Cockfights and Demographics - Schulze; Exile of Britney Spears - Smit

Name of author, name of essay/chapter reporting on: Cockfights and Demographics by Quentin Schulze; The Exile of Britney Spears by Chris Smit, prologue.

Your articulation of their thesis (i.e. in your own words):

Cockfights and Demographics:

Schulze posits that there are two main groups of communication theories: transmission theories and cultural theories. Transmission theory explains communication as originating from social and natural sciences using very physical, literal terminology, while cultural theory views the process in a very creative, imaginative, subjective way. He analyzes some of the benefits and weaknesses of both views before discussing some of his own views on communication theories from a Christian perspective.

First, he explains the two purposes of communication theories: 1) to show the reader how the theorist understands communication, and 2) propose a way that we should communicate and helping us understand the process so we are capable of doing so.

Transmission theory: senders influence receivers, audiences are passive and easily receptive to manipulation, people believe incoming stimuli automatically – “we are what we receive.” The biggest problem with this theory is the absence of God from the process – in the closed system of senders and receivers, where do we put a God whom we believe talks to us and whom we can talk back to? Communications cannot be seen as a strictly scientific study. Another obvious problem is that humans aren’t really passive receivers – humans add their own interpretation and creativity to everything that is communicated to them. Adding to this, communicators have a specific motive when they send a message, which must be taken into consideration when analyzing the content of their communications.

Cultural theory: communication is a communal activity that everyone takes part in. Through communication, we create, keep up, and change culture itself – instead of messages being a sending/receiving action, it is a co-creating activity between many different participants to form shared meanings. Cultural theory is especially appealing to Christians because communication with God becomes a shared conversation/discussion between the person, God, and other people.

The Exile of Britney Spears

            Smit argues that although media may seem like it is simply forcing information upon its consumers, with no participation on their side apart from the passive act of receiving it, people do participate in media, and are being shaped by it everyday – the way we relate to the world, understand it, and act within it are all affected by the media and our participation within it. Simply by using technology like computers, phones, and smart devices, we are accepting and perpetuating a system of communication – we are making media cultural by making it such a big part of our lives. We participate so much that we use it as a way of identifying ourselves, giving it so much value and devoting so much of our attention and time to it. Fandoms exist because groups of people all agree that the same thing is meaningful and interesting – but who first assigns this meaning? Who has the power in media? Advertising giants? Celebrities? Or do we as consumers assign meaning to things based on popular interest first, with fame coming afterward when the fanbase has grown? This, Smit tells us, is the ultimate question.

At least three links (websites, blogs, articles, music) or images that illustrate the ideas of the article:

1. Obviously, propaganda is a big part of the transmission theory of communications that Schulze talked about – senders doing their best to manipulate receivers into doing or believing something that the sender plants in their mind using a communication device. I just really liked these propaganda posters for the Harry Potter book series as an example of how communicators send messages to their audience in disguise (no matter how bad the disguise is) in an attempt to control them or steer their thoughts and/or opinions. In this case, the messages (unite against the common enemy, don’t lose hope, we’re on the “right” side, etc.) are flimsily disguised as art. 

2. As I read Schulze’s section on cultural theories and how communication is not simply a message from a sender being impressed onto a passive receiver but a dialogue between the two, who are co-creating the message together, all I could think about was a quote by my favorite author, John Green. Green is very technologically-savvy and loves to answer questions from his readers about his books – he has a separate blog for each of his 5 novels (so those who haven’t read some of the other books won’t be spoiled on plot points) where he answers reader-submitted questions. He prefaces a large number of his answers by reminding us all that “books belong to their readers”—yes, maybe Green had a certain message in mind when he wrote a certain scene or a specific character, but it’s okay if that message changes when it gets to the reader – in fact, that’s what it’s supposed to do. Green doesn’t want everyone to find the same meanings in his texts as he does. He wants them to find their own meanings and explore deeper within themselves to find out what is being communicated.

3. Smit, in his prologue to The Exile of Britney Spears, describes fandoms. A fandom is a group of people who are united in their love of something – whether this thing is a TV show (such as NBC’s Community), a movie (like Marvel’s The Avengers), or a project/idea (for example, NASA’s Curiostiy rover on Mars). Smit mentions fandoms on his way to discussing where the power of creating meaning lies in the media – does it lie with the fans? With the people involved in the creation of the thing being appreciated? With media wizards, working behind the scenes to create a false image for the fans? This is a question that I’ve definitely noticed in a specific fandom recently – the fandom for the teen pop sensation band One Direction. A group of five boys who are all very close to each other, suspicion is always rife among their literal millions of fans whether or not there are any secret, romantic relationships between any of the boys. The most popular (nonexistent) romantic relationship is the one between Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. This “bromance,” (assigned the portmanteau ‘Larry Stylinson’ by fans) is under continual discussion on twitter and fanblogs, with every look, touch, and conversation shared by the two bandmates being relentlessly dissected and analyzed by every 13-year-old girl with an internet connection. Tomlinson—whose girlfriend (of over a year) has received nasty tweets and messages from fans asking her to please cut the act and stop pretending to be Tomlinson’s girlfriend so that he and Styles can “come out”—recently angrily tweeted to the fandom regardingthese rumors, telling them that ‘Larry Stylinson’ is not real and that he is happy with his girlfriend. It is obvious that in this fandom, the boys of One Direction itself have lost their power (if indeed they ever had it), with the majority of it in the hands of their fans, who are abusing it to get what they want, uncaring of who the upset or what relationships they damage along the way.  

At least two discussion questions that will help your reader develop the ideas of

the article (i.e., keep us talking):

1. What do you think was God’s intention for human communications – did He want them to be transmissional or cultural? What about His interactions with us?

2. Who do you think usually has the power in a fandom? The fans? The creators of the product (be it a media item, a person, a cause, etc.)? The advertisers?