Language and Media

How do new types of media change the nature of communication?

Group Activity: Use the rebus principle to construct as long of a sentence as you can

What was difficult about this exercise? What were some words you wanted to write but couldn't?

What was the importance of the rebus principle for language development?

Maryanne Wolf (2007)

• Writing began with 3 epiphanies: symbolic representation, use of symbols, sound-symbol correspondence
• The rebus principle lead to the discovery of the phoneme
• Pictographic and logographic writing systems allowed for stories to be transcribed

Neil Postman (1985)

• The telegraph lead to the flow of context-free information; it made information into a commodity; it altered the information-action ratio
• Photography further sensationalized information
• This lead to the invention of context and uses for disconnected and fragmented bits of information

How does more recent media change the way we think, communicate, and interact?

Media Critiques

As radio and television developed, scholars became concerned about the effects of mass media on the public

Robert K. Merton (1910-2003) was an American sociologist

Robert K. Merton

• known for his ideas about social roles
• created theories about "role models" and "self-fulfilling prophecy"
• theory of deviance

Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Social Action

Social Functions of Mass Media

• Status conferral function
• Enforcement of social norms
• The narcotizing dysfunction of the mass media

The social effects will vary as the system of ownership and control varies

Effects of Marketing Control

• Social Conformity
• Impact on popular taste
• Propaganda for social objectives

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society

Theodor W. Adorno

• member of the Frankfurt school of critical theory
• phenomenon of standardization
• study of genres of music and popular taste

The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception

Proposed that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods—films, radio programs, magazines, etc.—that are used to manipulate mass society into passivity.

Media and Literacy

Literacy: the ability to read and write

New Literacies: refers to other modes of literacy beyond the traditional conception of the ability to read and write, including visual literacy, etc.

Brian Street

• one of the co-founders of the New Literacy Studies Group
• promotes an “ideological view of literacy”, which acknowledges that literacy is context dependent and power-laden
• notion of literacy practices stems from Street’s fieldwork in an Iranian village
• focused on literacy practices

James Paul Gee

• prominent new literacy studies scholar, esp. video games
• Two reasons for expanding tradition conception of literacy
• Sees literacy in terms of semiotic domains

Semiotic domains: any set of practices that recruits one or more modalities (e.g., oral or written language, images, equations, symbols, sounds, gestures, graphs, artifacts, etc.) to communicate distinctive types of meanings

Crystal's (2008) texting as literacy

• recognize alternative spellings
• intuit standard of texting
• be sensitive to communicative needs of others ('lol' or 'brb')
• be aware of the possible effect of language on others ('imho' or 'afaik')
• what is lacking?

Recognized Examples

• instant messaging
• blogging
• maintaining a website
• using social media
• photoshopping and photosharing
• reading/writing/commenting on fanfiction

What are some other examples of new literacies and what types of communicative skills do they require? Are there any skills that form of literacy is lacking?

The Internet and Society

How is the internet influencing/changing human interaction?

Marshall T. Poe

• Accessibility: diffused networks = equality
• Privacy: produced privacy in public space
• Fidelity: low & high (audiovisual)
• Volume = increased leisure
• Velocity: dialogic networks = democracy
• Range: extensive networks = diversify
• Persistence: surveillance/archive = history
• Searchability = amateurize