Social Penetration Theory

Social Penetration deals with how a relationship between individuals becomes close or intimate. As noted by Ayla Abdullah (2011), Social Penetration Theory is "an objective, interpretative theory from the socio-psychological tradition that aims to explain the process of relationship development: how closeness and intimacy are achieved." In this post I will use the relationship between Tom Hansen and Summer Finn in 500 Days of Summer to further explain what is Social Penetration and how does it affects our daily lives.

In Griffin (2009), Social Penetration is defined as the process of initiating deep intimacy with individuals via mutual self-disclosure and various forms of vulnerability. This theory examines relationships at a personal area, penetrates close relationship between individuals or groups or in other words describes the dynamics of relational closeness. As supported by Altman and Taylor (1973), "Social penetration theory states that as relationships develop, communication moves from relatively shallow, non-intimate levels to deeper, more personal ones". Whereas as claimed by Baack, D., Christine Fogliasso, C., Harri, J. (2000), "As a result, Social Penetration Theory is sometimes called the “onion theory” of personality, since “layers” of personality are penetrated as time passes and intimacy grow"


The statements clearly reveals that as we get to know that person more and more, the level of closeness increases and more personal information will be disclosed by both parties. This exposure of personal information depends on the 3 crucial elements; first, Personality Structure: Multilayered Onion, second; Depth & Breadth of Self-Disclosure and lastly, Costs-Benefit Analysis (Ayla Abdullah, 2011).

The multilayered onion or better known as Personality Structure is defined as ''Onion-like layers of beliefs and feelings about self, others, and the world; deeper layers are more vulnerable, protected, and central to self-image" (Griffin, 2009). Let's take Tom Hansen and Summer Finn from the hit-film 500 Days of Summer, where I will apply the multilayered onion to Tom and Summer. Tom is from New Jersey who is a skilled architect who is employed as a greeting card writer in a greeting card company in Los Angeles and a fan of “The Smiths”, the fact that we only know that Tom is a greeting card writer and is a fan of The Smiths shows only the outer surface of the onion, as we go deeper, the movie reveals that Tom believes in falling in love and true love and his affection for architecture, as the movie goes on, Tom finally exposes his true feelings about greeting cards; about his jobs, that people buy greeting cards because they can't say how the feel and they rely on other to do it for them. At the end, Tom finally quits his greeting card writing job and pursues his true ambition as an architect. By applying the multilayered onion, Tom gets deeper and deeper into the inner core of the onion and reveals his true emotions and feelings.

Whereas Summer is form Michigan who just moved in where Tom works and she is the boss' personal assistant as seen early in the film, she also pointed that she loves “The Smiths” and was called "Anal girl" back in college because of her neatness and organization. As the movie went on, the depth of the onion gets deeper too where Summer says that there is no such thing as true love. About half way through the movie, Summer reveals something to Tom that she had never told anyone before, she became more intimate with Tom and told her secrets and dreams; the inner core of the onion. In addition Summer further exposed her past by telling her former boyfriends and girlfriend and eventually realizing that true love does exist. This is an example of an application of the multilayered onion. These onion-like layers consist of our thoughts, belief and feelings about the individual, others and the world as the layer goes deeper the more personal information is unfold. This act of voluntary sharing of intimate information, attitudes, feelings, beliefs, secrets of an individual is called self-disclosure (Griffin, 2009). 

Self-disclosure can be categorized into two. First, breadth of penetration is according to Griffin (2009); "the range of areas in an individual's life over which disclosure takes place", in the case of Tom and Summer; the breadth are Tom's job, where he is from, a fan of The Smiths while for Summer, her breadth are Summer’s job, where she is from, a fan of The Smiths and "Anal girl". Second, depth of penetration; Griffin (2009) states that "the degree of disclosure in a specific area of an individual's life". In other words, it is the depth at which one individual reveals his or her inner core; deep dark secrets, true feeling and emotions about something or someone and their true behavior. The application of ‘depth of penetration’ or degree of intimacy can be applied to Tom Hansen’s and Summer Finn’s relationship. First, “peripheral items are exchanged more frequently and sooner than private information”, in the movie 500 Days of Summer, we can see that the initial reactions between Tom and Summer are only limited to the basic information, they both only reveal very little information about themselves rather than private information (Griffin, 2009). Second, “Self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages of development” and social penetration theory is applicable with law of reciprocity; “a paced and orderly process in which openness in one person leads to openness in the other”, as seen early, Tom and Summer interaction was fairly based on disclosure of basic information but it was a reciprocal process, when Summer revealed that she was from Michigan, Tom oblige by revealing some of his personal information to Summer (Griffin, 2009).

Tom Hansen and Summer Finn

Third; “Penetration is rapid at the start, but slows down quickly when more private inner layers are reached”, the disclosure between Tom and Summer was rapid from the beginning but drastically slows down as both of them started to reveal more about themselves such as Summer’s former paramours and Tom’s true feeling about his job (Griffin, 2009). Lastly; “Depenetration is a gradual process of layer-by-layer withdrawal”, as the movie goes, Tom and Summer began to drift apart, the process of depenetration occurrs, when Summer finally understood Tom’s understanding of ‘true love’, she became distant with Tom, she revealed her intention as being Tom’s best friend rather than paramour (Griffin, 2009).


Depth and Breadth of penetration is further explain by Yea-Wen Chen & Masato Nakazawa (2009), "The first is an area-based dimension of breath with not only breadth category but also breadth frequency. The second is a central-peripheral dimension of depth that starts at peripheral layers associated with biographical characteristics and moves toward central layers associated with less observable and more idiosyncratic characteristics".


Penetration goes through a number of processes when a relationship is developed, parties involved began to reveal deeper private matters and this can lead to, first; “Orientation stage”, the simple talk between Tom and Summer when they first met. Second, “Exploratory-affective stage”, this is when Tom and Summer first knew that both of them love the band “The Smiths” and in this stage both parties start to reveal themselves regarding opinion of a particular matter, third, “affective stage”; the point where Summer and Tom argued about labeling themselves with the terms ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’ even though they had done sexual intercourse with each other, as seen in the movie, when a stranger ‘hit’ on Summer, Tom began to show anger as he subconsciously did not realized that he had labeled Summer as his girlfriend. Fourth, “stable stage”; a point where Tom’s and Summer’s relationship was at its peak, they were comfortable with each other, Summer shared her past boyfriends and girlfriend, Tom’s affection for architecture and his favorite spot of the city. Lastly, “depenetration”, this is when Summer started to realize that ‘true love’ does exist after watching the movie "The Graduate" the depenetration phase began, Summer began more distant to Tom, she labeled him as her best friend and not boyfriend and Summer was more conservative; less touching and kissing which eventually led to Tom’s and Summer’s relationship downfall where the cost of being together exceeded the benefits.

Cost eventually exceeds the Benefits

According to Griffin (2009), as noted by Thibaut and Kelley, individuals try to predict the outcome; "The perceived rewards minus the costs of interpersonal interaction" before a relationship occurs. In the case of Tom's and Summer's relationship, from early on the movie portrayed Tom's intention of meeting his true love and finding Summer in a population of 3.8 million is fate. In Griffin (2009), this basis of 'Cost-Benefit Analysis' relies on the 'Social Exchange Theory'; "Relationship behavior and status regulated by both parties' evaluation of perceived rewards and costs of interaction with each other". In other word the decisions made by both parties in a relationship mirrors the perceived cost and benefits. This utilize by maximize of rewards and minimize of cost or better known as the 'Minimax Principle of Human Behavior" and in which 'Outcomes' are assumed benefits after the reduction of Cost in an interaction (Griffin, 2009).


Outcome is usually relate with Comparison Level (CL); it is the threshold level above at which the outcome seemed appealing (Ayla Abdullah, 2011). Summer's relational satisfaction in the 500 Days of Summer was not that satisfying when she was with Tom, she realize that Tom was not her true love and this led to their eventual break up. Moreover the second standard is Comparison Level of Alternatives which is the best outcome that is satisfying in a relationship (Griffin, 2009). This explains Summer decision to leave Tom as she has met a better guy for her than Tom and this is usually driven by self-interest.


Social Penetration explains how relationships develop and this theory help us to understand and predict why and how people weigh in the benefits and cost of a potential relationship, in which the degree of disclosure of personal information is central to one interaction with another, social penetration is central to our daily lives a from the moment we were able to intellectually interact with one another.





References: 


Ayla Abdullah (2011). Lecture Notes. AC-1201 Introduction to Communication. Universiti Brunei Darussalam.


Baack, D., Christine Fogliasso, C., Harri, J. (2000). The Personal Impact of Ethical Decisions: A Social Penetration Theory. Journal of Business Ethics; 2000, Vol. 24, p. 39-49. Retrieved 26 March, 2012 from http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy.ubd.edu.bn/content/h728003u43q04142/fulltext.pdf

Chen, Y. & Nakazawa, M. (2009). Influences of Culture on Self-Disclosure as Relationally Situated in Intercultural and Interracial Friendships from a Social Penetration Perspective. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research; 2007, Vol. 38, Issue 2, p. 77-98, 22p. Retrieved 26 March, 2012 from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.ubd.edu.bn/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5a3368ab-386b-436c-8d73-533d46ec11b8%40sessionmgr11&vid=2&hid=19

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Cultural Studies

As defined by Storey, J. (2003) in Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture, culture is “the practices and processes of making meanings with and from the ‘texts’ we encounter in our everyday lives… cultures are made from the production, circulation and consumption of meanings. To share a culture, therefore, is to interpret the world – make it meaningful – in recognizably similar ways” (p.3). In this post i will use World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as my text to explain the terms  representation, discourse, ideologies and politics and study how WWE affects the American culture.

According to Griffin (2003, p. 334), cultural studies is "A neo-Marxist critique that sets forth the position that mass  media manufacture consent for dominant ideologies." Whereas Littlejohn (1996, p. 234), "cultural studies involves investigations of the ways culture produced through a struggle among ideologies.

As stated by Sturken, M. and Cartwright, L. (2009) in Practices of Looking, The term ‘visual culture’ means “the shared practices of a group, community, or society through which meanings are made out of the visual, aural and textual world of representations and the ways that looking practices are engaged in symbolic and communicative activities” (p. 3). In other words, culture that are seen and practice by a group of community and these groups engaged in human interactions. For example the WWE culture among the American society. Moreover, culture can be defined into two part. First, a similar belief within a particular society in which they understand on. Second, a way of life in a community (Littlejohn, 1996, p. 234) 

WWE Superstar John Cena (centre with cap) among the WWE fans

Representation stands as the equivalent of something in the material world or what we call a referent. The WWE, formerly known as World Wrestling Federation (WWF), has been part of the American culture since it's establishment in 1982, this wrestling entertainment company represents the American entertainment culture; where WWE involves the music, films and professional sports.

As noted by Griffin (2009, p. 337), discourse are "frameworks of interpretation". Usually written or spoken “communication” on a particular topic which are coded by religion, tradition, law and culture. My discourse in this post if the World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE. Ideologies on the other hand are frameworks where a society all agrees on and develop meaning to the particular discourse (Griffin, 2009, p. 335). In other words, ideologies are commonsense, Ideologies determines what we understand as unquestionable “truth” and shapes our view on certain agendas. Hence, when there is ideology there is discourse. The ideologies of WWE are; professional wrestlers are superstars and divas where they are 'actors' of the entertainment industry, championship belts are titles, professional wrestling is not a professional sport but a sort of entertainment, superstars are body builders with large muscular physique, WWE incorporates itself with music and films where each story-line in WWE is similar to a movie plot. Ideologies in a discourse does not show the whole truth, this is a major problem and due to the pre-existent of a counter-discourses and counter-ideologies, meaning are already embedded in minds. As stated by Fairclough (1995), "The concept of Ideology often implies distortion, 'false consciousness', manipulation of the truth in the pursuit of particular interests."


For example a positive discourse of professional wrestling is  wrestling without the guidance of professional trainers is bad therefore the unspoken opposite rule would be that wrestling with the help & guidance of professional trainers is good. While a discourse that does not really tells the truth is that it does not necessary reflects the actual representation of a particular subject. 


To be more clear, the discourse of a WWE Superstar; the ideologies are big muscular physique, confident and good 'actors', entertaining, able to do promos and perform wrestling moves in front of a large crowd.


Politics in Media as defined by Stuart Hall is the 'struggle over meaning'. In other words, one struggle to define a particular text. In the case of the WWE, its politics are politics of gender relation, politics of masculinity and femininity, politics of consumerism, this struggle over meaning especially in politics of masculinity in the WWE creates controversies as preferred Superstars  should have large muscular physiques and a sense of macho and manliness of a man, to show that they're tough and rough, this is controversial due to the old 'professional wrestling ethics' where back then it was not about size but it was more about skills and talent.

Discourse of a WWE Superstar

In conclusion, the WWE plays a role in the American Culture especially in the entertainment business, as not only it affect the politics of consumerism but it also subconsciously affect the politics of masculinity via the visual media that is the television.

References:


Fairclough, N. (1995). Media Discourse. London: Arnold.

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill


Littlejohn, S. W. (1996). Theories of Human Communication (5th ed.) California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Agenda-Setting and Framing

Week 6; Agenda-Setting and Framing

Newspaper or broadcast companies in the media industry most often practice 'Agenda-Setting and Framing' in choosing and organizing news around the world, these companies have to consider which news agenda is considered relevant or important to its country. In this post i will use The Brunei Times' front cover of the recent national day to explain why Agenda-Setting and Framing is crucial in the media industry.


First and foremost, Agenda-Setting is usually defined as the "process of mass media presenting certain issues frequently and prominently with the result that large segments of the public come to perceive those issues as more important than others" - (Coleman et. al., 2009) but according to Littlejohn (1996, p. 341) the best way to describe Agenda-Setting Function is by understanding  Donald Shaws's & Maxwell McCombs' quote;

"Considerable evidence has accumulated that editors and broadcasters play an important part in shaping our social reality as they go about their day-to-day task of choosing and displaying news....This impact of the mass media -the ability to effect cognitive change among individuals, to structure their thinking-has been labeled the agenda-setting function of mass communication. Here may lie the most important effect of mass communication, its ability to mentally order and organize our world for us. In short, the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about."

Furthermore, as stated in Griffin (2009, p. 359), Agenda-Setting Hypothesis is ''the mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda." 


Whereas, as noted by Denis & Coleman (2009), "Agenda Setting is the phenomenon of the mass media selecting certain issues and portraying them frequently and prominently, which leads people to perceive those issues as more important than others. For more than thirty-years, the main concept of agenda setting theory has been the transfer of issue salience, or how media emphasize of certain issue raises their importance to the public."

Therefore, from my understanding of Agenda-Setting Theory, it is how the media portrays news agenda through various mediums to the public and it set the tone on not what to think it but how you perceive about it. So is Agenda-Setting similar to 'media manipulation? You decide, but let's take the cover page of The Brunei Times below.

The Brunei Times

The Brunei Times agenda or main priority is always about the country, the country is set as priority no. 1, especially His Majesty the Sultan, he is the main agenda of every newspaper outlets in the country, the beside the news about the Sultan, news about the development of the country comes afterwards.


This purpose of choosing Agendas are as follows, first; prioritization, this is all about hierarchy of importance, choosing the main objective first and the Sultan of Brunei is the main priority of every newspaper company especially in Brunei. Secondly; prediction in which The Brunei Times assume (and sets) agendas for public and at the same time predicts what the clientele wants. Lastly; organizing power which mean that the The Brunei Times selects news that constructs how we view and see the world.

Choosing the 'right' news agenda.

But Agenda-Framing is prone to bias in my perspective, as according to McCombs' and Shaw's research where the Media is most often viewed as the the truth by the public this affirms  the power of press and individuals may reject the news completely due to disagreement, which can be based on religion or way of life of a certain country(Culturally constructed). So the question is, is The Brunei Times biased? Are you easily 'offended' by certain news due to religion? This is where communication specialist comes in.


The prioritization of the Sultan in every Brunei newspapers is called the First level Agenda-Setting; transmission of object salience and according to Weaver (2007), ''Whereas the ‘‘first level’’ of agenda setting is focused on the relative salience (usually operationally defined as perceived importance) of issues or subjects...". 

An example of the Sultan as the First Level Agenda-Setting in The Brunei Times cover page.

Whereas the new that comes after the Sultan is called the Second level Agenda-Setting: transmission of attribute salience. This is where the news becomes more specific and branches out and according to Weaver (2007), "...the ‘second level’’ examines the relative salience of attributes of issues...". 


The main difference between the first and second level is that the first level is a far more general agenda whereas the second level focuses on specific part of subject that more specific to a certain agenda and details of the 1st level.

The Function of Agenda-Setting has 3 components. First, Media Agenda which means that The Brunei Times selects news that are consider vital, also stated in Griffin (2009, p. 360) Media Agenda is ''the pattern of news coverage across major print and broadcast media as measured by the prominence and length of stories"


Secondly, Public Agenda which is issues discussed in public and that are considered important, i.e. depends on public, they consider what are important at times and as claimed by Griffin (2009, p. 361), public agenda is also "the most important public issues as measured by public opinion surveys." lastly, Corporate Agenda which is issues that business corporation consider important, i.e. depends on how big the news is. 

'Important' News Agenda are usually on the front page of the paper.

As noted by Scheufele & Tewksbury (2007) "It is based on the assumption that how an issue is characterized in news reports can have an influence on how it is understood by audiences.''

As claimed by Griffin (2009), "The selection of a restricted number of thematically related attributes for inclusion on the media agenda when particular object or issue is discussed. 

From my understanding framing is basically 'choosing the order of news according to 'function of agenda-setting' as different people may have different perspective on the same news and everyone has different frames of an issue. Framing is part of the tradition of Agenda-Setting where Agenda-Setting looks at what topics are important while Framing looks at how those topics could be organized to advance a point-of-view that public would accept. Framing is social construction of a social event by media to influence public perspective and is always draw on existing culture codes.

These 3 agendas vary in prioritization, even though the Sultan is the main priority in The Brunei Times, the disaster news that is consider important by the public can be taken as the main priority, one example would be the bus accident that happened in Sabah in which the accident involved Bruneians. This also applies to Corporate Agendas.

An example on how the public sets the 'Public Agenda' as main priority

Framing


Framing as noted by Scheufele & Tewksbury (2007) "It is based on the assumption that how an issue is characterized in news reports can have an influence on how it is understood by audiences.''

As claimed by Griffin (2009), "The selection of a restricted number of thematically related attributes for inclusion on the media agenda when particular object or issue is discussed. 

From my understanding framing is basically 'choosing the order of news according to 'function of agenda-setting' as different people may have different perspective on the same news and everyone has different frames of an issue. Framing is part of the tradition of Agenda-Setting where Agenda-Setting looks at what topics are important while Framing looks at how those topics could be organized to advance a point-of-view that public would accept. Framing is social construction of a social event by media to influence public perspective and is always draw on existing culture codes.

The Brunei Times as any other newspaper companies in the world practice Frame Processes. Frame Amplification  is clarification of a set of problems, Frame Extension is adding ideas or issues to an argument, talks about what happens or result of a news. Frame Bridging is linkage of 2 or more ideas, similar to Frame Extension and Frame Transformation is structure and or content of a frame to something else, doctrine, changes content but still part of the 'main idea'.

eg. of Framing Extension

eg. of Frame Bridging

Assignment -

"Public Gone Wild"

The Minister of Health of a country "X" is very concerned that the older citizens are spitting and urinating in public places and the younger generation believes that to be a cultural norm. This will adversely affect the image and economy of the country as foreign companies will be less willing to invest in a country that cannot manage public deviance that fosters an unhealthy environment. The government believes that public education must start immediately. 

At the same time, a public survey was recently conducted by an independent body and the predominant public concern is the lack of primary schools for younger children who are working and running amok in the streets, which is causing a rise in criminal activities. The public believes that public education must begin with the development of schools so that a higher educated population will curb the acts of social deviance. In the long run, these changes will attract investors and help the economy.

First Level Agenda-Setting: public education (general topic).
Second Level Agenda-Setting: public deviance, criminal activities, image of country, investors and economy.


Framing (in order of importance) -

1. Public Education of the country.
2. Criminal Activities, i.e. Youths running amok in streets.
3. Image of the country.
4. Public Deviance, i.e. Spiting & Urinating.
5. Investors.
6. Economy.

Prioritization as a national agenda would be on Public Education as it is the general or the main topic, public education can branch out into different areas such as criminal activities, public defiance, etc. Public Education is the focal point, hence, it is the First Level of Agenda-Setting and the Frame Amplification.


'Criminal Activities' is a far more specific topic as it is belongs under the Second Level of Agenda-Setting, 'Criminal Activities is a branch under the main topic (public education). For instance, 'Help curb criminal activities among youths by strengthening the public education', here shows that the main topic(public education) leads to a more specific agenda; criminal activities, hence a Frame Extension to Frame Amplification.


Image of the country, Public Deviance, i.e. Spiting & Urinating, Investors and Economy all are under Frame Bridging as they are all similar 'stories' that can be branched out from the main topic (public education), they still act as Second Level of Agenda-Setting as they become more and more specific. 

References


Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill


H. Denis Wu & Coleman, R. (2007). Advancing Agenda-Setting Theory: The Comparative Strength and New Contingent Conditions of the Two Levels of Agenda-Setting Effects. Journal of Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Retrieved February 19, 2012 from  http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.ubd.edu.bn/pqcentral/docview/216940500/fulltextPDF/134F8F04A273B5B6D78/6?accountid=9765


Littlejohn, S. W. (1996). Theories of Human Communication (5th ed.) California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.


Scheufele, D. & Tewksbury, D. (2007). Framing, Agenda Setting, and Priming: The Evolution of Three Media Effects Model. Journal of Communication; Mar2007, Vol. 57 Issue 1, p9-20, 12p. Retrieved February 19, 2012 from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.ubd.edu.bn/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=47bc3857-097a-40c8-b2f9-8c99567ac887%40sessionmgr4&vid=1&hid=10

Weaver, D. H. (2007). Thoughts on Agenda Setting, Framing, and Priming. Journal of Communication; Mar2007, Vol. 57 Issue 1, p142-147, 6p, 1 Graph. Retrieved February 19, 2012 from  http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.ubd.edu.bn/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b7005b08-7983-4fbe-badf-efffd8202509%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=10

Media Ecology

Media Ecology is the study of medium of media. In this post, i will use Apple iPhone as a medium and explain how does it affect in our daily lives and help further understands the term Media Ecology.


According to Griffin (2009, p. 313), Media ecology is 'The study of different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies". Hence, in my perspective Media Ecology is study of environment and medium of the media and investigating use of technology in the world to the society, where the medium changes not the content. Thus the media affects communication styles.

Technology plays an important role in Media Ecology,  it alter our communication styles. This is called Technology Determinism. Even our mobile phones have evolved, now the state to the art phones like the Apple iPhone, and affect us in a certain way. Technology determinism can be divided into 4 parts. Firstly, no determinism in which the media doesn't affect or shape society. Secondly, hard determinism where media alters social structure directly, technology are part of  our daily necessities. Thirdly, soft determinism where media alter social structure and lastly, partial determinism in which media are among many factors shaping society.

So the question is, which part of  technology determinism  are you?

But we have to consider how does the media affects us. First proposition is the 'Hypodermic needle' in which media directly affects the viewer, when a person or a kid play a violence theme video game , it will not directly affect the user, the media is experienced and gains influence overtime as criticize by Cultivation theory. Second proposition is that the media is psychologically harmful and potentially dangerous but media violence does not equate to social or personal risk before considering many factors such as one does not just jumped from one building to another after watching Spider-man movies. Third proposition is that the media damages community and social life, to a certain extend the medium and environment do change interpretation of a content and by considering Apple iPhone, it has immobilized us, we send text messages or instant messages instead of where face to face social interactions, video calls or conference calls rather than face to face meetings, etc. but this does not mean it does not bring benefits to the user.

New technology limits our face to face social interaction

According to Marshall McLuhan, the "Medium is the message?", so based on McLuhan's statement, Apple iPhone is the message, where the medium in communication over its content where the content is always the content of another medium and we must analyze the Apple iPhone as the message. McLuhan further added that mediums can be hot and cold. Let's take the old mobile phones first, the old mobile phones was filled low information load as users were not limited to just talking and despite this low information load, old mobile phones had high participation among the user, user had to talk to the other person on the other line and these talks could last for hours and this is called a cold medium. Fast forward, the mobile phone is now filled with high information load, user can now talk, text, email, video call, play video games, etc but the level of participation has also increased significantly and users are now glued to their phone on a daily basis, so do we still consider McLuhan's claim that  with a hot medium, there is high information load and low participation? This is in my opinion a flaw in his category of hot and cold medium as the current Apple iPhone has both high information load and high participation.

Now a daily necessity for everyone.

The 3 paradigms for media viewing, are as follows, first medium as conduit. Second, medium as language, here the by taking the Apple iPhone, we can now send text or instant messages to people all around the world, abbreviations have been incorporated into our daily communication and lastly, medium as environment, the environment around us changes society, the way people think and act, for instance some people prefer sending messages on the their phones rather than face to face communication, this barrier has build us into a more less social society.


Our mobile phones certainly have evolved, it now can act as our camera, hand-held video game, 'mini laptops', etc. We have grown to a more advance society but is always affected by technology around us. This form of medium have shape and construct our daily lives, the way we talk, act and behave. By understanding media ecology, we are able to understand how the medium affects us as a person and as a society in our lives.

References:

Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill

Semiotics

SEMIOTICS

Life is full of text or signs, in semiotics, communication specialist study these signs, they explains how discourses and ideologies are visually constructed and how it helps us study culture and laws governing social life.


As stated by Chandler (2007, p.2), ''Semiotics involves the study not only what we refer as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else.''  In this post i will use Zooey Deschanel as my text and explain further how semiotics, by using these 7 key terms; signifier, signified, sign, denotation, connotation, codes and anchoring, can be a powerful tool in today's world.

As claimed by Griffin (2009, p. 324), Signifier is ''The physical form of the sign as we perceive it through our senses; an image.'' From my understanding a sign formed by the 5 senses; sight, smell, sound, touch and taste. In the word 'Zooey Deschanel', the letters 'Z o o e y D e s c h a n e l' are the signifier as we see it with our sense of sight. 


As for signified, is the mental image formed by the sign itself, further noted by Griffin (2009, p. 324), signifier is "The meaning we associate with the sign." By looking at the word 'Zooey Deschanel' alone, a mental image of Zooey Deschanel is instantly generated as shown below especially for Zooey Deschanel fans. One signifier can have many signified or mental images.


With the explanation of Signifier and signified already in place, the combination between these 2 terms or meanings lead to the development of a 'sign', as perceived by Griffin (2009, p. 324) "The inseparable combination of the signifier and the signified". Therefore, the letters formed by the word 'Zooey Deschanel' detected by our sense of sight is the signifier and the mental image formed by looking at the letters in 'Zooey Deschanel' is the signified, hence Zooey Deschanel is the sign whereas signs are very broad, it can varies from symbolic being abstract, indexical or less abstract and iconic or real life-like. These signs are  utilized by the Media or Public Relation Officers in big companies to manipulate the society.


As stated by Chandler (2007, p.137), '''Denotation' tends to be described, literal, obvious or common-sense meaning of the sign.'' In my view, it is the literal description of a sign. For example the image found below, the denotation would be 'A pretty lady with blue eyes, red lipstick and dark brown hair holding a 'ZOOEY DEsCHANeL' sign in front of her'.

As noted by Chandler (2007, p. 138), "The term 'connotation' is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional, etc.) of the sign." and according to Langer's Theory of Symbols in LittleJohn (1996, p. 70-71), "Connotation of a symbol is the direct relationship between the symbol and the conception itself. Connotation includes all of one's personal feelings and associations attached to a symbol." In my perspective, connotation is the representation of the sign, connotations are like metaphors of a sign. Zooey Deschanel is a sign or a text and the word 'Zooey Deschanel' alone connotes the meaning of adorable, elegant, beauty, sweet, quirky and cute. 

Advertisement companies frequently use 'Anchoring' to advertise their products, the main idea of anchoring is to holds down a certain or specific meaning of an interpretation because without anchorage, image can go to any meaning. Anchoring can shapes how we view and see things. 

Before 'anchoring'

This advertisement of 'New Girl' by Zooey Deschanel is a good example how anchoring works, without the word 'New Girl' the sign just shows a picture of Zooey Deschanel, this can confuse the people looking at the advertisement, this most importantly leads to a number of meanings.

After 'anchoring'

By having the word 'New Girl', it anchor or it pulls the sign to a specific concept, idea or interpretation, it clearly shows that the particular advertising company is advertising Zooey Deschanel's new TV series, 'New Girl'. Hence advertising companies sell the ideas of the product not the product itself and by making full advantage of Semiotics; the study of signs, advertising companies or the media can manipulate what we see or hear as semiotics is a powerful tool in today's world.

References:


Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics The Basics (2nd ed). New York: Routledge.


Griffin, E. (2009). A First Look At Communication Theory (7th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.


Littlejohn, S. W. (1996). Theories of Human Communication (5th ed.) California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.