Communicating about Community - Term Paper Example

Communication about Communities Introduction We live in a society where we come across with so many communities such as black community, white community, school community, parse community. Still, sometimes we get confused on the word “community” as it involves many things. In everyday life, we come across with the word “community” many times such as the school community is supporting the principal. Community can’t be categorized into one small package as it comes in different shapes, colors and sizes. It might not be applicable for others, but Mass communication students do have to study communication models such as Gerbner’s model or Newcomb’s theory. Yes, in mass communication there are many communication models such as Lasswell model, Shannon weaver theory which describes the relation between a sender and a receiver. Community is also like a model where one can see a large number of people living and interacting with each other. For example, a dog also belongs to a community but one would never consider him as a member of the community. What is Community? When a bird lost her way towards her home, her eyes start looking for someone from her community to give her company until she gets the path to her home. Many people have a misconception that community starts with people and ends with people. Is it only the people who form a community? No, it can be anyone and everyone. Starting from the sea waves to the small leaves of a plant, everyone can be a part of the community. Surprisingly, many people are not aware of the fact that the concept of community existed even when humans were not born in the earth. There is a community dedicated to “Anne Frank”, the brave girl who became popular for her diary which depicts the circumstances of a war. Now, she is no more in the world but still people come to the Anne Frank Centre to show the respect to this lady. So, this is one of the most important features of a community. Even if the leader or the one who has formed the community dies, the community will still exist. When it comes to community, each and every person is responsible to make the community a successful community. Understanding of “Community” Nowadays, people don’t get enough time to watch football but when it comes to world cup, they prefer to come from office early. Even we are busy in your schedule, we still love football and give treat to the entire office when our country wins the world cup. We are true to football or to the football community. A community is more than its member, more than its people, more than the elements. Even if we have stayed away from Hollywood films for our busy schedule, but our expression will change when someone will criticize the character of James Bond. Yes, it means even if we don’t have time to watch James bond films, we are still true to James bond community. The members of the community may have moved to any other place due to their work or any other kind of problem but it doesn’t mean that they don’t believe in the principles of the community or they have stopped loving the community. This is another feature of a community. It would be wrong if we say that a community has a particular physical location. But a community would justify its term when people share the common interest or common liking in the community. However, a community always needs a place or a geographic location where people would get the opportunity to exchange their views and opinions. Nowadays, Face book has become a popular community where people share their feelings, opinions and ideas with their near and dear ones. Ask any one about Face book and they will tell you everything about face book. When any of our friend any shares kind of story in face book, we like it and share our opinion on that particular news which shows that it is also a community where people interact with each other. No one can force us to like the story. The same goes with a community where people can’t be forced to join the community, it entirely depends on their opinion whether they want to be a part of the community. Community: Various Perspectives “Man is a social animal”, we have heard the same old proverb ever since we have started understanding things. Check out any social science book, the first chapter with start with this proverb. Why man is considered as a social animal? It’s because he lives in a society where he needs to interact with other humans. In the same way community is also practical model or rather say a social construction where human interaction, trust and expectations among the members are important to build a strong community. Communication is one of the key factors in maintaining the relations of the members in a community. It’s communication which gradually develops expectations, trust and beliefs among the people of the community. Well, there are many things which are important to maintain a community. When you want to learn about “community”, you must have little bit of knowledge on “sociology the science”. Yes, a community is operated and maintained by a large number of people. While a good community is happy to look at, but it’s the not only the leader who is responsible to make the community successful but each and every member plays an active an important role in the community. For example, we can only make our residential place a good and friendly place to live in when we interact with your neighbors which leads to good relations. Just because you and your colleague stay in the same place, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will end up being good friends. It is actually the behavior and nature of the person which helps to connect with other people and make a good and healthy community. When people are asked on what “community” means to them, it’s the “relation of people” which you would find common in everyone’s answers. For most of us, our community starts with our family and ends on our friends. Apart from them, community also involves our work place, our neighborhood, our not so good relations etc. These “not so good” and informal relations are also important as they help us to be strong individuals. In other words “community” is a network and social system. Bott in his study said that the social environment of urban families is very healthy because they maintain their interpersonal relations in a very healthy way. ( Bott, E. 1957). Many social scientists are happy about the fact that society is considered as “network” as it can be calculated and measured in a more easy way. It was Stacey (1969) who tagged community as a “non- concept” and preferred it being known as a local social system. It’s the connection of the social networks which describes the relation and understanding of people. In the recent years, the community has experienced many problems such as broken marriages, unemployment, baseless movies, television addicted children and problems of a family are responsible in creating problems in a community. Communication can be classified into two types such as the violent television programs and nasty musical programs are negative communication whereas educational shows as well as panel discussions give a positive message to the society. In the book “communication and community” by Gregory J. Shepherd and Eric W. Rothenbuhler, it has been described that community is an important issue for an individual as well as for a group(Shepherd, G. J. & Rothenbuhler, E. W. 2008) . For any kind of relation or to stay in a town, community is an enduring concept. From the ancient civilization to today’s I pad world, community has always been a serious issue which has attracted people’s attention and still doing the same. Community is a factor or a group which can be found any time any place. In every relationship and in every network, one factor which is common is community. A good Democracy cannot be built without a good community. Although, some people believe that community has undergone many changes with new technology and changes but others believe that it has withered away. In a community, communication is the major symbol which helps to build up a good and strong community. Gregory J. Shepherd and Eric W. Rothenbuhler have compared communication with understanding, empathy and relation. They have also said that the role of communication changes with the circumstances, it also plays its role as propaganda, ideology and manipulation. According to Gregory J. Shepherd and Eric W. Rothenbuhler, Communication is the very model of democracy. Yes, communication among the people of authority is very necessary to make a successful democracy. Communication and community shares a very special relation, locality has always been important in the relation of communication and community. Some authors have treated the issue of locality explicitly while some others prefer to treat it in opposite way. Unfortunately, for some reason the material aspect of community has always been neglected by the professional scholars, scholrs have considered them as relative constants and not their professional job. Well, it is a fact that without a strong material base it is absolutely impossible to imagine community and community relation among people of the society. It is the material base which supports the circumstances with the help of which resources and conditions lead to a successful community where the secret of success is communication among people. Community resources may sound like a technical term but it is actually telephone, internet with the help of which people interact with each other and make a good community. Without the right community resources, the whole concept of community would disappear as communication is the only factor which leads to a successful community. Of course the material aspect of community matters a lot as you can’t expect every person to interact with each other with the help of internet. Would the electronic community prove as a successful idea? What are the factors which help to make an effective electronic community? Apart from materiality, the second factor which has been discussed by Gregory and Eric is “goodness”, the goodness of communication and community is more important than the materiality aspect. Among community and communication, which factor has to be good? Or may be both are important and need proper attention. It was John Dewey who came up with two proposals in 1920s to decide on the goodness of any community. These were the following proposals or criteria:- How numerous and varied are the interests which are consciously shared? How full and free is the interplay with other forms of association? (Dewey, J. 1916) There has been a controversy on community that the concept of community has been described by those who have never been a part or active member of the community. Good communities have always shown tolerance, diversity of interest and association. It is a surprising fact that scholors have always considered community to be good and communities to be less good. Well, Rorty (1989) was the man who used to believe in these concepts that “communities enlarge the sense of community” and have changed the sense of “they” as “we”. The important question is on how to achieve such goodness. Now, it is a crystal clear fact that communication plays one of the most important roles to create a good community. As far as community is concerned, communication is expected to be good but unfortunately communications are not as good as communication. Therefore, most of the writers have researched on effective communicative rules, practices of communication and structures of communication which would lead to a good communication experience. Good communication experience indirectly means a good community. Well, as Dewey has come up with two proposals or criteria, after Dewey the other scholars are also trying to put some new and unique criteria. Is good communication really necessary to create a good community? As when we search for a good community, automatically our mind turns up to good communication, do we also do the same while looking for good communication? If this is the case, it is actually funny as we are moving in the same circle. Hopefully, it would be the same as it is, when any question would be asked on good communication and good community, a good thing would be to check out the literature book where the reader will get a lot of information. Community is actually like a web. Lawrence Frey and H.L. Goodall, Jr.Frey have discussed on everyday interaction among people as “ that spirit is embedded and woven even more tightly in everyday, even mundane, gestures including the griping, gossiping and fighting that challenge people and in the process, bind them firmly together” (Gooddall, 1999, p.491). All these practices come together and help us to bind the community in a row. It was Penman (1996) who stated that “We bring about the idea of what a conversation and what community can mean in talking about them” (Gooddall, 1999, P.16). Therefore, the factors that make community a real community is the language and everyday discussions. While discussing the factors of community, one thing which no one can assume is that community stays just as it was made. Well, it’s actually wrong as “changes” are one of the most important features of community. With each passing day, the scenario and aspects of community changes. Goodall stated that “At every level, it remains a community made out of the stuff of discourse, that it relies on a commonplace, collective energy, and that it requires the work of imagination and a willingness to sacrifice –these are constants. That it will remain as we built it, or that we should try to recapture what we once had—these are follies”. (Gooddall, 1999, p 492). We would not mind if the community brings some positive changes in it. Communities can be respun too. References 1. Bartle, P., What Is Community? A Sociological Perspective, retrieved on 2nd may 2011from http://www.scn.org/cmp/whatcom.htm 2. Shepherd, G. J. & Rothenbuhler, E. W. 2008, Preface, Communication And Community 3. Web, The Interrelated Realm of Communication and Community retrieved on 2nd may 2011from http://www.colorado.edu/communication/meta-discourses/Papers/Wade_community.htm 4. Goodall, H. L., 1999, Casing the Academy for Community. Communication Theory, 9(4), pp. 465-494. 5. Bott, E., 1957, Family and Social Networks, London, Tavistock 6. Dewey, J. 1916, Chapter 17 Democracy and Education, retrieved on 2nd may 2011from http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1436 Read More