Download Unit 1 - critical-literacies

University of Aruba
FAS: SW&D / OGM
August 23, 2010
UNIT 1
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Meet & greet: introduce
Course logistics and rules of engagement
Unit 1:
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Introduce the course: framework
Communication as departing point: humans as social
beings, sharing and negotiation of meaning and
identity
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 Let’s here
each others voices: tell something about
yourself and what you expect to learn from this
course
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 Welcome to
our learning community!
 We form a group (students together with
instructor) who, for a while and motivated by
common vision and will, are engaged in the
pursuit of acquiring knowledge, abilities and
attitudes. We inspire and support each other
during this learning journey. We are building
together our own learning environment
 YOUR ACTIVE ROLE is essential for the reaching of
an overall enjoyable learning climate
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5
12 units12 classes
 Each unit deals with a specific theme. All themes are
connected to each other.
 Class: Plenary, discussions, assignments
 Self-study
 Assessment: Written Exam and Essay
 Optional: Bonus assignment
 Wikispace:
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Assignments
Reading instructions; core concepts etc
Room for discussion, further questions (students can try to
answer, I’ll give guidance)
 Conversation starters: more information on the subjects
(non-mandatory)
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www.critical-literacies.wikispaces.com
More guidance:
 Module description
 Reading list
 Contact
teacher:
Nadia Dresscher
[email protected]
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOENu0fK0uM
&feature=related
The following scene of the movie “Dead Poet
Society” sets the tone for the exploration of
‘Critical Literacy’
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 Unit
1:
The departing
Framework module
 Communication as departing point: humans as social
beings, sharing and negotiation of meaning and identity

 Unit
2: Spinning webs of meaning, language and
social reality
 Unit 3: Making sense of the world and its codes:
the meaning of literacy
 Unit 4: The blooming of the inquisitive mind:
taking a critical stance
 Unit 5: Constructing reality through discourse
 Unit 6: Ideologies, social identities & the
reproduction of these in society
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Unit 7: Devices that generate meaning, construct
reality and shape identities 1: Metaphors
 Unit 8: Devices that generate meaning, construct
reality and shape identities 2: Storytelling
 Unit 9: Critical literacy in the 21st century 1: Media
literacy and Framing
 Unit 10: Critical literacy in the 21st century 2: Political
literacy: how to see through the political rhetoric
 Unit 11: Expression of the self and diversity: Voicing
and dialogue of voices
 Unit 12: Reflection on the course
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The ability to think critically about the symbolic nature of
communication (messages are constructed)
The ability to analyze and critique the relationships among
texts, language, power, social groups and social practices.
The ability to formulate questions that explore the
sometimes hidden (implicit and discursive) intentions,
creative strategies, representation of social groups,
ideologies (ideas and believes) that are at the core of
subjects mediated through discourse.
The ability to recognize the existence of diverse voices in
terms of ideas, believes and experiences.
The ability to think critically about the self in terms of ideas,
believes and experiences.
The ability to articulate the own unique voice in creative
ways by using narratives and metaphors.
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Unit 1:
Communication as departing point:
Humans as social beings,
sharing and negotiation of meaning and identity
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 To
present a starting point for the understanding
of human communication processes
 To explain the properties and dynamics of the
communication process
 To approach the communication process in a
contextual manner
 To try to make the ‘intangible’ communication
process more ‘tangible’ by focusing on the
different components of the process
 To translate the communication process in terms
of transactions of ‘codes’
 To relate communication with the concept of
identity
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?
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= the study of the history of words and how their
form and meaning have changed over time:
 Communication: from the Latin "communicare“
literally means "to put in common", “to share".
The term originally meant sharing of tangible
things; food, land, goods, and property.
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 Human
communication -the ability to symbolize
and use language- separates humans from
animals! (this proposition is of course disputable)
 Communication with others is the essence of what
means to be human!
 We conduct a life through
communication
 We define ourselves
 Is a vehicle; to initiate,
to maintain and to terminate
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 Our
essence being social
 The world is web of relationships:
 So, communication has a social function!
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 Biological
motives (nurturing a child, helpless,
need of attention, need for security)
(nature/nurture debate)
 Interpersonal motives (one’s identity shapes and
re-shapes itself through interaction with other and
the world)
 Social/societal motives (societies are based on
cooperation networks in the broadest sense of the
word)
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 Different, numerous, depending on
what
perspective you choose!
 holistic approach properties of communication,
rather than 1 definition.
 And when we refer to ‘communication’ in a
certain context, we will use the lasso technique
and define the perspective and properties we
choose to focus on!
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1.
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3.
4.
5.
6.
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Process
Dynamic
Interactive - Transactive
Symbolic
Intentional – unintentional?
Contextual
Ubiquitous (omnipresent)
Cultural
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 Ongoing,
ever-changing, and continuous
 Doesn’t have a specific beginning or endpoint
 Not static, always moving, change
 analogy: human body is a process: it is always
aging communication is always developing.
 For verbally their may be a beginning/end. Nonverbally is more intangible.
 it does not stop, is irreversible: it affects future
communication
 Can’t be captured easily: flexible, fluid, adaptive
 Models, pictures, graphs give just a little help; ‘the
dynamics of communication’ are impossible to
replicate identically
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 It
happens between people
 Active participation of people, sending and
receiving, consciously directing: two-way flow
 Transactional implies simultaneously sending and
receiving; negotiations
 Example: tell me what you did last weekend? See
how I communicate with you, with my eyes and
my face expressions, while listening to your story…
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 Simply
means that communication is everywhere,
done by everyone, all the time. Whenever one
goes there is communication happening
 “ one cannot not communicate” (Watzlawick et.al)
Ok, let’s get philosophical, what does this mean?
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Reasoning:
(a) Behavior has no opposite, one cannot not
behave in an interactional setting.
(b) All behavior has informational (message) value,
since behavior is informative, it is
communicative
(c) And one cannot not behave, then one cannot
not communicate
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 The fundamental difference between information
and communication
 Example:
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Everything that reaches our human senses is
information. What ‘you’ use as information,
depends on your needs, knowledge and experience
 Communication implies signals (example sounds
and images) that are symbolic in their nature.
 Symbolic = an arbitrarily selected and learned
stimulus that represents something else. They don’t
have any natural relationship with what they
represent.
 Symbols are the vehicle by which the thoughts and
ideas of one person can be communicated to another
person.
 Both verbal as non-verbal symbols are arbitrary!
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is intentional  people
consciously engage in interaction with a purpose!
 Communication
Eduard: “ do you want to go tonight to the
movies?”
Sarah: “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea”
is unintentional  think about
the statement: “One cannot not communicate?”
 Communication
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 Effective communication
implies that the purpose
of a communication utterance was fulfilled!
“Did he get my message?”
“ I didn’t mean that at all, you misunderstood me
completely”
“ That Is precisely what I meant”
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 Communication
is dependent on the context in
which it occurs
 What is context?
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 Refers to
the setting, situation, circumstances,
background and overall framework within which
communication occurs.
 example, study the following picture, and imagine
the context where the communication process
takes place:
 multilayers
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 Psychical context: girlfriends
talking to each other
after class, in the university’s beautiful garden
 Social context: friend to friend (relationship)
 Psychological context: each girlfriend’s thoughts
and emotions
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A
world filled with people producing
communication utterances: people who have
social, cultural and personal identities, knowledge,
beliefs, goals and wants, and who interact with
one another in various socially and culturally
defined situations (Schriffrin, 1994)
 We can perceive this world as a frame (frames in
frames) that surrounds the communication
process
 Our meanings and understandings of a utterance
are dynamic, and constantly re-adjusted in the
progression of communication
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 Dimensions of
context are not fixed and
immutable
 Instead they are dynamically and socially
constituted by the communication processes
themselves.
Communication is constrained by
context, but it also reveals,
sustains, and provides context
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 Culture shapes communication,
and
communication is culture-bound
 A specific context that influence communication:
the cultural context
 This topic will be extensively elaborated in UNIT 5
of this course.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omc-LerO92c
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 Communication
is a dynamic process! Now let’s
try to ‘take a picture’ of this process; let’s try to
capture it for the purpose of awareness, analysis
and reflection.
 What components are involved in this process?
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Sender & Receiver (continuous role switching) and
their psychological personal world consisting of:
accumulated knowledge, experience, attitudes,
believes…
 Channel
 Medium
 Message
 Coding of message
 Decoding of message
 Multiple layers of context
 Negotiation of meaning  interpretation
 Feedback
 Noise
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When trying to capture the communication process in
order to analyze it, models can be helpful!
 What is a model?
 =a systematic representation of an object or event in
idealized and abstract form. The act of abstracting
eliminates certain details to focus on essential factors
 = it is a metaphor. it allow us to see one thing in terms
of another
 = is merely a picture; that is even distorting, because it
stops or freezes an essentially dynamic interactive or
transactive process into a static picture
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 Chapter 1
 Fiske
tries to capture the communication model in
models
 Models:
1. Shannon and Weaver’s model (1949)
2. Gerbner’s model (1956)
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Gerbner’s model: perception and
meaning
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 Intrapersonal (e.g.
processing information,
reflecting)
 Interpersonal (e.g. a couple, friendly/formal
conversation)
 Intragroup (e.g. family)
 Intergroup or association (e.g. local community)
 Institutional/organizational
 Society-wide (e.g. mass communication;
magazine, TV, internet, radio)
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Please reflect on the interplay between the shaping of
identities and communication. How does your own
identity relate to communication? Can you describe
how ‘you are’ in communication? How do you relate to
others when communicating and what this says about
your identity?
 We will discuss your findings in our next session
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