Week 13: Muted Group Theory

Muted group theory, as proposed by Edwin Ardener (1975), noted that the code of cultures are claimed to have been cracked without any concern on women's speech. Mutedness is caused by the lack of power and authority in any of the sayings or issues. While Kramarae assumptions are mostly focused on women, in general, genders; she also pointed our that not only the women who are being 'muted' in this society, but other people in low class status, such as children. As stated by Kramarae (2005):

"A similar problem exists for other groups in our culture that are in an asymmetrical relationships. Interest and concern are about not just gender differences, but a range of other marginalizing differences as well (including race, sexuality, age, and class)."(p55)

The muted group theory can be applied to the Singaporean-based movie titled "We Not Stupid". This movie is about the differences of adult and children, and how Singaporean children are always being muted from stating their opinion towards their family. This results in conflicts between each family members.

The teen boys are considered to be the muted group in the movie. They were enrolled in the lowest polytechnic school and had no say for their studies. Both of them got into trouble when they agreed to help a group of loan sharks to spray paints on people's doors and walls. In that particular group, they had no say about what they should do, and when they wanted to leave the group, they had no say about their leave either. As explained by Kramarae, "Muted group theory suggests that people attached or assigned to subordinate groups may have a lot to say, but they tend to have relatively little power to say it without getting into a lot of trouble." (p55)

Shirley Ardener (1975) argued that people can say what they want to say whenever or wherever, or they must re-encode their thoughts to make themselves understood by the public. Power is always central to human relationships. With this power, relationship can be maintained, but at the same time, some people may be muted in the group.

References:
Kramarae, C. (2005). Muted Group Theory: Past, Present and Future, excerpts. Women and Language, 18:2, 55-60.

Ardener, E. (1975). Belief and the problem of women. Ardener, Shirley (Ed.), Perceiving women (1-17). London: Malaby Press.

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

Week 12: Genderlect Theory

Nancy Hoar said, “Genderlect is a useful label to refer to the set of features that mark stereotypical masculine and feminine speech.” (p127) - In which genders can be viewed as a culture. Genderlect is the study of the communicative styles between genders. The analysis between genders helps us realize the inequalities that may exist between men and women in regard to legal issues, political views and personal development.

For this theory, I will use the popular meme that has been circulating the Internet with the point of showing men’s superiority and women’s inferiority. Paraphrasing Garry Chick (1999), “Meme is a cultural unit of "parts" of culture which includes "themes", "patterns", "ideas", "beliefs", "rules", "symbols", "concepts" and few others.” (p2) The term ‘Meme’ derives from mimeme, which means ‘to imitate’.

From the above image, the message is intended for women from the men to make them sandwiches. This message originated in the Internet to discredit female users whenever they post in the forums. Another interaction between the male and female can be seen through this clip from the ‘X-Files’:

Using the genderlect theory of ‘Rapport’ talk and ‘Report’ talk, we can see that men tend to do Report talk than women. In this clip, the man used a lecture-style tone to order the woman to make him a sandwich. It is also to be noted that the woman in the clip did not say any word, but retorted by the means of action. According to Tannen (), women avoid conflicts at all cost, while men initiate and are more comfortable with conflicts. Thus in the clip, we can see that the man continued his speaking even after the woman left the scene.

Genderlect Theory also suggests that if the effort to understanding one another increase, the relationship between genders will also be fruitful. The effort includes the understanding of cultural differences which are the differing expectations about the role of talk in relationships and how genders are able to fulfil that role.

Reference:

Tannen, D. (1990). You Just Don’t Understand. Ballantine. New York.

Garry, C. (1999). What's in a Meme? The Development of the Meme as a Unit of Culture. The Pennsylvania State University. University Park, Pennsylvania, USA.

Linda, A.M.P. & Lynn H.T. & Helen M.S. (1992). Constructing and Reconstructing Gender: The Links Among Communication, Language, and Gender. State University of New York Press, Albany.

Week 11 - Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Uncertainty Reduction Theory is about the initial interaction with someone. It is much like social penetration theory, but there is a distinct difference between the two theories. As stated by Griffin (2012):

"Unlike social penetration theory, which tries to forecast the future of a relationship on the basis of projected rewards and costs, Berger's uncertainty reduction theory (URT) focuses on how human communication is used to gain knowledge and create understanding." (p125)

The main point of the uncertainty reduction theory is to reduce the uncertainties when two people first met. Berger (1979) states that there are three conditions that serves as a drive to reduce uncertainty, which are: incentive value, anticipation of future interaction and deviance. The following clip is a scene from The Big Bang Theory, where Howard Wolowitz and Bernadette Rostenkowski are having their first date.

The Big Bang Theory - Howard and Bernadette date (Click to watch)

The condition that drives Howard to reduce the uncertainty is the anticipation of future interaction. Howard tried very hard to reduce the uncertainty between himself and Bernadette but anything he does did not impress her. Following the axiomatic theory proposed by Berger, there is a contradiction regarding Axiom 1. Quoting Griffin on Axiom 1:

"Verbal Communication: Given the high level of uncertainty present at the onset of the entry phase, as the amount of verbal communication between strangers increases, the level of uncertainty for each interactant in the relationship will decrease. As uncertainty is further reduced, the amount of verbal communication will increase." (p127)

During the scene inside the car, Howard is seen to communicate with Bernadette a lot, but the uncertainty was not reduced. Also he kept on asking cognitive questions to acquire more information about her likes and dislikes. Perhaps looking at one axiom is not sufficient to conclude that the axiomatic theory is not true. If we apply Axiom 7, where the more the liking the less the uncertainty, we could see why the uncertainty building up around them was not reduced.

At the dinner scene, they found out that they share the similar experience from their respective mothers. According the the axiomatic theory - Axiom 6, where similarities between two people reduces uncertainties.

This theory is useful for everyday life as we focus on how we actively seek to perceive the behaviour of others in order to reduce the uncertainties between one another. As how Griffin put it: "The stranger a stranger is, the more everyone involved has to work mindfully at overcoming anxiety and uncertainty." (p436)

References:
Berger, C. R. (1979). Beyond initial interaction: Uncertainty, understanding, and the development of interpersonal relationships. In H. Giles & R. St. Clair (Eds.),Language and social
psychology(pp. 122Á144). Oxford: Blackwell.

Griffin, E. (2012) A First Look at Communication Theory. USA: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Week 10: Communications Accomodations Theory

Communications Accommodations Theory (CAT), formerly known as the Speech Accomodation Theory, is about how people communicate between intercultural interaction. When we meet different people from different cultures, we tend to accommodate their speech patterns or language in order to serve as a bridge throughout the conversation. According to Liana Bairros de Souza:

"CAT intends to analyze the discursive variations, which are the results of speech adjustments or accommodations done by the speakers according to their personal characteristics, speech style, and specific linguistic usage." (p1083)

For this theory, I will use a clip from 'The Big Bang Theory' where Rajesh Koothrappali got a call from his blind date. Because of Raj's inability to speech to women, Howard Wolowitz took care of the blind date for him using an Indian accent.

The Big Bang Theory - Howard's Indian Accent (Click link to watch)

The communication strategy used here is convergence, which explained by Griffin (2012), "... is a strategy by which you adapt our communication behaviour in such a way as to become more similar to another person."(p395) Howard uses an Indian accent to accommodate the other party into an agreement on behalf of Raj. Perhaps if Howard didn't use the fake accent, there would be no agreement and Raj would be humiliated for not speaking to his own blind date.

In this clip, accommodation is shown when two people who are strangers meet. Cristian D. N. M. and Michael G. and Susan D. states that "Also, with very few exceptions, accommodation was only tested in the initial phase of the development of relation between people." (Introduction) Indeed, the motivation for this convergence is to seek the approval from the other person.

Because it is a blind date, Raj and the woman on the phone have never met with each other before. Since the woman assumes the one talking on the phone is Raj, there is a mutual convergence, thus form an agreement on the date.

Communications Accommodation theory helps us to understand why we speak the way we do, in regards to the situation and the person we encounter. It also helps us to distinguish the difference between convergence and divergence and how it could affect the motivation of an individual.

References:
Liana, B. de S. Communication Accomodation Theory (CAT) and The Teaching of English as a Second Language. Retrieved 2012, April 12 from http://www.cce.ufsc.br/~clafpl/96_LianaBairrosde_Souza.pdf

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

Cristian, D. N. M. & Michael, G. & Susan, D. (2011). Mark my words! Linguistic style accommodation in social media. Hyderabad, India.

Week 9: Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic Interactionism is about the interpretation between two people on their actions where human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols. As explained by Erving Goffman (1959), “When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed.” (p1) We seek to predict the behavior and the personality of that person through their actions. Everything is symbolic, even signs. But in semiotic terms, signs are not symbols. For this theory, I will use the movie ‘Pride and Prejudice’ as an example.

In this poster we have Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. In this movie, Elizabeth judges Mr. Darcy through his actions and how he interacts with the others. As mentioned by Griffin (2012):

“Blumer starts with the premise that humans act toward people or things on the basis of meanings they assign to those people or things. It's our interpretation that counts.” (p55)

Elizabeth’s interpretation on Darcy is based on his actions when she asked about his opinion in dancing. Mr. Darcy stated that he does not dance, and rejected to dance with anyone. In that instant, Elizabeth immediately labeled him as ‘proud’. But Elizabeth does not know him well, as his gestures to her may seem proud, but to those who knew him well, he is simply shy. From here, misunderstanding occurred and Elizabeth was given a bad impression by Mr. Darcy.

According to George Cronk : “When the individual making the gestures understands the response of another to his gestures, he is capable of significant communication (language).” (p4) Elizabeth did not understand Mr. Darcy’s gestures; this she was not able to continue any conversations with Mr. Darcy.

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

George, C. Symbolic Interactionism: A “Left-Meadian” Interpretation. Retrieved 2012, April 12 from http://www.bergen.edu/faculty/gcronk/leftmead.pdf

Erving, G. (1959). Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Doubleday & Company Inc. Carden City: New York

Week 8: Social Penetration

Our friends were once strangers. We all start our relationship with a stranger through conversations and self-disclosure. Social penetration theory, according to Altman and Taylor (1973), “is one of the frameworks used to explain the process of relationship development.” Using this theory, I will use the meeting between Dr Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farah Fowler from the series ‘The Big Bang Theory’ as an example.

Sheldon and Amy's first meeting (Click link to watch)

In this context, we could use the functional perspective to study their communication. Both have the purpose of achieving their own goal. In Sheldon’s case, he came to meet Amy because he wanted to put a stop to his blackmail by his friends. For Amy, she came to meet Sheldon because she had an agreement with her mother that she will date someone at least once a year.

During their first meeting, they introduced themselves in a very polite manner. At this point, they are in the Orientation stage, where both use speeches of appropriateness and standard greeting procedures.

Continuing their conversation, both revealed their goals in meeting with each other, as explained in the earlier paragraph. Both showed their opinions towards the topic of agreement with their respective mothers. They also found out that they share the same opinions on physical contact when Amy revealed the ‘rules’ before starting her relationship with Sheldon. From here, we can see that both Sheldon and Amy are in the Exploratory Affective stage.

Sheldon and Amy's fight (Click link to watch)

From the above video, both had an argument about their field of work. They are at the Affective stage, where they shared their personal views on each other’s work and defend their own line of career. In the end they concluded that they are not compatible with each other, and withdraw from their relationship. Towards this point, they are in the Depenetration stage. The Stable stage was never reach.

Griffin (2012) stated that, “According to social penetration theory, it all depends on the cost-benefit analysis that each man performs as he considers the possiblity of a closer relationship.” (p117) At the brink of their argument, both considered the benefit and the risk each brought to them. From Sheldon’s point of view, the benefit for staying with Amy is her intellectual ability to discuss the topics he likes. But the risk is her inferiority of her career and her irrefutable ‘hypothesis’ over his arguments. From Amy’s point of view, the benefit for staying with Sheldon is his intellectual ability to discuss the topics they are comfortable with, and the risk is Sheldon’s ‘theoretical’ work which apparently does not please her so much. The other risk is his stubborn personality and not being able to admit defeat.

The Penetration stages do not necessarily follow in a sequence. These stages depend on individuals and situations and unpredictable behavior.

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

Mitchell, R.H. & William B. G. (1987). The Influence of Ethnicity and Sex on Social Penetration in Close Friendships. Sage Publications Inc.

Altman, I. and Taylor, D. A. (1973) Social Penetration, New York: Holst, Rinehart, Winston

Week 7: Cultural Studies

It is hard to pinpoint the definition of culture. Throughout the history of cultural studies, Matthew Arnold, F.R. Leavis, Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams and E.P Thompson all have their own interpretation of ‘Culture’ and where the study of culture should start from. This can be understood as culture is able to change according to the times.

As quoted from Hall (2005):

Culture is a production. It has its raw materials, its resources, its 'work of production.' It depends on a knowledge of tradition as 'the changing same' and an effective set of genealogies. (p556)

For this theory, I will focus mainly on visual culture, which according to Nicholas Mirzoeff (1991), “Visual culture is concerned with visual events in which information, meaning, or pleasure is sought by the consumer in an interface with visual technology.” (p3) The visual technology here can be any interface that is designed to be looked at or enhance the visual appearance through art and media.

One of the visual cultures in Japan is Gyaru, in which its name is originally derived from the English word ‘Girl’. The Gyaru culture started in the 1970s and has since broken down into different sub-cultures. Although Gyaru culture may seem broad, it shares the same significance as its sub-cultures, and that is the girly-glamorous style, breaking away from the traditional styles in Japan.

By applying the theory, the discourse of ‘Gyaru’ has many representations, such as glamorous, beauty, pretty, cute, inferior feminity, and perhaps for some people, excessive makeups and cross-culture of the eastern and the western. The ideologies from the discourse are those of the representations from it. Anne Makus mentioned that "Hall argues, there exist ideological "logics" to public debate which create limiting social realities about the way the world works." (p495), where the ideologies are the common sense that has a structural meaning embedded to it. When people acquire a discourse about certain cultures, they have their own ideologies on what they think about the culture itself.

And of course, the politics of this culture is the politics of feminity, politics in individuality, politics in sexuality and politics of consumerism. Gyaru culture may be popular in Japan, but there are still many criticisms regarding their style, language and mannerism. In this culture, they have their own language, where they mix English with Japanese words in order to create a new trend. As explained by Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times (1997), “The enthusiasm for the new words seems partly based on the dominance of English in popular music and partly on the notion that it is more mellifluous than other languages.”

Hall’s cultural studies may be biased towards the less-known cultures that are often criticized and be put into ‘low class’ categories. As Griffin (2012) stated:

“Hall is suspicious of any cultural analysis that ignores power relationships. That's because he believes the purpose of theory and research is to empower people who live on the margins of society, people who have little say in the direction of their lives and who are scrambling to survive.” (p345)

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

Nicholas, M. (1999). An Introduction to Visual Culture. Routledge: London.

Nicholas, D. K. (1997, October 19). Stateside Lingo Gives Japan Its Own Valley Girls. The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2012 from http://209.68.50.46/nakamura/courses/japan/readings/NYT_971019.pdf

Anne, M. (1990). Stuart hall's theory of ideology: A frame for rhetorical criticism. Western Journal of Speech Communication. 54. 495-514.

Week 6: Agenda Setting Theory

Agenda setting theory is about how the same mass media can affect people by giving them different exposure towards certain issues that they considered to be important. Agenda, according to Everett M. Rogers and James W. Dearing, “… is a list of issues and events that are viewed at a point in time as ranked in a hierarchy of importance.” (p85)

For the following analysis of text, I will be using the levels of the agenda setting theory, which comprises of First Level, Second Level and Framing.

The above magazine cover was taken from the August 2010 issue of Vogue Hommes Japan, which shows Lady Gaga posing in a raw meat dress. This cover sparks a lot of controversies including criticisms from animal rights campaigns such as PETA and from fashion institutions.

As rephrased by Griffin (2012), media tells us “not just what to think about, but how to think about it” (p383). The First Level agenda setting gives us what to think about, where the media focus on the object salience. In this text the media uses the image of Lady Gaga wearing the meat dress with little coverage as a mean to influence the public on what they should think about the meat dress. The second level agenda setting focuses on one part of the issue and how we should think about it. What the media has pointed out to us is the additional title located below the cover: Lady Gaga ‘The Naked Truth’. This second level agenda-setting focuses on the attribute salience, and as Takeshita (2006) explains, “salience is a word with two meanings.” (p277); where the two meanings are correlated but not identical. The media attempted to focus on Lady Gaga’s interpretation on her meat dress in relation to the meaning of ‘The Naked Truth’.

The Vogue cover is considered to function as a media agenda – the issue that media consider to be important. The meat dress is certainly not an everyday wear you would see on the street. Meat has been, up until now, considered to be a source of food. The media consider the out-of-norm fashion to be important, and notably to spark a debate on the similarity between wearing leather or animal-skinned clothing and wearing a raw meat.

Since the priority is the media agenda, the key ideas of framing are ‘Naked Truth’ and wearing meat dress. The framing strategy used here is metaphor, where Lady Gaga is not entirely ‘naked’, but the media frame the entire image as the ‘naked’ truth.

Many people think that framing is a bad structure to use, but it does not necessary mean that framing is applied to deceive the public. Framing can be used as a tool to reduce the complexity of the issue and present to the public in an efficient way.

Reference:
Everett, M. R. & James, W. D. (2007). Agenda-Setting Research: Where Has It Been, Where Is It Going? in Doris G. (Eds), Media Power in Politics 5th Edition (pp. 80-97). Washington: CQ Press.

Denis, W. & Jon, K. (2010, September 14). Five interpretations of Lady Gaga's meat dress. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved March 22, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11297832

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

Takeshita, T. (2006). Curren critical problems in agenda-setting research. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 18, 275-296.

Week 5: Media Ecology

Media Ecology is the study of media as an environment. It is about how media can affect human perception and understanding as well as feelings, and how media can sculpt the content and the people.

Marshall McLuhan's work on Media Ecology taught us how media determine the thoughts and actions of people and society. His famous quote ‘Medium is the Message’, which was introduced in his book ‘Understanding Media’, tells us that media is the extension of our body, as defined in the book, “… the personal and social consequences of any medium-- that is, of any extension of ourselves -- result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.” (p7)

The text I will analyze is the famous prediction made by evangelical radio broadcaster Harold Camping about the Rapture, or commonly known as the Judgement Day on May 21, 2011 (BBC News, 2011). He broadcasted his predictions through the radio, the ‘hot’ medium. As described by McLuhan in his book ‘Understanding Media’: “A hot medium is one that extends one single sense in "high definition" (p24). He went on and explained “high definition” as a condition where there is high information load.

If one does not know about McLuhan, that person may argue that the ‘message’ is clearly more important than the medium itself. The ‘message’ Harold Camping told through his broadcast was the prediction of the rapture. But as quoted by Mark Federman, “McLuhan tells us that a "message" is, "the change of scale or pace or pattern" that a new invention or innovation "introduces into human affairs."…” Thus, the message of his broadcast may not be the prediction itself, but the change of public opinion and the attention towards Christianity that the prediction may brought upon. This change is apparent as his prediction has been published in various newspapers and notably online magazines such as BBC News and so on, catching attention wherever he goes. Radio is the extension of Harold Camping.

It is amazing to think that the media has the power to change the content of its message and influence our individual sense and understanding. The quote by McLuhan on ‘Medium is the Message’ may seem absurd in the past, but as new technologies emerge, the significance of the meaning receives more recognition and acknowledgement.


References:
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill

BBC News. (2011, May 21). 'Rapture' apocalypse prediction sparks atheist reaction. Retrieved February 23, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13468131

Federman, M. (2004). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? Retrieved February 25, 2012 from http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/MeaningTheMediumistheMessage.pdf

Week 4: Semiotics

Semiotics, in essence, is the study of signs. We analyze texts on how they work and how we use them. The sign could be anything that consist of words, images, sounds or gestures; in which they are related with a genre in a particular medium of communication.

Let us apply this theory on the text as shown below.

The sign is the result from the combination of the component signifier with the signified. Signifiers can be interpreted as a form of sign, in which it is something that we can use our five senses to detect. In this text above, the signifiers are the human figure, shadow, dark background, wet and gloomy street, and the moon beam.

Signified is the concept derived from the signifier, but the signified can change its meaning or have different meanings. According to Barthes, however, signified is not a 'thing', but the mental representation of the 'thing'. In this example shown, the signified is the image of a stranger in the dark.

Most signs have at least one common meaning, i.e. literal meaning, which is shared amongst many people. This meaning is called the sign's denotation. On a denotation level, we can see a man walking on the wet street at a dark hour with nothing else except the moon shining down on him.

But signs also have many different 'subjective' meanings depending on how we perceive them from our experience. This is called sign's connotation. And thus, connotation refers to the representation and concept presented in a sign, and in this case, the man walking alone during the night would mean that he is fearless of the dark. Darkness brings out the fear from our inner self. In addition, the moonlight shining down on his vision connotes a path - guiding the man's state of mind, and giving him hope. While the darkness is consuming his surrounding, the man is unaffected in the essence of light.

Signs are present everywhere, even in the absence of adequate light, as shown in the example above. The silhouette, the figure and the surrounding are shown to have a strong relationship with one another to tell us what is the signified of the sign.

Reference:
Chandler, D. (2009). Semiotics For Beginners. Prifysgol Aberystwyth University. Retrieved from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html

Thwaites, Tony, Lloyd Davis & Warwick Mules (1994). Tools for Cultural Studies: An Introduction. South Melbourne: Macmillan.

Barthes, R. (1968). Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill and Wang.