Lecture Notes class two

ntroduction
The Chicago School—Frankfort School—Birmingham School—Prague School

Theory

methodology
Empirical -- Based on, or acting on, observation or experiment, not on theory. An empirical view regards sense-data as solid information and strives for objectively verifiable measurements so that knowledge can be derived from experience alone.

Quantitative--
Qualitative
Objective
Subjective

Primary group -- a social group, such as a family or friends, made up of intimate face-to-face relationships that strongly influence the attitudes and ideals of the individuals involved versus
Secondary group—a group of people with whom one’s contacts are detached and impersonal

Mass communication research
The effects tradition


Mass society—as opposed to traditional societies –not just about largeness but about relationships between individuals and groups, related to homogenization and standardization and bureaucracy.

Daniel Bell: “The conception of “mass society” can be summarized as follows: the revolutions in transport and communications have brought men into closer contact with each other and bound them in new ways, the division of labor has made them more interdependent; tremors in one part of the of the society affects all others. Despite this greater interdependence, however, individuals have grown more estranged from one another. The old primary groups ties of families and local community have been shattered…Instead of a fixed or known status symbolized by dress or title, each person assumes a multiplicity of roles and constantly as to prove himself in a succession of new situations. (in Carey, 24-5).

In a mass society, the secondary group rises in prominence--institutions, bureaucracies, enforcers of the law, etc.
Dewey: society exists not only by transmission, by communication, but it may be fairly said to exist in transmission, in communication.

By the end of the 19th America was expanding via transmission and communication. The developing field of sociology turned to mass communication as a way to understand the formation of the social and the incursions into the public sphere. Or agora. Explain.
Dewey founded the Chicago School of Pragmatism during his ten years at the University of Chicago, from 1894-1904
Mead exerted considerable influence in sociology.

Two of his students, Ellsworth Faris and Herbert Blumer, continued his work.
Other sociologists at Chicago, especially W. I. Thomas and Robert Park, who with Mead, Faris, and Blumer could be loosely identified as the "Chicago School of Sociology," shared some common outlooks on the nature and purpose of sociology.
Another prominent pragmatist sociologist who shared many of the Chicago School's principles was Charles Horton Cooley at the University of Michigan. Pragmatic themes can also be seen in the work of Thorstein Veblen, Frank H. Knight, and the "Chicago School of Economics."
Communications research in the United States has its origins in the 1880s with the work of Dewey, Mean, Park, Cooley and Ford. Basing their view on Herbert Spencer's organic conception of society, they posited the idea that communication and transportation were like the nerves and arteries of society.
The Chicago school saw the new communications as a way to create a unified nation and a unified culture: "a great public of common understanding and knowledge" (Carey, 1989:143).
They viewed communication as more than information circulation and they developed a concept of communication as the process in which people create a culture and maintain it. Significantly, the idea of the public sphere as a concept which allows rational-critical debate and action was a central notion in their thought.
Frontierism
The Chicago school theorists saw communications as a new frontier. They saw particular significance in the way that frontier people who were previously strangers created community life afresh in the new towns of the West. Expansion continued via media if not in terms of land size
THE CHICAGO SCHOOL and Mass Communication Research

James Carey.

--mass comm research began around WW1—the rise of propaganda
--the concurrent rise of advertising and PR
--After the transition of the Jazz Age to the Depression, the fear of mass movements, motivated in part by use of the mass media
--War of the Worlds broadcast prompted research—bullet theories and hypodermic needles

The Chicago School reacted against 19th C utilitarianism and social darwinism (survival of the fittest):
“The utilitarian argument asserts that in any free exchange of ideas among rational thinkers, truth will emerge victorious…Let each person be free to argue as reason guides. If all have reason and if reason is capable of discerning truth, all will ultimately come to truth” (in Carey, 27).

Utilitarianism is an absolutist, totalizing view of society governed by the the dominant notion of the truth, but in action, by gauging one’s usefulness “Rather Use Than Fame.”

The Chicago School responds to the situation in America of rapid change and modernization (and immigration, migration, and urbanization)
--in the absence of a shared tradition, communication emerges as key.
--communities are held together by communication, rather than by traditions
--thus society exists in transmission and communication not just utilitizing those devices
--our lives exists in our communication media, not through them.
--attempt to develop an ecology (the study of relationship between entitites) of urban life in relation to communication
--ultimately to write a phenomonology of modern consciousness
--from communication effects to cultural struggle, not only focused on class and economic terms—but also racial, religious, ethnic, status, regional, and later on gender.
In response to Chicago School, Walter Lippman had a more cynical notion of communications, responding to rise of propaganda, advertising and pr. Wrote Public Opinion.
"We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on our side of the front is truth and righteousness, the cause of humanity and a crusade for peace," Lippmann said. That statement came in defense of Harrison Salisbury, who was criticized as "a tool of enemy propaganda" for reporting in 1966 from Hanoi that American bombing had killed and wounded many civilians and destroyed civilian homes. (3)
A generation earlier, Lippmann had theorized that people respond to pictures that appear in their heads. (4) In Public Opinion (1922), he wrote about the discrepancy between the real world and the world people perceive. He noted that most of what people know about the world comes to them indirectly, and "whatever we believe to be a true picture, we treat as if it were the (world) itself."
Lippmann saw propaganda as the effort to alter those pictures. He believed the world was too vast and too complicated for most people to experience directly, so they reconstruct it with pictures they can accept. (5)
These actions, he said, can "set armies in motion or make peace, conscript life, tax, exile, imprison, protect property or confiscate it, encourage one kind of enterprise or discourage another, facilitate immigration or obstruct it, improve communication or censor it, establish schools, build navies, proclaim politics and destiny, raise economic barriers make property or unmake it, bring one people under the rule of another or favor one class against another." (6)
Carey, for Lippman; “the average citizen did not have the capacity, the interest, or the competence to direct society” … in effect [he] took the public out of politics and politics out of public life.”
Responsibilities to govern are left to a new samourai class, of experts, scientists, well-educated diplomats, because the masses can not be trusted. … “he redefined the problem of the media from one of morals, politics, and freedom to one of psychology and epistemology.(30).
Those who control the media could effectively control the public. Public opinion is produced by media and its handlers. (Lippman) not because of the free exchange of ideas that benefit society (utilitarian).
Lippman—through propaganda and popular media, you CAN fool all the PEOPLE all the time. But you can’t fool the EXPERTS.
c/f H.L. Mencken: No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."]



Research as a Basis in Lowery and DeFleur
Master trends from traditional society of the 18th c to mass society

Industrialization
Factory system and corporation as key organizations
Bureaucracy in gov and corporations as style of managing people

Urbanization
From agricultural pop, to urban masses
With immigration too, it brings unlike people together
Life in the new cities is alienating unlike the organic togetherness of rural life, confusing rules, customs, and traditions, called ANOMIE.

MODERNIZATION
Innovations in production and consumption (postFordist), leisure time. Diversification of media sources and info sources. Literacy.
Social differentiation and psychological isolation
Mass Soc emerges when:
1. Social differentiation increases due to div. of labor, the bureaucraticization of human groups, the mixing of unlike pops, and differeing patterns of consumption.
2. informal social controls erodes as the influence of trad norms and values declines, leading to increases in deviant behavior
3. formal social control rises (contracts, laws, crim justice. Society becomes impersonal
4. conflicts increase due to social differences and values
5. open and easy comm as a social stabilizer becomes more difficult, rise of anomie, distrust between groups and so forth.
6. because of these changes, people in modern society become increasingly dependent on Mass Communication to obtain info and ties (as opposed to interpersonal networks, or the primary group).

MAGIC BULLET THEORY as point of departure
Based on Darwinian principles.
Harold Lasswell (1927) is the first modern mass communication theorist and researcher. Lasswell developed an innovative theory of the effect of mass communication during World War I. He based his theory of mass communication, 'hypodermic needle' model, on Freudian theory that argues that humans are motivated by primitive and unconscious forces (Davis and Baron, 1981).
He observed mass media as an effective way of persuading audience for political leaders such as Hitler, Roosebelt, Stalin, and Musolini. According to 'hypodermic needle' model or 'magic bullet' theory, human beings are given uniform instincts and live in a mass society where a single set of social norms and values can not control people from various origins. Under these circumstances, people receive and interpret media messages in a similar way. Therefore, mass communication can influence people's thoughts and behaviors immediately and effectively.
Humans have uniform inherited instincts ….that render themselves vulnerable.
Propositions of mbt
1. in mass society, people are socially isolated
2. human beings got the same set of instincts that guide responses
3. as people are not influenced by social ties and trad customs they respond to media messages in similar ways.
4. yr inherited human nature and yr isolation, lead you to receive and interpret media messages in a uniform way.
5. thus, media messages are like symbolic bullets, hitting you and yr senses in an immediate, uniform, and as thus powerful.
Empirical research begins to endorse and disprove this and attempt to understand the workings of media messages.
Payne Fund Studies
“remain one of the largest scientific investigations of the influence of mass communication ever undertaken.” Concern for the effects of media on children is ongoing, and erupts when a media becomes popular. Films (1920s) Television (1950s) Internet/Video games 1990s/00s)
William Short obtained grant from Payne Fund for 4-year study 1929-32
to be a weapon in the cultural struggle for social control by guardians of tradition
19 psychologists and sociologists from 7 universities - 12 research tasks
9 reports pblished 1933, 2 more by 1935
University of Iowa study - electrodes on children's bodies during love-making scenes
Herbert Blumer in his Movies and Conduct "put forward the most far-reaching hypothesis about the impact of movies on American society."
Blumer used student autobiographies - a boy "learned to kiss a girl on her ears, neck, and cheeks, as well as on the mouth" - a girl learned movie stars kissed with eyes closed - romance is something that happens quickly - "I kiss and pet much more than I would otherwise"
movies had "a profound effect upon fantasy life" - dreams and passions far removed from reality
Movies and Conduct "provided the most effective propaganda against the movies. “Worst fears were confirmed. Movies appeared to be driving at least some children to a life of crime.” (28)
Henry James Forman wrote summary volume Our Movie-Made Children, argued that movies were a "gigantic educational system"
In a huge content analysis of 1500 films, there were classified in 10 categories: crime, sex, love, mystery, war, children, history, travel. Comedy, and social propaganda.
Over ¾ dealt with only three themes—crime, sex, and love. . more wholesome themes were almost insignificant.
Movies were proven to shape the perception and attitudes of children. This study has ongoing influence today (immediately started ratings system)
Reinforced racist attitudes—p.31 Birth of the Nation—change in attitude toward African-Americans.
Could confront racist assumptions if sympathetic.—Attitude Toward the Chinese p,31.
Thus single pictures could change attitudes and effects could be immediate as well cumulative and persistent.
(Again, co-factors were not examined—were racist attitudes being reinforced in primary and secondary group?)
Study did not look at children’s social relationship and did not differentiate between them.
Did not look at co-factors such as effect on sleep in orphans after watching horror movies.
Blumer “anticipated two theories of mass communication influence that have become more systematically developped in recent years. One is the ‘meaning’ theory of media portrayals advanced by DeFleur and Dennis. This other is the modeling theory of Albert Banduara.” Media provides content that user interpret and apply to their own lives; media provides models for behavior that users imitate.
Later, media theorist began to see that media provides USES and GRATIFICATIONS.

Payne Fund Studies established media research as a serious scientific field. With its experimental, quantitative, and survey methodology, it influenced how researchers developped, proved, and disproved theories of media usage, and the effects that various media had on the user, even though its own conclusions have not passed the test of time.
Nevertheless within the context of the 1920s, the Payne Fund Studies showed that “films were an influence on attitudes, they provoked models for behaviors ; they shaped interpretations of life” (42)
The Invasion from Mars
Chart number 3.2 p. 62
Hadley Cantril’s study argued
A. 1/6 of listeners were panicked.

B why this broadcast frightened audience
1. the American public developped confidence in radio—primary source of news
2. historical timing. Economic insecurity and facing the prospects of war
3. aesthetics of the show; its mimicry of a radio itself
4. tuning in late (after Edgar Bergen show)

C. reasons why some were scared and not others.
1. critical ability more likely to realize it was fake
2. those with strong religious beliefs were mere vulnerabe
3. personalities that were insecure, phobic, lacking self-confidence, had more dread
4. unusual listening situation, e.g., told by friends to listen in.

SIGNICANCE Of STUDY
-first study of panicked behavior related to media
-interested in the psychological and sociological factors
-selective influence perspective revealed. Personality factors, ses, social/psychological conditions, thus challenging the magic bullet theory that is media doesn’t effect all in the same way.
--confirmed public thinking about th 

Syllabus

 

Communication Theories
Com 203 / Tuesday/Thursday 12:20 – 2:15. 1P 202
Dr. Edward D. Miller
edward.miller@csi.cuny.edu
http://comm203.blogspot.com

Brian Siegel, Supplemental Instructor in Writing
briansiegel@cix.csi.cuny.edu
Office Hours Thursdays 2:30-3:30

INTRODUCTION: This course introduces different theories involved in the academic discipline of Communications as defined by the Department of Media Culture. We begin with the major influences on communication theories, and then examine the influence from other disciplines that have shaped the field. Thus, we read texts from the fields of Linguistics/Semiotics, Sociology, Psychology, and Anthropology. We also read key texts from more recent interdisciplines such as cultural studies, media studies, visual culture, and performance studies that impact the study of mediated communication. Two particular emphases in this version of the course are the study of video games and gender theory. Readings are to be completed in advance of the Tuesday session. The Tuesday session is primarily a lecture. The Thursday session is reserved for discussion of the reading and writing exercises.

PREMISE: By signing up for this course, the student is not only attempting to fulfill a requirement for the Major. In effect, the student has also signed a contractual agreement with the Professor. This is our agreement: I structure and animate the class; the student comes prepared and on time, having done the reading, eager and able to interact appropriately. In order to fulfill this contract, I reserve the right to surprise students with quizzes, to assign unexpected in-class writing tasks, and to call upon students to respond.
GOALS:
1. Discern how theory informs practice and explain the modes in which theoretical models are utilized in the social sciences and humanities.
2. Gain familiarity with the primary schools of communications theory throughout the history of the field.

3. Develop an understanding of the history of the interdisciplinary field of communications, and its relationships with other disciplines (such as sociology, anthropology, linguistics, semiotics, psychology) and area studies (ethnic, gender, visual, cultural, and performance studies) that have contributed to communications studies.
The course trains student to master the concept and applicability of theory. It is geared more to the sociocultural emphasis in mediated communications and less to interpersonal and organizational models within the discipline. However, students are expected to improve on both their written and oral modes of communication and to become conscious of interactions within the classroom.
EVALUATION: Attendance and participation is mandatory. I bide by the official policy of the College: any student who is absent for more than fifteen percent of the class hours receives a WU. Turn off cell phones and iPods before you enter class. In-class writing assignments are not graded; quizzes are. Both figure in the classroom participation grade

GRADING:

Short assignments: 10%
Midterm: 35%
Final: 35%
Class participation: 20%
PLAGIARISM: Please acquaint yourself with the official policy of the College. These can be found in the catalog in the section Academic Policies. Remember: when a student plagiarizes, Professor Miller knows. Use MLA citation style for short paper and final. Consult http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/ for information on this style.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Cobley, Paul (ed). The Communication Theory Reader: NY: Routledge, 1996.

Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997. (Hall)

RECOMMENDED:

Lowery, Sharon & Melvin DeFleur. Milestones in Mass Communication Research. New York: Longman Publishing, 1995. (L & DeF)

Dennis, Everette & Ellen Wartella. American Communication Research: The Remembered History. NY: Laurence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. (D & E)

Reading that is not in required books is handed out to students.
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28 August: Greetings

30 August: Introduction: What is theory? What is communication?

4 September: Mass Communication Models
Reading:
L & DeF, Chapters 2 and 3
J.W. Carey in D & E, “The Chicago School and Mass Communication Research”

6 September: Discussion

11 September: Postwar Models
Reading:
L & De F, Chapters 4, 7, 9: “The People’s Choice,” “Persuading the American Soldier in WWII,” “Personal Influence”
Films:
Why We Fight, Triumph of the Will

13 September: Discussion

18 September: no class (Rosh Hashanah)

20 September: Linguistics/Structuralism
Reading:
Saussure, “The Object of Linguistics” in Cobley
Barthes, “Denotation and Connotation” in Cobley
Chandler “Introduction”, “Denotation, Connotation, Myth”, “Paradigms and Syntagms” http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

25 September: No class (Yom Kippur)
27 September: Discussion of Saussure/Barthes

PAPER DUE ON THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE AND THE CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

2 October: Semiotics/Structuralism/Visual Culture
Reading:
Barthes, “The Photographic Message” in Cobley
Saussure, “The Linguistic Sign” in Cobley
Peirce, “A Guess at the Riddle” in Cobley
Chandler, “Encoding/Decoding”, “Rhetorical Tropes”, “Intertextuality”
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

4 October: Discussion of Visual Culture

9 October: Speech Act Theory
Reading:
Roman Jakobson, “Shifters and Verbal Categories” in Cobley
E. Benveniste, “The Nature of Pronouns” in Cobley
J. Searle, “What is a Speech Act?” in Cobley

J.L. Austin, “Performatives and Constatives” in Cobley

V.N. Volosinov, “Verbal Interaction” in Marxism and the Philosophy of Language

11 October: Discussion of Speech Act Theory

16 October: Media Theory
Reading:
Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message” and “Media Hot and Cold”
Baudrillard, “The Implosion of Meaning in the Media” located at
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/baudrillard/baudrillard-simulacra-and-simulation-08-the-implosion-of-meaning-in-the-media.html

18 October: Discussion of Media Theory; review for midterm

23 October: In class midterm

25 October: Baudrillard, Matrix, and going over midterm results

30 October: class canceled due to Hurricane Sandy
1 November: class canceled due to Hurricane Sandy


6 Nov: Introduction to Cultural Studies
Reading:
Stuart Hall, 1-74.

8 Nov: Representing Self and Other

Reading:
Peter Hamilton, “The Poetics and Politics of Representing Other Cultures” and “Representing the Social” in Hall, pp. 75-154.
“The Spectacle of the Other” in Hall, pp. 223-290.
Jacques Lacan, The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious” in Cobley

13 November:  Constructions and Performances of Gender
Reading:
Sean Nixon, “Exhibiting Masculinities” in Hall
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (excerpts)
Umberto Eco, “How Culture Conditions the Colours We See” in Cobley
15 November: Gender cont. 
Film:
Paris is Burning

20 November: Play, Identity, and Communication
Reading:
Gregory Bateson, “A Theory of Play and Fantasy”

Roger Caillois, Man, Play, and Games (excerpts) (handout)

Erving Goffman, excerpts from Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Hogan, Bernie. “The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online”

22 November: No class (Thanksgiving) 

27 November: Convergence Culture

Reading:
Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture (excerpts)

29 November: No class (Thanksgiving)

4 December: New Media

Reading:

Lev Manovich, “What is New Media?”

Short paper on Paris is Burning is Due
6 December: Video Games

Reading:

Derek Burrill, “Masculinity, Play, and Games” in Die Tryin’

Gonigal, Jane.  Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can

Change the World.  New York: Penguin Press, 2011 (excerpts)

Final handed out

11 December: Review

Final handed out

14 December (Friday):  
Work on final papers Meet with Brian and Edward

18 December:Final Papers Due

20 December: Papers Due by 5pm. 

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