Ritual Models of Communication - Term Paper Example

Introduction Communication and the means of communication are considered the most important forces of changes in human consciousness in the last century. Communication is the most common and mundane of human experiences. It is complex to recognize just like the fish doesn't recognize water; communication creates the ambience of human existence.When it comes to American consciousness and history then the role of communication has played an integral role. Terms of experience and consciousness that used to be ordinary and isolated have been significantly altered by the modern communications. These modes of communication have altered the human interest and feeling, the normal sense of being alive, of having a social relation. The whole societal forces have seen a shift as a result of development in the area of communications. Different theories have also been put forward with respect to communications and as the time passed by theories evolved to cover new aspects and in recent times they now expand to media and its role in the whole process of communication. History Different theoretical models were put forward and the earliest model was a simple sender-channel-message-receiver model also known as transmission model. Most communication textbooks, including public speaking, begin with the transmission model of communication. Even today, it remains a valuable introductory model. This particular model was a straight chain and was not in the form of loop. So later, modifications added the concept of feedback, leading to a loop. Further developments in the theoretical models added dimensions to the role of receivers adding that receivers normally selectively perceive, interpret and retain messages. Shannon and Weaver put forward their theories in 1949 and their model was considered very important in further developments. Again in their model communication was considered as a linear, one-way process but they also made a difference between source and transmitter, and receiver and destination. So instead of single function they noted that there are two functions at the transmitting end and two at the receiving end. Criticism hurled at the model presented by Shannon and Weaver was the ignorance of the fact that communication process is often endless while they suggested a definite start and finish to the communication process. Decade of 50s brought in its wake further advancements for model-building, as fields of sociology and psychology developed. USA was the first country where the science of communication developed. Gerbner was among few who recognized the transactional nature of much communication that is the "intersubjectivity of communication". Additions to the earlier single chain or transactional communication model changed and experts started considering communication a matter of negotiation and cannot be predicted in advance. Later on developments of mass media, press, films and radio and political changes further accelerated mass communication research. Hence the focus shifted from communication to mass communication. As mass communication became important, different new models began to refer specifically to mass communication. Westley and Maclean were among earlier experts who put forward their views emphasizing the significance of audience demand rather than just the communicator's purpose. The decades of 1960s and 1970s saw the concentration moving away from the effects of the mass media on opinions, behavior and attitudes, and began to converge on the long-term and socializing impact of the mass media. Some were of the opinion that the audiences in this whole media game are active that is they can adopt or reject the guidelines offered by the mass media. However, another group considered audiences the victims of the media resulting in a suspicion of the mass media that continued through the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in relation to news selection and presentation. With further changes in the communication arena the boundaries separating mass communication from other communication processes blurred information revolution changed the societies and the world view with the "internationalization" of mass media. Ritual Model of Communication While communication is considered a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed.Early models of communication were based on a transmissive or transportation approach and communication was considered a one way process. James Carey in 1975 was the first to confront this ideology. James Carey is arguably the founder of the critical cultural study of communication and media in the United States. Even though he primarily referred to mass media, and mainly journalism, his evaluation fits for public speaking as well. Carey's groundbreaking work has had a lot of impact on current scholarship in communication, cultural studies, and U.S. history. Mass Communication scholar James W. Carey compares two views or models of communication, the "ritual" model and the "transmission" model. He suggested an alternative view of communication as ritual. According to Carey the old view was about "'imparting,' 'sending,' 'transmitting,' or 'getting information to others" (Carey 1989). The ritual view then changed communication as "'sharing', 'participation', 'association', 'fellowship', and 'the possession of a common faith'" (Carey 1989). He disagreed with earlier views and maintained that ritual view is directed "not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs" (Carey 1989). Ritual model was put forward in complete contrast to the earlier transmission model and inverted the transmission model's relationship of communication to reality. Whenever a theory is put forward, different assumptions are made. Also, in rituals theory, there are different assumptions about the relationship between communication and reality. Firstly, it is assumed that reality is not given, not humanly existent, independent of language and toward which language mirrors. Rather, reality is considered to be brought into existence, produced by communication, by the construction, apprehension, and utilization of symbolic forms. Hence, reality is not a mere function of symbolic forms, but is produced by humans that focus existence in specific terms. Also it is assumed that reality is not there to discover in any significant detail. Rituals and narratives are the parts of our daily lives. Even rituals and narratives are considered anthropological in the strict sense. News is one of the best examples given to understand the phenomenon of rituals. Reading the news is generally considered a dramatic ritual act. The news is not information but a depiction of contending forces in the world. The ritual model is not about information acquisition. Even though information acquisition is the part of the model but it is not the main point. Ritual model shows news as a dramatic action in which the reader joins a world of contending forces as an observer at a play. News is not information but drama,part of the ritual actions of everyday social life. Carey's ritual model changed the whole landscape as more emphasis was being laid on signs and symbols while medium and message were considered harder to separate. For example, the Christmas tree represents the model as it symbolizes ideas and values of friendship and celebration but has no instrumental purpose. Hence, tree is both medium and message and both are harder to separate. So, in the light of ritual model the communication was being considered as timeless and unchanging. Ritual view of communication is therefore, about projection of community ideals and their embodiment in material form-such as dance, plays, architecture, news stories, strings of speech to create a symbolic order that provides information, but also confirms, represents underlying order of things, and manifests ongoing and fragile social processes. Couldry's Ritual Model As discussed earlier that with the passage of time mass media transformed into information age with the far and wide presence of electronic media and later on inclusion of cyberspace and World Wide Web in the whole communication scenario. The media and its proliferation have had a huge impact on the social order. Since social order, shared experiences and community concepts were used by the earlier ritual theists, the impact of media on these factors could not have been ignored by the social experts. Couldry was among the current breed of social experts who work on the rituals theory from a media point of view. The difference between earlier ritual theories and Couldry's point of views is the inclusion of media in the whole picture and the coining of the term 'media rituals'. "Put more directly, 'media rituals' are any actions organized around key media-related categories and boundaries, whose performance reinforces, indeed helps legitimate, the underlying 'value' expressed in the idea that the media is our access point to our social centre" (Couldry 2003).There has been a constant debate about the media's impact on social life. The work of people like Couldry elaborates on media's role and rituals and their relation to the society and its norms. Many experts have seen media's effects positively while many have considered it negatively. Couldry ponders over the uses of television outside of the home and in social spaces transform and mediate audiences in ways that complicate conventional understandings of gender, class and consumption. Social order is the topic on which many social experts have worked. Couldry's work is also influenced by the works and ideas of people like Durkheim. Durkheim was among first few experts who included media in the whole communication debate considering the analysis of media events as special times when members of contemporary societies come together through media and become aware of each other as a social entity. Couldry elaborates on the physical boundaries, symbolic boundaries, institutional edges and the journeys by lay audiences to and from industrial space. "My approach should also be distinguished from post-structuralist positions which argue that the very possibility of social order has been radically destabilized. Anti-essentialist positions, for example those influenced by Deleuze and Guattari (1988), risk obscuring quite how pervasive and consistent the social pressures to believe in the social order are, particularly in mediated societies" (Couldry 2003). Couldry explains his stance with respect to media and social order with the help of actual levels of order (power concentrations) in contemporary societies and second, the relative degree of social disorder and chaos that coexists with them. Couldry also believes that there are myths that blind us to the real order and disorder of contemporary social life. He goes on to add that media and media rituals are a part of these myths. So, even though he worked on the ideas of media rituals but at the same time he looked at them very critically to the point that the long term aim of comprehending media rituals is to is to imagine a social fabric without them. Maintenance of the social order is considered to be a good thing. Carey links ritualistic communication with sharing, fellowship, and communion. Couldry includes and expounds on the role of media in the social order. References: Carey, J. 1989, A Cultural Approach to Communication, Routledge, York, N.Y. Couldry, N. 2003, Media Rituals: A Critical Approach, Routledge, New York. Read More