'proxemics stage'.

Relationships deepen step by step. People start with greetings, then share facts, and only then share deep feelings.

Intimacy and social emotions

Intimacy rests on mutuality, trust and affection. Social emotions arise from our relations with others.

• Components of intimacy: mutuality, trust, affection.
• Being judgemental and jealousy harm intimacy.
• Social emotions: embarrassment, guilt, shame, pride and jealousy.
• All five of these are social emotions.

A social emotion is a feeling that arises because of other people. Pride and shame, for example, depend on how others see us.

Assertive style and 'I' messages

An assertive style states one's feelings and needs directly and respectfully.

• Expresses feelings, asks for what one wants.
• Says 'no' to what one does not want.
• Acts in one's own best interest.
• 'I' messages are the powerful tool.

'I feel upset when the class is noisy' states a feeling without blaming. 'You' messages blame. 'We' and 'they' messages avoid ownership.

Message styles

People use different message styles to get others to do something.

• Threat: says what will happen if you do not comply.
• Altruism: appeals to doing it for someone's sake.
• Promise: offers a reward.
• Each style has typical wording.

In a match list, read the example sentence and ask what it offers. A threat warns, a promise rewards, and altruism asks for a favour.

Roles, groups and decisions

Group communication can help or hinder a group. Effective group communication needs equal participation.

• Promotive role: communication helps the group reach its goals.
• Disruptive and counteractive roles hinder the group.
• Equal participation makes group communication effective.
• Group communication helps keep socio-emotional concerns in balance.

Equal participation gives every member a voice. Hasty decisions, rigid hierarchy and ignoring feedback harm a group.

Types of groups

Groups are classified by the reason their members come together.

• Primary group: membership based on sentiment, such as a family.
• Self-help group: all members share a common problem.
• Learning group: aim is to improve members' skills.
• Public group: members interact for the benefit of an audience.

In a match list, find the reason for membership. Sentiment points to the primary group, and a shared problem points to the self-help group.

Organisational communication

Grapevine communication

The grapevine is the informal flow of information among employees.

• Informal communication, outside official channels.
• Driven by the social networks of employees.
• Helps management know morale, key issues and anxieties.
• Can also spread rumours.

Employees pass news by personal contact. Managers who listen to the grapevine learn how staff really feel.

Flow of organisational communication

Communication in an organisation flows in set directions, and its nature is applied.

• Downward flow suits a line organisation.
• Orders go from superior to subordinate.
• Organisational communication is applied in nature.
• House journals are written communication.

In a line organisation, authority runs from top to bottom. So instructions flow downward. The communication is used to get work done.

The models of communication, how signs carry meaning, language, and the main theories.

Models of communication

Aristotle's model

Aristotle's model is the oldest model of communication. It has a speaker, a speech and a listener.

• The speaker, the speech and the listener.
• It comes from ancient Greece.
• It is a model of rhetoric, or public speaking.
• It is the earliest in any chronology.

The model asks who is speaking, what is being said and who is listening. It works best for one person addressing an audience.

Lasswell's model

Lasswell's model describes communication through five questions, proposed in 1948.

• Who.
• Says what.
• In which channel.
• To whom.
• With what effect.

Each question stands for a part of the process. Who is the communicator, what is the message, the channel is the medium, to whom is the audience, and the last is the effect.

'Under what circumstances' is not part of Lasswell's formula.

Shannon and Weaver model

Shannon and Weaver's model is a linear, mathematical model of 1948-49. It introduced noise as a variable.

• Source, transmitter, channel, receiver.
• A linear and mathematical model.
• Noise disturbs the message on its way.
• The expected result is semantic accuracy.

Noise means anything that disturbs a message between the sender and the receiver. This model first treated noise as an important variable.

The linear model

In the linear model, a message moves one way from the sender to the receiver, with no feedback in mind.

• One-way flow.
• A teacher who presents without caring about the effect is using it.
• Best suited for persuasion.
• Extensively used in international propaganda.
• Gives clear-cut, demarcated results.

Because it does not use feedback, it does not quicken the feedback or support a two-way exchange. It suits persuasion, where the sender controls the message.

Interactional and transactional models

The transactional model shows communicators sending messages and feedback at the same time. Each person is both sender and receiver.

• Transactional: simultaneous sending of messages and feedback.
• Each person is a sender and a receiver at once.
• Meaning is built together.
• Teacher forming six groups for discussion is a transactional case.

In a group task, everyone sends and receives ideas together. That is why the transactional model suits group discussion better than the linear model.

The circular and other models

The circular model of Osgood and Schramm shows messages going back and forth. Other models were added through the 1950s.

• Osgood and Schramm: the circular model.
• Newcomb: 1953.
• Gerbner: 1956.
• Westley and MacLean: 1957.
• Dance: the helical model, 1967.

Each new model added feedback or context to the earlier ones. The helix of Dance shows communication growing in a spiral, not a closed circle.

Chronology of models

Chronology questions ask you to arrange models by the year they were proposed.

• Aristotle: ancient Greece.
• Lasswell: 1948.
• Shannon and Weaver: 1948-49.
• Newcomb: 1953; Osgood: 1954.
• Gerbner: 1956; Westley and MacLean: 1957; Dance: 1967.

The pattern is simple. Aristotle first, then Lasswell and Shannon and Weaver together, then the 1950s models, and Dance last.

Educational communication

Modern educational communication is teleologic, which means goal-directed.

• Planned to reach set learning goals.
• Teleologic means aimed at a purpose.
• Not a random exchange of information.
• It links to the idea of classroom communication.

A teacher plans a lesson to reach learning goals. So educational communication has an aim built into it from the start.

Signs and meaning

Semiotics and semiology

Semiotics is the study of signs. Peirce and Saussure studied them in different ways.

• Charles Peirce: semiotics, with a quasi-scientific approach.
• Ferdinand de Saussure: semiology.
• Saussure: a sign has a signifier and a signified.
• John Locke is named as a pioneer who set semiotics within communication.

Peirce treated semiotics as a kind of logic and gave a formal classification of signs. Saussure used the word semiology for the study of language as a system of signs.

Orders of signification

Roland Barthes described three orders of signification: denotation, connotation and myth.

• First order: denotation, the plain meaning.
• Second order: connotation, the associated meaning.
• Third order: myth.
• Credibility and attribution are not orders of signification.

A rose denotes a flower. It connotes love. A myth is a story society builds on that connotation. Each order adds a layer.

Symbols are arbitrary and conventional

Symbols have no natural link to what they stand for. A community agrees on their meaning.

• Arbitrary: no natural link between a word and the thing.
• Conventional: a community agrees on the meaning.
• Different symbols can represent the same object.
• Communication is a symbolic process.

The word 'tree' has no tree-like quality. English, Hindi and French use different words for the same object.

Codes and reception

A code is a system of signs. Encoding creates a message with a code and decoding reads it.

• Encoding: creating a message according to a code.
• Decoding: using the code to decipher the message.
• Polysemy: many meanings.
• Langue: a linguistic system.

Codes are never neutral. People receive them through their own background, and codes carry the viewpoint of those who made them.

Stuart Hall's three codes of reception are dominant, negotiated and oppositional.

Language and meaning

Components of language

The four main components of a language are phonetics, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

• Phonetics: the sounds.
• Syntax: the structure of sentences.
• Semantics: meaning.
• Pragmatics: meaning in use.

Discourse is usually treated as a level above the sentence, not as one of the four basic components.

Language and the social world

Language is a part of society, and it helps to build the social world.

• Language of communication constitutes the social world.
• Language and other symbols are social products.
• Metaphors are imprecise in nature.
• Communicative language suffers from emotional loading and polarised words.

Language carries the beliefs, values and relationships of people. A metaphor compares one thing to another without being literal, so it is not exact.

Grice's maxims of conversation

Grice gave four maxims of conversation: quantity, quality, relation and manner.

• Quantity: give the right amount of information.
• Quality: say what you believe is true.
• Relation: be relevant.
• Manner: be clear.

These are the unwritten rules that make a conversation work. The quantity maxim asks for not too little and not too much.

Narration, discourse and genre

Narration is how a story is told. Discourse is the actual words used. Genre is the type of work.

• Narrative: a sequential account told from a particular viewpoint.
• Narration has a beginning, middle and end.
• Narration has causal development between sequences.
• Genre comes from French and means type.

A story has content, and discourse is the way it is told. Genre sorts works into types such as tragedy, comedy or action.

Theories and approaches

Traditions of communication theory

The traditional approaches to communication theory are the rhetorical, semiotic and phenomenological traditions.

• Rhetorical: communication as a practical art.
• Semiotic: communication through signs.
• Phenomenological: communication through experience.
• Machine-to-machine and machine-to-man are modern types, not traditions.

Each tradition sees communication differently. The rhetorical tradition treats it as an art of persuading, and the semiotic tradition treats it as mediation by signs.

Phenomenology and parsimony

Phenomenology rests on personal experience. A good theory passes the test of parsimony, which means logical simplicity.

• Phenomenological interpretation: personal experience.
• Test of parsimony: logical simplicity.
• The simpler of two explanations is better.
• Not collective or secondary experience.

Phenomenology studies how people experience things. Parsimony is the rule that a theory should not be more complex than needed.

Information theory

In information theory, a completely predictable situation has negentropy. Entropy measures uncertainty.

• Entropy: the measure of uncertainty.
• Negentropy: the measure of order and predictability.
• A predictable situation carries no new information.
• More surprise means more information.

If you can already guess a message, it adds nothing new. So a fully predictable situation is one of high order and low information.

Disciplines and communication

Each discipline studies communication from its own angle.

• Anthropology: culture.
• Sociology: society.
• Psychology: motivation.
• Management: systems.

Communication is a field that borrows from many subjects. A match list asks you to pair each subject with the part of communication it studies.

Body language, voice, space, time and touch; spoken and written words; listening; communication skills.

Non-verbal communication

Nature of non-verbal communication

Non-verbal communication carries meaning without words. It is informal, mostly involuntary, contextual and symbolic.

• Informal and spontaneous.
• Mostly involuntary.
• Contextual: meaning depends on the situation.
• Symbolic: gestures stand for ideas.
• Not precise, and not culture-free.

One gesture can mean different things, and gestures differ from culture to culture. So non-verbal communication is rich but not exact.

Emotions have been communicated mainly through non-verbal means throughout human history. Non-verbal expression comes before speech in a child's life.

How non-verbal cues work with words

Non-verbal cues can stress, repeat, replace or contradict what is said.

• Accentuation: stressing a word.
• Repetition: repeating the verbal message.
• Substitution: replacing words.
• Contradiction: saying the opposite of the words.
• Supervision is not one of the roles.

Verbal communication becomes more powerful when non-verbal messages go with it. A nod can repeat a yes, and a smile can contradict an angry word.

Kinesics and body language

Kinesics is the study of body movement and body language: gestures, posture and facial expressions.

• Body language differs from culture to culture.
• It shows social status, level of involvement and emotional quotient.
• Body movements have potential meanings.
• Kinesics can be analysed systematically.

Body language belongs to a culture. A gesture that means yes in one place may mean no in another.

Gestures, mimics and pantomimics

Gestures, mimics and pantomimics are different parts of body language.

• Oculesics: study of eye movement.
• Mimics: movements of the face.
• Pantomimics: movement and position of the whole body to tell a story.
• Gesture: movement of the arms and hands.

In a match list, pick the body part in the description. Face is mimics, hands and arms are gesture, and the whole body is pantomimics.

A thumbs up is a gesture. Posture, gait and dress are also non-verbal practices.

Proxemics and territoriality

Proxemics is the study of the use of space in communication.

• Crowding.
• Territoriality: claiming and defending a personal space.
• Personal space.
• Facial expressions and eye contact are not proxemics.

How close people stand tells us about their relationship. Territoriality is the term used for behaviour related to personal space.

Haptics

Haptics is the study of communication through touch.

• Tactile communication.
• Examples: a handshake or a pat on the back.
• Chronemics is time and proxemics is space.
• Vocalics is the study of the voice.

The word comes from the sense of touch. A handshake carries a message even if no words are spoken.

Chronemics

Chronemics is the study of time as part of communication.

• How people use and perceive time.
• Punctuality and delay send messages.
• Monochronic: one thing at a time.
• Polychronic: many things at once.

Arriving late or early says something. Chronemics also covers what people mean by time, which is the psychology of time.

Paralanguage

Paralanguage is the vocal layer that goes with words but is not words.

• Pitch of the voice.
• Tone and volume.
• Use of pauses.
• Rate of speech.
• Hesitation noises.

Paralanguage tells us how something is said. Personal space belongs to proxemics, and eye contact belongs to body language. Internal and external noise are disturbances, not paralanguage.

Colour, dress and artefacts

Colour, dress and objects also communicate without words.

• Colour gives aesthetic and cultural codes.
• A dress code signals identity, status or profession.
• Artefacts are objects and images with a cultural context.
• Gait and posture are also non-verbal.

Societies attach meanings to colours, such as white for peace or red for danger. These meanings are cultural codes.

Micro expressions and mirroring

Micro expressions are very quick facial expressions. Mirroring copies another person's non-verbal behaviour.

• Micro expressions are fleeting and involuntary.
• They show true feelings for a split second.
• Mirroring builds rapport and comfort.
• Mirroring facilitates compliance.

A micro expression lasts a fraction of a second. Mirroring posture and gestures makes the other person comfortable, so the person is more willing to agree.

Symbols and emoticons

Non-verbal symbols can be concrete or abstract. On the internet, emoticons replace gestures.

• Concrete symbol: represents an object.
• Abstract symbol: represents an idea or thought.
• Emoticons substitute for gestures online.
• Sensory phrases such as 'that looks good to me' draw on the senses.

A picture of a tree stands for a tree, so it is a concrete symbol. A symbol for peace is an abstract symbol.

Spoken and written words

Words as symbols

In verbal communication, words act as symbols.

• Words stand for ideas and things.
• They are not just filler or decoration.
• Pitch is the highness or lowness of the voice.
• Varying speed and tone keeps students alert.

A good verbal technique in teaching is to vary the speed and tone of the voice. A presentation without pauses or with slow speech becomes dull.

Oral communication

Oral communication is spoken. It is spontaneous and natural, but it leaves no permanent record.

• Advantages: spontaneous, natural, easy to follow.
• Disadvantage: spoken words vanish.
• Effective oral communication needs self-confidence.
• It also needs consistent practice and knowing the audience.

Words spoken by the mouth vanish into the air. That is the main disadvantage. Long pauses, aggressive questioning and a business-like approach do not help.

Written communication and effective writing

Writing leaves a record, so it is valid as evidence. Effective writing is clear, concise and correct.

• Clarity.
• Conciseness.
• Correctness.
• Avoid hyperbole, too many adjectives and complex sentences.

Clear, concise and correct writing is easy to understand and does not waste words. Written records can be checked later.

Listening and skills

Stages of listening

Listening goes through a fixed order of stages.

• Hearing.
• Understanding.
• Remembering.
• Interpreting.
• Responding.

First we hear the sound, then we understand it, remember it, interpret it and finally respond. A break at any stage weakens listening.

Types of listening and good listeners

Critical listening means judging and assessing what we hear without being negative.

• Critical listening: analyse accuracy, legitimacy and value.
• A good listener keeps quiet while listening.
• A good listener shows interest in the speaker.
• A good listener keeps an open mind.
• Do not listen with a negative attitude or focus on dress.

Critical listening is not fault-finding. It means checking the message for accuracy and value.

Factors that affect listening

The basic factors of listening are the listener's self-interest, the speaker and the speaker's style.

• Self-interest of the listener.
• The speaker.
• The style of speaking.
• Facts and atmosphere are not counted as basic factors in the key.

People listen more when something matters to them. The speaker and the style also decide how well a message is heard.

Communication skills

Communication skills include the four language skills and skills such as public speaking and interviewing.

• The four language skills are listening, speaking, reading and writing.
• Public speaking needs confidence.
• Leadership is about problem-solving.
• Self-presentation represents a credible person.
• Interviewing is done to gain information.

Learners develop communication skills through logical argumentation, sharing of doubts and understanding human psychology. A vertical flow of information and restricted expression block them.

What blocks communication, how to make communication effective, and communicating across cultures.

Barriers and noise

What barriers are

A barrier is any obstacle that comes in the way of communication.

• Barriers may be physical, mechanical, psychological, cultural or linguistic.
• They block or distort the message.
• Time is not a social-psychological barrier.
• Barriers can arise at the encoder, the channel or the decoder.

Barriers are named by where they come from. A faulty microphone is mechanical. Prejudice is psychological.

Types of barrier

Barriers are sorted into semantic, physical, psychological and cultural.

• Semantic barrier: misunderstanding of words or phrases.
• Physical barrier: noise or distance.
• Psychological barrier: emotion, attitude, prejudice.
• Cultural barrier: failure to understand the receiver's culture.

A semantic barrier arises when the receiver does not understand the meaning. Failure to understand the receiver's culture leads to miscommunication.

Types of noise

Noise is anything that disturbs a message. It can be physical, physiological, psychological or semantic.

• Physical noise: outside the receiver, such as bright lights.
• Physiological noise: from the body, such as fatigue.
• Psychological noise: prejudice and bias.
• Semantic noise: linguistic influence, or words not understood.

Ask where the disturbance comes from. Outside the receiver is physical. From the body is physiological. From the mind is psychological. From the meaning of words is semantic.

Semantic and language barriers

Semantic barriers arise from words that the receiver cannot interpret correctly.

• Polysemy: one word with many meanings.
• Jargon: words the receiver does not know.
• Clichés: overused phrases that make the message dull.
• Semantic distortion is a major barrier in organisations.

Simple language and easy sentences help communication. Polysemy, jargon and clichés block it.

Psychological barriers

Psychological barriers are in the mind. They bias how a message is read.

• Bias and prejudice.
• Pre-judgement: the receiver has already made up his mind.
• Communication apprehension is social anxiety.
• Superficial interaction makes good predictions difficult.

In a classroom, psychological barriers make students or teachers interpret a message in a biased way.

Selectivity and selective perception

People hear what suits their self-image and beliefs. This is communication selectivity and selective perception.

• We listen to messages that boost our self-image.
• We reject or misread messages that threaten it.
• Selective perception: recasting a message to fit one's beliefs.
• It acts as a filter on messages.

Two people can read the same message and take different meanings because each filters it through his own beliefs.

Barriers at the encoder, channel and decoder

A barrier can arise at the sender, in the channel or at the receiver.

• At the encoder: the sender has not formed the idea properly.
• At the transmission level: a fault in the mechanical or electrical channel.
• Physical environment: temperature, lighting, loud noise.
• Information overload leads to delayed feedback.

Ask which stage of the process fails. If the idea was badly formed, the fault is at the encoder. If the equipment fails, it is at the transmission level.

Overcoming barriers

To overcome barriers, listen with focus and respect each other's differences.

• Focused listening.
• Respect for differences.
• Neglecting semantic noise, a top-down command structure and clichés add barriers.
• Using one's own language for comfort adds barriers.

Paying full attention reduces misunderstanding. Respecting differences reduces cultural and psychological gaps.

Negative communicators

Negative communicators express pessimism, intolerance and distrust.

• Pessimism.
• Intolerance.
• Distrust.
• Verbal sweetness and optimism belong to positive communicators.

A negative communicator spreads doubt and blocks open exchange. A positive communicator is hopeful and trusting.

Effective communication

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand how another person feels. It is the root of communication compatibility.

• Empathy is essential for effective communication.
• It links teacher and students.
• Communication compatibility between individuals is rooted in empathy.
• Empathetic and pragmatic is the best classroom approach.

People who understand each other's feelings communicate smoothly. That is why empathy ties the communicator and the communicatee.

Mind to mind communication

'Mind to mind' communication is the sharing of meanings through the setting, beliefs, values and context.

• Physical settings.
• Shared beliefs.
• Values.
• Context.
• Noise manipulation is not one of them.

Meanings pass between minds when people share a setting and shared beliefs and values. Noise only gets in the way.

What makes communication effective

Effective communication needs knowledge and skills, with effective speaking and body language.

• Effective communication needs knowledge and skills.
• Effective verbal communication means effective speaking.
• Effective non-verbal communication uses body language.
• A barrier is an obstacle, such as insufficient information.

In a match list, effective verbal communication goes with speaking and effective non-verbal communication with body language. A barrier goes with insufficient information.

Culture and ethics

Communicating across cultures

To communicate across cultures, respect differences, know the other's context and state facts.

• Promote an eco-system of mutual respect.
• Know the cultural context of the other people.
• State the facts.
• Do not impose your own interpretation.
• Do not forget your own cultural identity.

The right suggestions build understanding. Pushing your own interpretation or hiding your identity does not.

Ethnocentrism and communication distance

On the continuum of ethnocentrism, communication distance runs from equality to disparagement.

• Equality.
• Sensitivity.
• Indifference.
• Avoidance.
• Disparagement.

The sequence moves from the most accepting attitude to the most hostile. Equality is the most accepting and disparagement is the most hostile.

Emic and etic approaches

The emic approach looks from inside a culture. The etic approach looks from outside and is universal.

• Emic: specific to one culture.
• Etic: universal in character.
• Etic looks for features that apply across cultures.
• Enculturation is learning one's own culture.

Think of the insider and the outsider. The insider describes one culture. The outsider compares across cultures.

The Golden Mean in communication ethics

The Golden Mean means virtue lies between two extremes. Aristotle and Confucius both supported it.

• Aristotle supported the Golden Mean.
• Confucius supported a similar idea.
• It is a rule of moderation.
• Used in communication ethics.

Moderation in speech means avoiding too little and too much. The Asian scholar who supported it like Aristotle was Confucius.

How teachers and students communicate: approach, effectiveness, feedback, power and technology.

Nature and approaches

Nature of classroom communication

Classroom communication is purposeful, pragmatic and contiguous, and it is shaped by social and institutional demands.

• Purposeful: it has teaching and learning aims.
• Pragmatic: practical and works in real situations.
• Contiguous: between people who are physically close.
• Not like a computer programme, and not dictatorial.
• Pre-decided by social and institutional demands.

Contiguous means being next to each other. The curriculum and the aims of education come from society, so classroom communication is partly pre-decided.

The teacher and the medium

In a class, the teacher controls himself, the mode of communication and the method of delivery. Classroom speech is a non-technical medium.

• The teacher has control over self, mode and method.
• Classroom speech is a non-technical medium.
• Spoken and written words are two of many media.
• Classroom communication is based on intensive listener focus.

Technical media use machines, such as radio or television. Natural speech uses none. So it is a non-technical medium.

Approaches to classroom communication

The best approach in a classroom is empathetic and pragmatic. The relational and rhetorical approaches look at it in different ways.

• Empathetic and pragmatic is the most appropriate approach.
• The relational approach comes from interpersonal communication.
• The rhetorical approach treats teachers as influencing agents of students.
• Domineering and conformist approaches are too rigid.

An empathetic teacher understands the students' feelings. A pragmatic teacher is practical and realistic. The rhetorical approach sees communication as a way of influencing others.

Levels of meaning and fields of experience

Classroom communication works when the fields of experience of teacher and students overlap.

• Fields of experience: background, knowledge and experience.
• Communication takes place at the level of surface meaning.
• Connotative communication in a classroom is implicit.
• The zone of proximal development comes from Lev Vygotsky.

A teacher should link new ideas to what students already know. The zone of proximal development is the gap between what a learner can do alone and with help.

Making it effective

Effects of effective classroom communication

Effective classroom communication makes teaching efficient, builds interest and improves interaction.

• Efficient teaching.
• Interest in learning.
• Interaction between teacher and students.
• It can transform the teaching-learning process.
• It helps students internalise knowledge, subject matter, articulation and language felicity.

When messages are clear, students understand more and take part more. It is not teacher-centric, and it does not aim at minimal assessment.

Dynamics of good classroom communication

Good classroom communication needs motivation, organisation and participation.

• Motivation.
• Being organised.
• Participation.
• Students' commitment shapes classroom interaction.
• Motivation and communication efficacy are inter-related.

A motivated learner communicates better, and good communication motivates. Indifference, exclusivity and gendered views harm communication.

Adapting the message to the audience

A basic principle of effective communication is to adapt the message to the audience.

• Adapt the message, not the accent or mannerism.
• Make the content relevant.
• Content for a specific user leads to personalisation.
• The teaching style a teacher prefers strongly affects effectiveness.
• Advocacy is a key element.

A teacher changes the content, language and examples to suit the listeners. Content made for one user is called personalisation.

Strategies of effective teachers

Effective teachers use affinity-seeking, immediacy behaviours and humour, and use redundancy and non-verbal cues well.

• Affinity-seeking strategies, which build liking.
• Immediacy behaviours, which show closeness.
• Humour.
• Proper use of redundancy: repeating key ideas.
• Immediacy of feedback and non-verbal cues.

Over-emphasis on certain words and use of gobbledygook, which is confusing jargon, harm communication.

Structuring a lesson

Rhetorical techniques structure a lesson so that it holds attention and flows well.

• Relate the day's topic to students' interests.
• Make smooth transitions between ideas.
• Mini-summaries are called verbal signposting.
• Avoid scattered information.
• Slang is not suitable in formal teaching.

Verbal signposting tells students where the talk has reached, like road signs for a listener. Academic decency asks teachers to avoid slang.

Modes of classroom communication

Ideas can be expressed in the iconic, associational and symbolic modes.

• Iconic mode: pictures and images.
• Associational mode: linking new ideas with known ones.
• Symbolic mode: words and symbols.
• Iconic production includes graphics.

Charts, diagrams and pictures are iconic. Analogies compare something unfamiliar with something familiar, so they act as supporting evidence.

Technology in the classroom

Communication technology brings new forms of expression. It suits large mixed classes but may cause over-stimulation.

• Technology presupposes new forms of expression and applications.
• Technology-enabled communication suits large classes with mixed performance.
• In the digital era there is a fear of over-stimulation.
• Instruction in distance education is structured and interactive.

When many students perform at different levels, a teacher cannot attend to each one. Technology-enabled communication gives all the same educative interaction.

Skills for educational communication

Educational communication depends on verbal skills, body language and a study of the audience.

• Verbal communication and body language.
• Analysing the needs of the audience.
• Effective educational communication is continuous.
• Successful teacher communication is central to classroom management.

Understanding students and listening to them are connected. Teachers who do not know their students find it hard to predict how they will respond.

Feedback and power

Feedback in the classroom

Feedback makes classroom communication circular, complete and interactive.

• Circular.
• Complete.
• Interactive.
• Not linear and not disorganised.
• Immediate and regular feedback helps teachers.

Feedback lets the receiver respond to the sender, so communication stops being one-way.

Types of feedback

Feedback can be positive, negative, confirmatory or corrective.

• 'No, you are incorrect' is negative feedback.
• Corrective feedback also gives the right answer.
• Linking learning to a gain is positive reinforcement.
• Negative criticism causes justification, defensiveness and de-motivation.

'When you learn this, you will be able to carry out your project' links learning to a desirable outcome. That encourages learners, so it is positive reinforcement.

Signs of mis-communication

Irrelevant questions are a powerful indicator of mis-communication.

• A volley of irrelevant questions.
• It shows students have not understood.
• Yawning and refusal to participate show boredom.
• Superficial interaction makes predicting students' behaviour difficult.

Relevant questions show involvement. Irrelevant ones show confusion. A teacher should check understanding when this happens.

How students seek information

Students seek information in four ways: overt, indirect, third party and testing.

• Overt: asking directly.
• Indirect: hinting or asking casually.
• Third party: asking someone else.
• Testing: checking the teacher's reaction.

Not every student asks the teacher directly. Some wait for a hint or ask a friend, so a teacher should notice these signs.

Listening and discussion in class

An effective listener notes the content and the distractions. A lively discussion is horizontal communication.

• Pay attention to academic content.
• Be aware of communication distractions.
• Animated teacher-student discussion is horizontal communication.
• Learner communication can challenge long-held attitudes.

A lively discussion between a teacher and students sends ideas in both directions between people of about equal standing. That is horizontal.

Bases of interpersonal power

The primary bases of interpersonal power in the classroom are coercive, reward, referent and legitimate power.

• Coercive power.
• Reward power.
• Referent power.
• Legitimate power.
• Recreational power is not a base.

These bases describe why students accept a teacher's influence. Referent power comes from the students' admiration of the teacher.

Social constructivism in the classroom

Social constructivism says that knowledge is built through social interaction. It fits classroom communication.

• Knowledge is built by learners and teachers together.
• Ideas are shared and discussed.
• It can be applied to classroom communication.
• Hegemony and ritualistic theory deal with power and ritual in society.

In a class where students and teacher discuss ideas, meaning is built together. That is why social constructivism is the theory that applies.

What mass communication is, its features and functions, audiences, propaganda, and analog, digital and new media.

Features and functions

What mass communication is

Mass communication is communication in which a source, usually an organisation, uses a technology as a medium to reach a large audience.

• A source, typically an organisation.
• A technology as the medium.
• A large and diversified audience.
• It delivers information, ideas and attitudes.

The audience is large and varied, and the message goes through a medium made for that purpose. A talk in a class is not mass communication, because there is no mass medium.

Characteristics of mass communication

Mass communication has professional sources, a medium, rapid transmission, a heterogeneous audience and delayed feedback.

• Messages are prepared by professionals.
• A medium is used, and messages travel rapidly.
• The audience is heterogeneous and anonymous.
• It is public, impersonal and has gatekeepers.
• Feedback is delayed, not immediate.

It is not face-to-face and not personal. Feedback is slow, and it is not free of cost. Limited sensory channels are also a characteristic.

Essential elements and features

The essential elements of mass communication are a technological medium, a large audience, professional communicators and an organisational structure.

• Technological medium.
• Large audience.
• Professional communicators.
• Organisational structure.
• Features: structured institutional system, complex reproduction, commodification of messages.

Commodification means messages are sold, such as airtime and space. Personalised communication and space-time limits are not features of mass communication.

Functions of mass media

Lasswell and Wright listed the functions as surveillance, correlation and transmission of social heritage. Other lists add inform, educate, persuade and entertain.

• Surveillance of the environment.
• Correlation: interpreting information and linking parts of society.
• Transmission of social heritage.
• Inform, educate, persuade, entertain.
• Advertising is also a function.

Infrastructure building and tax collection are functions of government, not media. Video cameras and lapel microphones are equipment, not functions.

Gatekeeping

Gatekeeping is the filtering of information and content before it reaches the audience.

• Editors and teachers decide what gets through.
• It applies to mass and classroom communication.
• It shows the media's control on society.
• It is not the audience's voice or feedback.

Someone always decides what the audience sees and hears. That power over selection is gatekeeping.

Audiences of mass media

Audiences of analog media are large, heterogeneous and anonymous. Audiences are also active.

• Analog media audience: large, heterogeneous, anonymous.
• Not personally addressable.
• Audiences are active: they use media as they like.
• Audiences talk to each other and to the creators of content.
• Digital media audiences are affected by fragmentation.

If mass media have no pre-determined function for everyone, it means audiences choose and use them actively. Social media makes this easier.

The selectivity process

Audiences filter media messages in stages: selective exposure, attention, perception and retention.

• Selective exposure: choosing what to expose oneself to.
• Selective attention: noticing what suits us.
• Selective perception: interpreting in our own way.
• Selective retention: remembering what fits.

Selective exposure means we pick media that agree with our beliefs. Selective retention is remembering things that support those beliefs, and selective perception is seeing them in a supportive way.

Mass versus interpersonal communication

Mass communication is rapid and public, and new technology has blurred the line between interpersonal and mass communication.

• Mass communication: rapid and public.
• Social media and messaging apps blur the distinction.
• Immediate feedback is an advantage of interpersonal communication.
• Delayed feedback is a feature of mass communication.

A post can be personal and still reach thousands. That mix is why the old line between the two types is less clear today.

Disciplines behind mass communication

Mass communication has drawn on anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy and political science.

• Anthropology, sociology and psychology.
• Also philosophy and political science.
• Physics, chemistry and material science have not contributed.
• Social medicine and defence studies are not counted.

Mass communication studies people and society, so it borrows from social sciences. Natural sciences did not shape it as a discipline.

Propaganda and politics

Propaganda and truth

Propaganda blurs the line between truth and falsehood in order to persuade.

• Communication can inform, persuade and misinform.
• Propaganda blurs truth and falsehood.
• It does not make the line clear.
• National-level propaganda mixes truth and falsehood.

A statement that propaganda makes the line transparent is false. Propaganda works because the audience cannot easily tell which parts are true.

White, black and grey propaganda

Jowett and O'Donnell describe three forms of propaganda by how clearly the source is known.

• White propaganda: the source is clearly known.
• Black propaganda: the source is hidden or false.
• Grey propaganda: the source is not clear.
• Disinformation is false information about the opposition.

Black propaganda is the strategic transmission of lies. White propaganda is open about its source. Gold and blue are not forms of propaganda.

Subliminal and political communication

Subliminal communication sends messages below conscious awareness, and is used in political propaganda.

• Subliminal communication is part of political propaganda.
• Framing tailors political issues; spin doctors use it.
• Condensation symbols, such as a flag, are evocative.
• Political socialisation links to social learning in how power is attained.

Spin doctors are the media advisers of political parties. A flag condenses much meaning and feeling into one image.

Analog, digital and new media

Analog and digital media

Analog media have linear content and came from audio recordings. Digital media can be non-linear, interactive and cheap to copy.

• Analog: the term came from audio recordings.
• Analog contents are linear.
• Digital technology has increased media consumption.
• Digital media: people can create and distribute content, in real time.
• Reproduction and distribution are less expensive.

Analog content runs in fixed order, like a tape. Digital content can be jumped through and changed. The claim that analog media are superior but lack demand is not accepted.

Convergence

Convergence is the coming together of computing, telecommunication and media in one digital environment.

• Computing, telecommunication and media come together.
• A smartphone does what many devices did.
• Technological convergence drives the modern communication revolution.
• It has also contributed to corporate control of media.

Words and time in communication have become money, so airtime and space are sold. Convergence helped a few large firms control more media.

The internet as a medium

The internet is interactive, universalist and an electronic assembly. It offers multi-data networking and sophisticated reciprocity.

• Multi-data networking.
• High-fidelity realism.
• Sophisticated reciprocity: a good two-way exchange.
• Described as universalist, redemptive and an electronic assembly.
• It is not non-interactive.

Automation in online media lets software generate user-specific information. The interactive society rests on the integration of many modes of communication.

Post-information age and new society

In the post-information age, information is highly personalised. Information societies run on face-to-screen relations.

• Post-information age: personalised information (Negroponte).
• Face-to-screen relations belong to information societies.
• The interactive society integrates multiple modes.
• Attention is a scarce resource in the attention economy.

Technology can deliver content tailored to each person. As content grows, people's attention becomes limited, so media compete for it.

The media ages

The first media age was one-way broadcasting. The second media age is interactive.

• First (broadcast) age: one-way, state control, an instrument of inequality, centralised.
• Second media age: interactive media, many to many.
• Post-modern mass media: mobility, globalisation, simulation.
• Mark Poster described the second media age.

In the first age, the audience could receive but not reply. Interactive technologies such as the internet created the second media age.

Features of different media

Each medium has its own properties, such as liveness, timing and sensory channels.

• Television has nowness and liveness; cinema is 'there and then'.
• Print is asynchronous.
• Radio is an only acoustic medium.
• Narrowcasting reaches a specific, limited audience.
• In conventional media, production and consumption are separated in time.

Television can broadcast live, while cinema shows recorded films. The main difference between them is the liveness differentiator.

Media economics, journalism and ethics

Media economics

Media earn money through synergy, planned obsolescence, the logic of safety, celebrity and spectacle.

• Synergy: horizontal consolidation of media companies.
• Planned obsolescence: removing a product in a planned way.
• Logic of safety: copying what has already succeeded.
• Celebrity and spectacle.
• Mass media exercise enormous corporate power.

Ottare's list gives the strategies in this order: synergy, planned obsolescence, logic of safety, celebrity and spectacle. Ruling elites seek societal intelligence from media.

Types of journalism

Journalism has different styles, such as interpretive, citizen and investigative journalism.

• Interpretive journalism tries harder to answer 'why' questions.
• Citizen journalism: news produced and shared by ordinary people.
• Investigative reporting: Watergate (Woodward and Bernstein).
• Tehelka (Tarun Tejpal) and Bofors (Chitra Subramaniam).

Traditional news answers who, what, where and when. Interpretive journalism goes on to explain the reasons and meaning.

Media accountability and literacy

Media accountability improves media quality. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and communicate media messages.

• Accountability focuses on evaluation, monitoring, education and feedback.
• Audience control is not part of it.
• Media literacy is a continuous process.
• The media are known as the fourth estate.

Media change all the time, so media literacy has to be developed throughout life. The fourth estate watches the other institutions of power.

Media, communication professionals and events

Do not confuse media, people, devices and events. A question often asks you to sort them.

• Media: newspaper, radio, video, television.
• Professionals: journalists, advertisers, news-readers.
• Technologies: smartphone, email, WhatsApp.
• Events: a conference, a meeting, a procession.

A news-reader is a person, so a communication professional. A smartphone is a device. Newspapers and television are media.

Theories of what the media do to people, the main media thinkers and their ideas.

Media effects and audiences

Limited effects and the two-step flow

The limited effects idea says that mass media rarely influence people directly. Group relations and opinion leaders matter more.

• Media influence is rarely direct.
• Effects are mediated by group membership and relationships.
• Two-step flow: media, then opinion leaders, then the wider audience.
• Lazarsfeld's 1940 study of the American presidential election led to personal influence theory.

In the study, voters were influenced more by personal contacts than by the media. So messages pass through opinion leaders before they reach the larger audience.

Agenda setting

Agenda setting says the media influence which few issues people think about.

• Proposed by McCombs and Shaw in 1972.
• Based on a study of the 1968 US presidential election.
• Media may not tell us what to think, but what to think about.
• Emphasis by media raises the importance of an issue.

People who see news that draws attention to a problem give it more importance. They learn how important an issue is from the stress the media put on it.

Cultivation theory

Cultivation theory says that long exposure to media slowly shapes how people see the world.

• Developed by George Gerbner.
• Media have subtle effects.
• Audiences unknowingly absorb dominant symbols and images.
• Long-term exposure to television is the main concern.

The effect is slow and quiet. After years of viewing, the world on the screen starts to look like the real world.

Spiral of silence

In the spiral of silence, people whose views differ from the dominant media view keep quiet for fear of isolation.

• People with contrary views keep them to themselves.
• The reason is fear of isolation.
• The dominant view then grows louder.
• Assertion and reason questions give both parts as true.

When one view seems to dominate, people with other views stop speaking. That makes the dominant view look even stronger.

Selective exposure and cognitive dissonance

People choose media that match their beliefs. This reduces the discomfort of cognitive dissonance.

• Selective exposure: seeking media that support one's beliefs.
• Selective retention: recalling what supports them.
• Selective perception: seeing things in a supportive way.
• Cognitive dissonance: proposed by Festinger, in 1957.

It is wrong to say people ignore messages that agree with them. They seek those out. The idea ties to confirmation bias.

Active audience theories

Active audience theories ask what people do with media, not what media do to people.

• The audience chooses and uses media.
• Uses and gratifications: Katz and Blumler.
• Focus is on what people do with media.
• Audience imperialism means giving too much preference to audience activity.

A viewer picks a programme for a reason, such as to learn, relax or connect. That reason is the gratification.

Mediated violence and the early window

Some effects concern violence and children. Catharsis, the early window and Potter's contextual variables are the key terms.

• Catharsis: mediated aggression that reduces aggression.
• Early window: media show children the world before they can play adult roles.
• Siloing: choosing news sources based on ideology.
• Potter's contextual variables: reward, identification and motive.

Potter listed features of the way violence is shown. A violent act that is rewarded, or one with a motive, or a hero the viewer identifies with, has a stronger effect.

Propaganda theory and its weaknesses

Propaganda theory overestimates the speed and range of media effects and ignores factors that limit them.

• It ignores personal, social and cultural factors that limit effects.
• It overestimates the speed and range of media effects.
• It identifies factors that can raise media power.
• Lasswell is linked with technocratic control of media.

A question on 'which is not a weakness' asks for the points that are strengths of the theory. Its weaknesses are the ignored limits and the overestimated range.

Chronology of theories

Chronology questions arrange theories by the year they were developed.

• Social Responsibility theory of the press: 1956.
• Cognitive Dissonance theory (Festinger): 1957.
• Cultivation theory (Gerbner): late 1960s.
• Agenda Setting (McCombs and Shaw): 1972.

The order runs from the press theories, to Festinger, then Gerbner and finally McCombs and Shaw.

Media thinkers and concepts

McLuhan's ideas

Marshall McLuhan's best-known ideas are the global village, the medium is the message, and the extension of man.

• Global village: electronic media connect the world.
• The medium is the message.
• Media as extensions of man.
• Book: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964).
• The form of a medium shapes society.

McLuhan argued that technological changes in how we encode information lead to radical changes in society. He is sometimes called a pop culture prophet, but that is a label, not a concept.

Hot and cool media

McLuhan called a medium hot if it gives a lot of information and needs little effort from the audience.

• Hot media: high definition, large information, low participation.
• Hot examples: radio, cinema, photographs.
• Cool media: low definition, little information, high participation.
• Cool examples: telephone, television, speech, cartoon.

A cool medium leaves gaps that the audience must fill, so it needs more involvement. A cartoon gives little detail, so it is low definition.

Media as non-neutral and technological determinism

Media are not neutral carriers. Each has its own grammar and shapes the message.

• Media are neither neutral nor value-free containers.
• Every technology has its own physical, technical, symbolic and environmental traits.
• Every medium has its own grammar, which evolves.
• David Holmes: the qualities of communication come from the architecture of the medium.
• Technological determinists see technology as the driver of change.

Technological determinism says that all social, political, economic and cultural change is based on the development and spread of technology. Media grammar is the rules of arrangement of symbolic forms.

Four theories of the press

Normative theories describe how a media system should work. The four theories of the press appeared in a fixed order.

• Authoritarian theory: 16th and 17th centuries.
• Libertarian theory: 17th and 18th centuries.
• Soviet media theory.
• Social responsibility theory.

Normative means about norms, or how things ought to be. In the keyed order, authoritarian came first, then libertarian, then Soviet and finally social responsibility.

Critical theory and hegemony

Critical thinkers see media as tools that carry the interests of powerful groups.

• Adorno and Horkheimer: the culture industry.
• Culture industry products are standardised and mass produced.
• Gramsci: hegemony.
• False consciousness: people are duped into accepting the dominant ideology.
• The Frankfurt school: culture reflects the social order.

The culture industry thesis criticises mass media for standard, mass-produced products that lack aesthetic merit. It is not pro-people.

Barthes, Bourdieu and Baudrillard

Match the thinker to the key concept.

• Roland Barthes: myth.
• Pierre Bourdieu: doxa and cultural capital.
• Antonio Gramsci: hegemony.
• Jean Baudrillard: simulation.

Bourdieu said knowledge is a form of cultural capital that gives social advantage. Baudrillard wrote about simulation, in which images replace reality.

Stuart Hall and reading positions

Stuart Hall named three ways an audience reads a text: dominant, negotiated and oppositional.

• Dominant: accepts the intended meaning.
• Negotiated: partly accepts it.
• Oppositional: rejects it.
• Radical reading: audience rejects the meanings, values and opinions of authors.

Complex and continuous are not Hall's reading positions. The three positions describe how far the audience agrees with the sender.

Network and information society thinkers

Several thinkers wrote about the networked and digital society.

• Manuel Castells: interactive media culture; The Internet Galaxy; a non-specialist media thinker.
• Trevor Barr: electronic nomads.
• Nicholas Negroponte: post-information age.
• Alvin Toffler: Future Shock.
• Neil Postman: Technopoly.

Sherry Turkle called the computer the second self. Castells came to media through wider social questions, so he is called a non-specialist.

Other thinkers and works

Questions often match a thinker with a book or an idea.

• Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion (1922); pictures in our heads.
• Stuart Hall: Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms.
• Adorno and Horkheimer: The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.
• Harold Lasswell: technocratic control of media.
• Tony Bennett: Theories of Media, Theories of Society.

Public opinion formation is linked to Lippmann, who said people act on pictures in their heads formed by the press.

Media concepts to match

Match lists often give a short description for each media-studies term.

• Media intrusion: subversion of politics by media.
• Social capital: influence from social group membership and participation.
• Pragmatism: practical use of knowledge.
• Fandom: an organised subculture.
• Parody: making fun in an indirect way.
• Paparazzi: freelance photographers who stalk celebrities.

Read the description and ask what it defines. Closed text means a text meant to elicit a single response, and principle of safety means avoiding risk.

Media ecology

A media ecologist studies the relationship between people and the media technologies they create and use.

• The relationship is symbiotic.
• Not a media influencer or media sociologist.
• It sits within media studies.
• It looks at how media shape people and how people shape media.

Symbiotic means both influence each other. People create media and media change people.

How media developed, the press, radio, television and cinema in India, folk media, and Indian traditions of communication.

How media developed

Early communication and writing

Early communication moved from speech to writing, to print.

• Face-to-face first, then written, then print, then broadcasting, then datacasting.
• Primary orality: a culture untouched by alphabetic writing (Walter Ong).
• Bhimbetka has some of the oldest forms of human communication in India.
• Before paper, people in India wrote on palm leaves.
• Oral, chirographic, typographic and visual cultures: speech, handwriting, print and images.

Chirographic means based on handwriting. Typographic means based on print. Each stage did not replace the earlier one, but added to it.

Printing and the first highway of information

Printing led to mass media. The telegraph was the first highway of information and separated communication from transport.

• Gutenberg is credited with the printing press, around 1440.
• Print made information available to many and led to mass media.
• The telegraph is the first highway of information.
• The telegraph first separated transportation from communication.
• First wave of communication: printing. Second wave: telegraph, telephone, photography.

Before the telegraph a message travelled only as fast as the person or vehicle that carried it. The telegraph let messages move faster than any vehicle.

Electronic pioneers

Questions ask about pioneers and the order of electronic inventions.

• Lumiere brothers: cinematograph, 1895.
• Marconi: radio telegraphy.
• Fleming: vacuum diode valve, 1904.
• Lee de Forest: the audion, 1906.
• Baird: television, 1926. Zworykin: the iconoscope.

The vitascope, an early film projector, led to the silent film era. Zworykin's camera tube was key to electronic television.

Inventions in order

Chronology questions arrange inventions by date.

• Telegraph, then telephone (1876), then phonograph (1877).
• Cable television in the late 1940s, then MP3.
• Book, prototypical newspaper, film, radio, television.
• Printing press, plan for a mechanical computer, cinema, television broadcast.
• Early newspapers, radio, television, email (1971), online news websites.

Remember broad periods. Print came in the 15th century. The telegraph and telephone came in the 19th. Radio and film came around 1900. Television came in the 1920s and 1930s.

Recording and playback devices

Recording devices follow a fixed order.

• Magnetic tape in the 1930s, long-playing record in 1948, audio cassette in the 1960s.
• Computer discs in the 1980s, MP3 in the 1990s.
• Digital Audio Tape 1987, Hi8 1989, Digital Compact Cassette 1992, UMD 2004, then Blu-ray.
• Music players: gramophone, radio, cassette, CD, DVD.

The Innis list of space-biased media goes papyrus, paper, newspaper, radio, television. These are media that carry messages over distance.

Social media and media events in order

Social media platforms and big media events appear in order of date.

• Facebook 2004, YouTube 2005, Twitter 2006, Instagram 2010, TikTok 2016.
• War of the Worlds broadcast 1938, Sputnik 1957, social network sites late 1990s.
• BBC 1922, Hays Code 1930, hip-hop 1970s.
• Associated Press 1846, A. C. Nielsen 1923.

Learn the rough decade for each item. Questions usually include items that are far apart, so the order is easy once you know the decades.

Press, radio and television in India

Printing and the press in India

India's first press was set up at Goa in 1556. Its first modern newspaper was Hickey's Bengal Gazette in 1780.

• First printing press: Goa, 1556, by the Portuguese.
• First newspaper in modern times: Hickey's Bengal Gazette, 1780.
• Times of India 1838, The Hindu 1878, The Tribune 1881.
• Hindustan Times 1924, The Indian Express 1932.
• Gandhi's papers did not carry advertisements.

Hickey's Bengal Gazette was also called the Calcutta General Advertiser. Gandhi's Young India and Harijan did not depend on advertisements.

Radio in India

Radio in India began with amateur clubs and became All India Radio in 1936.

• First amateur radio club of Calcutta: November 1923.
• The Indian State Broadcasting Service became All India Radio in June 1936.
• External services of AIR started in 1939.
• FM broadcasts were introduced in Madras.
• Narrowcasting suits FM radio.

The talkie film Alam Ara came in 1931. AIR was renamed in 1936. External services began in 1939. The Films Division was set up in 1948.

Television in India

Television in India began in 1959 with an aim of education and awareness in rural areas.

• Delhi Television Centre: 15 September 1959.
• Main initial purpose: education and awareness among the rural population.
• Krishi Darshan, 1967.
• SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment): 1975-76.
• Hum Log, the first soap opera: 1984.

SITE beamed educational programmes by satellite to villages. Hum Log began in 1984, Buniyaad in 1986, Ramayan in 1987, Mahabharat in 1988 and Chandrakanta in 1994.

Educational broadcasting in India

Educational broadcasting grew from SITE to online platforms.

• SITE: 1975.
• UGC's Country-Wide Classroom: 1984.
• IGNOU: 1985.
• Gyan Darshan: 2000.
• Swayamprabha: 2017, then PM eVidya.

Swayamprabha is a set of DTH channels for education. Krishi Darshan is the programme for farmers.

Committees and the MacBride Report

Committees on broadcasting reported in a fixed order. The MacBride report was titled Many Voices, One World.

• Chanda Committee: 1966.
• Varghese Committee: 1978.
• MacBride Commission: 1980.
• Joshi Committee: 1985.
• MacBride Report: 'Many Voices, One World'.

The MacBride report was published by UNESCO in 1980. It asked for a more balanced flow of information across the world.

Media organisations and institutes

Questions ask you to identify news agencies, media bodies and film institutes.

• News agencies: Reuters, Associated Press, United News of India.
• Media bodies: Registrar of Newspapers for India, Press Council of India, Audit Bureau of Circulation.
• Films Division 1948, Central Board of Film Certification 1951, Film and Television Institute of India 1960.
• National School of Drama: New Delhi. National Film Archive: Pune.
• Asian Academy of Film and Television: Noida.

In a chronology, the Indian Languages Newspapers Association came in 1941, the Advertising Agencies Association in 1945, and the Indian Society of Advertisers in 1951.

Cinema and film

The first films of India

India's first feature film was Raja Harishchandra in 1913, and the first talkie was Alam Ara in 1931.

• Raja Harishchandra: 1913, Dada Saheb Phalke.
• Alam Ara: 1931, Ardeshir Irani.
• Lanka Dahan: 1917, Dada Saheb Phalke.
• Raja Harishchandra was silent.

Phalke is called the father of Indian cinema. Alam Ara was the first talkie feature film made in India.

Directors and films

Match lists link directors with their films.

• Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar (the Apu trilogy).
• Bimal Roy: Madhumati and Sujata.
• M. S. Sathyu: Garam Hawa.
• Kamal Amrohi: Pakeezah.
• Guru Dutt: Pyaasa.

The Apu trilogy is a series of three films by Satyajit Ray. Madhumati and Sujata were directed by Bimal Roy, not by Ray.

Film chronology and film cities

Film chronology questions use release years. Film cities sit in different states.

• Raja Harishchandra 1913, Alam Ara 1931, Do Bigha Zameen 1953.
• Mughal-e-Azam 1960, Bobby 1973, Garam Hawa 1973, Sholay 1975, Maine Pyar Kiya 1989.
• Ramoji Film City: Hyderabad. MGR Film City: Chennai.
• Prayag Film City: Kolkata. Innovative Film City: Bengaluru.

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India's highest cinema award. L. V. Prasad and B. N. Reddy received it. Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra did not.

Film language

Film studies borrows from semiotics, with its own terms.

• Close-up: a visual paradigm.
• Silence: an aural paradigm.
• The five Cs of cinematography: camera angles, continuity, cutting, close-ups, composition.
• Genre: a type or class of film.

A paradigm is a set of choices from which one is picked, such as a long shot, a medium shot or a close-up. A syntagm is the combination of elements in a sequence.

Folk media and Indian traditions

Folk and traditional media

Folk forms of communication come from a community's culture and are handed down over time.

• Jatra: Bengal.
• Bhavai: Gujarat.
• Yakshagana: Karnataka.
• Powada and Tamasha: Maharashtra.
• Therukoothu: Tamil Nadu.

Traditional forms include street plays, puppetry and Nautanki. Cinema, posters and single-screen cinema halls are modern media, so they are not folk traditions.

Drama as communication

From the western view, drama has four forms: tragedy, comedy, serious drama and melodrama.

• Tragedy.
• Comedy.
• Serious drama.
• Melodrama.
• Character drama is not one of the four.

Drama is a mode of communication that uses performance and story. These four forms are the western classification.

Buddhist communication

The Buddhist view of communication is process-oriented, creates meaning, and centres on behaviour and truthful speech.

• Process-oriented, behaviour-centred, creation of meaning.
• Not unidirectional.
• Interpersonal: symmetrical relations, consensus and verifiability.
• Sensitive use of language and truthfulness.
• Highlights impermanence, human suffering and non-self.

Right speech is the idea that language should be used to take a moral stance. Buddhist thought builds self-reflection into verbal communication.

Hindu and eastern views of communication

The Hindu view rests on the idea that reality is undivided. Language is a means to gain knowledge, and communication aims at enlightenment.

• Reality is undivided.
• Language is a means to acquire knowledge.
• The purpose of good communication: to make people seek enlightenment.
• Adi Shankara gives primacy to self-consciousness.
• Eastern premises: time is infinite, the world is a single unit, live in harmony with nature.

In the eastern approach, people live in harmony with nature, not in control of it. Communication is meant to lead people towards truth and self-knowledge.

Indian thinkers and rasa

Match each Indian thinker with a contribution to communication theory.

• Bharata: rasa theory in the Natyashastra.
• Bhartrihari: speech theory.
• Bhattanayaka: sadharanikaran, the universalisation of emotion.
• Panini: grammar.
• Abhinavagupta: rasa gives the audience moral cultivation.

The rasa theory is about the aesthetic emotion the audience experiences. According to Abhinavagupta, it lifts the audience morally.

Languages of India

The Eighth Schedule lists India's recognised languages, added in stages.

• Punjabi: among the original languages of 1950.
• Sindhi: added in 1967.
• Nepali: added in 1992.
• Bodo: added in 2003.

Questions give a language and ask for the year of inclusion. Learn the four years in order: 1950, 1967, 1992, 2003.