Sociology of Communication - Essay Example

Sociology of Communication When people hear the word communication, they typically think about the process of transferring information from one person to another. They think of the forms that communication might take such as written text, spoken words, gestures or symbols. They think of the delivery of these forms as in letters, email, text messages for written text; face to face speaking, telephone conversations or recordings for spoken text; or body language or images for other forms of communication. What most people do not think of, though, is how that communication might be shaping the way that we think about ourselves and others. Communication begins at birth as we begin to learn how to signal to our caregivers what we need and they begin to interpret the signs we send. This process continues throughout childhood as we first learn to mimic our parents and then begin to learn from the greater world around us – neighbors, friends, the stories we hear, the television we watch, the things we learn in school. As we become involved in the process of communication within the public sphere, we both reflect and contribute to the greater discourse of the human race, allowing these ideas to shape and define us at the same time that we are helping to shape and define these ideas. “By the ‘public sphere’ we mean first of all a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed” (Habermas, 1974). Thus, mass communication often brings about shifting versions of reality depending upon who is doing the telling and how we choose to interpret the message. This process contributes to our concepts of racism as it develops within different groups, to our changing definitions of women and finally to the various ways in which we see the truth. Sociological studies have demonstrated how concepts of race and discussions of race shift and change depending on the context in which they are considered. This is the focus of Nina Eliasoph’s study into everyday racism (1999). What she discovered was that white people have a greater tendency to speak out about race when in a smaller, more intimate crowd than when they are in a larger, more general group setting. The significance of this is that racism is evident in both settings as individuals either choose to stand on their principles or blend into a larger group as a means of identifying themselves within that group. This is perhaps better explained by Walsh, “how people look at the world is grounded in where they place themselves in relation to others. Social identities are not just one component of our worldviews. Instead, we see the world through ideas of where we place ourselves in relation to others” (2003: 3). From this perspective, it becomes clearer that people have a tendency to use various cues, including race, to determine where they rank within a given social sector. Because they are more secure in their estimation of the smaller group, they are more likely to assert their ideas whereas positions within the larger setting becomes shaky and thus easier to simply go with the consensus opinion. To some extent, this is what Walter Lippmann was referring to when he wrote against the concept of a public democracy. “Lippmann argued … that since ordinary citizens had no sense of objective reality, and since their ideas are merely stereotypes manipulated at will by people at the top, deliberative democracy was an unworkable dogma or impossible dream” (Schugurensky & Myers, 2001). Our concepts of women are largely shaped by the media that surrounds us and our reaction to it. As Ariel Levy (2006) discusses, the very popular video series and expanding product line known as Girls Gone Wild has positioned itself as an entertainment venue for men and a form of female release and self-expression for the girls who participate. In creating such a position, this company is furthering the concept that a woman’s identity is largely shaped by her sexuality, which itself is a manifestation of those behaviors that are perceived to be most entertaining to men. This concept is perhaps most revealed in the case of Meredith, a girl who participated in an all-girl sexual scene for GGW and then later seemed to greatly regret her participation. “I’m not at all bisexual,” she told Levy. “Not that I have anything against that. But when you think about it, I’d never do that really. It’s more for show … My friend that I was with felt really bad, the one who told the first girl to kiss me, the one who started it. Because in the beginning, I felt so dirty about the whole thing” (Levy, 2006: 11). If this form of entertainment were truly liberating for the female spirit to unabashedly express itself, one would assume it would manifest itself in a way that was natural and ‘felt right’ to the participants. While the creators of GGW argue that this type of behavior occurs with or without them, Levy argues that, in many cases, this behavior is simply the only example of liberating behavior many young women have. Because of the prevalence of these types of images, women have learned to identify themselves as either ‘sexy’ or not. “We have to ask ourselves why we are so focused on silent girly-girls in G-strings faking lust. This is not a sign of progress, it’s a testament to what’s still missing from our understanding of human sexuality with all of its complexity and power. We are still so uneasy with the vicissitudes of sex we need to surround ourselves with caricatures of female hotness to safely conjure up the concept of ‘sexy’” (Levy, 2006: 198). Meredith’s case also illustrates how our concepts of female identity shift and change depending on the context in which they are considered. From race issues to personal identity issues, the power of communications media to define what we think of as the truth is illustrated again and again in the pictures we see and the words we receive. In recognition of the power of the image to change what we think of as the truth, Rosen points out that “political leaders have long feared images and taken extreme measures to control and manipulate them” (2005). More than the power of the image as a means of representing or misrepresenting truth, though, Rosen argues that increasing dependence on the image as a means of obtaining information is leading society into a realm where the virtual and imagined exists side by side with the real. The greater danger to this is that it is all too easy to slip into the habit of allowing the image to do all the talking and losing the ability and even the desire to take the necessary steps to discover the truth. This progression is already at work as the various large newspapers and other venues dedicated to bringing well-researched information continue to shut down in the face of overwhelming competition from the more entertaining and less disturbing forms of the image (Nichols & McChesney, 2009). Instead of turning to appropriately-balanced, well-researched and credibly led news organizations for their information, people are instead turning to their social media networks, building on the type of public discourse discussed by Walsh but in a much riskier manner. As Arquilla and Ronfeldt (2001) discuss, these social media quickly and easily develop into netwars in which groups of people come together on a single issue under an amorphous and sometimes questionably informed ‘news’ item. Having become distressed by the item, these individuals often swarm to the attack rather than seek confirmation of their information, accurate background material or even to question the leader of the group. A less disturbing but equally impacting piece of evidence regarding the replacement of words with symbols exists in the sign replacement art project of Richard Ankrom (Cullum, 2002). His art was so convincing that even the state authority didn’t notice his actions to the extent that his art was removed as part of normal maintenance and destroyed (Stephens, 2009). However, his graphic approach has led to more communicative signage throughout the country. Communication depends on many things, including the ability to openly discuss ideas, the realization that ideas can change with time and differing contexts and the ability of individuals to understand the message being sent. This process creates changing attitudes towards concepts of race as individuals attempt to fit themselves within their social ranks and create an internal sense of identity as they shift among various social groups of differing sizes. It also occurs in the process of self-identity and concepts of womanhood as girls attempt to discover who they are at different levels of their being, first told what freely expressing their sexuality should look like and then realizing that their personal comfort zone included something completely different. A great deal of this shifting of ideas and perspectives can be traced back to the ambiguous nature of the image as it overtakes more responsible or informative forms of communication such as newspapers or investigative reports. Rather than taking the time to become truly informed about an issue, more and more people are relying on the image alone to convey important details on which they then strive to construct their lives. Works Cited Arquilla, John & David Ronfeldt. “The Advent of Netwar (Revisited).” In Arquilla, J. and Ronfeldt, D. (Eds.) Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 2001: 1-25. June 7, 2010 Cullum, Paul. “Guerrilla Public Service: The Man Who Would Be Caltrans.” LA Weekly. (May 16, 2002). June 7, 2010 Eliasoph, Nina. “Everyday Racism” in a Culture of Political Avoidance: Civil Society, Speech and Taboo. Social Problems. Vol. 46, (1999): 479-502. June 7, 2010 Habermas, Jergen. “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article.” New German Critique. Vol. 3: 49-55. (1974 [1964]). June 7, 2010 Levy, Ariel. (2006). Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York, NY: Free Press. Nichols, John & Robert W. McChesney. “The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers.” The Nation. (March 18, 2009). June 7, 2010 Rosen, Christine. “The Image Culture.” The New Atlantis. Vol. 10, Fall 2005: 27-46. June 7, 2010 Schugurensky, Daniel & John P. Myers. “1922: Walter Lippmann and John Dewey debate the role of citizens in democracy.” In D. Schugurensky (Ed.), History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century [Online]. (2001). June 7, 2010 Stephens, Craig. “Richard Ankrom’s Freeway Art: Caltrans Buys Into The Prank.” LA Weekly. (December 30, 2009). June 7, 2010 Walsh, Katherine C. Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Read More