The Analytical Study of Communication and Media is Central to Understanding the Ways We Live Now - Essay Example

?Language has been seen as the best means to understand the meaning of life by philosophers since the history of philosophy has begun. Wittgenstein has explained this by saying that, “language is itself the vehicle of thought” (qtd in Blair, 2006, p.32). Without thought, no meaning is possible and this is the connection between communication (which is the purpose of language) and the knowledge of the ways we live. Winograd and Flores (1986, p.7) have correctly described the all encompassing relationship between communication and the theories of life when they said, “much of our theory is a theory of language.” As a comprehensive understanding of the communication processes grew, we realised that language is only one among many media of communication. Hence, the essence is communication and its expression is through different media including language. The scope of variety in media is reflected in the statement, “In asking what computers can do, we are drawn into asking what people do with them, and in the end into addressing the fundamental question of what it means to be human” (Winograd and Flores 1986, p.7). Here, the medium referred to is computers. Keeping in view this diversity in media forms and the different ways of communication that is made through them, this essay is an attempt to understand, how and why communication and media is central to understanding the ways we live now. Now we have two types of media; one is the media that helps communication among two individuals, or within a small group which is called local media and the second is mass media or global media (Machin and Leeuwen, 2007, p.7-10). While media like a low range microphone or a telephone are considered as included in the first category, media like, newspapers, magazines, film, radio etc. are considered as mass media because they can at a time reach out to ‘n’ number of people (Machin and Leeuwen, 2007, p.7-10). It is through both these categories of media that we create a meaning about life. Moores (2000, p.7) has listed out the three major functions of media as “identity (creation), experience, and interaction,” whether it be the local media or the mass media. These three components are also the cornerstones of understanding modern life. For example, Hall (19 June 1992, p.8) has drawn attention to the creation of new ‘cultures of hybridity”, brought about by the interaction of local media with the global (mass) media. Here, the reference is to a new kind of culture that is emerging out of the interactions with local and global media. It has to be remembered that before mass media emerged, “public life was linked to a common locale; an event became public when a plurality of people physically congregated to hear and see the communication of a message, whether a band of traveling minstrels or an execution in the town square” (Craig, 2004, p.6). In this way, media created a new kind of public life and also helped us to understand it as well. In the context of a medium like television, when viewed in a house hold, it has been observed that, “the spatial separation of producer from consumer, combined with the temporal simultaneity and continuity of transmission and reception, have given rise to an ‘aesthetic’ and a communicative style” (Moores, 2000, p.13). It is through this complex prism of space and time, that we now view life. Another interesting aspect has been that the media has made it possible for us to see ourselves very closely and from new different angles. This is why we say that now our life is “mediated” (Craig, 2004, p.4). Especially, media and the communication through them have been viewed as “the sites where the meanings of public life are generated, debated and evaluated” (Craig, 2004, p.4). Media and communication have been crucial in developing our outlook of a global society, in expanding our vision of the world, bringing news from all around the world to us within no time, media and communication have made us aware what we are, by helping our knowledge to transcend time and space (Thompson, 1995, p.243-249). They have given us a global identity apart from our local and national identities. Apart from this, media is also found to be creating in us, a “sense of responsibility for our collective fate” (Thompson, 1995, p.263). This again has imparted us a new perspective about our lives and its purpose. Humans in every nook and corner of the world who have access to the information imparted by media are held morally responsible and also feel responsible for the things that happen in anywhere in the world. And out of this responsibility a question arises continuously whether we are living up to that moral responsibility. Thus media make us stand face to face with our lives. This is why Williams (2004, p.4) has suggested that mass communication and cultural studies be conducted to “understand the way we live now.” As a person can watch events happening in different parts of the world by sitting in his/her house and also as he/she can talk to anybody who is in a distant corner of the world, the spatial distances have become some what unreal. Other than any other thing present in our society, thus media and communication have come to command the major cognitive role. One instance was the invention of printing by Guttenberg. Hokanson and Hooper have described the relevance of this invention in connection with how all people were thus enabled to read Bible (2000, p.540-541). The huge cognitive change that occurred is not limited to this alone. Hokanson and Hooper has added, With literacy and learning broadly distributed, belief and social organization changed extensively. What new thoughts and ideas developed? The Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the development of scientific method and community. Martin Luther, Thomas Jefferson, Descartes, and Isaac Newton are all progeny of the printing press, a mechanical process that substantially improved the efficiency of reproducing written texts (2000, p.541). Printing, thus made a device to store knowledge and that too in an ordered manner. This made the cognitive processes easier. The skills of human mind that were employed for memorizing all the information available was diverted into more intellectual uses. This helped science to progress. Printing also made a platform to share information. This encouraged debate on any new idea. Thus human mind acquired a collective nature. A collective mind was and is in the making through the mediation of media. And this collective mind gave new and more profound and complex meanings to life. The role of media and communication has also been discussed in terms of its effect of “decentering the west” (Peterson, 2005, p.10). This is another way of expanding one’s understanding of life. The local value systems and beliefs which had hitherto seemed to be ultimate became relative in the context in which media introduced new cultures and value systems to the west (Peterson, 2005, p.10-11). Also this realization became an expansion of horizons for humans. Mixing of different cultures synthesized into the creation of new art forms and cultural forms. As a whole, this experience enriched the global culture and also promoted greater cultural interactions. For the first time in history, humans have been presented with ‘n’ number of options on how to live and in what way to create meanings out of life. New communities are in the making who hold hands through communication devices and these communities have been replacing the old traditional community forms. A youth sitting in a remote corner of Africa can thus become friend with a boy sitting in America through ‘facebook’ or similar social networking platforms. In such a situation, the whole meaning of life is redefined for both. This friendship can become more real for them than the local relationships they have. But there has also been an opposite version for this argument. The opposite camp has argued that media brought about cultural homogenization and cultural hegemony. Their argument has been that: Colonial control through the crude means of military, administrative and economic dominance has subsided significantly after the successful struggles for independence of the former world colonies. These methods of control, however have been replaced by more subtle methods that nevertheless maintain and reproduce processes of domination. This time, it is through the use of media and cultural products or, as some scholars prefer to encompass them, communication processes (Hamm and Smandych, 2005, p.81). It is in this context, the globalizing effect of media is interpreted as westernization Here, the argument is that the media is affecting the outlook of the people in connection with their identity and culture, in a negative way. In both the arguments, the process of meaning and identity creation with the help of media is a common factor. But the difference is in that the first argument states that this is a positive process and the second argument takes an opposite position. Anyway, the crucial role that media play in this process is reinforced by these arguments. The blending of local and global media is yet another phenomenon which has again changed the ways we perceive reality. This is explained by Machin and Leeuwen (2007, p.7-10) when they observe that, “the global media industries have responded (to local cultures and languages which have been opened up to the world by the media) by deliberately creating diversity, producing global media in ‘local’ languages and integrating ‘local’ content in various ways.” This has led to hybridization of culture which is expressed in manifold aspects in the ways we live. For example, a person in a remote town in India now eats pizza while a person in US gets acquainted with Chinese noodles as if it is a local delicacy. The music forms all over the world have been getting blended into hybrid forms like fusion music. Dance forms and films follow the suit. The costumes of people, the gestures, etc. are also changing. A person who is not aware of the world as presented by media, will be confused to make meaning out of a girl wearing purdah and dancing to the tunes of Michael Jackson inside her room in Kuwait or Khatar. Hence the cognition process, as a whole has become totally dependent upon the media and the communication that it makes. The world has also come to a point where only the media capabilities of a society determine, to what extent that society is able to progress and protect its interests (Hokanson and Hooper, 2000, p.540). One example cited to prove this by Hokanson and Hooper (2000) has been the impact that the adoption of alphabet had on “the way people organized knowledge and used their cognitive abilities” (p.540). When looked through the mediation process of alphabet, it might have been a whole new world out there for our ancestors. Using the alphabet, when one writes ‘cat’, the image that comes to the people who hear that word uttered gets some what standardized. A mediated image (a consensual image) gradually becomes bound to emerge. In the same way, any new medium that followed made us look at and understand the world in a new way. Hence it can be said that on one side, media became crucial in understanding the way we live and at the same time media and communication also changed the way we live. References Blair, D.C. 2006, ‘Wittgenstein, language and information: back to the rough ground', Springer, Kudankita Funatobiru 2. Craig, G 2004, ‘The media, politics, and public life’, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, New South. Hall, S 19 June 1992, ‘Our mongrel selves’, New Statesman and Society, supplement, p.8. Hamm, B and Smandych, R.C. 2005, ‘Cultural imperialism: essays on the political economy of cultural domination’, University of Toronto Press, Toronto. Machin, D and Leeuwen, T.V. 2007, ‘Global media discourse: a critical introduction’, Taylor &Francis, London. Moores, S 2000, ‘Media and everyday life in modern society’, Edinburg University Press, Edinburgh. Peterson, M.A. 2005, ‘Anthropology and mass communication: media and myth in the new millennium’, Berghahn Books, Oxford. Thompson, J.B. 1995, ‘The media and modernity: a social theory of the media’, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. Williams, N.R. 2004, ‘How to get a 2:1 in media, communication and cultural studies’, SAGE, New Delhi. Winograd, T and Flores, F 1986, ‘Understanding computers and cognition: a new foundation for design’, 3rd edn, Intellect Books, Bristol. Read More