The Transformation Model of Communication, Language and Meanings - Essay Example

The transformation model of communication, in contrast to the transmission model, speaks to the factors that influence the formation of the message, the influence of the medium in which it is expressed, and the understanding of the message by the recipient. Chapters 4 and 5 of Mass Communication in Canada explore how we understand the transformative process. Using concrete examples, discuss how at least three approaches to the study of content provide communications researchers with insight into transformative elements of the communicative process that they otherwise would not have. Communication is powerful means of conveying ideas, feelings, perspectives and beliefs using language, symbols, images, graphs and recently advanced too by multimedia to persuade people into action, to define market relations and to present reality in a mediated structure. But how do words work as content within interactive dynamics of social reality? This essay aims to explore the transformative elements or variables of the communicative process. Language and Meanings Mass media use language as tools in the process of interaction to communicate social reality. The kind of words being used, the manner of communication and the visual side of this interaction influences the transformation. Listeners, readers and viewers ought to know these variables in the construction of these messages to intelligently comprehend its textual and non-textual meanings. Words and symbols, depending on its usage and context, have its own meanings and are susceptible to various interpretations. What does it meant for you? What is it trying to convey for others? This is otherwise known as the process of signification which pave toward shared understanding of the text. Languages with indeterminate representations certainly convey varied meanings. Such entail serious listening, questioning, analyzing and collaborative understanding on what it denotes or connotes under specific circumstances and contexts. The denotative process of getting meaning is by delving into the most obvious literal meaning of words while connotative meaning refer to that which is subjectively interpreted by information user. Communication theorists argue that multiplicity of meaning can be generated within one medium and meaning can be generated within the multiplicity of media. This indeterminism of meanings simply meant that there are multifarious realities and probabilities of meanings. Reconstruction of Realities Communication reconstructs realities depending on how words and symbols are used to represent social conditions in persuasive and powerful rhetorical style. In movies, for instance, the story is understood by its characters and dramatic episodes that directly appeal to imaginative psyche of viewers. Television shows may depict similar factors for analysis as that of movies, except that this medium need variegated sights, sounds effect and public figures to convey information through a program where meanings are subjectively perceived by viewers. From the social theorist perspective, communication refers to ideas of world affairs to systematically explicate social realities, about changes and the proposed resolution to societal problems. It is through people’s interaction that they gain shared knowledge and realities. In such context, media production, on the other hand, is influenced by political and economic processes. Politically, media is regulated by civil and criminal laws e.g. libel and copyright. Economically, media rely on business sectors’ advertisements of products, sponsors, and marketed programs to raise revenue for operations. Organizationally, media have its vision, mission, goals, frameworks and imperatives. Their code of ethics also defines their professional values. As such, the system of values adopted by a media institution determines the nature and structure of ideas imparted to the public. Decoding information however would depend on the education, culture, beliefs, history, and ethnic background of the recipients of information. The audience heterogeneity meant that they too perceived media from varied vantages, to wit: a. Mass media is an extension of person’s freedom of expression and thus press freedom, basic to the expression of human rights, is upheld and protected by laws. Media is an independent voice seeking government to be responsible of its people; b. Mass media must inform citizenry about state’s affairs to enable them to participate in decision-making on issues directly affecting them; c. Marxists argued that mass media favored the capitalists and bourgeoisie’s interests, thus perpetuate social inequity. They use political economy as tool of analysis in understanding the dynamics of society--such as allocation, production, distribution, and consumption of social resources ; and, d. Media unify people who have been polarized and disintegrated by urbanization which consequently isolated people from their culture and traditions. Tools to Interpret and analyze meanings The content of information produced by media, moreover, can be analyzed through literary criticism, structuralism, semiotics, post-structuralism, discourse analysis, critical political economy and discourse analysis, and genre analysis. Literary criticism is the interpretation of text’s meaning while structuralism analysis is used in social sciences and humanities to uncover structures of text and genres as well as its thematic patterns. For instance, literatures are structured with introduction, body and conclusion. It also showed the pattern of how hero and villains relates in the progression of the plot toward conclusion that often explicates lessons learnt from narrative story. Semiotics, on the other hand, dealt about the system of communication using symbols akin to symbolic rites of indigenous communities or that of traffic signals of transportation. Analyses here focused on interpreting the denotation and connotation of each symbol. Discourse analysis refers to the process of understanding the effectiveness of rhetoric based on its persuasiveness, organization, and of evidences using political and legal settings. It examines how language convey a position on particular issue, such as the use of gender-neutral words in tackling eco-feminism, an emerging philosophy on women’s struggle for empowerment, access to resources and ecological protection. Discourse analysis is also effective in understanding an agenda based on candidates speeches or debates. Meanwhile, Marx theory posits media as (a) instruments of bourgeoisie’s ideology; (b) that its dependent on capitalists for revenue, (c) that its rely on politicians opinions or decisions, (d) hold negative feedback when information is against their interest, and (e) argue that power and information’s interplay is its economy. Unfortunately, many media organizations lack objectivity in reportage because their capacity and resources is limited by their relation with the power sectors of the community. This is because while advertisement is capitalists’ product marketing strategy and ways for competitive leverage, advertisements are also the lifeblood of commercial media. Such create the relations between producers and consumers through advertorials and plugging. It also influences the sustainability of the media as a business institution. Such put the media sector sometimes under questionable representations especially on whose voices it is espousing in its reports and to whom its services are offered: the power holders or the powerless peoples? Content analysis is therefore essential to uncover where reports are slanted. Media and Audience Realities Media, in this post-modern period, powerfully control peoples’ lives. In fact, media mediates in the acquisitions of knowledge these days. Information becomes a commodity. Reality became symbols or signs and of fragmented truths. Thus, people are presented with polarized realities: of war and peace or of right and left politics. It influences consumer’s behaviors, change perception, challenge traditions and relations, and paradigmatically shifts cultures. Audiences are left to bridge the gaps of information and realities for holistic understanding using varied lenses and dimensions. However, intelligent audiences are critical on fed information. Their education, values, interests, religious views, historical appreciation, and cultural make-up contribute to analytic interaction with media. For instance, audiences who’ve been dealing with violent situations are inclined to peace journalism to map the causes of conflict and to determine potential peaceful resolve of situations as an after effect. In fact, audiences select to view programs that gratify them or that integrate them into the system that reflect their social conditions. European cultural studies also pointed that media are structured to meet particular interest for meanings, such as gender-based categorization of its audience. Simone de Beauvoir’s book on Second Sex, for instance, challenges patriarchy by seeking to transform social structure and cultural practices that promotes women in secondary position and their sexual objectification. Authors on gender-based studies however recognize that audience likely employ meaning on information depending on ideological influences, dominant values, or their opposition or negotiated agreement over tackled issue or information. Meanwhile, reception analyses understand audiences’ responses and their acceptance of information on the basis of personal satisfaction gained from media. Media, on the other hand, may conduct summative research to assess their effectiveness in delivering information to targeted audience. As social media and technology advance, audience became pro-active content contributors using internet sites that provide higher level of interactivity. Access to information increased in many developed and emerging markets thru info-technology. Thus, audience can now directly provide feedbacks, critics, counter information, upload data, make their own database, blogs, and share contents rapidly through youtube, facebook, twitter, myspace, linkedin, and the like. Conclusion Understanding the transformative process of communication provided insights about communicative structures and influences in the creation of language and its meanings. It unmasked too how content are reported—either as reflection of social reality, as product of socialization, as ideological disposition or as influenced by social institutions. These days, media have become a vibrant instrument in the exchange of ideas. It has become a bulwark of person’s continuing search for meaning whilst transcending distance by being globally connected to different races across continents thru online social networks for more knowledge. Audience and readers became pro-active content providers of ideas, perceptions, and critiques. This affirms that as civilization advance, human beings remained true to its nature as social being that is continuously dedicated to transform reality for deeper meaning thru communication. REFERENCES Rowland, Lorimer; Gasher, Mike; and Skinner, David (2008). Chapter 4 & 5 of Mass Communication in Canada. 6th Ed. Oxford University Press, United Kingdom. pp. 83-137. Read More