Comms this week

This week in comms we looked at theorist who supported our ideas that we came up with in class.

Blumer and Katz- Uses and gratification theory.
They explore the gratification of popular culture. They say we use popular culture for..
Escapism
Person relationships
Person identity
Surveillance.

Dead white guys theory- Negative approach to high culture. It challenges it by the fact that it is classed as high culture and valued by white European men.

Umberto eco
"I speak through my clothes" he said fashion is part of someones identity.

We also spoke in more detail about Sub cultures or alternative cultures and why many people have negative things to say about it. Possibly because it is not the 'norm' or because of their rituals etc. They all have codes and practices and different greetings/language.

what culture is to me

Culture


I think culture is everything from art to food to music, but to an individual i believe it will only be certain things which they value, and what they are brought up around or made to think is culture, and that is what defines you.

Culture is what defines you, what interests you, and what makes you the person you are, whether it be high or popular culture.

This week in comms & culture

This week we discussed high culture, we learnt about the nineteenth century writer and critic Matthew Arnold, Arnold was famous for writing many series of essays about culture called  'Culture and Anarchy'. Arnold believed by educating the public it would stop Anarchy from appearing, he also said by having an appreciation for high culture it would stop social disorder.

We also looked at the 'Arts Canon' including the likes of Da Vinci, Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven and many others, we discussed what makes them 'High culture'. We came up with the fact that they are so exclusive, they transcend beyond their time and because they are so inspirational that makes them this as only the 'elite' decides who is in this canon and how exclusive it is, as it is so hard to get your hands on this type of Art. Other people such as F R Levis, and Storey agreed with this concept, Storey even said "For something to be culturally worth while it has to be difficult". While F R Levis developed the literature canon, he believed difficult texts were humanising as you can engage with them.

Then we went on to think about popular culture as we thought about it's cultural practices and what makes it popular. Popular culture is 'popular' because it is easy to access and everyone can value it and be entertained by it and not at a high price.

Communication & culture (AS)

This week in communication and culture we learnt about meanings of key words and how they could have many different meanings such as culture (how you live), context (an explanation of text), representation ( speaking on behalf of someone), value (the cost of something), identity (to recognise someone), power (being in a stronger position than someone else), code (a system of words/figures), idiolect (the way you speak), sociolect (groups you belong to), dialect (structure of language you use) all of these can be interpreted differently by everyone. As things like these make up a person, everyone has different things that hold value to them, and different things represent them.


We also learnt about the process approach, and we realised how many ways you can communicate, as something as simple as an alarm clock communicates with you even though it is a one way communication. We saw within the process which was the sender, what was the message and who was the receiver. For example using an interpersonal communication (between 2 or more people): sender: Me, message:To meet someone (context: deciding to meet outside reception. Form: Verbal), Receiver: Friend.