Public Relations Paper on Media and spectacles
One main challenge that we encounter in the study of contemporary media and spectacles is how to globalize and mediate information contextualizing it to transnational and transitional societies. Information that we receive could be beneficial yet harmful. Knowing how to relay the information to the public has always been a challenge. This is because even though the information may benefit people, it may also have great potential of causing panic. Another reason for this is that the public always keeps on changing. People are always in transition from one stage of life to another. This implies that their expectation of the information to be relayed to them also keep on changing. Rarely are Theses expectation communicated to us.
Understanding that our aesthetic values are in flux, one of the important influences in terms of my cultural views is where I live. The places where we live automatically dictates those whom we interact. This implies that they have a great impact towards our behavior. It is through embracing and identifying with the culture of the people I live with that I feel to belong to the society. The cultural “aha” moment was when I heard an American Musical namely Hamilton, a sung-through musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the America’s Founding Fathers. This made me learn about the society I was living in and was the beginning of my interaction with the people in my neighborhood. One thing I liked and enjoyed was their like for live guitar music. This experience made me realize I could belong to that society.
The media is powerful enough to influence people’s minds. The social media particularly acts as a platform for the beginning of new experiences to many people. The perpetration of information and ideas in the social media is highly influential as multiple input from different people are allowed. People can therefore have different views of an issue and either support it or be against it.
DOC 2: briefly discuss one of your pedagogical or communications assumptions.
One assumption about communication is that we communicate even when we are not aware of it. This is because communication is the conveying of information from one person to another. Communication may not only involve humans. For instance, the speed of flowing water in a river tells us about something. For example, the presence of rainfall upstream, or the probability of us drowning in it when we get into the water. The implication here about communication is that at time, ideas may be put into our minds. This is a means of communication.
My other assumption concerning communication is that we communicate in different ways. Our ways of life is a means of communication. How we dress, what we eat, whom we interact with etc. all convey certain information about us. Our verbal communication may seem clear in portraying who we are, but it may also be so vague about who we are. For this reason, I feel that behavior portrays our image better than whom we say we are.
Another assumption about communication is that we do it in the best way possible to minimize the possibility of others misunderstanding us. Therefore, in our way of communicating we tend to include features that will enhance understanding of the conveyed information. For instance, when we great someone, we smile. Another way in which we ensure minimal misunderstanding doing or avoiding doing some things at some places. For instance, if one walks into a church dressed in a micro miniskirt, people will misunderstand her for a prostitute however good she may have been in the past. Another example is that we do not laugh in funerals for the obvious reasons. For such reasons we communicate in such a way that we minimize misunderstanding and enhance meaning.