28. Robinson Crusoe as a Myth

Faust- single minded pursuit of knowledge
Don Juan- Single minded pursuit of women
Don Quixote- single minded pursuit of women

Robinson Crusoe- single minded pursuit of achievement and enterprise

Robinson Crusoe- 3 essential themes
-Back to Nature
-Dignity of Labor
-Economic Man

It's not author that makes a story a myth, it's the society.

27. Myths and Society

Ronald Barthes says that myth is a language.
Mythologies are much more than just a story and can be analyzed into detail, making inferences by simple things that are alluded to.

japaneseness- the entirety of japanese culture.

Marshall McLuhan= Canadian media theorist

Because a linen cleaner says it can clean deep stains out, it can mean the linen itself is deep, even if its thin physically.

26. The Power of Advertising in Capitalist Societies

Advertising treats its target groups like commodities who have problems they may not even realize and the advertised subject is the solution. Huang says that people who sell have used aesthetics to seduce us into becoming consumers.

25. Images of Women in Advertising

I nearly completely agree with this chapter. The idea of the provocateur is extremely false and been around for ages. She is not a real person and is simply a form that kills nearly every woman's self-esteem in the idea that women aren't beautiful and will be lonely the rest of their life if they are not like the provocateur. In today's society, she is tall, and nearly a size 4 in waist, though of course that size is getting smaller with nearly each trend. The thin, porcelain looking models with little emotion except a poutting or false-happy attitude and charasmatic eyes are what define today's models. The beauty myth, is strong, and made stronger thanks to cosmetic, fashion, excerscise and food advertising.

24. Miss America's Mythic Significance

anachronist- an error in chronology where something is out of its chronological time.
Oedipus
Harvey Cox- a teacher at Harvard who's done research on religion, culture and politics and written several books on such subjects.
ikon-different version of icon

symbolic hero- the one we associate as the hero or main good-person, a way we look up to others, connects to our unconcious psyches

paradigmatic- when a word that is a part of a set of elements that can substitute eachother in a sentance

the main point of the chapter: Miss America was once a symbol for beauty, and purity, and innocense. These days Miss America is similar to any other [female] celebrity. The celebrities are tracked and made to look bad after we doll them up to make them as good as possible.

23. House as a Symbol of Feminity

Main point: A woman's house is like a woman's second body. The contents of the home can stand for the psychological content, and she takes care of it like she takes care of her own body.

A car symbolizes a man, fast, strong and powerful: everything a man should be.
The house symbolizes a woman, warming, inviting, nuturing and protective, all that a woman should be.

reaction formation- when an emotion or reaction is expressed unconsciously by expressing its opposite in a similar unconscious manner.

22. The Meaning of Symbols

-when a word or image is symbolic, it generally has an obvious and immediate meaning, but also has a much wider "unconcious" part that can never fully be explained.

-Man can never fully comprehend or precieve something/anything completely.

-Symbol: Greek (symbolon)- a token; used as a substituion for something else.

-Jung believes we learn symbols in a sublinimal manner and they have the power to reach hidden realms.

-Archetypes: there are hero and myths of paradise that are part of a collective unconciousness of all people which is universal.

-Pierce and his trichotomy, 3 elements in his theories of signs

Kind of Sign Method of Communication Example Process

+ Icon Resemblance Picture Can See

+ Index Casual Connection Smoke/fire Figure Out

+Symbol Convention Flag Learn

16. Black Speech

In what ways does Abraham's essay agree with Tannen's?

They both said that boys are more prone to verbal battles and more adventurous than girls are.

How do black people from Camingerly use rhymes for entertainment and in social situations?

They base their raps and rhymes on what their social situation is, but they also must be preformed well and so it is entertainment to poke fun a bit and present their rhymes in an artistic manner.

What does it mean to say that this rhyming behavior is "regressive"?

They're generally simple rhymes that can be preformed by nearly any child. 

How might this rhyming behavior be manifested or utilized now in the mass media?

The rhyming is now used as entertainment for anyone, which can send messages to the people through the media.

Can you find any other examples of verbal dueling in American society?

tv shows, on the street, on the net, radio, music, movies.

15. Men and Women Use Language Differently

Have the media changed the conversational styles of men and women? Justify your answer.

I don't believe the media has actually changed, so much as its added to the styles. Both men and women now seem to find challenges against eachother and voice such an oppinoin and often it's merely the men's voice that carry more, not that they are simply more talkative.

What did Tannen find when she studied the conversational styles of boys and girls?

She found that boys centeraled their friendship around physical activities while girls centered theirs on who they trusted to tell their secrets to. She found our classrooms tend to use Walter Ong's "ritual opposition" in which the children "compete" for attention. She said girls are disadvantaged because boys are raised with "adversativeness" and thus are more assertive than girls.

Charles Winick, a sociologist, has suggested that there is "desexualization" going on in America- that men are getting weaker and women stronger. Do you think he's right? If so, why might this be the case?

I think he's wrong. I believe men are not getting weaker, but women are getting stronger. Instead, there is more of an evening of the playing field. Women are learning now to better assert themselves so the men may feel like their getting weaker, but in reality they are not.

What implications does Tannen's research have for education in general, and teaching in particular?

In general, apparently same sex classes actually benefit the students. Apparently women who go to all girls schools do better later in life.

14. Conversation as Narrative

Discuss Labov's six rules and give examples from conversations you've had.

an abstract - an overview of the story - When you are in the middle of a conversation and a friend interrupts with "Now that you mention..." it's expected the friend's story will be closely related.
an orientation - telling us who, what, when, where, and why - While not always necessary in the story, the who, when and maybe where would be helpful. The what is always useful and is the main point of the story.
a complicating action - sequence of events - Useful in discussing what happens when, even if it's merely by seconds in a conversation.
an evaluation - the importance and meaning of the events in the story - Good for scary stories and what makes certain parts so scary.
a resolution - how the story ends - Very important for any story. Without it, it's not complete. There's suspense, and then there's torture.
a coda - connecting the story back to present time - Not always possible, like with scary stories, but able to be brought with the phrase "but I digress," or "Anyway..." and returning to whatever the original subject was.

Can the order of events in a conversation be changed without affecting the meaing? Explain.

Yes. Assuming the meaning is to scare or is a simple message, the way things said can or cannot affect the meaning.

How can a film or television story be considered a "glorified" conversation?

In order to keep the attention of the audience a film can exaggerate certain parts of a conversation or simply alter what a simple conversation can be by adding or leaving things out. For example, the talk of a divorce can be much less dramatic in real life than on television.

Does Dialogue in films and other media narratives follow Labov's rules? Justify your answer.

For the most part, I want to say yes. The majority of any conversations do have an orientation, a complicating action of some sort, an evaluation, and a resolution. Thus you have 4 out of 6 necessities of the model. The abstract isn't necessarily given, or at least not in so many words, often it must be analyzed to find it. In a conversation, a coda isn't always needed, but sometimes for stories that branch off into other things a coda is used to relate back to the original story. If it's not, a speaker can be lost in why the subject was brought up.

Narratives are one way we make sense of the world. How does this work?

Narratives are stories that get told. It's through these stories that we can learn things and come up with alternative "what-ifs" and theories aobut how the world works. They're also ways that we share how people do things and what goes wrong so we can learn from these mistakes.

What implications does the importance of narratives have for the mass media?

Narratives are very important for the mass media. The mass media need to tell their stories for various reasons, mainly so the story is believable and the message is sent. In magazines and radio, narratives are needed to send different messages of sex and advertisement or simply entertainment. Story are often told on the radio for entertainment by the DJs.

13. Dialogic Aspects of Communication

Why does Bakhtin assert that "the word is born in a dialogue"?



How does he define "dialogic"? Define "dialogism".



How does he explain the way we understand linguistic utterances?

We understand the utterance because of the language used, but the meaning we understand because of what else is said before and after the utterance that relate to the utterance. The utterance isn't simply a mumble of something, it can be an entire sentence or word.

Define "intertexuality". Give some examples of it from films, tv, and music.

Basically there's strong relations between the texts that are produced at any given time, and texts that were previously created. The relation between the recently publicized Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer and Dracula can be seen.

The idea that vampires co-exist and thrive off human blood. The difference in relation is that the vampires in Stephanie Meyer's books are good and can also feed off animals to survive in a near perfect condition.

The idea of a solo guitarist can be related to the bards of the medievel period. Someone who sings and plays an instrument.

The idea of reality tv can relate to the news. The news lets us read about what happens in the real world, mostly through one side, but sometimes multiple views. Reality tv shows us one side of what happens as well and sometimes, if the camera follows more than one person, more than one view can be seen.

Can a work ever not be intertextual? Defend your answer.

Technically I don't think a work can ever not be intertextual. All artists derive their creative ideas from some other source that inspires them. They can come close to how a scenario goes but change their own so it's different, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still relate.

Communication must take cultural norms into account. How does this affect media?

If the media wishes for a certain affect, the idea of how normal something can be must be accounted for. If the news wishes for people to believe them, they must make their news at least somewhat truthful and believeable. If it's not, no one will credit it for being truthful and thus the prupose for news is defeated.

Is there a difference between conversation and dialogue? Explain your answer.

I argue there is.
Conversation is merely what is being said on the outside. That one comments with nice weather, another agrees, they transist into baseball and in the end neither can remember how the conversation started.

Dialogue is what is meaningfully being said. Not only does it start with nice weather but transits into how baseball is a good pasttime and who wins which launches into a discussion about who's stats are better and which team will fall into first or second according to their players' stats. While neither may be able to remember how the conversation started, the bulk of what was talked about was remembered and thus there was dialogue.

12. Art and Society: A Model

What four "coordinates" involving works of art for Abrams?

work, artist, universe/nature, audience

How does Abrams define each of these coordinates?

Work- the product
Artist- who creates the product
Universe- the subject of the work
Audience- who the product is targetted to

Abrams says most theories concetrate on only one coordinate. why is this so?

The orientation is toward mostly work. This is because everything somehow revolves and relates back to the work. The universe explains what the work is about, the audience views and interprets the work and the artist creates the work. The audience has next to no dealing with the artist directly, the universe isn't shown to the audience without the work, the audience doesn't see anything without the work's presentation. The work is the center.

What changes does the Berger model make to the Abrams model?

The Berger model adds in a medium and America. Medium is any way the work is presented, tv, radio, magzines, etc. America is the society where the message is created and disseminated. Also, all elements are labled with an A word, except Medium in an effort to help simplify things and make it easier to remember.

What did McLuhan mean when he said "the medium is the message"?

He means the way the message is conveyed can be more important than the message itself. The medium plays an important role in the way the artist creates and communicates their message.