Tuesday, October 30, 2012



How would you analyse this picture purely on the basis of communication theories?

8 comments:

  1. People like to share thoughts, feelings and sometimes trivial details about what they are up to. We all like having someone to share our passing thoughts with. Unfortunately with more mediums to communicate, actually communication between people has reduced. But what the amalgamation of Facebook, Twitter and mobile internet has enabled is a means for anyone who has anything to say, to say it. It has created an unadulterated public sphere where every passing thought has a space to be heard. However with time people give in to this convenience and there is a sense of surrender to technology. This image is an extreme representation of technopoly.

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    1. True, but don't you think that these technologies are also leading to loss of social capital? We are getting desensitized towards what is happening around us, at the same time, the media and technologies are shaping the world for us, a world away from reality. I wonder, if there is no social capital or a cicil society, how does one say that there is public sphere? Just to have a facility to say something, but having no one to listen to it.

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    2. Our perception of the world around us depends on the level of our education and knowledge, which in turn is shaped by the media. DOnt you think so?

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  2. "news" often is more like entertainment than information or education. news reports especially on television, are typically given without much overt context .the latest events are described, but not what led up to them or caused them. the result it that consumers of the media learn a lot of facts but frequently don't understand how they fit together. "context" is the result of the assumptions behind the facts, and this context is all the more powerful because it is neither stated nor commented upon.
    In profit-making organization, the gatekeeping process ( gatekeeping theory) is part of the overall process of maximizing income. markets are the mechanism whereby supply and demand are brought into balance. the market place place rewards news media which produce a product that meets market demand . if the market demands sensationalism, that's what it gets. If the market demands a particular political interpretation of events, that's what it gets. Put another way, the news media that provide sensationalism or a particular political spin are rewarded financially , while those media who do not supply these goods receive fewer financial rewards. to the extent that media organization respond by seeking to maximize income, markets will dictate media content.

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  3. The Downside of Mass Media - Desensitization!
    The picture suggests a drowning man/woman, presumably asking for help. And on the bank is a crowd of men taking photographs of a "live" drowning event rather than trying to save the victim.
    The physical similarity of the men in the crowd implies a mass society of people exhibiting similar behavioral patterns of dressing and general outward attributes, owing similar electronic devices (cell phone with camera) etc. (Consumerism, maybe?)
    The all pervasive mass media tends to induce collective behavior.
    Maybe this is what the Frankfurt School guys (no apologies for the irreverence) were trying to say when they talked of mass media, mass societies, mass cultures that lead to psycho-social behaviors such as contagion, loss of individuality and regression to a primitive mental state.
    Contagion: copycat behavior, collective behavior.
    Loss of individuality: None of them seem to be taking the initiative to behave differently, like saving the drowning person.
    Primitive mental state: Lack of compassion/humanity. They even seem to be enjoying...
    Because of its repetitive and overly sensationalized coverage of tragic events or violence and crime, mass media tends to desensitize society. Constant exposure to such visuals in the media makes them appear routine and common place.
    Also, the increased access to new media has spawned citizen journalists who now compete to go public with their eye witness accounts of events simply to claim their 15-minutes of fame.
    This highlights the perils of easy and unbridled access to mass media and its use as a tool for spread of news/information in the hands of the inexperienced.

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  4. May be the theorist never assumed that sensationalism would sell. Or If there are any theories on sensationalism taht can be best applied here.

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  5. true story. this everyday and everytime.. I like ur post

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