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COMMUNICATION AS CULTURE
Angelica Cruz
•“Society exists not only by
transmission, by communication, but it
may fairly be said to exist in
transmission, in communication” –
John Dewey
JAMES CAREY – A CULTURAL APPROACH
TO COMMUNICATION
COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATION
• Transmission –communication is a process whereby messages are
transmitted and distributed in space for the control of distance and people
• Moral – “The moral meaning of transportation was the establishment and
extension of God's kingdom on earth” – so the moral meaning of
communication is the same
• Ritual view – directed toward the maintenance of society in time, not
messages in space – linked to sharing, participation, fellowship, and the
possession of a common faith
• Communication through a ritual lens is not dominant in American scholarship
and culture – our concept of culture is weak so we don’t see communication
through other means
TRANSMISSIONS
• If newspapers are instruments of transmission, is news used to
enlightening or obscuring reality? Changing attitudes?
Credibility? Doubt?
• Does it maintain the integration of society?
• Does it work to maintain stability? Or promote instability of
personalities?
IF NEWSPAPERS ARE A RITUAL VIEW OF
COMMUNICATION…
• Newspaper is seen as attending mass: nothing new is
learned, but a view of the world portrayed and
confirmed
• More concerned on the role of presentation and
involvement in peoples lives
• Is news information or drama? – “Does not describe the
world but portrays an arena of dramatic forces and
action; it exists solely in historical time”.
COMMUNICATION AS A SYMBOLIC
PRODUCTION OF REALITY
• Communication supports human existence
• First clause: there is a real world of objects, events, and processes that we
observe – “reordering the relation of communication to reality, to render
communication a far more problematic activity than it ordinarily seems”.
• Second: there is a language that names these events in the real world – a
distinction between reality and fantasy
• ”The brains of each one of us does literally create his or her own world” - Biologist
J.Z. Young
• Third: mapping space – a representation of an environment capable of
clarifying a problematic situation
MAPPING SPACE
• Symbolic modes include visual, oral, and kinesthetic, distinguishing two
characteristics: displacement and productivity
• Space is manageable: reduction of information, production of different
realities
• “To live within the purview of different maps is to live within different realities.
Consequently, maps not only constitute the activity known as mapmaking; they
constitute nature itself.”
THE NATURE OF COMMUNICATION
• “This particular miracle we perform daily and hourly–
the miracle of producing reality and then living
within and under the fact of our own productions–
rests upon a particular quality of symbols: their ability
to be both representations "Of" and "for" reality.”
IN CONCLUSION…
• We produce and maintain reality through communication
• The study of communication examines the actual social process where
symbolic forms are created
• Is there an order to existence that the human mind may discover and
describe?