Harold B.

Medina
2011-51587
DEVC 203

Disclaimer: Some of the links provided are no longer available so I just read and reviewed the materials
that can still be accessed.

COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA AS CULTURE

Synthesis Paper

Our world is connected like never before. We are in the age of InfoWhelm, as Global Digital Citizen
calls it, wherein 24/7, we are bombarded with information more than we will ever need. Information are
presented to us in various ways.
Thus, it is only normal that media dependency among people is prevalent nowadays. This means
that people use and depend upon media which they use as a primary source of transmission. The unnamed
Chinese teacher who wrote the article The Media Construction of Everyday Reality argued that
communications media critically shape the social construction of our everyday lives. Furthermore, the
author argued that media, as a primary source of transmission, is even effectively outdoing formal
educational systems in the amount, quality, breadth, variety, and effect of the information that is being
transmitted. However, I do not really agree with the given statement. As a teacher, I do not really subscribe
to such idea connoting that media is something that is to be considered as a rival for us in the field of
teaching. Instead, it is something that we can and must use in order to improve our pedagogy. Likewise, the
article has only identified the problem on media dependency but has not proposed solutions to the identified
problems.
Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropologies by Scott Hudson and Carl Smith and Michael
Loughlin and Scott Hammerstedt discusses that humans assign meanings to symbols. These symbolic
codes become sources of illumination to understand the system or culture where one belongs to.
Therefore, our understanding or interpretation of our system or culture guide our actions. Clifford Geertz,
in Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture, considered culture as a social phenomenon and a shared
system of inter-subjective symbols and meanings. We react toward or against something presented to us
through the semiotic nature of culture. Here, culture is viewed not as a power, something to which social
events, behaviors, institutions, or processes can causally be attributed; but rather, as a context, within which
something can be intelligible and comprehensible. So, our purpose in studying here is to expose the
normalness of everything, no matter how peculiar it may seem, without reducing their particularity. This
view makes us understand that social actions are actually larger than themselves. They speak to larger issues
in a much larger context so we must generalize not across cases, but within cases.
 The article Symbolic Interactionism defines symbolic interaction as the peculiar and distinctive
character of interaction as it takes place between human beings. In simpler terms, this means that humans,
as active agents in the process of interaction, interpret or define each others actions instead of merely
reacting to them. So, a persons response is not merely based on someones actions; but rather, based on
the meaning attributed to the action as interpreted.
An overview of the famous book by Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
talks about the dramaturgical framework and its elements in understanding how people act, react, and
interact to present themselves in everyday life. Just like theatre, performance, the first element, refers to all
the activity of an individual in front of a particular set of observers, or audience. The setting, the second
element, refers to where the performance takes place. The appearance, the third element, functions to
portray to the audience the performers social statuses. It also tells us of the individuals temporary social
state or role. The manner, the fourth, refers to how the individual plays the role and functions to warn the
audience of how the performer will act or seek to act in a role. The actors front, the fifth element as labeled
by Goffman, is the part of the individuals performance which functions to define the situation for the
audience. It is the image or impression he or she gives off to the audience. Lastly, there are three regions,
each with different effects on an individuals performance: front stage, back stage, and off-stagethe sixth
element. The front stage is where the actor formally performs and adheres to conventions that have
particular meaning for the audience where the actor knows that he or she is being watched and acts
accordingly. When in the backstage part, the actor may behave differently than when on the front stage.
This is where the individual truly gets to be himself or herself and get rid of the roles that he or she plays
when he or she is in front of other people. Finally, the off-stage region is where individual actors meet the
audience members detached from the team performance on the front stage. This provides us an
understanding that people choose to behaveact, react, and interactthe way they do according to the
situation they are in.
Stefan Weber, in Media and the Construction of Reality discusses how everything is constructed
or is a construct. Everything we call or consider as reality is only so-called because it is only a construct.
This text acknowledges that media has a huge role in constructing these so-called realities in our lives.
I remember during one of my classes in college, at UPLB, there was a classmate of mine who
argued that everything is a social construct. We behave and act accordingly to any stimulus presented
based on a social constructthat is often influenced by what media often presents us. However, I argued
that I do not really subscribe to that statement. For my argument, I asked whether the idea that everything
is a social construct is also applicable to blind people, specifically those who have been blind since birth,
who smile when they are glad yet who have not yet seen or observed that people smile when they are happy.
I still think that there is a limit in claiming that everything is a social construct.
 Media Ecology and Symbolic Interactionism by Susan Barnes discusses media ecology as the
study of media environments. A parasocial relationship between TV, as a medium, and people exists
because the TV or the actors in it fail to provide interactive feedback to the people who watch them.
Studying media ecology presents to us the misinterpretations in technological, Internet-based, or text-based
communication environments. In this day and age, people tend to present cyberselves of themselves
especially in text-only correspondence. Because physical features are separated from online identity, people
can represent themselves as anyone they want to be. This is a characteristic of the Internets media
environment, which influences the ways in which communicators exchange and understand messages. This
paper also presents a proposition to alter the symbolic interactionism model to include media characteristics,
such as technological constraints, so that researchers can better understand how media environments
influence the ways in which people understand messages.
Raymond Williams and education a slow reach again for control talks about the public
pedagogy in teaching through expansive education by means of promoting and supporting all possible
venues for learning. This means education beyond the schools to a host of other institutions that educate
such as families, churches, libraries, museums, publishers, youth groups, agricultural fairs, radio networks,
military organizations, and research institutes. This is something that University of the Philippines Open
University (UPOU) has been doing for years now. However, Raymond Williams also acknowledged the
existence of institutions that do not really aim to educate due to personal singular interests that will get
hindered by an educated public. Here, mass media or the press, is an identified institution that is polluted
with many with vested interests to keep the public not educated enough to be inquisitive especially in terms
of the political aspects of life and culture. Raymond Williams views culture as a key instrument or
constituent in naturalizing and normalizing anything that people do. In On High and Popular Culture,
Raymond Williams differentiates high from popular culture. He presents high culture as the best that has
been taught, thought about, and written. This is something universal that is considered to belong to a
civilization or what is civilized. However, this is also something that has been lost because of popular
culture. However, I find this view that culture, as I view it as a way of living, can be classified as either
high or popular (low) because there are really no certain structured parameters or criteria in assessing
whether someones way of living is higher or more civilized that another.
These articles taught me to be careful when speaking in absolutes or in a definitive and conclusive
manner. One of the best things that happened to me in UPLB is being able to meet different people from
different walks of life. We have different backgrounds based on where we came from, but that does not
mean that one is wrong and one is right. The constant variation of views and belief systems is what makes
life stimulating and intriguing. With these readings, I have understood in a constructive manner that every
person around me is way more than who I think he or she is. To know them deeper is not necessary, but to
understand where they are coming from is vital in making our society a better and more understanding place
for us.

Works Cited

Barnes, S. (n.d.). Media Ecology and Symbolic Interactionism. Retrieved from media-ecology.org:
http://www.media-ecology.org/publications/MEA_proceedings/v3/Barnes03.pdf
Crossman, A. (2017, April 20). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Retrieved from ThoughtCo.:
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-presentation-of-self-in-everyday-life-3026754
Geertz, C. (2003). Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture. Retrieved from academic.csuohio.edu:
http://academic.csuohio.edu/as227/spring2003/geertz.htm
Hammerstedt, S. H. (n.d.). Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropologies. Retrieved from University of
Alabama:
http://www.anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Symbolic%20and%20Interpretive
%20Anthropologies
Raymond Williams and education a slow reach again for control. (n.d.). Retrieved from infed:
http://infed.org/mobi/raymond-williams-and-education-a-slow-reach-again-for-control/
Symbolic Interactionism. (2000, February 1). Retrieved from Sociology 319:
http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/f100.htm
The Media Construction of Everyday Reality. (2005, February 9). Retrieved from Lewis Micro
Publishing:
http://www.lewismicropublishing.com/Publications/SystemsEssaysIII/MediaConstructionEveryd
ayLifeSEIII.htm
Weber, S. (n.d.). Media and the Construction of Reality. Retrieved from mediamanual.at:
http://www.mediamanual.at/en/pdf/Weber_etrans.pdf
Williams, R. (1974, November 22). On High and Popular Culture. Retrieved from newrepublic.com:
https://newrepublic.com/article/79269/high-and-popular-culture