The Culture Shapers Communication and Media as Culture Synthesis
FMA1 / Mark Antiqueno / DEVC203
Table of Contents
Copyright 2015 Mark Alvin Antiqueno All Images downloaded from the web. Writer claims no ownership of the images used here. Cover art by Mark Antiqueno In partial fulfillment of the requirements for DEVC 203 University of the Philippines Open University 2
The Culture Shapers
Communication and Media as Culture Synthesis
Introduction
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The Natural and Communication Environments
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The Changing Role of Society in Meaning- Making
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Reality as Created by Society and the Media
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The Storyteller of Risk and Change
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The Storytellers and Culture- Shapers
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Members of a tribal community telling stories to each other as community. Below: Several social media and social networking sites populate the world-wide web and enabled more convenient global communication.
I. Introduction Marshall McLuhan theorized that we do not just live in a natural environment, but also in a symbolic one - an environment connected by communication through different forms of mediums. (Griffin, 2006) Recent studies propose a similar hypothesis, saying that the universe is not made up small particles but of bits of information or memes. The study of Memetics substitutes biological particles, genes, with symbolic ones. Memes, like genes are minute bits that constitute cultures. Cultures in all forms are results of the transfer of information, the combination, and interaction of different memes and memetic systems. (Kronfeldner, 2011) To synthesize and make sense of the concepts tackled in Part 1 of this class, this paper will take of from Memetics, as it concerns itself with the creation of culture through information transfer, instead of biology (although biology will play a role later in section 5, part C). McLuhan’s Media Ecology will be used as lens to understand the different theories’ application throughout human history through it media eras. Through this paper, it is my intention to define the concepts discussed and process them in a way that will help explain how societies and the Media of each era shapes culture and subjective reality, their provide an idea on their agenda for doing so, and propose how Communications practitioners can respond. 3
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II. The Natural and Communication Environments Media Ecology
Media Ecology by Marshall McLuhan As briefly mentioned in the introduction, Marshall McLuhan proposed that we live in a communication or media environment - an environment different but not separate from the natural or physical environment. This media ecology is an evolving ecosystem composed of interrelated factors that shape how we humans behave; and that our media ecology has had four major eras, brought about by the invention of new communication tools. The first and most primitive of the media eras is what he called the Tribal Stage when writing hasn’t been invented yet and communication was generally done through sound. Sound was an omnidirectional and public medium so communication was communal. People in groups heard similar sounds if they were together. Experience was homogenous. Sound was also time-bound or impermanent so culturally, stories were told orally within the villages and were passed on from generation to generation for preservation. (Lum, 2006) The invention of the phonetic alphabet the invention of writing ushered in the age of Literacy, the second media era. Immediacy of messages were lost because of the unboundedness of messages with time as well as the detachment of messages from their original context or source. A written message that says “there is a lion not far from here� is contextually different from the people actually hearing or seeing a lion. Both the writer and the reader are separate from 4
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Above: Village members gather around a camp fire to tell stories to each other. Left (clockwise): cuneiform, the oldest known writing language on a clay tablet; a handwritten book written by monks before the invention of the movable-type printing press; Stone etching of a monk on his writing table writing text on a piece of paper for books
message because they are dependent on the medium: the text they are writing or reading. Aside from this reading also took away the communal experience of hearing, as reading is private affair which requires singular focus. A sense of individuality developed as proximity has become less important. Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type printing press made information widely accessible. This was the beginning of the printing era where precious, handwritten manuscripts were replaced by printed books that were shipped and distributed to more readers. Aside from the growth in individualistic behavior brought about by the portability of printed books, an unexpected result developed: a sense of nationalism developed among nearby communities due to the homogenization of language and thought. The development of the telegraph and the start of the fourth media era: the electronic age brought back the immediacy of message-sending and receiving. But unlike the previous media eras of writing and printing, the telegraph enabled people to send and receive messages instantly. It returned us to the pre-alphabetic tradition of communication; but the difference was that communication was no longer limited to our immediate environments or villages. The electronic era ushered in the re-tribalization of people, homogeneity of certain cultures, and the development of a Global Village. (Griffin, 2006) Control of Communication Across Era The different media eras illustrate how the available communication media and channels influence the way we behave. It also suggests how control of communication can shift depending on the media current media environment. For example, communication cannot be monopolized by a single individual during the tribal era because sound is omnidirectional and hearing is a communal experience. In addition, hearing and speaking are skills developed by everyone and takes no extra effort to learn. This makes everyone in a group equally capable of transmitting and receiving messages and thus, its democratic nature. (Griffin, 2006) The age of writing and literacy added a dimension of timelessness to communication. But messages can only be free from being time-bound if a communicator is able to read and write written messages. Writing made messages maintain their integrity and longer-lasting than orally transmitted messages. The concept of literacy came about as the result of this and empowered individuals who were able to develop reading and writing skills. Literate people were able to seize stronger and lasting control of communication versus the illiterate.
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Clockwise (from top left corner): wood cut print illustrating the movable type printing press by Gutenburg; the first printed book: the Gutenberg Bible; etching of a woman encoding a written message to electronic signals via the telegraph; Alexander Graham- Bell making the first telephone call Left: illustration of how the digital age is able to connect people globally via the different social networking sites
Left: Handwritten books were very expensive and laborous due to the materials used and manpower needed. Some written with gold ink and took months to finish. Below: The invention of the movable-type printing press made book production easier and faster. More books were printed and bound during this time.
Left: Media companies monitor several different screens at once to see and control the different programs being broadcasted.
The Culture Shapers
But the invention of the movable-type printing press enabled the mass production of text, democratization of knowledge and the homogenization of culture. Because printing presses made use of character blocks, printing books were no longer limited to those who knew how to hand-write. (“The Printing Press”) Printing increased the demand for paper and ink, therefore lowered their production cost, and helped the book industry to grow. The production of books enabled many more to learn how to read and write, and inspired more people to write their own texts. This flattened the control of knowledge and information and enabled many more individuals to be writers and sources of knowledge. Information was no longer monopolized by giants of power. This effected to the growth and spread of many different alternative ideologies. (Griffin, 2006) The electronic age ushered in by the telegraph made communication across vast distances faster and less troublesome. Unlike printed messages that may take weeks or even months to get to their destination, the telegraph and telephone made communication instantaneous. The electronic age made it seem like we live in a “Global Village” where every body can be connected and people far apart can communicate like they were side-by-side. Although the electronic age enabled people to communicate as if we were in a single, gigantic village, the expensive infrastructure needed to run it was controlled by different entities like the government and Media companies. Thus, they became the gatekeepers of information and the storytellers of the era. (Griffin, 2006) The Digital age, although originally not part of the theories of McLuhan, was discussed in A First Look at Communication Theory as the age that may rewrite the Electronic Age. The Internet was such a powerful media event that it empowered “true” (I put this in quotation marks because this is yet to be discussed) democratization of information. The early years of the Internet were similar to the electronic age - contents were written and controlled by a few entities acting as gatekeepers and storytellers. But just like what happened in the age of printing, when more people got immersed in the digital world, the Internet was demystified. More people learned to read and write the programing languages for websites that later on resulted to the Internet 2.0: a world-wide web where anyone can create and publish their own content. The digital age created a world where everyone can be a storyteller through websites or personal blog sites. (Ong, 1982) In the digital age, there may still be gatekeepers, but everyone can be a storyteller. Stories were no longer anyone’s monopoly.
Right: Children learn how to code at an early age, to make them knowledgeable on programing language.
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The material costs of reading and writing like paper and ink at that time also contributed to literacy’s exclusivity to those in the ruling classes like governments and the churches. This led to the control of information and knowledge by these powerful institutions. (Lum, 2006)
Communication and Media as Culture Synthesis
III. The Changing Role of Society in Meaning- Making Memetics
Social Interactionism
Communication has always been a part of human life, from a cellular up to a mass level. But as we and technology develop, the power to form meanings and communicate messages shift hands. From communal formation of meaning to a systematic monopoly to maintain power, society has utilized technology available to them to create and recreate reality to suit the perceived needs the holder of communication power - the storyteller. Humans as Meme Machines To understand how meaning is created, it is first necessary to discuss how information is transferred. The science of Memetics treats humans as “meme machines” or the vessels wherein information and meaning is created, transferred, received, interpreted, and recreated. The theory of symbolic interactionism by George Mead proposes that communication, or symbolic interaction is not limited to talk or verbal language. We are able to interact with others orally through verbal language, and non-orally through non-verbal language or gestures with previouslyassigned meanings. It is the “ongoing use of language and gestures in anticipation of how the other will react; a conversation.” (Griffin, 2006) 7
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Each individual plays a part in the construction of language and meaning. Through interaction with others, symbols in the form of verbal and non-verbal language is spread. The way people react to messages (formed by the symbols) is shaped by the meaning assigned to the symbols. For example, the term Filipino term iskwater came from the word “squatter” or informal settlers, developed a different meaning as it was used and passed on as a derogatory term. The new meaning assigned it means having bad attitude no values. The denotation and value of the word is lost and had been replaced by an assigned connotation. But assigning a new meaning does not just effect to a connotation. New literal meanings can be created by people as well. For example, the computer mouse was called a mouse because it looks like a mouse; and it has been called that ever since. The term mouse did not just imply the appearance of the computer accessory, it has also become its real product name. B. From Memes to Meme Systems to Culture As communication moves from an interpersonal level to group level, up to mass level, the role of the communicator evolves and transfers. In the
Homogeneity of culture began in the printing era when messages spread across different countries and continents. The digital age expedited cultural homogeneity due to the speed and immediacy of communication.
Tribal era, since communication was generally auditory communal, messages were communicated to a group by its members with almost equal responsibility. Although early humans may assign shamans or leaders, when one hears something in their environment, everyone hears it. (Unless that sound was from a metaphysical world, then only shamans can hear it, but I digress.) Memes, meme systems and cultures were developed by a community through their shared experiences. The age of Literacy maintained the oral tradition but the development of a writing system shaped how people received and interpreted information. And because writing was an acquired skill and unnatural human skill (Liberman), the literate people has a stronger control over our view of reality. The most concrete example of this control would be the limited interpretations of the Christianity faith. The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church had very limited interpretations for 700 year after the 1st Ecumenical Council. Most of the Christian denominations were formed after the invention on the movable type printing press. (“Christian Heresies”) Stories, no longer time-bound because of writing, were used to maintain religious culture. The printing era enabled more people to learn reading and writing skills and democratized knowledge and homogenized of culture. Because books were more accessible to people in farther places meme systems and cultures were spread. The public were equipped to create and interpret meaning. 8
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The electronic age caused the formation of the Global Village: an environment where our messages can have direct and instant impact on people. Going back to Symbolic Interactionism Theory, transcontinental interaction between people as Alexander Graham Bell did with Thomas Watson meant that symbols can now be transmitted instantaneously across borders. Symbolic understanding and homogeneity became possible to create despite distance. Today, the Global Village is ever more large and culture is ever more homogenous. The digital age flatted the communication and meaning-making landscape. Normal people (or people who do not belong to the ruling class) now have the power to shape reality through a currency developed by social media and social networking sites: share-ability. In a communication landscape that values interaction and connection, share-ability is an important currency to mine as it can cause exponential spread of messages. For example, a Person A with a social networking circle of 500 individuals may publish a message and expose these 500 people to it. If at least one person, Person B, shares his message, Person A’s message can interact with even more people. So, if Person B has 500 more individuals in his social networking circle, Person A’s original message may have the potential to connect with 1000 individuals. Messages spread this was has the capacity to spread exponentially as more people shares a message. The digital age has made interpersonal communication have power equal with mass communication. In a world where everyone can publish, the empathy - the ability to feel how people feel and know what makes them share messages rules communication landscape.
IV. Reality as Created by Society and the Media Social Construction of Reality
Media Construction of Reality
A television crew filming a scene. Only a specific view can be seen by the audience: the view the camera shot. Everything else is hidden from view.
Agenda- Setting Theory Understanding how the power to form meaning shifts from one media era to another helps us look at how reality can be shaped by different players. Although communication is interpersonal, the big picture tells that whoever is the dominant figure in a given media era has control over construction of reality. In forming a socially constructed reality, Herbert Blumer presented three core principles of Symbolic Interactionism: meaning, language and thinking. The theory’s first core principle is that humans behave towards things or people based on the meanings they assigned to them. The second premise is that social interaction gives rise to meanings as negotiated through language. This means that things and people do not have inherent meaning, but develop meaning through communication. The third premise is that individuals are able to modify interpretations of symbols through their own thinking processes. The three premises of socially- contructed reality opens the floor to the differentiation of facts and reality. For example: a woman, after cleaning her drawers was accumulated P100,000 in scattered bills. She became excited told her parents of her discovery. But much to her surprise, her parents replied to her: 9
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“That is small. We earn that in a day in our store.” Because of this, she realized that she has not been earning and saving enough money. Furthermore, she underestimated the value of her recovered cash. This story is a real-life story of my friend; and I am sure that it may not be unique. But the fact is most families in the Philippines take months to earn that amount of money. P100,000 is a substantial amount here in our country, but because of my friend’s interaction with her parents her perception of that amount changed. But what if she was not close with her parents? What if she was closer with their house help and told them about it instead? Would her perception on the value of that amount of money change or not? Differences in social constructions and facts abound society. The usual players in this disparity are Science and Religion and in recent years, the issue of the Reproductive Health Bill law exhibited the loudest battles between the two sectors. The idea of the beginning of life was in question because this had an impact on the morality of abortion, abortion pills and other drugs. Religion argues that life begins as soon as an egg cell is fertilized, and but while Science proposes
no alternative (but they are leaning towards the establishment of sentience), since the concept of Life and its source has yet to be discovered. Science is concerned with universality and organized skepticism. It is only concerned with testable and proven facts. But religion tends to ground itself on a sense of reality that is based on faith not on provability through testing. But society is not just composed of these two seemingly opposing sectors. There other sectors who are in constant battle with each other regarding facts and established beliefs. The electronic age saw the blossoming of mass media and communication. It has become possible to communicate not just between and among groups but also with millions of people. But the infrastructure of electronic communication is expensive and is limited only to entities like the government and private Media companies who kept the gates and served as the storytellers as they kept people glued to television sets, radios, and movies. Media entities, despite their vows of honesty and integrity in communication are first and foremost business entities that need to generate revenue and profit. The Philippines’ largest networks ABS-CBN and GMA are both publicly traded (“Bloomberg Business”) and accept advertising opportunities to businesses. This adds a layer of agenda that we may not usually see: the Media, 10 The Culture Shapers
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Left: An entertainment news article posted by PEP.ph reporting actor Alden Richard’s unfollowing of co-actor Julie Ann San Jose. The news outlet transforms a media agenda to a public one. Top: An graphic design work communicating how we tend to focus on what we want the public to see and hide the full reality.
our storytellers are financially responsible to themselves and to their investors; and that may become a hinderance to objective storytelling. This now creates a question on the public agenda and the media agenda. Which causes which? Does the public agenda cause what the media’s agenda will be? Or does the media agenda cause what the public values? In many situations, the Media follows social activities, events or issues of people; and through broadcast, what once was a concentrated activity becomes a public concern. In some cases it even creates social reality. (Griffin, 2006) But if the Media is also profit- oriented body, how does this affect the creation of social reality? It has its own agenda of protecting itself and its business. And to do this and stay relevant, they must make their agenda (the media agenda) a public agenda. For example, every time a new movie is scheduled to come out, the network who produced the said movie will bombard its T.V. shows with story
Rappler’s mood navigator showing the topics of the day that people “Don’t Care” for. Most of the “new” articles rated as “Don’t Care” and “Annoying” are showbiz- related articles.
frames about its actors, about its directors or even about a relevant issue related to the movie. Even the most minute of details are usually broadcast. For example, two years ago an ex-matinee couple were each scheduled to release separate movies under the same producer. One morning, a new website released “Alden Richards unfollows Julie Anne San Jose on Twitter.” This was clearly not a public agenda but a media agenda pushed unto the public.
despite its democratization of publishing. Social media and social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube enabled users to post their own content and earn from it. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube celebrities now shape the culture and the reality of Generations Y and Z. The ALS Ice Bucket challenge, the sudden boom of neo-feminism, and menism, among others are some of the agendas and values that most young people today share.
The digital age only magnified the power of the Media outlets by providing a free-er arena for communication. The media models have changed because of the Digital Age from Above the Line and Below the line to Paid, Owned and Earned Media. The Digital Age was still heavily dependent on corporations,
However, although it seemed like the power of communication had flattened but at the end of the day, the celerities of the Digital Age are all still dependent on these websites.
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V. The Storyteller of Risk and Change Cultivation Theory Cultural Theory
Media Construction of Everyday Life
Cultivating a Culture Being the storyteller of the Global Village, the Media has the power and the responsibility to cultivate our perception of social reality and shape our behavior. So, how does the Media, which is at the bottomline also a revenue-generation body cultivate our culture? Cultivation Theory by Gerbner proposes as answer in three prongs. The first prong of the theory is Institutional Process Analysis. This looks at the policies and processes behind the scenes in the Media to understand why they produce the messages they do. An example given was that the Media, being a business, has a need to widen the gap between revenue and expenses. In its core, the policies of media is never ambivalent because it can never sacrifice its profit. The second prong is Message System Analysis. This is understands the contents of the messages the Media broadcasts and how it affects viewers. Violence is the cheapest story to produce because always available (because it happens everywhere) and it appeals (by fear, curiosity or entertainment) to most. This is one of possible reasons why the Media is peppered with violence. But this effects to two possible things: either 1) viewers develop a feeling that the world is a dangerous place or 2) viewers develop a feeling of false security because of the 12 The Culture Shapers
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seeming isolation of the story “inside the box” or the television set. This also effects to desensitization of people and the formation of “new normals.” For example, the proliferation of casual sex in different television shows and movies changed how people perceive premarital sex. The last prong is Cultivation Analysis which understands how much exposure to Media affects our cultivation. Studies show that people who are exposed to Media longer are more aligned with the Media construction of reality. Geertz quoted Kluckholm and listed some potential meanings of culture. Identified definitions are “a total way of life” a “social legacy the individual acquires from his group”, “way of thinking, feeling and behaving”, and “learned behavior.” Culture is a behavior that we learn or acquire through social interactions and communication. Another definition is “a mechanism for the normative regulation of behavior” which basically means it is a way to homogenize behavior in a given community. The different Media eras have had their storytellers powered by the era’s technology. (Geertz) As I have said in previous sections, the media and technology of the era affects how people behave. Today, television shows and movies have “normalized” homosexuality and gay marriage. Kids today who are exposed to these messages may develop a mindset aligned with this.
Different companies capitalize on the concept of self-reward, equating material renumeration with self-worth.
Everyday Life, as Constructed by the Media “You get fed flattery on account of your golden resilience, perseverance; and the hope of one day achieving your dreams - which is no real respite from all of this gets dangled in front of you daily like a plastic carrot to keep you going. And then you have all these endorsements targeted at you, the hardworking warrior: no time for breakfast because of the traffic? Take some sacheted breakfast drink loaded with the vitamins and minerals you’re clearly deficient in! No money to spend on your lunch break? Here’s a cheap value meal that’s packed with enough flavor enhancers to make you forget.” - Aleck Maramag - Arradaza The quote above is from a long Facebook post by my friend, which I thought was very fit to describe how our everyday life has been constructed by the Media. The Media is a medium that others, namely companies, use to communicate their intentions. Advertising euphemizes their approach by communicating to people that there are products that will be able to provide fixes to their needs. This goes back to the issue on Public Agenda versus Media Agenda. How are we to know that choices provided to us are the only choices or are the best choices? Advertising has capitalized on the gaps of our needs and is able to use the Media to magnify them. The Media and advertising had cultivated people to become product-dependent 13 The Culture Shapers
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consumerists due to their control of mass communication. Everyday decisions like what clothes to wear, or food to buy have become dependent on what is pushed to us by advertising. The way we perceive ourselves and other people are based on the reality pushed to us by products. The ideal beauty, body, the aspirational image we all dream to be are products of the Media agenda that: “you need this product to fix that problem.” In the book Presentation of Self by Erving Goffman likened the way we portray ourselves to people to a theater performance. In his dramaturgical model of social life, he identified the performance, setting, appearance, manner and front as main concepts that influence the way we interact with people. The actors in the “show” may not have set stories or objectives, but they come into the story with a set character. Much like other stories, their character evolves or develops meaning through the performance through their interaction with other characters and events. But who molds the initial state of the characters? It would also be important to consider that the audience do not come into a show as blank slates. They come in to interpret the characters by referencing them with the meaning they have developed. Media is such a powerful storyteller that it is able to shape our initial states as both characters and the audience in the metaphorical play. The values that they incorporate into products have both shaped our perception of ourselves (appearance), social and even purchasing behavior (front, manner). (Crossman)
Far left: A new trend in advertising has emerged promoting acceptance of self, contering the convetional ideas of beauty. Left: a children’s toy ad promoting creativity in whatever shape or form
But today more people ask others first before buying a product, instead of just believing advertisements. Conversations have become horizontal, not anymore vertical. But advertising is quick to catch up and has since extended their hands to storytellers on the Internet.
processes are created by nurture rather than nature, as the previous type describes. In today’s digital age, the Media has a large control of the stories being told, and is told to be the main cultivators of culture. The Internet, specifically people who have the biggest clout in the web are also drivers of culture, thought and behavior.
Views on Risk and Change from Different Paradigm Weber enumerated different constructing agents/ units that discern and make sense of the things around us, the brain being the ‘mother’ and Culture, and Media as other agents and posed some of the classic questions of constructivism and realism like the nature of reality as discovery or invention, and do media simply reflect or construct reality? (Weber)
The third mental process is what Cultural Theory calls “conscious decisions”: mental processes that are self-reflexive resulting to actions and decisions made in full awareness of the influence of instinct, and culture. Though thought to be beyond cultural influences, a person’s ability to decide for him or herself may still be dependent on how he or she was cultivated by the present physical and media environment.
Cultural Theory offers and answer as it looks at how much of our perceptions and actions regarding risk and change is affected by different factors. The theory begins with the analysis of human behavior based on three identified metal processes. The first is the hard-wired or instinctive process. This is based on the presumption that we are predisposed to instinctual actions caused by biology such as the drive to reproduce (sexual drive), to protect our life, and to feed among others. This mental process is the most basic and that even without exposure to any enculturation we can develop this mental process. The next level is the culturally - conditioned mental process which is a product of the interaction of people, resulting to a shared fantasy (Griffin, 2006), and the development of shared set of beliefs and traditions. Culturally- conditioned mental 14 The Culture Shapers
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Given these three types of mental processes, Cultural Theory suggests fours ways that we think about pursuing changes in organizations. The four ways are: 1) egalitarian 2) hierarchical 3) individualist 4) fatalist. The Egalitarian paradigm believes that change happens from the bottom-up or from people with shared values and beliefs. In egalitarianism, individualistic thought is thought to be selfish and irresponsible. Hierarchical paradigm on the other hand believes that change happens from the top through leaders and experts, and through the creation and enforcement of rules and regulations. The Individualistic paradigm believes that change is created by the individual through self-improvement, action and competition. Individualists believe that egalitarians and hierarchists as having hidden self-serving agenda. While the fourth paradigm, Fatalism see successful change as unlikely because of the unpredictable and unmanageable nature of the world. (“Idioticon - Cultural Theory”)
Key Change Agents per Paradigm Kincaid’s model of Social Change identifies a several players as Catalysts of Social Change. He identified 1) Internal Stimulus 2) Change Agents 3) Innovation 4) Policies 5) Technology 6) Mass media as the different entities that may start initial change. As an overviewing perspective, the Internal Stimulus is a factual or perceptual trigger to change, like a discovery of a new virus that needs to be cured or a report of prostituion ins a village that needs to be addressed. This is heavily a result of public observation or scientific knowledge or media reports. Change Agents are the individuals who initiate and work on bringing through change like NGO partners. The perspectives of these people may be influenced by many factors, but one of which may be media cultivation. Innovation pertains to the creation of a new product that may trigger change - which may also be the result of scientific discoveries. Policies trigger the community to act as these are laws that need to be upheld. Technology pertains to the available materials old or new that may be used to help people reconsider current practices. Lastly, Mass media pertains to the communication entities who have the ability to communicate on a mass scale. Change brought about by egalitarians will be from the bottom-up and will have a homogenous value system. What needs to be considered then is what or who shaped their values. If the Media is able to shape culture and egalitarians shape this culture, then wouldn’t their idea of change be shaped by Media as well? Heirarchists’ idea of change is top-down and through proper implementation of policies. What needs to be considered is who are the people in the hierarchy? Are they the same people who are able to control communication? Or are they products of Media cultivation as well? Who or what shaped their cognitive and affective capacities to produce and implement policies? In this day and age of cultural homogeneity brought by mass media, do true Individualists still exist? If change is created by the individual from his or her own hard-work and development, who shaped this mindset? Is this, again a Mediacultivated behavior? And does this only encourage social entropy? And lastly, Fatalists believe that change cannot happen because of the world’s unpredictability and uncontrollability. Is this his or her true perception or the result of the violence seen in Media? No matter what change paradigm, whoever has the ability to tell stories to most people has the capability to shape perceptions, shape reality and shape our perception of change. The challenge lies of our self-reflexivity and ability to make conscious decisions.
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Top: Kincaid’s model of Social Change enumerates catalysts of change. Technology and Mass media work along with people, and policies to spark community dialogue. But what are the topics being catalyzed by the Mass Media? What kind of dialogues are happening?
V. The Storytellers and Culture-shape Conclusion
To have a greater understanding of the breadth and depth of culture, having a thick description of human behavior is required. In doing a thick description, human behavior is not only understood not just by looking at the behaviors as is but also it context. Thick description calls for an anthropological view of behavior and culture. The milieu is important when understanding behavior because we behave not in isolation from the environment, but in reaction and adaptation to it. (“Clifford Geertz, “Description: Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture,” The Interpretation of Culture, (NY: Basic Books, 19”) Both the physical and the media environment described by McLuhan shapes our behavior, as well as each other. The invention of writing was believed to be an adaptation to survive predators. (Meggs, 2006) Communication was invented to adapt to a physical environment and now we are reshaping our lands to provide for better communication infrastructure. As interpretive theories are, observations of the our world and the cultures of people i and through different points in history serve as evidences to provide an understanding of culture. Countless factors have influenced and given birth to 16 The Culture Shapers
Communication and Media as Culture Synthesis
many other ideas that in turn, collide and merge with others to form new ones. This memetic process of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction is a cycle that seems to effect to cultural entropy. It is affects many different aspects including urban planning, policy-making, health sciences, the arts and many others. But to have an understanding of all of these complexities, it is important for us to first have a looking glass to look through. In this paper, I chose to look at the different communication eras by McLuhan to unearth the culture-shapers. Whoever your storyteller may be: your peers, the Media, the government or maybe our friends from across the globe, they all influence the way we think and behave. But it is important to remember that we are always able to make a conscious, self-reflexive choice to create our own meaning.
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17 The Culture Shapers
Communication and Media as Culture Synthesis
The Culture Shapers Communication and Media as Culture Synthesis
FMA1 / Mark Antiqueno / DEVC203 18 The Culture Shapers
Communication and Media as Culture Synthesis