Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
Research and Analysis Paper
I was born into the last generation of people who HAD to communicate without
technology in their formative years. I vividly recall the explosion of cellphones at the turn of the
millennium. I wonder if people will ask us what it was like someday. The only difference I
thought about was the availability of instant gratification through information access. After
studying the sociological implications behind communication, it became clear to me that there
was a lot more at stake beyond using Google to flesh out this paper. The switch from analog to
digital technology seemed to bring with it a transition from linear to transactional
communication.
At first glance, the linear model of communication is the best model to study mass media
with. The linear model is considered the best representation because it satisfies the basic
requirement of conveying meaning between people. The principle of parsimony favors the linear
model because it is so simple. In more fallacious arguments, the linear model could be
considered superior by the method of Occam’s razor. The fact that it could not be simplified any
more leads some to believe it is the purest form of the theory. Unfortunately, the linear model
presents significant barriers to understanding media communication. The linear model enjoyed a
short bout of usefulness. It was best applied to television and radio broadcasts of the early
twenty-first century – those that pre-date WW1 (Hanson). The linear model is akin to analog
technology; as mass media has transitioned to digital forms, the model used to describe it must
evolve as well.
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Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
The linear model of communication presents two dilemmas. First, it presumes that there
is only one message being sent at a time in communication (Richard West). Second, it fails to
account for the fact that communication in some contexts has no definite beginning or end. The
transactional (interactional) model of communication is more robust. It introduces two new noise
factors – psychological and physiological – which are absent from the linear model. The
transactional model also introduces meta-communication, which is secondary communication in
the form of cues and gestures. These cues convey simple messages such as anger and physical
illness to more complex hints like irony and sarcasm (Wikipedia).
Three major theories can be used to analyze mass communication. Culture theory
examines the effects that media has on the beliefs and attitudes of a community. The framework
is based on Karl Marx’s theories. He believed that when media is enabled under capitalism, it
damages people by making them feel powerless. The Frankfurt School of theorists took this view
even further by hypothesizing that the only purpose of the media is to support capitalism. The
cultural studies theory was developed to target the status quo that enables oppression.
I think the cultural studies theory is highly applicable to modern day culture wars. Groups
of people are constantly pitted against each other because of media instigation. Different cultures
are interacting through the media in a complex transactional exchange. Some cultures are
marginalized because the media does not consider their news to be important and therefore, they
are stripped of their voice. I believe that hegemony has decreased because of a wider availability
of news sources with special interests. Those who were marginalized before are beginning to
find their voice again through websites and forums. Individuals are slowly rejecting the ideology
of our culture. I am one of them – I don’t own a television or a Netflix subscription. The media is
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Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
programmed for self-preservation through those avenues and dominant American ideology tells
me that life is not complete without them. This competition between groups and the way each
individual decodes messages to apply in life are proof that the transactional model is the best. I
am not sure if the impact of activism on social and digital media is enough to fully dethrone the
elite class that controls our media. I say this because, despite the empowerment that it has
provided to cultures, big media is still very homogenous in their messages.
The second major theory used to study media is that of cultivation analysis. In sum, the
theory explains that mediated sources can shape a person’s sense of reality (Richard West).
George Gerbner, the developer of the theory, said that “most of what we know, or think we
know, we have never personally experienced” as a result of media. The theory began as an
attempt to explain how much of an influence over our actions that the media actually has. I was
fascinated to learn that the federal government and surgeon general both established groups to
study the effects of television in the early 70’s. They did it to see if television was causing young
people to be violent. The causal relationship was never fully resolved. The effect on the way we
see our world is more clear. Researchers discovered that people who watch a lot of television
believe the world is more dangerous than it actually is.
Most cultivation theory application has been to television because it is the most widely
used form of entertainment and source of information about the world. One concept established
is that of mainstreaming – when heavy viewers perceive a similar culturally dominant reality to
that pictured in the media (Richard West). This effect can actually help people of different
cultures share the same views. It is a false solution to differences, however. The resulting
interactions between them as a result of their shared culture provided through media are evidence
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Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
of the transactional model at work. Furthermore, their shared realities would influence the sense
of self held by individuals. Resonance is the opposite of mainstreaming and occurs when media
portrayals are the same as what viewers experience in real life. With the predictive algorithms of
social media, users are delivered material that is congruent with their experience. However, this
can encourage users to develop more homogenous identities over time and decrease the
formulation of new ideas and relationships outside of their culture. Less questions would be
raised to the powers that be if information resounded so well.
Cultivation analysis can help me predict what will happen when my subculture is
represented on television. I grew up in foster care. In general, people have a very poor
understanding of what it actually looks like. People were not exposed to foster families enough
to know. Foster care was sparsely mentioned in the media until the advent of ABC’s The Fosters,
a show about a foster/adoptive family whose surname just so happens to be Foster. Now, people
suddenly have a better understanding. The increased awareness has come at a price of
overdramatic stereotyping. If I watched The Fosters, I would experience mainstreaming and
resonance at the same time.
I think that the study of violence and television does not demonstrate the full potential of
cultivation theory. In social media, cultivation most often results in the development of conflicts
between groups. Cultivation is one tactic I use online to encourage people to become more active
in the community. By flooding the feed with stories about it, I am able to influence their
perspective and say “get involved – everyone is doing it”. In general, people follow the
availability heuristic. It means that the more an argument is mentioned, the more likely
respondents are to agree with it. The tactic is quite helpful to grassroots movements, equality
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Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
narratives, and legislation. Cultivation produced second-order effects which influence the way
inductive conclusions are reached. For example, based on the vivid influx of images and
narratives about dogs that have been shot by police officers in my Facebook news feed, I might
conclude that the police are more likely to kill my dog than they actually are. I am lucky to be
literate in human service and sociology – otherwise my cousin’s hateful posts about welfare
recipients might cause me to think they all take advantage of the system. Those two examples are
the fallacy of misleading vividness. It influences people to formulate their views based on a few
vivid, emotionally manipulative examples. The formulation of opinions and application of them
to life shows the transactional nature of our relationship with social media. I believe that the
healthiest way to use social media is with an awareness of what fallacies are and why credible
sources matter.
Cultivation is incredibly transactional with respect to the way market researchers try to
understand what people are interested in. I discovered this idea by watching Jennifer Goldbeck’s
TED talk about the methods used to collect data from social media. She mentioned an interesting
development. Companies are able to track your site visits and tailor advertisements based on
what they think you want. Amazon pioneered this. Going further, she examined how that data
could be exploited. With respect to social media, Jennifer says that “you are not a user – you are
the product (Goldbeck)”. User’s data is used to develop algorithms that can predict if a person is
a drug user, terrorist or expecting parent based on what pages they like. If those algorithms were
used to categorize people, the consequences would be great. Algorithms can even predict a
person’s IQ score – and the artificial selection that might occur because of that is like something
out of a Nazi sci-fi story. Predictive algorithms could be sold to employers or government
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Communication 1050
4/27/2015
agencies and it would be perfectly legal. Users unconsciously provide feedback in the
transactional model of communication. This is in addition to the wealth of personal information
they willingly provide. Another interesting thing has been discovered using robot data collection.
Although algorithms can predict some traits and behaviors, they are unable to determine
traditional demographic categories such as age, race, or income based on clicks. It is as though
those categories have simply been replaced with different ones to stereotype people with. We
certainly didn’t have problems like that when I was a kid in the mid-90’s.
The third theory I will analyze is the spiral of silence. It is similar to the framework of
groupthink. Minority opinions are gradually silenced either systematically or by the cognitive
dissonance people feel when their views are not the same as everyone else in the group. Some
people think the theory is very applicable despite being developed before the advent of internet.
It has been heralded as an ally to support freedom of speech. I was skeptical of the utility of this
theory at first, but I have come to understand it as incredibly applicable. In addition, the spiral of
silence theory proves that the transactional model of communication is at work through several
different avenues.
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann’s research provides a few new concepts. She first defines
opinion as a level of agreement with a particular population (Richard West). The term quasi
statistical sense is an important concept as well. It states that people are able to estimate the
strength of opposing sides in a public debate. This is an unconscious process and the information
we make those judgements with is controlled by the media. A variation of this concept is called
plural ignorance and it occurs when our observations of how people feel are mistaken. As you
can see, the way we feel about ourselves is directly related to the majority viewpoints that circle
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Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
overhead. This points to a transactional method of communication because we decode what we
see, assimilate it into our sense of self, and the feedback we give is dependent on that process.
People seek out the media to confirm of disconfirm their observations and interpret their own
observations through the media (Richard West).
The spiral of silence is commonplace to modern media channels. For example, we are
more likely to hear about something on mainstream news if it happens in our home country and
is fuel for an already burning public opinion warzone. Because I don’t have a television, I get all
of my news online, and about 60% comes from Facebook. Over the weekend, I saw that stories
about Nepal were trending, but I did not have any idea why. I had to Google “what happened in
Nepal?” to find out about the earthquake there! The earthquake was not experienced by the
online majority – people using the internet in developed countries – and therefore it took a while
for them to start running stories about it. Anyone can start a blog as a news source and therefore,
the internet news stream is not controlled by a powerful elite but truly by users themselves. That
is why it is so surprising that the spiral of silence would pervade there.
Another thing that happens online is the vicious attacking that accompanies the spiral of
silence. I watched this happen when Cheryl Rios, CEO of a marketing company, shared her
opinion that women should not be allowed to serve as President of the United States. The
backlash was unstoppable – even with her disclaimer that it was just her personal opinion.
Commenters on the Internet simultaneously support minority views and attack them.
The development of “web 2.0” technologies began a trend toward transactional
communication online. Some sources are strictly linear, but larger sites rely on user feedback to
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Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
formulate new content. Internet communication is transactional because it is easy to measure
user feedback. Methods such as site traffic reports, views, ratings, likes, and comment sections
make it clear which content is popular and if users agree with it. The assimilation of feedback
into improvements is almost instantaneous with this development. Human beings have become
information processing machines that can know and react faster than before. Diversity in
opinions and information is the norm.
Some people fear that the art of present and attentive communication will be lost to
noses buried in smartphones. However, I do not agree with that position. I know that the
hallmarks of communication will live on. Those of rhetoric, interpersonal communication and
organizational culture are still necessary for us to survive and build a future. Technology has
made our world smaller and has made human beings simultaneously aware of events that happen
across the globe. It sounds clichéd, but the birth of the internet has resulted in a truly global
consciousness.
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Catherine Konold
S00569290
Communication 1050
4/27/2015
Works Cited
Hanson, Ralph. Mass Communication: Living in a media world. 23 April 2015.
<http://college.cqpress.com/sites/masscomm/Home/chapter2.aspx>.
Richard West, Lynn Turner. Introduction to Communication Theory. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010.
The Curly Fry Conundrum: Why Social Media Likes Say More Than You Might Think. By Jennifer Goldbeck.
Jennifer Goldbeck. Washington D.C. October 2013. Presentation.
Wikipedia. Meta Communication. 23 April 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-communication>.
Wikpedia. History of Communication. 23 April 2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_communication>.
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