Comm 206 Midterm Terms Questions & Detailed
Answers
Culture -ANS>AUTHOR(S): Williams, Hall, Lipsitz
DEFINE: culture has many meanings; it's ambiguous, constructed, and has symbolic
and material value
- culture is a process and is not static, but always evolving
- culture is a way that we create distinctions (superior vs inferior, bad vs good,
class separations)
- can also be used to question the status quo, norms, and create political
statements (ex: #BLM, Kanye West's "Diamonds are Forever)
- contemporary connotations of culture are often framed in binaries like high or
low
culture (Williams) -ANS>- culture is ordinary
- culture was a synonym for civilization, which is connected to its stereotype of
determining a higher "civilized" class
- hostility has surrounded the word culture as it distinguished superiority and
elitism
- culture as the physical artifacts and the individual perceptions
,- culture is held by the masses
- there is both new and traditional culture
- informed by social class and education
- commercial culture is tied to industrialization --> mass culture is entirely
dependent on capitalism
culture (Hall) -ANS>- there is an ongoing tension and instability in what popular
culture is
--> changing power dynamic between high culture and popular culture
- there is an ongoing process of culture
--> Culture is the medium evolved by humans to survive. Nothing is free from
cultural influences. It is the keystone in civilization's arch and is the medium
through which all of life's events must flow. We are culture.
culture (Lipsitz) -ANS>- pop culture can be both good and bad; it can perform the
dirty work of the economy and the state and retain memories of the past and
contain hope for the future
,- the effectiveness of popular culture depends on its ability to engage audiences in
active and familiar processes
material culture -ANS>AUTHOR: Williams
DEFINITION: the material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their
art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry. Helps
to shape and define its member's behaviors and perceptions
EXAMPLE:
- clothing: everyday clothing and clothing we only wear for specific rituals
(wedding, running, graduation)
- meaning for an apple: food, school, Adam&Eve, iPhone/Apple products
symbolic culture -ANS>AUTHOR: Williams
DEFINE: a group's way of thinking (including its beliefs, values, and other
assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior,
including language and other forms of interaction)
EXAMPLES:
gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions --> color symbolism - associated with
gender (pink for girls, blue for boys)
, transmission model of communication -ANS>AUTHOR(S): Carey
DEFINE: the idea of communication as a transmission of signals over distances for
the purpose of control
- sender to message to receiver
- views communication as informative being sent between producer and consumer
The problem w this -- the receiver does not always take away what you transfer
(ex - game of telephone)
SIGNIFICANCE:
- how we understand the history of technology
- impact of the telegraph on the future of communication
- transportation as a mechanism for communication with "profoundly religious
implications" (pg 16)
---> religious intentions = an extension of the kingdom of God
- purpose = control
EXAMPLES:
- a lecture = one person sending out information
- an online class = no chance for feedback or asking questions
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