-1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14- -15- -16- -17- -18- -19- -20- -21- -22- -23- -24- -25- -26- -27- -28- -29- -30- -31- -32- -33- -34- -35- -36-
COMMUNICATOR for a CYBER AGE in Africa.
Edited by Fr. K D Tom Kunnel sdb Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services (B.E.A.M.S) Salesians of Don Bosco Karen, 00502 Kenya
COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER-AGE IN AFRICA TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION IV CONTENT FOCUS Mass Media Culture Impact of Advertisements Influence and Control SYLLABUS GUIDEPOST Lay - University Year 2 - Catechist Training Year 1 Religious - Post-Novitiate Priestly Formation - Philosophy Year 2196 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 4.1 Mass Media Culture 197 4.2 Techniques of Mass Media Persuasion 203 4.3 Voice Training Skills 207 4.4 The Advertising Audience 212 4.5 Plastic Image versus Real Value 216 4.6 Selection, Interpretation, Distortion, Emphasis 221 4.7 Mass Communication, Influence and Control 224 SECTION IV197 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Procedure • Divide the class into groups and give each a copy of “Awino’s Choice”.• Allow them 5 minutes to do the exercise.
• Get the leaders to sit together to make a consolidated list of the top 10 items to help Awino to move from village to the city. Ask them to write these on the board.
Now provide each group with the following questions for discussion: 1. Why did Awino’s husband want to make these purchases? 2. You have felt that these 10 items are necessary for the lady to adapt herself to city life. Any reasons for your choices? 3. From the list below pick out three main reasons why you think people especially in cities, are motivated to be more consumeristic in their lifestyle: • Dissatisfaction and boredom with the old, • Desire to live more comfortably, • Social acceptance, fear of being left-out and not moving with peers, • Easy access to money, • Craze to have more, • Status symbols, desire to show off, • Exposure to better standards of living through TV, newspapers, films…, • Human tendency to “move up in life” and to seek greater comfort.
4. What is culture? Do you think the mass media influences culture? If yes give examples of how it does.
Aim Materials Required [ To understand what is media culture, its traits and how it is nurtured.
[ To get a feel of the effects of globalisation on culture.
[ To understand the role of media in society.
[ Photocopies of the exercise: “Awino’s Choice” .
4.1 Mass Media Culture198 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Input - In the exercise described above, most of the participants will suggest material items they consider necessary for Awino’s personal image. Few, if ever, may say that she is “OK” as she is and that she does not need anything to alter her image. Some may add that she would need to undergo a personality development programme.
- In an unconscious way, the choices we make for Awino reveal our fears and anxieties about our own images and about the value systems we cherish. Indeed, Awino’s story repeats itself every time we make our choices about what to buy, what to wear, how to talk, where to go, what to see… - Various reasons motivate our choices. But underlying these reasons is the fact that all living beings by nature adapt themselves to their environment. Similarly all humans want to be socially accepted and therefore conform to the social and cultural patterns of their time and place.
- So what is this thing called culture? Culture is the sum total of characteristics which identify and differentiate human societies. Some of these characteristics or factors that constitute the culture of a nation are: language, history, tradition, climate, geography, arts, social, economic and political norms, its system of values, a nation’s size, neighbours and its current prosperity rating.
- One of the most powerful forces that has affected cultural change beginning in the 20 th century is the influence of the mass media.
- Communities and individuals are bombarded constantly with messages from a multitude of sources including TV, billboards, and magazines, to name a few. These messages promote not only products, but moods, attitudes, and a sense of what is and is not important. - Mass media also makes possible the concept of celebrity: without the ability of movies, magazines, and news media to reach across thousands of miles, people could not become famous. In fact, only political and business leaders, as well as the few notorious outlaws, were famous in the past. Only in recent times have actors, singers, and other social elites become celebrities or “stars.” - What role does mass media play? Legislatures, media executives, local school officials, and sociologists have all debated this controversial question. While opinions vary as to the extent and type of influence the mass media wields, all sides agree that mass media is a permanent part of modern culture. Three main sociological perspectives on the role of media exist: the limited-effects theory, the class-dominant theory, and the culturalist theory.
Limited-effects Theory - The limited-effects theory argues that because people generally choose what to watch or read based on what they already believe. Media exerts negligible influence. This theory originated and was tested in the 1940s and 1950s. Studies that examined the ability of media to influence voting found that well-informed people relied more on personal experience, prior knowledge, and their own reasoning. However, media “experts” more likely swayed those who were less informed. Critics point to two problems with this perspective. First, they claim that it ignores the media’s role in framing and limiting the discussion and debate of issues. How media frames the debate and what questions members of the media ask change the outcome of the discussion and the possible conclusions people may draw. Second, this theory came into existence when the availability and dominance of media was far less widespread. Class-dominant Theory - The class-dominant theory argues that media reflects and projects the view of a minority elite who control it. Those people who own and control the corporations that produce media comprise this elite. Advocates of this view concern themselves particularly with massive corporate mergers of media organizations, which limit competition and put big business at the reins of media especially news media. Their concern is that when ownership is restricted, a few people then have the ability to manipulate what people can see or hear. For example, owners can easily avoid or silence stories that expose unethical corporate behavior or hold corporations responsible for their actions.
- The issue of sponsorship adds to this problem. Advertising funds most media. Networks aim programming at the largest possible audience because the broader the appeal, the greater the potential purchasing audience and the easier selling air time to advertisers becomes. Thus, news organizations may shy away from negative stories about corporations (especially parent corporations) that finance large advertising campaigns in their newspaper or on their stations. Television networks receiving millions of dollars in advertising from companies like Nike and other textile manufacturers were slow to run stories on their news shows about possible human-rights violations by these companies in foreign countries. Media watchers identify the same problem at the local level where city newspapers will not give new cars poor reviews or run stories on selling a home without an agent because the majority of their funding comes from auto and real estate advertising. This influence also extends to programming. In the 1990s a network cancelled a short-run drama with clear religious sentiments, Christy, because, although highly popular and beloved in rural America, the program did not rate well among young city dwellers that advertisers were targeting in ads. - Critics of this theory say that local control of news media largely lies beyond the reach of large corporate offices 199 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa elsewhere, and that the quality of news depends upon good journalists. They contend that those less powerful and not in control of media have often received full media coverage and subsequent support. As examples they name numerous environmental causes, the anti-nuclear movement, the anti-Vietnam movement, and the pro-Gulf War movement.
- While most people argue that a corporate elite controls media, a variation on this approach argues that a politically “liberal” elite controls media. Culturalist Theory - The culturalist theory, developed in the 1980s and 1990s, combines the other two theories and claims that people interact with media to create their own meanings out of the images and messages they receive. This theory sees audiences as playing an active rather than passive role in relation to mass media. One strand of research focuses on the audiences and how they interact with media; the other strand of research focuses on those who produce the media, particularly the news. - Theorists emphasize that audiences choose what to watch from a wide range of options, choose how much to watch, and may choose the mute button or the VCR remote over the programming selected by the network or cable station. Research finds that when people approach material, whether written text or media images and messages, they interpret that material based on their own knowledge and experience. Thus, when researchers ask different groups to explain the meaning of a particular song or video, the groups produce widely divergent interpretations based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, and religious background. Therefore, culturalist theorists claim that, while a few elite in large corporations may exert significant control over what information media produces and distributes, personal perspective plays a more powerful role in how the audience members interpret those messages.
Effect of Globalization on African culture - The effect globalization has had on culture is immense and diverse. It has affected people’s cultural behaviours in different ways. People have had to change their living ways. The loud echoing advertisement rhythms of the famous Coca-Cola drinks can be heard across boundaries in towns, cities and townships and even in remote rural areas where drinking water is not easily available.
- Song and dance has become characterized with themes of HIV and AIDS, orphans, suffering, drought and war. These have been neutralized with the western beats of e.g. Keisha Cole et al. The youth also prefer the western beats to the local artists as well as their hair styles, shoes, and clothing which keep to the trends on the western fashion scene.
- Urban culture in Africa, now associated with Western values, is a great contrast from traditional African urban culture which was once rich and enviable even by modern Western standards. African cities such as Loango, M’banza Congo, Timbuktu, Thebes, Meroe and others had served as the world’s most affluent urban and industrial centers, clean, well-laid out, with several of universities, libraries, and temples. This image of traditional African urban living is in deep contrast to European cities that were unclean, crowded and disorganized...characteristics that they have retained for the most part. Effect of Colonialism in African culture - Following colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official languages that originated outside the continent. However, several countries still use various languages of native origin (such as Swahili) as their official language. In numerous countries, English and French are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Malagasy are other examples of originally non-African languages that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres. - Many of the traditional African cultures have become impoverished as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and neo-colonial regimes. There is now resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalorize African traditional cultures, under such movements as the African Renaissance led by Thabo Mbeki, Afro centrism led by an influential group of scholars including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of voodoo and other forms of spirituality. In recent years, African traditional culture has become synonymous with rural poverty and subsistence farming.
- Like any other culture, the mass media culture either directly or indirectly imposes its unwritten norms and customs on the minds of its members. Like the atmosphere we breathe, the mass mediated environment affects individuals whose lives are being governed by the preoccupation of status, human respect, peer pressure, ostentation, and the fear of “what will people think of us if we behave differently?” What’s more, each recipient imbibes the ideology and influences of his/her circle of associates and thus, often blindly, the hold of the media culture on our lives is reinforced.
Review 1. The choices we make for Awino reveal our fears and anxieties about our own images and about the value systems we cherish. 2. Underlying these reasons for our choices is the fact that all living beings by nature adapt themselves to their environment. Similarly all humans want to be socially accepted and therefore conform to the social and cultural patterns of their time and place.200 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 3. Culture is the sum total of characteristics which identify and differentiate human societies. Some of these characteristics or factors that constitute the culture of a nation are: language, history, tradition, climate, geography, arts, social, economic, and political norms, its system of values, a nation’s size, neighbours and its current prosperity rating.
4. Mass media constantly bombard people with messages from a multitude of sources including TV, billboards, and magazines, to name a few. These messages promote not only products, but moods, attitudes, and a sense of what is and is not important. 5. Mass media also makes possible the concept of celebrity: without the ability of movies, magazines, and news media to reach across thousands of miles, people could not become famous. In fact, only political and business leaders, as well as the few notorious outlaws, were famous in the past. 6. Three main sociological perspectives on the role of media exist: the limited-effects theory, the class-dominant theory, and the culturalist theory.
7. Many of the traditional African cultures have become impoverished as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and neo-colonial regimes. 8. Like any other culture, the mass media culture either directly or indirectly imposes its unwritten norms and customs on the minds of its members. Reflection A people without a past are said to be dead. In what ways can we instill in our youth their cultural heritage in the midst of a society saturated by the effects of the mass media (Westernization)? Relevant Skills a) Examine your views and outlook to the political situation in your country. How do you form your opinions and which sociological perspective on the role of media is most true in your case? b) How has globalization affected your native cultural society? Trace how globalization has changed your people’s way of thinking, dressing and acting. What are the positive and negative effects of globalization on your culture? Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References http://www.wcc-coe.org http://www.world4tomorrow.org http://www.cliffnotes.com201 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Aim • To understand what is media culture, its traits and how it is nurtured.
• To get a feel of the effects of globalisation on culture.
• To understand the role of media in society.
Procedure • Make a consolidated list of the top 10 items to help Awino to move from village to the city. Please answer the following questions for discussion: 1. Why did Awino’s husband want to make these purchases? 2. You have felt that these 10 items are necessary for the lady to adapt herself to city life. Any reasons for your choices? 3. From the list below pick out three main reasons why you think people especially in cities, are motivated to be more consumeristic in their lifestyle: • Dissatisfaction and boredom with the old.
• Desire to live more comfortably.
• Social acceptance, fear of being left-out and not moving with peers.
• Easy access to money.
• Craze to have more.
• Status symbols, desire to show off.
• Exposure to better standards of living through TV, newspapers, films…, • Human tendency to “move up in life” and to seek greater comfort.
4. What is culture? Do you think the mass media influences culture? If yes give examples of how it does.
CHAPTER 4.1 PARTiCiPAnT’S HAnDouT Mass Media Culture COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER AGE IN AFRICA Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services - BEAMS Publication, Kenya. beams@donbosco.or.ke202 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Review 1. The choices we make for Awino reveal our fears and anxieties about our own images and about the value systems we cherish. 2. Underlying these reasons for our choices is the fact that all living beings by nature adapt themselves to their environment. Similarly all humans want to be socially accepted and therefore conform to the social and cultural patterns of their time and place.
3. Culture is the sum total of characteristics which identify and differentiate human societies. Some of these characteristics or factors that constitute the culture of a nation are: language, history, tradition, climate, geography, arts, social, economic, and political norms, its system of values, a nation’s size, neighbours and its current prosperity rating.
4. Mass media constantly bombard people with messages from a multitude of sources including TV, billboards, and magazines, to name a few. These messages promote not only products, but moods, attitudes, and a sense of what is and is not important. 5. Mass media also makes possible the concept of celebrity: without the ability of movies, magazines, and news media to reach across thousands of miles, people could not become famous. In fact, only political and business leaders, as well as the few notorious outlaws, were famous in the past. 6. Three main sociological perspectives on the role of media exist: the limited-effects theory, the class-dominant theory, and the culturalist theory.
7. Many of the traditional African cultures have become impoverished as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and neo-colonial regimes. 8. Like any other culture, the mass media culture either directly or indirectly imposes its unwritten norms and customs on the minds of its members. Reflection A people without a past are said to be dead. In what ways can we instill in our youth their cultural heritage in the midst of a society saturated by the effects of the mass media (Westernization)? Relevant Skills a) Examine your views and outlook to the political situation in your country. How do you form your opinions and which sociological perspective on the role of media is most true in your case? b) How has globalization affected your native cultural society? Trace how globalization has changed your people’s way of thinking, dressing and acting. What are the positive and negative effects of globalization on your culture? Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References http://www.wcc-coe.org http://www.world4tomorrow.org http://www.cliffnotes.com203 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Procedure Give examples of advertisements that use the Model Technique of Advertising. Ask the students why they think the model is so important to advertisers. Include in the answer our tendency to ‘appeal to authority’.
Input - Persuasion is the co-production of meaning (the process by which persuaders and audience members arrive at mutually agreed upon meaning for words and visual images), that results when an individual or a group of individuals uses language strategies and/or visual images to make audiences identify with that individual or group. - The ability to be persuaded is technically called ‘suggestibility’ by sociologists which is “the attempt to induce in others the acceptance of a specific belief without giving any self-evident or logical ground for its acceptance, whether this exists or not.” Suggestibility is highest among those who are: young, motivated, suffering from low self-esteem and the emotionally unstable. - Here are some techniques of mass persuasion employed by mass communicators: 1. Catch the leader Social psychologists have observed that it is often easier to change the attitudes of small groups of people than those of a single individual. Gangs and cliques give the adolescent important social contacts, status, security, acceptance, freedom and a sense of belonging. These values far surpass the value of one’s personal self esteem or one’s heritage. Therefore the best way to deal with a motivational change in the members is to seek out the group leader and first influence him/her. When the leader changes, everybody changes.
2. Change the environment This is changing people by altering the environment in which they live. 3. Grab the audience’s attention In trying to make his own message stand out against the background of many other competing stimuli, the sender will bring in another more striking stimulus which, even if it has little or nothing to do with his actual message, is effective in catching the eye or ear in such a way as to cause it to be remembered. The use of sexually stimulating visuals in films and advertisements and popular songs and personalities is a case in point.
4. Prepare a receptive mind This is most suitable for unfamiliar messages. The communicator will first build up a receptive frame of mind in their audience. He does this through e.g. leaflets and pamphlets, house-to-house visits, posters etc.
5. Emote the audience Since all basic motives in a human being are emotionally conditioned, it is very unlikely that a message will impact on the audience without an emotional quotient. The media propagandist picks out those emotions that are suited to his purpose and that will enhance the attention he seeks: love, anger, fear, hope, guilt, jealousy, lust...
Aim Materials Required [ To become aware of some techniques of persuasion often used in mass media communication.
[ Approximately 6 advertisements depicting different models.
4.2 Techniques of Mass Media Persuasion204 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 6. Appeal to the crowd People are always more suggestible in a crowd when their individual credulity tends to decrease significantly. Secondly, there is good evidence that the arousal of any strong emotion may make the individual more suggestible. Political speeches often excite their audiences because of these factors.
7. Appeal to Authority We have all experienced the early conditioning of submission to a powerful parent or parent-substitute, which makes us prone to listen to, or even try to emulate the ‘best people’: models, heroes, actors, leaders, the elite, successful achievers, etc..
8. Confirm the prejudice Most people do not want their prejudices and stereotypes challenged. Media propagandists therefore give back to their audiences what they would like to hear, see, read and think. Thus people prefer stories that confirm their predictions and prejudices about events, issues and persons. They want to identify an enemy to blame for their frustrations, they want to feel they belong to a group (us) with the implication that those they are prejudiced against (them) do not belong. These are but a few of the prejudices that people in the media use as techniques to persuade and impress us so that we buy their products.
Ethics and Persuasion a. Deception For us to make effective decisions, it is important that the information on which we base our decisions be factual. Thus, persuaders who attempt to deceive their audiences undermine the persuasive process because they deny their audiences the information they need to make a choice. By using digital imaging techniques – using computers to edit and print photographic images or by taking advantage of an audience member’s “information overload,” persuaders often obscure the true meaning of their claims. It is important to note however, that this is sometimes not done intentionally, but the effect is that audience members are often confused by a persuader’s message.
b. Access Those who have access to communication technologies are more aware of their choices in the persuasion process. Those without access are not fully aware of their choices. Promotion and use of media resources are ethical concerns for this reason. For example, a presidential candidate who carries on a debate on a channel only available on cable TV limits access to important political ideas to the elite only.
c. oppression Some ethicists have argued that the very nature of persuasion creates certain ideas about what is normal or acceptable in society. Those who use products or have ideas that do not meet the persuaders’ definitions are then marginalised because they do not fit in with society. In this sense, all of us are denied information from which to make decisions and choices. When persuasion determines our values and beliefs, it is difficult to step outside of those values to make productive choices. d. Privacy When persuaders obtain information through audience analysis, they have ethical responsibilities to protect that information from others who would use it without discretion. When persuaders obtain information about us without our knowledge, they may ingratiate themselves with us in a way that undermines our decision-making ability. In other words, we lose our ability to choose actions and beliefs when persuaders target us with highly sensitive personal information.
e. Conflict of Interest The vast web of influence that characterises persuasion today also makes it difficult for audience members to fully appreciate the role of persuaders in the persuasive process. Persuaders should have an ethical responsibility to disclose their association with the ideas they communicate.
Review 1. Persuasion is the co-production of meaning (the process by which persuaders and audience members arrive at mutually agreed upon meaning for words and visual images) that result when an individual or a group of individuals uses language strategies and/or visual images to make audiences identify with that individual or group.205 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 2. The ability to be persuaded is technically called ‘suggestibility’.
3. Techniques that the mass media employ in order to persuade the mass audience include: Persuading the leader, changing the environment, grabbing the audience’s attention, preparing a receptive mind in the audience, emoting the audience, appealing to the crowd, appealing to authority and confirming prejudice in the audience.
4. Five broad areas whereby persuasion ethics have to be applied in mass media are in deception whereby information given is not correct or is deceptive, access of media - some people don’t have access to mass media and are therefore not exposed to important information that is key to their decision making, oppression of those who do not accept what they are persuaded to accept, privacy of audience’s personal information and conflict of interest between the reporter and what they are reporting.
Reflection Reflect on the ethics of persuasion. To what extent do they infringe on people’s individual rights. What changes can be made to make the practice of persuasion safe and ethical? Relevant Skills Create an advertisement putting into consideration all the means of ethics you have learnt about persuasion.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References Borchers A. Timothy. Persuasion in the Media Age. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, 2005. 206 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Aim • To become aware of some techniques of persuasion often used in mass media communication.
• To help students develop the quality of their voice.
Procedure Analyse the Advertisements.
What is the common element or feature in these advertisements? Review 1. Persuasion is the co-production of meaning (the process by which persuaders and audience members arrive at mutually agreed upon meaning for words and visual images) that result when an individual or a group of individuals uses language strategies and/or visual images to make audiences identify with that individual or group.
2. The ability to be persuaded is technically called ‘suggestibility’.
3. Techniques that the mass media employ in order to persuade the mass audience include: Persuading the leader, changing the environment, grabbing the audience’s attention, preparing a receptive mind in the audience, emoting the audience, appealing to the crowd, appealing to authority and confirming prejudice in the audience.
4. Five broad areas whereby persuasion ethics have to be applied in mass media are in deception whereby information given is not correct or is deceptive, access of media - some people don’t have access to mass media and are therefore not exposed to important information that is key to their decision making, oppression of those who do not accept what they are persuaded to accept, privacy of audience’s personal information and conflict of interest between the reporter and what they are reporting.
Reflection Reflect on the ethics of persuasion. To what extent do they infringe on people’s individual rights. What changes can be made to make the practice of persuasion safe and ethical? Relevant Skills Create an advertisement putting into consideration all the means of ethics you have learnt about persuasion.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References Borchers A. Timothy. Persuasion in the Media Age. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, 2005. CHAPTER 4.2 PARTiCiPAnT’S HAnDouT Techniques of Mass Media Persuasion COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER AGE IN AFRICA Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services - BEAMS Publication, Kenya. beams@donbosco.or.ke207 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Input introduction: Essentials for an effective speaking voice are: • adequate volume • clarity and purity of tone • a pleasing pitch • flexibility • vibrant and sympathetic quality • diction For this, one needs to: - Articulate well: that is, manipulate the speech organs, especially the tongue and lips, with such care that one’s speech is distinctly heard.
- Enunciate well: that is, distinctness in one’s speech resulting from careful articulation, clarity, breathing, voice control, lip, tongue and jaw action.
- Pronounce well: that is, giving sounds to letters, groups of letters (syllables and words). It means putting the accent on the right syllable.
Exercise - Read a text with special attention to the following: a) Sound each letter distinctly, emphasise each consonant and vowel.
b) Sound each syllable so that it is distinct from the syllable before and after.
c) Sound each word completely, clearly and crisply.
PART onE: Voice Culture a. Learn to Relax: It is vital that anyone who appears before large audiences should first learn to relax. It is without doubt that your vocal chords depend upon your physical health which in turn depends upon healthy habits of eating, sleeping and proper exercise.
Exercise: a. Stand erect with your back to the wall. Make sure every possible part of your body from heels to head touches it. Keep your shoulder blades back and turn the palms of your hands outward. Breathe evenly for about 3 minutes in this posture.
b. Relax the shoulder and arms in an upward-downward rotation.
c. Relax the back of the neck by rotating the head from left to right and then from right to left.
d. Open your mouth and allow the air to enter your throat.
b. Breath Control: - Voice development depends upon proper breathing. The correct way to breathe is from the diaphragm (a principal muscle involved in breathing situated an inch or two below the breast bone.) Place your hand at this point and breathe in; you will feel the diaphragm descend and expand.
- Here is a description of correct breathing: • While inhaling: the ribs swing to the side and slightly upwards (there should be no perceptible movement of shoulders); the diaphragm descends, the lungs are allowed to inflate.
Aim Materials Required [ To help participants to improve their voice and develop it as a resource for communication.
[ Copies of the exercises in the input.
4.3 Voice Training Skills208 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa • While exhaling: the abdominal muscles contract, lifting the diaphragm back into place, the muscles which raise the ribs relax and allow the chest to contract.
• Make complete, diaphragmatic breathing a habit, so that you do it automatically when you get up to speak. Complete breathing fills your lungs and calms your nerves.
Exercise a. Breathe in slowly through your nose deep and wide, and fill your lungs to capacity. Then breathe out quickly. (Do not raise your shoulders while you breathe.) Repeat this for some time. b. Breathe in fully, as before. Now let out your breath slowly and evenly through a small opening in the mouth with your lungs (not your throat) controlling the exhaled air. Repeat this for a number of times. To check the evenness of the exhaled air blow on to a lighted candle – the flame will flicker unevenly or go out altogether if your breath is uneven.
c. Inhale fully and steadily. Count three and then exhale steadily. Repeat this for some time.
d. Inhale a medium breath through the nose. Breathe out through the mouth. Repeat a number of times.
e. Open your mouth wide. Inhale slowly through your nose. Then exhale quickly through your mouth.
f. Speak the following sentences, breathing carefully before each one. Take care to exhale evenly as you speak with special emphasis on the words in bold letters: I. In truth, I know not why I am so sad.
II. Then let’s say you are sad because you are not merry.
III. They lose the world that do buy it with much care.
IV. With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come.
V. All that glitters is not gold. VI. Let none deserve to wear an undeserved dignity.
VII. The weakest kind of fruit drops earliest to the ground.
VIII. He is well paid that is well satisfied .
c. Tone and Resonance: - If a tuning fork is set vibrating in the air by plucking its two prongs, you hear a slight musical sound. But if the same fork is plucked as before and then placed in a hollow pine box six or eight inches long and open at the ends, a much louder musical sound is heard. This is because the box vibrates with the fork.
- Exactly the same principle is involved in producing tone with the voice. The actual sound made by the vocal chords is not very loud. But if the walls of the cavities of the chest, the pockets of the larynx (situated just above the vocal chords), the pharynx (the hollow tube at the back of the mouth and nose and connecting the larynx with the nasal cavities), the mouth, the nose and the sinuses – in short, the walls of the cavities of chest, throat and head – are made to vibrate with the vocal chords, the sound will take on a much greater volume.
- How do you secure loudness in a vocal tone: • By forcing the air more violently against the vocal chords.
• By causing the cavities to vibrate.
- Both these means are necessary. If a person tries to secure loudness by forcing the air upon the vocal chords alone, the voice may break due to undue pressure. For good voice resonance the vocal cavities must be trained to vibrate too.
Exercise a. Hum with your lips closed and your teeth slightly parted. Feel the ticking sensation in your lips.
b. Say: ING…ING…INH. Strive to direct the sound against the roots of the upper teeth.
c. Say: MI…MI…MI. Direct the sound against the roots of the upper front teeth. Repeat this fast and clearly to get resonance.
d. Repeat exercise number three with the chin drawn in. Select a low note and listen for a reverberation in the middle of the head (the back part of the nasal cavities) and gradually increase volume to get them all together in head, at teeth and in chest.
e. Say: THEN in the same way with your chest held high. Direct your voice to the far end of the room. f. Say: NO as loud as you can while bringing as little pressure as possible on your vocal chords.
d. Articulation: - Breathing and proper richness of voice is not enough. Articulation – that is the proper use of the mouth, lips and tongue.
- The majority of people do not open their mouths sufficiently when they are speaking. This limits the amount of movement on the tongue and lips. A speaker must cultivate the habit of opening his mouth in a free but at the same time unexaggerated manner.209 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa - Perfect verbal audibility demands perfect movement of the tongue. If the tongue cannot get into the right position, vowel sounds will be defective.
- The lips are of greatest importance for forming consonants. Many people scarcely use their lips and are consequently indistinct.
Exercise Here are some exercises that will help you relax your mouth, your tongue and your lips.
a. The Jaw: - Stroke the sides of the jaw as the hands come down.
- Move your head forward and backward, then to the right and to the left.
- Open your mouth three fingers wide, drop the head loosely forward and shake it vigorously from front to back for some time and then from side to side. (You will look and feel silly, but these exercises are great jaw relaxers.) - Hold a pencil between your teeth and draw your face back into a wide smile while at the same time stiffening your jaw.
b. The Lips: - Push your lips forward as if to blow out a candle, then draw them back over the teeth.
- Draw them back over the teeth, now to the left, now to the right – as if you were blowing smoke out of either side of the mouth.
- With your lips closed push your tongue against them from inside, working your tongue right round the lips. This exercise is good for both tongue and lips.
- Massage the lips.
c. The Tongue: - Say AH as when the doctor wants to check your throat. Your throat must be relaxed and your tongue must lie down. After some practice you should be able to make your tongue lie in a concave, shallow V shape, right back to your throat so that, in a mirror, you can see your throat clearly. Repeat this for some time.
- Open your mouth. Keep the root of your tongue as flat as you can. Raise the tip of it and push it up perpendicularly and quite slowly towards the roof of the mouth. Then lower it slowly… - Raise the tip of your tongue as before and move it from side to side… - To exercise the back of your tongue, say: ke, ke. Ke…Kah; ge, ge, ge…Gah; kitty, kitty, kitty…giddy giddy giddy…yawn and feel the back of your tongue relax.
- To exercise the top of your tongue say: la, la, la,…Lah; te, te, te,…Tah; de, de, de,…Dah; ne, ne, ne…Nah and try this one: A tutor who tooted the flute Tried to tutor two tooters to toot; Said the two to the tutor Is it harder to toot, or To tutor two tooters to toot? Review 1. Essentials for an effective speaking voice are: adequate volume, clarity and purity of tone, a pleasing pitch, flexibility, a vibrant and sympathetic quality and diction.
2. For this, one needs to: articulate well, enunciate well and pronounce well.
3. It is important that any good speaker learn to: relax, control his/her breath, develop a high tone and resonance and learn how to articulate well. To improve all these, there are exercises that can be done.
Reflection What special attributes both positive and negative does the Bible give to the tongue? Resolve to use your tongue and your voice to build rather than destroy.
Relevant Skills Establish an occasion or event when the participants will be required to make speeches then create for them the exercises in this session to prepare them for the speech day.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.210 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Aim • To improve your voice and develop it as a resource for communication a. Learn to Relax Exercise: a. Stand erect with your back to the wall. Make sure every possible part of your body from heels to head touches it. Keep your shoulder blades back and turn the palms of your hands outward. Breathe evenly for about 3 minutes in this posture.
b. Relax the shoulder and arms in an upward-downward rotation.
c. Relax the back of the neck by rotating the head from left to right and then from right to left.
d. Open your mouth and allow the air to enter your throat.
b. Breath Control Exercise a. Breathe in slowly through your nose deep and wide, and fill your lungs to capacity. Then breathe out quickly. (Do not raise your shoulders while you breathe.) Repeat this for some time. b. Breathe in fully, as before. Now let out your breath slowly and evenly through a small opening in the mouth with your lungs (not your throat) controlling the exhaled air. Repeat this for a number of times. To check the evenness of the exhaled air blow on to a lighted candle – the flame will flicker unevenly or go out altogether if your breath is uneven.
c. Inhale fully and steadily. Count three and then exhale steadily. Repeat this for some time.
d. Inhale a medium breath through the nose. Breathe out through the mouth. Repeat a number of times.
e. Open your mouth wide. Inhale slowly through your nose. Then exhale quickly through your mouth.
f. Speak the following sentences, breathing carefully before each one. Take care to exhale evenly as you speak with special emphasis on the words in bold letters: I. In truth, I know not why I am so sad.
II. Then let’s say you are sad because you are not merry.
III. They lose the world that do buy it with much care.
IV. With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come.
V. All that glitters is not gold. VI. Let none deserve to wear an undeserved dignity.
VII. The weakest kind of fruit drops earliest to the ground.
VIII. He is well paid that is well satisfied .
c. Tone and Resonance Exercise a. Hum with your lips closed and your teeth slightly parted. Feel the ticking sensation in your lips.
b. Say: ING…ING…INH. Strive to direct the sound against the roots of the upper teeth.
c. Say: MI…MI…MI. Direct the sound against the roots of the upper front teeth. Repeat this fast and clearly to get resonance.
d. Repeat exercise number three with the chin drawn in. Select a low note and listen for a reverberation in the middle of the head (the back part of the nasal cavities) and gradually increase volume to get them all together in head, at teeth and in chest.
e. Say: THEN in the same way with your chest held high. Direct your voice to the far end of the room. f. Say: NO as loud as you can while bringing as little pressure as possible on your vocal chords.
d. Articulation Exercise Here are some exercises that will help you relax your mouth, your tongue and your lips.
a. The Jaw: - Stroke the sides of the jaw as the hands come down.
CHAPTER 4.3 PARTiCiPAnT’S HAnDouT Voice Training Skills COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER AGE IN AFRICA Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services - BEAMS Publication, Kenya. beams@donbosco.or.ke211 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa b. The Lips: - Push your lips forward as if to blow out a candle, then draw them back over the teeth.
- Draw them back over the teeth, now to the left, now to the right – as if you were blowing smoke out of either side of the mouth.
- With your lips closed push your tongue against them from inside, working your tongue right round the lips. This exercise is good for both tongue and lips.
- Massage the lips.
c. The Tongue: - Say AH as when the doctor wants to check your throat. Your throat must be relaxed and your tongue must lie down. After some practice you should be able to make your tongue lie in a concave, shallow V shape, right back to your throat so that, in a mirror, you can see your throat clearly. Repeat this for some time.
- Open your mouth. Keep the root of your tongue as flat as you can. Raise the tip of it and push it up perpendicularly and quite slowly towards the roof of the mouth. Then lower it slowly… - Raise the tip of your tongue as before and move it from side to side… - To exercise the back of your tongue, say: ke, ke. Ke…Kah; ge, ge, ge…Gah; kitty, kitty, kitty…giddy giddy giddy…yawn and feel the back of your tongue relax.
- To exercise the top of your tongue say: la, la, la,…Lah; te, te, te,…Tah; de, de, de,…Dah; ne, ne, ne…Nah and try this one: A tutor who tooted the flute Tried to tutor two tooters to toot; Said the two to the tutor Is it harder to toot, or To tutor two tooters to toot? Review 1. Essentials for an effective speaking voice are: adequate volume, clarity and purity of tone, a pleasing pitch, flexibility, a vibrant and sympathetic quality and diction.
2. For this, one needs to: articulate well, enunciate well and pronounce well.
3. It is important that any good speaker learn to: relax, control his/her breath, develop a high tone and resonance and learn how to articulate well. To improve all these, there are exercises that can be done.
Reflection What special attributes both positive and negative does the Bible give to the tongue? Resolve to use your tongue and your voice to build rather than destroy.
Relevant Skills Prepare a speech and use the above exercises to practice the speech.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.212 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Input Advertising is paid, one-way communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled by the sponsor. Variations include publicity, public relations, etc. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet and billboards.
Advertisements can also be seen on the seats of grocery carts, on the walls of an airport walkway, on the sides of buses, heard in telephone hold messages and in-store public address systems. Advertisements are usually placed anywhere an audience can easily and/or frequently access visuals and/or audio.
Side Effects of Advertising Economic Effects 1. Most economists believe that advertising has a positive impact on the economy because it stimulates demand for products and services, strengthening the economy by promoting the sale of goods and services. Manufacturers know that advertising can help sell a new product quickly, enabling them to recoup the costs of developing new products.
2. By stimulating the development of new products, advertising helps increase competition. Many economists believe that increased competition leads to lower prices, thereby benefiting consumers and the economy as a whole.
3. These economists also argue that by interesting consumers in purchasing goods, advertising enables manufacturers and others to sell their products in larger quantities. The increased volume of sales enables companies to produce individual units at lower costs and therefore, sell them at a lower price. Advertising thus benefits consumers by lowering prices.
Social Effects 4. Creation of an exclusive class: The super-haves are the target of elite businesses. Newer products are fabricated to suit their interests because they have purchasing power that is far in excess of basic comfort.
5. A greater disparity between the haves and the have-nots: A parallel society is created that does not know, nor want to know the reality of the large majority of the population. 6. Consumerism: The craze to have more in order to be more accelerates especially in those who have greater purchasing power. It increases peoples’ desires for consumer goods and promotes materialism. Their cravings are insatiable and newer products are created to fulfill them. But this is not all. Research and development departments of the consumer industry are creating newer needs in order to produce newer luxury items. These items, unnecessary to the great majority of people, become status giving necessities. And so we have the spiral of consumerism. Wishes become wants, wants become needs and newer wishes emerge. 7. A rising middle class: We are experiencing the gradual rise of the middle class. These are mostly those who have flocked to the cities and are now gainfully employed. They are a great force since their power of franchise can destabilise government. These people are the ones who are most affected by the ‘what-will-people-think-of-us?’ syndrome and they normally crave for upward class mobility. Having tasted the power of money, they relentlessly pursue their interests in the competitive rat race against time. They are abundant fodder for many advertising campaigns.
8. Advertising has affected women and racial minority groups: They also continue to focus on their role as homemakers.
Aim Materials Required [ To analyse the effects of commercial advertising on the African society.
[ Pen and Paper.
4.4 The Advertising Audience213 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 9. Calvin Klein’s advertising has come under attack for sexual suggestiveness: A 1980s campaign for his tight- fitting jeans featured teen-aged actress Brooke Shields saying suggestively, “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.” A 1995 underwear campaign showing young men in provocative positions brought allegations of child pornography, although the models were not minors. Klein withdrew the underwear ads. 10. Advertising is deceptive: Many critics say that much advertising is inherently deceptive in that it implicitly and sometimes explicitly promises to improve people’s lives through the consumption or purchase of a sponsor’s products.
11. Crime: The same craze to have creates in those who cannot have, a deep sense of frustration that stems from a feeling of injustice, unfulfilled desires, and jealousy. Crime is usually the offshoot of pent-up frustration. Our cities are breeding crime by leaps and bounds. Much of the administration is corrupted by the involvement of the underworld.
12. Migration: Large scale migration to cities is due to the spreading desire to survive in an industrialised economy.
13. Unsolicited Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become a major nuisance to users of these services, as well as a financial burden on internet service providers. 14. Advertising is increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, through its influence in the media. For example the Blue Band advert that depicted that ‘B (Bread) without BB (Blue Band) is like a train without an engine’ was termed by critics to promote rebellion in children when their parents gave them bread without Blue Band Margarine. 15. Other critics argue it is a form of child exploitation: The average child sees more than 20,000 television commercials a year and countless more in magazines and, increasingly, even on school materials. Critics contend that children are simply not intellectually capable of interpreting the intent of these ads, nor are they able before the age of 7 or 8 to rationally judge the worth of the advertising claims.
16. Advertising overrides a consumer’s autonomy of decision making in the creation of these desires, by offering an unshakable link between products and the fulfillment of desires for them. This makes children’s advertising inherently unethical. Political impact 17. Advertising is now a major component of political campaigns and therefore has a big influence on the democratic process itself.
18. Political advertising enables candidates to convey their positions on important issues and to acquaint voters with their accomplishments and personalities. Television advertising is especially effective for candidates running for national or state-wide office because it can reach so many people at once. Candidates can also use advertising to respond effectively to the charges of their opponents.
Cultural impact 19. Advertising can affect cultural values. Some advertising messages, for example, encourage aggressive individualism, which may clash with the traditional cultural values of a country where the collective or group is emphasized over the individual, or humility or modesty is preferred to aggressiveness.
20. With the globalization of the world economy, multinational corporations often use the same advertising to sell to consumers around the world. Some critics argue that advertising messages are thus helping to break down distinct cultural differences and traditional values, causing the world to become increasingly homogeneous.
Case Study A number of studies have investigated the association between advertising and materialism levels, but none has focused specifically on the role of socio-economic status as a potential intervening variable in that process. Robertson (1989) examined the effects of advertising exposure on the level of demand displayed by children of their parents. As television viewing (the operationalisation of advertising exposure) increased, the number of product requests increased.
Yoon (1995) investigated the relationship between attitudes toward advertising in general and materialism beliefs among Caucasians and African Americans. The sample consisted of college students and adults from the same community (found through mall-intercepts). The results showed African Americans held more materialistic values and were more positive about advertising than Caucasians. The study did not explore the differential effects of socio- economic status specifically. Consequently, it is not possible to tell whether the African American sample was of a different socio-economic status compared to the Caucasian sample.214 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Conclusion The problem with advertising is not that it creates artificial needs, but that it exploits our very real and human desires. Advertising promotes a bankrupt concept of relationship. Most of us yearn for committed relationships that will last. We are not stupid: we know that buying a certain brand of cereal won’t bring us one inch closer to that goal. But we are surrounded by advertising that yokes our needs with products and promises us that things will deliver what in fact they never can. In the world of advertising, lovers are things and things are lovers. However, it would be wrong to conclude from our analysis that advertising campaigns or the mass media are solely responsible for the above anomalies. The consumptive craze that exists in society today is certainly caused by the aggressively commercialized culture of the media, but the media is not the only cause.
Review 1. Advertising is paid, one-way communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled by the sponsor.
2. Effects of advertising are social, economic, political and cultural.
3. As television viewing increased, the number of product requests also increases.
4. Advertising exploits our very real and human desires. It also promotes a bankrupt concept of relationships by promising us that things will deliver what in fact they never can. 5. However, it would be wrong to conclude from our analysis that advertising campaigns or the mass media are solely responsible for the above anomalies. The consumptive craze that exists in society today is caused by the aggressively commercialized culture of the media, but the media is not the only cause.
Reflection 1. Do you think African culture is overly materialistic? If you do, what role do you think advertising has had in creating this state of affairs? 2. What do you think of contemporary television advertising? Is its creativity and technological sophistication adequate substitutes for information about the product? Relevant Skills Select two advertisements, one from radio and the other from TV. Evaluate their social, political, economic and cultural impact on the audience. Lastly, evaluate whether its impact helps serve the purpose of the producer doing the advertisement.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References Baran J. Stanley. Introduction to Mass Communication. USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2002.
http://encarta.msn.com www.cellular-news.com http://en.wikipedia.org www.allacademic.com www.newint.org215 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Aim • To analyse the effects of commercial advertising on the African society Advertising is paid, one-way communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled by the sponsor. Variations include publicity, public relations, etc. Every major medium is used to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, video games, the Internet and billboards.
Advertisements can also be seen on the seats of grocery carts, on the walls of an airport walkway, on the sides of buses, heard in telephone hold messages and in-store public address systems. Advertisements are usually placed anywhere an audience can easily and/or frequently access visuals and/or audio.
Review 1. Advertising is paid, one-way communication through a medium in which the sponsor is identified and the mes- sage is controlled by the sponsor.
2. Effects of advertising are social, economic, political and cultural.
3. As television viewing increased, the number of product requests also increases.
4. Advertising exploits our very real and human desires. It also promotes a bankrupt concept of relationships by promising us that things will deliver what in fact they never can. 5. However, it would be wrong to conclude from our analysis that advertising campaigns or the mass media are solely responsible for the above anomalies. The consumptive craze that exists in society today is caused by the aggressively commercialized culture of the media, but the media is not the only cause.
Reflection 1. Do you think African culture is overly materialistic? If you do, what role do you think advertising has had in creating this state of affairs? 2. What do you think of contemporary television advertising? Is its creativity and technological sophistication adequate substitutes for information about the product? Relevant Skills Select two advertisements, one from radio and the other from TV. Evaluate their social, political, economic and cultural impact on the audience. Lastly, evaluate whether its impact helps serve the purpose of the producer doing the advertisement.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References Baran J. Stanley. Introduction to Mass Communication. USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2002.
http://encarta.msn.com www.cellular-news.com http://en.wikipedia.org www.allacademic.com www.newint.org CHAPTER 4.4 PARTiCiPAnT’S HAnDouT The Advertising Audience COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER AGE IN AFRICA Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services - BEAMS Publication, Kenya. beams@donbosco.or.ke216 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Procedure - Imagine you were invited to a party by a friend. Honestly answer what would be the ranking of concerns from the list below. (Put *s to rank, 5*s for the highest) A. What should I wear? B. With whom should I go? C. What gift should I give the host? D. Why am I invited? E. I will have to return the favour someday… - Discuss how many of these thoughts are caused because of the image we want to project to our friend/at the party and how much by the true value of friendship (which is the real motive behind the invitation).
or, (if the maturity of the participants is suitable): - Distribute the lyrics of the song “Barbie Girl” by the Danish group Aqua. Elicit from the participants the similarities that exist between the Ad world and Barbie’s world.
Ken: Hi Barbie! Barbie: Hi Ken! Ken: Wonna go for a ride! Barbie: Sure Ken! (Chorus) Barbie: I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world Life is plastic, it’s fantastic You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere, Imagination – that is your creation.
Ken: Come on Barbie, let’s go party (repeat chorus) Barbie: Oh, oh, oh, oh… Barbie: I’m a blond little girl in the fantasy world, Lift me up; make me tight, I’m your darling, Ken: You’re my doll, rock ‘n roll, feel the glamour and pain Kiss me here, touch me there – hanky, panky.
Barbie: You can touch, you can play, you can say, I’m always yours, Ken: Come on Barbie, let’s go party! Barbie: Ah Ah Ah Yeah! Barbie: Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please, I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees, Come jump in, be a friend, let us do it again, Input - Image-making is one of the primary tasks of advertisers. They are given a raw product and it is their task to give it a ‘face-lift’.
- These advertisers seek to give a product a personality that is unique, appealing, and appropriate so that the consumer will want to choose it over similar products that might fulfill the same need. The personality is created partly by the product’s design and packaging but, more importantly, by the words and pictures the advertisements associate with the product. This personality is known as a brand image.
Aim Materials Required [ To study the contrast between an image-conscious and a value- based life.
[ To study the different types of advertisements.
[ A copy of consumer Adverts depicting image as the main theme. E.g. Blue Band, Fair and Lovely, Jik, etc.
[ Have a copy of the song Barbie Girl by Aqua together with copies of the written lyrics.
4.5 Plastic Image versus Real Value217 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa - While good/successful advertising means capturing a wider market and increasing the sales and profits, what is the “image” shaping that takes place on such a wide and financially huge scale doing to individuals and society? - Subtly, unconsciously we are beginning to accept this “way of being” as the real way to be. We are letting this thinking affect our identities (Who am I), our choices (what should I wear? How should I appear? Who should I become?), our relationships (Who are my friends? How should I express my love?) - Examples in Kenya of plastic images are the Fair and Lovely commercial that states, so to speak, that you can only be beautiful and therefore eligible for a job if you use the Fair and Lovely product. That using it will help you climb the social as well as professional ladder.
- Advertising spending in Kenya in 2006 was about Ksh14 billion, a growth of 46% over 2005; in Uganda spending was Ksh4.4 billion (19% growth) and in Tanzania spending was Ksh2.2 billion (10% increase).
- The Ad spend in Ghana in 2006 was Ksh5 billion (37% growth).
- In Nigeria, advertising spend in 2006 was Ksh20 billion, 66% higher than in Kenya. This is projected to cross the Ksh 40 billion mark by 2010.
- With sustained economic growth, Kenya’s advertising spend could cross Ksh20 billion by 2010 but there could be limiting factors. - In both East and West Africa, the top advertisers, who account for about 30% of total advertising spending, are found in the telecommunications, food and beverage, household goods and population services sectors. It is interesting to note, in passing, that the Nakumatt Supermarket chain is amongst the top 10 advertisers in Kenya. - With respect to the media vehicles, both regions use mainly the traditional media of television, radio, billboards and press; however, cinema and internet advertising is starting to grow. - In Kenya, there are currently 10 free-to-air TV stations, two pay direct-to-home/satellite TV stations, 57 radio stations, two dominant national newspapers and a plethora of magazines. The top two media in terms of penetration are radio and television, trailed by newspapers.
- In Nigeria, there are currently 147 free-to-air TV stations, including a national network station; nine direct- to-home/satellite/cable TV stations, 112 radio stations, and about 10 major newspapers amongst over 90 print media vehicles. In terms of penetration, the top two media are outdoor and radio, followed very closely by TV.
Comparative cost of Media* in Kenya and Nigeria (Ksh**) A 30-second TV advertisement in Kenya will cost Ksh 40,000. In Nigeria the cost is Ksh 16,800 - % diff=138%.
A 30-second radio advertisement in Kenya will cost Ksh 15,000. In Nigeria the cost is Ksh 2048 - % diff=632%.
A full-page, full-colour newspaper advertisement in Kenya will cost Ksh 380,000. In Nigeria the cost is Ksh 145,500 - % diff=161% (*Agency)sources (**Ksh 100=N1.86) - Advertisers are exploring new ways to be seen and heard, to stand out, to be remembered and to be effective. With so many kinds of commercial messages, the definition of advertising must be very broad. Values and ideals of Audiences - In other words the image is replacing our values and ideals. Image – consciousness is becoming a greater preoccupation than our concern for living by values/ideals. How is this happening? - Since information dissemination is more dependent on advertising for sponsorship, much of what we hear, see and read is being filtered by those who have commercial interests at heart. These are interests that originate from a perception that treats every event, product, issue, individual or organization as an opportunity for accumulating greater profits. We are thus subtly transported to a world where the plastic replaces the real because it is more attractive and sensational, where image consciousness overtakes value-based living because it makes good business sense. The quality of life is being defined according to the sum total of how one appears, not who one is. This is the age of the image.
- But is this a healthy trend? We have two options – either to live a life from the depths of our being which is an option for a value-based life where ideals guide our choices or to live from the surface where what is transient and apparent alone matters. The example of the true heroes of history has proved that only the first option is a healthy and happy one.
Review 1. It is the work of advertisers to create images. They are given a raw product and it is their task to give it a ‘face- lift’. They seek to give a product a personality that is unique, appealing, and appropriate so that the consumer will want to choose it over similar products that might fulfill the same need.
2. Subtly and unconsciously we are beginning to accept this “way of being/image” as the real way to be. We are letting this thinking affect our identities, our choices, and our relationships. 218 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 3. Most interests for advertising originate from a perception that treats every event, product, issue, individual or organization as an opportunity for accumulating greater profits. Thus, the quality of life is being defined according to the sum total of how one appears, not who one is. This is the age of the image.
4. We are therefore left with the choice to either live a life from the depths of our being which is an option for a value-based life where ideals guide our choices or to live from the surface where what is transient and apparent alone matters or alternatively, to live according to the ideals we see portrayed by the media where what is transient and apparent alone matters Reflection What fundamental freedoms does God give human beings that other human beings (the media) try to violate? If we were responsible for what was shown in the media, what changes would we make? Resolve to respect others’ fundamental freedoms and to empower others to make independent decisions free from the selfish interests of media owners or the elite.
Relevant Skills For a whole day, try to stay away from any form of media e.g. internet, radio, TV. What is the effect? Examine the effect that advertising has had on your life and resolve to live a value based life.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References Baran J. Stanley. Introduction to Mass Communication. USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2002.
http://encarta.msn.com http://www.bizcommunity.com219 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Aim • To study the contrast between an image-conscious and a value-based life. • To study the different types of Advertisements.
Procedure - Imagine you were invited to a party by a friend. Honestly answer what would be the ranking of concerns from the list below. (Put *s to rank, 5*s for the highest) A. What should I wear? B. With whom should I go? C. What gift should I give the host? D. Why am I invited? E. I will have to return the favour someday… Ken: Hi Barbie! Barbie: Hi Ken! Ken: Wonna go for a ride! Barbie: Sure Ken! (Chorus) Barbie: I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world Life is plastic, it’s fantastic You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere, Imagination – that is your creation.
Ken: Come on Barbie, let’s go party (repeat chorus) Barbie: Oh, oh, oh, oh… Barbie: I’m a blond little girl in the fantasy world, Lift me up; make me tight, I’m your darling, Ken: You’re my doll, rock ‘n roll, feel the glamour and pain Kiss me here, touch me there – hanky, panky.
Barbie: You can touch, you can play, you can say, I’m always yours, Ken: Come on Barbie, let’s go party! Barbie: Ah Ah Ah Yeah! Barbie: Make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please, I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees, Come jump in, be a friend, let us do it again, How is this song similar to the Ad world? Review 1. It is the work of advertisers to create images. They are given a raw product and it is their task to give it a ‘face- lift’. They seek to give a product a personality that is unique, appealing, and appropriate so that the consumer will want to choose it over similar products that might fulfill the same need.
2. Subtly and unconsciously we are beginning to accept this “way of being/image” as the real way to be. We are letting this thinking affect our identities, our choices, and our relationships. 3. Most interests for advertising originate from a perception that treats every event, product, issue, individual or organization as an opportunity for accumulating greater profits. Thus, the quality of life is being defined according to the sum total of how one appears, not who one is. This is the age of the image.
4. We are therefore left with the choice to either live a life from the depths of our being which is an option for a value-based life where ideals guide our choices or to live from the surface where what is transient and apparent alone matters or alternatively, to live according to the ideals we see portrayed by the media where what is transient and apparent alone matters CHAPTER 4.5 PARTiCiPAnT’S HAnDouT Plastic Image versus Real Value COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER AGE IN AFRICA Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services - BEAMS Publication, Kenya. beams@donbosco.or.ke220 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Relevant Skills For a whole day, try to stay away from any form of media e.g. internet, radio, TV. What is the effect? Examine the effect that advertising has had on your life and resolve to live a value based life.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References Baran J. Stanley. Introduction to Mass Communication. USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2002.
http://encarta.msn.com http://www.bizcommunity.com221 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Procedure - Invite the participants to play a game of broken telephone.
- They must sit in a circle. Give a message to one of the participants who becomes the first reporter in the chain. He/She is to read the message in whispers into the ear of the participant on the left. This second participant must communicate what he/she has heard to the one on his/her left who then passes what he/she has heard to the one on the left and so on till the circle is complete. The last participant must announce the message received to the rest of the class. The first reporter then reads out the original message. The results are often hilarious. (This game is known as ‘broken-telephone) Input - In the game we have just played, we have noticed the glaring distortion that takes place when a piece of information is communicated from one person to another.
- Distortion in news reporting refers to the creation of a false or misleading impression arising from factors other than personal prejudice, such as ignorance of or inexperience with the topic, dependence on sources with hidden biases, lack of professional standards, and reliance on widespread cultural attitudes.
- Now if selection and distortion is inevitable and cannot be maintained within controllable limits at the interpersonal or group level, one can well imagine the selection and distortion that takes place in mass communication and with what effect! - Mass media sociologist J.T. McNelly calls this the ‘gatekeeping phenomenon’. Each of the receivers of the news is a ‘gatekeeper” who accepts news flow and then passes it on to other receivers. In the process of acceptance and passing on the message, each one: • Selects those items of information that attract him.
• Interprets what he has received • Distorts to an extent what he has received.
• Gives his particular emphasis to what he has received - Thus Selection, Interpretation, Distortion and Emphasis (S.I.D.E) considerably shape information sharing and at all levels as the example below reveals: A newsworthy event is picked up by (the following ‘gatekeepers’) • A reporter • Who sends it to a regional news agency • Where it is edited by the regional bureau editor • Who sends it to the agency central bureau • Who then sends it to the international or National news subscribers • Who send it to their news editors (print, TV, radio) • Which is picked up by the receivers • Who share it orally with friends associates In mass media communication what are the factors that influence SIDE? Or put in another way: Events will be more likely to be reported by the mass media if they fulfill any, some or several of the following criteria: a. Frequency: The event that takes a time approximate to the frequency of the medium will be reported, e.g. Stories of murder are more frequent than the slow process of rural development and are therefore chosen more often.
b. Amplitude: The bigger, the better, the more dramatic the story is, the greater the likelihood of it being reported. Such a story would have ‘threshold value’ – a news value that gives rise to a series of discussions, news reports, features, etc… c. Unambiguity: The more clear-cut, uncomplicated the events, the more they will be noticed and reported.
Aim Materials Required [ To understand that most communication is in varying proportions, consciously or unconsciously the result of the senders’/receivers’ selection, interpretation, distortion and emphasis (S.I.D.E).
[ A sample message: “The generous kind Chief rewarded the just young man for saving the poor old woman.
4.6 Selection, Interpretation, Distortion and Emphasis222 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa d. Familiarity/Proximity: That which is ethnocentric, of cultural proximity and that which is relevant will be reported. Thus things close to home matter most, unless things close to home are affected by far away events.
e. Correspondence: The degree to which the events meet with our expectations, our predictions, our stereotypes. This is technically called the ‘hypothesis of consonance’. That which is consonant to our expectations will be registered, that which does not fit the pattern in our minds is less likely to be accepted.
f. Surprise: (Opposite of d and e) events have to be unexpected or rare, or preferably both, to become good news.
g. Continuity: That which has been defined as news – which has hit the headlines – will continue for some time to be newsworthy even if amplitude is reduced.
h. Composition: Need for a balance in a news-spread leads the producer or editor to feed in contrasting elements. From the many items he receives, only a few may pertain to a particular issue and therefore these are more likely to be included.
i. Power elite: The more events concern elite nations or people the more the events will be reported.
j. Negativity: The more negative the event is in its consequences, the greater is the likelihood of selection.
newsworthiness When selecting items for TV news, the criteria that affects selection is as follows: • Importance - Important to the reader’s life, well-being • Timeliness - Events happen and news is of interest to the reader right now • Proximity - Events occur near the reader • Uniqueness - Events are unusual • Prominence - Well-known people are involved • Suspense - The outcome of an event is not yet known • Conflict - People of groups opposing each other • Emotions - Love, hate, fear, horror, pity • Progress - Advances in science, technology, medicine However, the underlying questions persist: • How much of what we receive from the mass media is authentic? • How much is fact? How much is opinion? • Is truth ever attainable in mass media construction? Review 1. Distortion in news reporting refers to the creation of a false or misleading impression arising from factors other than personal prejudice, such as ignorance of or inexperience with the topic, dependence on sources with hidden biases, lack of professional standards, and reliance on widespread cultural attitudes.
2. A great deal of distortion takes place in mass communication. Mass media sociologist J.T. McNelly calls this the ‘gatekeeping phenomenon’.
3. Selection, Interpretation, Distortion and Emphasis (S.I.D.E) considerably shape information sharing at all levels.
4. Events will be more likely to be reported by the mass media if they fulfill any, some or several of the following criteria: Frequency, amplitude, unambiguity, familiarity/proximity, correspondence, surprise, continuity, composition and power elite.
5. The following categories form the criteria of selection of TV news: importance, timeliness, proximity, uniqueness, prominence, suspense, conflict, emotions and progress Reflection • A lot of the news that we receive from the mass media is coloured by the senders’ selection, interpretation, distortion and emphasis. As educated media consumers, how best can we sift through the bias in the news and get the real facts? • As media persons, how best can we present our communication as objectively as possible? Relevant Skills a) In pairs, listen to a piece of news broadcast. Note down the key points and compare them with your partner. Note your own process of selection, interpretation, distortion and emphasis. b) Listen to two different radio stations airing news. Note the differences in selection, interpretation, distortion and emphasis in the news stories they air. Which station, in your opinion, is more objective and has a noble aim towards the audience such as development issues as compared to sensational-like news? Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References http://www.ncdot.org223 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Aim • To understand that most communication is in varying proportions, consciously or unconsciously the result of the senders’/receivers’ Selection, Interpretation, Distortion and Emphasis (S.I.D.E).
newsworthiness When selecting items for TV news, the criteria that affects selection is as follows: • Importance - Important to the reader’s life, well-being • Timeliness - Events happen and news is of interest to the reader right now • Proximity - Events occur near the reader • Uniqueness - Events are unusual • Prominence - Well-known people are involved • Suspense - The outcome of an event is not yet known • Conflict - People of groups opposing each other • Emotions - Love, hate, fear, horror, pity • Progress - Advances in science, technology, medicine However, the underlying questions persist: • How much of what we receive from the mass media is authentic? • How much is fact? How much is opinion? • Is truth ever attainable in mass media construction? Review 1. Distortion in news reporting refers to the creation of a false or misleading impression arising from factors other than personal prejudice, such as ignorance of or inexperience with the topic, dependence on sources with hidden biases, lack of professional standards, and reliance on widespread cultural attitudes.
2. A great deal of distortion takes place in mass communication. Mass media sociologist J.T. McNelly calls this the ‘gatekeeping phenomenon’.
3. Selection, Interpretation, Distortion and Emphasis (S.I.D.E) considerably shape information sharing at all levels.
4. Events will be more likely to be reported by the mass media if they fulfill any, some or several of the following criteria: Frequency, amplitude, unambiguity, familiarity/proximity, correspondence, surprise, continuity, composition and power elite.
5. The following categories form the criteria of selection of TV news: importance, timeliness, proximity, uniqueness, prominence, suspense, conflict, emotions and progress Reflection • A lot of the news that we receive from the mass media is coloured by the senders’ selection, interpretation, distortion and emphasis. As educated media consumers, how best can we sift through the bias in the news and get the real facts? • As media persons, how best can we present our communication as objectively as possible? Relevant Skills a) In pairs, listen to a piece of news broadcast. Note down the key points and compare them with your partner. Note your own process of selection, interpretation, distortion and emphasis. b) Listen to two different radio stations airing news. Note the differences in selection, interpretation, distortion and emphasis in the news stories they air. Which station, in your opinion, is more objective and has a noble aim towards the audience such as development issues as compared to sensational-like news? Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References http://www.ncdot.org CHAPTER 4.6 PARTiCiPAnT’S HAnDouT Selection, Interpretation, Distortion and Emphasis COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER AGE IN AFRICA Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services - BEAMS Publication, Kenya. beams@donbosco.or.ke224 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Procedure - Divide the class into groups.
- Give them each the following set of questions to answer.
1. What are the different forms of communication? 2. In the examples below specify which are instances of intra-personal, interpersonal, group or mass communication. Also state the different media used in the communication processes.
a. Ojwang’ speaks to Kamau over the phone.
b. Wambui talks to her classmates in the park.
c. The President addresses the nation on TV.
d. A current hit song blares over the radio.
e. A hoarder announces the arrival of a new brand of butter.
f. Wambua writes down his reflection on the events of the day in his diary.
g. A mother sings a lullaby to her child.
h. Youth of a village stage a play to commemorate their President’s birthday.
i. A newspaper reports the death of an actress.
j. Obi browses the internet on his personal computer 3. What are the mass media? 4. What are the different kinds of mass media that exist today? 5. Do you remember any event you deemed important that has taken place in the last three/six months? And how did you get the information? (means). According to you was the media coverage of the issue proportionate to the importance of the issue? (Do you think the issue deserved the amount of media attention it received?) AnSWERS The different forms of communication are: • Intrapersonal communication • Interpersonal communication • Group communication • Mass communication Input Mass media are essentially prolongations and refinements of the human senses e.g. • The wheel, an extension of the feet, • An implement an extension of the hand, • The TV an extension of the eye, • The Computer an extension of the brain, • Technology an extension of the nervous system.
Because of mass media, people perceive and participate in situations on the other side of the world (prolongation: a meeting of the UNO in New York) and grasp them as very near and detailed (refinement: facial emotional expressions because of close- ups). Mass media bridge space and time, they make the world a global village.
Definition of Mass Communication Mass Communication is the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences.
Aim Materials Required [ To understand the terms “Media” and “Mass Media/ Mass Communication”.
[ To get an overview of the characteristics of mass media.
[ To gain an understanding of the relationship between the use of drums in traditional African society and mass media.
[ To understand the influence of the mass media on our perception of the world and the formation of public opinion.
[ To understand the dynamics of elite control in the use of mass media.
[ Copies of list of questions in the procedure above.
[ Copies of Schramm’s model of mass communication.
4.7 Mass Communication, Influence and Control225 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Schramm recast his and Osgood’s general model of communication to help us visualise the particular aspects of the mass communication process.
Schramm’s Model of Mass Communication Schramm’s Model of Mass Communication and the original Osgood and Schramm model have a lot of aspects in common such as interpreters, encoding, decoding, and messages. However, it is their differences that are significant for understanding how mass communication differs from other forms of communication. E.g. whereas the original model has “message,” the mass communication model states “many identical messages.” Also, the mass communication model specifies “feedback” whereas the interpersonal communication model does not. Instead, it is labelled inferential feedback which is indirect rather than direct. For example, television executives must wait a minimum of a day and sometimes a week or a month to discover the ratings for new programs. Even then, the ratings only measure how many sets are tuned in and not whether people liked or disliked a certain program. Thus, these executives can only infer what they must do to improve programming hence the term inferential feedback. Mass communicators are also subject to additional feedback, usually in the form of criticism in other media such as a television critic writing a column in a newspaper.
Characteristics of Mass Communication through Mass Media 1. Public Character of Mass Communication The message of the mass media is directed towards large heterogeneous audiences. There is contact between the sender and a large number of people distant from the source and widely separated from each other. The message is a public one and this is the most characteristic aspect of mass communication. Only a few have access to the sender role and this access is regulated by rules and conventions. These senders are not individual persons, but complex organisations. 2. Media organisations, Audiences and their Relationships There is a difference between participants of interpersonal communication and participants of mass communication. In mass communication, collectivities are involved as senders and as audiences. Their behaviour is collective behaviour. Also, the collectivity of the source is not the same as the collectivity of the audience. The former is organised, with an internal network, shared values and norm. In addition, it has face to face communication. The users are aggregates of people, constituting audiences and are treated as collectivities. The sending organisation usually has a developed view of what it is seeking to achieve of its audience, as well as its rights and obligations, while the audience, though treated as a whole, is much less likely to have any collective perception of itself, any organised set of expectations or view of its rights. This relationship between the media organisations and the audiences is an asymmetrical one. The public lacks representation and the capacity to respond.
3. The Mass Media Public The mass media public can vary in size from small to very large. It is also called a dispersed public – although hundreds of thousands of people or even millions are reading the same newspaper on the same day, they are not a mass. They read it individually but not collectively. Although a TV programme can be watched by millions at the same moment, this audience is fragmented into millions of separate families and individuals and so the reception of the mass media is not that of a mass. It is that of an audience sui generis, of a big number of individuals or small private group of individuals who can all see the same programme or read the same newspaper.
4. A Complex intervening Technology Complex technology intervenes in the process of mass communication. This technology differs according to different mass media and undergoes profound developments, changing the media world drastically. The contact between the media organisation and the audience is also affected by technology; it creates this contact in space and/or time, is 226 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa expensive and also difficult to access. It is also indirect: sender has no control over the audience which, however, has an enormous freedom to do whatever it wants with the message. It can and does select what it wants and uses it for its own needs, interests, intentions, etc.
5. one Way or ‘Monological’ Communication In the process of mass communication, the relationship between the media organisation and the audience cannot be interactive because the sender and the audience are on different planes. There is no negotiation between partners as in interpersonal communication. This makes the communication freer and less predictable. Both parties create for themselves stereotyped images of the other; they modify these images and give meaning to them, defining the particular situation and the content differently. Hence, there is also greater possibility of misinterpretation.
6. Different Perspectives on the Process of Mass Communication The process of mass communication is better seen from the point of view of the media, sender and the audience.
a) From the point of view of the media: These are instruments which create communicators and audiences, select and edit relevant messages made by the communicators and offered to and used by the public.
b) From the perspective of the mass media organisations: They take an intermediary position between the audience and the events of the world and the interpretation of these events. They also have a gatekeeper role, i.e. they select, interpret and edit the messages.
c) From the viewpoint of the audience: The mass media extend the environment, make information available which is supplementary to personal experience and offer messages from which the audience can select freely according to their needs. Attitudes, expectations, experiences, education and the actual situation are determining factors in this selective behaviour of the audience. The use of Drums in Long Distance Communication in Africa Developed and used by cultures living in forested areas, drums served as an early form of long distance communication, and were used during ceremonial and religious functions.
In Africa, New Guinea and the tropical America, natives used drum telegraphy to communicate with each other from far away for centuries. When European expeditions came into the jungles to explore the primeval forest, they were surprised to find that the message of their coming and their intention was carried through the woods a step in advance of their arrival. One the most famous talking drums (talking drums are part of a family of hourglass-shaped pressure drums) are the drums of West Africa, where they were invented from regions known today as Nigeria and Ghana and they spread across West Africa to America and the Caribbean during the slave trade. There they were banned because they were being used by the slaves to communicate over long distances in a code unknown to their enslavers. Drums are similar to modern mass communication media because, just like mass media, they are used to communicate to a mass of people over a long distance simultaneously.
Speed is today the one factor that is determining the meaning and impact of mass-communication. Greater speed in communication is the hall mark of our information age. This has been made possible due to electronic and satellite communication and the rapid advances in computer technology. Marshall McLuhan, in his book Understanding the Media said: “All meaning alters with acceleration, because all patterns of personal and political interdependence change with an acceleration of information.” He predicted that electric/electronic communication would outpace transport communication. In advanced countries this revolution has already taken place. Today the internet, with its live-chat facility has further shrunk the world into a “global living-room.” These characteristics of mass media have come with effects especially on perception and public opinion. What the media treat as important the public consider important. What the media ignore the public ignores. The events that we remember are those made memorable in our minds by those in the media business.
Similarly, the people the media treat as important are the ones the public treat as important. Thus ordinary people are catapulted to the halls of fame overnight and stars that once shone brightly have been relegated to oblivion – thanks to the choice and proportion of media coverage. People in show business strain hard to keep themselves ‘in the news’. In some cases, even negative publicity is considered good publicity. Social Scientists McCombs and Shaw have studied the influences of news emphasis on the minds of the masses. Their studies reveal the highly influential role the media play in our perceptions of the world. “Audiences not only learn about public issues and other matters through the media, they also learn how much importance to attach to an issue or topic from the emphasis the mass media place upon it. The ability to affect cognitive change among individuals is one of the most important aspects of the power of mass communication Mid twentieth-century empirical studies, however, suggested more limited effects of the media. Current scholarship presents a more complex interaction between the media and society, with the media generating information from a 227 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa network of relations and influences and with the individual interpreting and evaluating the information provided, as well as generating information outside of media contexts. The consequences and ramifications of the mass media relate not merely to the way newsworthy events are perceived (and which are reported at all), but also to a multitude of cultural influences that operate through the media.
The media has a strong social and cultural impact upon society. This is predicated upon its ability to reach a wide audience which often sends a strong and influential message. Marshall McLuhan uses the term “the medium is the message” as a means of explaining how the distribution of the message can often be more important that the message itself.
Elite Control of the Mass Media - Since the media of communication are in the hands of a few elite, much of the information output received by the mass population today is being controlled and checked in favour of their interest.
- Studies by McQuail and Windahl have proved this to be true. They present a model of communication which shows how elite interests dominate the media. Public issues are given importance only when in agreement with elite interests. Thus there is a continuous interaction between elite proposal and public views, with the media acting as carrier.
- The elite are a small group within society who may be socially acknowledged as superior in some sense and who influence or control some or all sectors of the society. The elite have similar backgrounds, attitudes, values and power skills.
- The elite group also thrive due to elite cohesion – the degree of personal and family contacts between elite members and the interchange of personnel between top posts in the political, economic and military sectors.
What are the types of media control? Generally, media control is divided into four categories which can be applied to all forms of communication – individual, group and mass communication: 1. Authoritarian: Here, a total monopoly of the means of communication and also of what is expressed exists.
2. Paternal: This is authoritarianism with a conscience that is authority with values and purpose beyond those concerning the maintenance of its own power.
3. Commercial: This indicates the control over media by market forces – anything can be said provided that you can afford to say it and that you can say it profitably.
4. Democratic: This is the rarest category, implying active involvement in decisions by the workforce and, indeed, the readership or audience.
How does media control work? - Control works at different levels: • At the operational level (editors, producers, directors, etc.) • At the allocative level (of funds, personnel, etc.) • At the external level (government, advertisers, consumers) ownership, the ultimate control mechanism: - Trends in media control have been towards a greater concentration of ownership - The quest for ownership of the mass media has moved beyond the control of one company towards ownership by conglomerate organisations and subsequently a “series of over-diversifying control networks in which international finance has fingers in practically every communications pie, from newspapers to cinema, from records to satellites.” - Running parallel with these trends has been the development of global multi-marketing of media products – books, films, TV series, and video cassettes. With such products being packaged for worldwide consumption, audience maximisation and therefore profit maximisation is the most important driving force. Review 1. The mass media are essentially prolongations and refinements of the human senses.
2. Mass Communication is the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences.
3. The differences between the Schramm’s model of mass communication and the Osgood and Schramm model is that the original model has the term “message,” whilst the mass communication model states “many identical messages.” Also, the mass communication model specifies “feedback” whereas the interpersonal communication model does not. Instead, it is labelled inferential feedback which is indirect rather than direct. These differences are significant for understanding how mass communication differs from other forms of communication.228 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 4. Drums served as an early form of long distance communication and were used during ceremonial and religious functions.
5. Speed is the one factor that is determining the meaning and impact of mass-communication.
6. Since the media of communication is in the hands of a few elite, much of the information output received by the mass population today is being controlled and checked in favour of their interest.
7. The elite are a small group within society who may be socially acknowledged as superior in some sense and who influence or control some or all sectors of the society.
8. Media control is divided into four categories which can be applied to all forms of communication – individual, group and mass communication. These categories are: Authoritarian, Paternal, Commercial and Democratic.
9. Control works at different levels: • At the operational level (editors, producers, directors, etc.) • At the allocative level (of funds, personnel, etc.) • At the external level (government, advertisers, consumers) Reflection 1. Audiences, though treated as a whole, are much less likely to have any collective view of the mass media they consume because they are scattered. In what ways can audiences come together to integrate their views on the mass media and create a voice for themselves? In what ways can the mass media sources of information adjust their structure to accommodate these audiences.
2. Does our country’s constitution accommodate consumers of mass media and their relationship with the mass media sources of information? 3. What the media treat as important the public consider important. What the media ignore the public ignores. The events that we remember are those made memorable in our minds by the media business.
4. Similarly, the people the media treat as important are the ones the public treat as important. Thus ordinary people are catapulted to the halls of fame overnight and stars that once shone brightly have been relegated to oblivion – thanks to the choice and proportion of media coverage.
5. Mid twentieth-century empirical studies, however, suggested more limited effects of the media.
6. The media has a strong social and cultural impact upon society. This is predicated upon its ability to reach a wide audience which often sends a strong and influential message. Marshall McLuhan uses the term “the medium is the message” as a means of explaining how the distribution of the message can often be more important that the message itself.
7. The media attention a certain news item receives is in direct proportion to the importance that the audience will attach to it. Write down a list of items that you think ought to be given more media attention. Also include in your list the reasons why these news items should be given considerable media attention.
8. In Africa today, what laws can we enforce to ensure that media houses retain their independence in reporting the truth at all times? Relevant Skills 1. Without reference to the notes, define the term: • Mass Media • List the characteristics of Mass communication • Explain the use of drums in long distance communication in Africa 2. Peruse through your regular/monthly college paper or magazine. In order of priority, list the stories you consider most important to the student population. Most likely, these are not the stories that the paper has prioritized or put as the headlines. Challenge the editorial team to put into consideration your class input in determining which stories are given preference.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References AMECEA and IMBISA. Communication in the Church and Society. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 1999.
Baran J. Stanley. Introduction to Mass Communication. USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2002.
Uka Uche. Mass Media People and Politics in Nigeria. Delhi: New Gian Offset Printers, 1989.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_influence229 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa Aim • To understand the terms “Media” and “Mass Media/Mass Communication” • To get an overview of the characteristics of mass media • To gain an understanding of the relationship between the use of drums in traditional African society and mass media.
• To understand the influence of the mass media on our perception of the world and the formation of public opinion.
• To understand the dynamics of elite control in the use of mass media.
Procedure Answer the following set of questions.
1. What are the different forms of communication? 2. In the examples below specify which are which are instances of intra-personal, interpersonal, group or mass communication. Also state the different media used in the communication processes.
a. Ojwang’ speaks to Kamau over the phone.
b. Wambui talks to her classmates in the park.
c. The President addresses the nation on TV.
d. A current hit song blares over the radio.
e. A hoarder announces the arrival of a new brand of butter.
f. Wambua writes down his reflection on the events of the day in his diary.
g. A mother sings a lullaby to her child.
h. Youth of a village stage a play to commemorate their President’s birthday.
i. A newspaper reports the death of an actress.
j. Obi browses the internet on his personal computer.
3. What are the mass media? 4. What are the different kinds of mass media that exist today? 5. Do you remember any event you deemed important that has taken place in the last three/six months? How did you get the information? (means). According to you was the media coverage of the issue proportionate to the importance of the issue? (Do you think the issue deserved the amount of media attention it received?) Review 1. The mass media are essentially prolongations and refinements of the human senses.
2. Mass Communication is the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences.
3. The differences between the Schramm’s model of mass communication and the Osgood and Schramm model is that the original model has the term “message,” whilst the mass communication model states “many identical messages.” Also, the mass communication model specifies “feedback” whereas the interpersonal communication model does not. Instead, it is labelled inferential feedback which is indirect rather than direct. These differences are significant for understanding how mass communication differs from other forms of communication.
4. Drums served as an early form of long distance communication and were used during ceremonial and religious functions.
CHAPTER 4.7 PARTiCiPAnT’S HAnDouT Mass Communication, Influence and Control COMMUNICATOR FOR A CYBER AGE IN AFRICA Bosco Eastern Africa Multimedia Services - BEAMS Publication, Kenya. beams@donbosco.or.ke230 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa 5. Speed is the one factor that is determining the meaning and impact of mass-communication.
6. Since the media of communication is in the hands of a few elite, much of the information output received by the mass population today is being controlled and checked in favour of their interest.
7. The elite are a small group within society who may be socially acknowledged as superior in some sense and who influence or control some or all sectors of the society.
8 Media control is divided into four categories which can be applied to all forms of communication – individual, group and mass communication. These categories are: Authoritarian, Paternal, Commercial and Democratic.
9. Control works at different levels: • At the operational level (editors, producers, directors, etc.) • At the allocative level (of funds, personnel, etc.) • At the external level (government, advertisers, consumers) Reflection 1. Audiences, though treated as a whole, are much less likely to have any collective view of the mass media they consume because they are scattered. In what ways can audiences come together to integrate their views on the mass media and create a voice for themselves? In what ways can the mass media sources of information adjust their structure to accommodate these audiences.
2. Does our country’s constitution accommodate consumers of mass media and their relationship with the mass media sources of information? 3. What the media treat as important the public consider important. What the media ignore the public ignores. The events that we remember are those made memorable in our minds by the media business.
4. Similarly, the people the media treat as important are the ones the public treat as important. Thus ordinary people are catapulted to the halls of fame overnight and stars that once shone brightly have been relegated to oblivion – thanks to the choice and proportion of media coverage.
5. Mid twentieth-century empirical studies, however, suggested more limited effects of the media.
6. The media has a strong social and cultural impact upon society. This is predicated upon its ability to reach a wide audience which often sends a strong and influential message. Marshall McLuhan uses the term “the medium is the message” as a means of explaining how the distribution of the message can often be more important that the message itself.
7. The media attention a certain news item receives is in direct proportion to the importance that the audience will attach to it. Write down a list of items that you think ought to be given more media attention. Also include in your list the reasons why these news items should be given considerable media attention.
8. In Africa today, what laws can we enforce to ensure that media houses retain their independence in reporting the truth at all times? Relevant Skills 1. Without reference to the notes, define the term: • Mass Media • List the characteristics of Mass communication • Explain the use of drums in long distance communication in Africa 2. Peruse through your regular/monthly college paper or magazine. In order of priority, list the stories you consider most important to the student population. Most likely, these are not the stories that the paper has prioritized or put as the headlines. Challenge the editorial team to put into consideration your class input in determining which stories are given preference.
Resources BOSCOM-INDIA. ‘SHEPHERDS’ FOR AN INFORMATION AGE. Matunga: Tej Prasarini, 2000.
Kunnel, Tom. Salesians of Don Bosco for a Cyber Age in Africa, Kenya: BEAMS, 2008.
References AMECEA and IMBISA. Communication in the Church and Society. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 1999.
Baran J. Stanley. Introduction to Mass Communication. USA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2002.
Uka Uche. Mass Media People and Politics in Nigeria. Delhi: New Gian Offset Printers, 1989.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_influence231 Communicator for a Cyber-Age in Africa
