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Category Archives: Communication modes

The power of Dialogue

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by Laura H in Communication modes, Globalization

≈ 1 Comment

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Dialogue, globalization, International Communication

As I reflect on the small and larger concepts explored in our course this semester, I notice how interlinked the field of international communication is, and how it walks hand in hand, with the roots of social change. At the risk of sounding slightly hackneyed, I have come to reaffirm my conviction that the route to any type of social change, lies in dialogue.

But what is the real meaning of ‘dialogue’ and what should its purpose actually be?

The ancient Greeks believed that “individuals are not intelligent on their own, that it’s only by reasoning together that they are able to uncover the truth for themselves. The Greeks understood that if two or more people are unsure about a question, they can accomplish something together they can’t do on their own. By questioning and probing each other, carefully dissecting and analyzing ideas, finding the inconsistencies, never attacking or insulting but always searching for what they can accept between them, they can gradually attain deeper understanding and insight.”*

In our increasingly interlocked and uncertain world, in which the traditional notion of authority structures are falling, and we are forced into confrontations with peoples from opposing cultural traditions and worldviews, we find ourselves in desperate need to be able to overcome our differences, find some common ground, build meaning and purpose, and set directions together. With all of our new communication media forms like the internet and mobile technology, we find ourselves more frequently talking at each other. But the way to solve our problems, is to tap into our ‘higher social intelligence’ as the late physicist David Bohm called it; to think together as groups, as teams, as committees, as communities, and as citizens.

It’s no longer enough to be clever on our own. “Our pressing problems today require that we be smart together, that we harness our best collective thinking and put it to work in the world.”*


* http://www.scottlondon.com/articles/ondialogue.html

-Laura H.

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Social Media; Keeping Us Connected or Escaping Reality?

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by Laura H in Communication modes

≈ 3 Comments

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social media

James Carey writes that every mode of communication invented, served a purpose for that particular time and place.

“News is a historic reality. It is a form of culture invented by a particular class at a particular point of history – in this case by the middle class largely in the eighteenth century. Like any invented cultural form, news both forms and reflects a particular “hunger for experience,” a desire to do away with the epic, heroic, and traditional in favor of the unique, original, novel, new –news.”

What are the reasons for the birth and popularity of social media in today’s world? Following Carey’s logic, social media must be serving a particular function.

Many claim that is has changed the face of business and politics. Undoubtedly, it has done so. But what about on a personal level? Here, you get the customary indignant response that it keeps us ‘connected’ to family and friends. However, I believe the reasons for social media’s success run far deeper than that.

To me, social media serves a function that is the complete opposite to the function of the “news”.  To begin with, we cannot control what we read/hear in the news every day. The news dumps a healthy dose of cold, harsh problems-with-our-world-today. In fact, with the advent of the 24 hours new cycle, the unforgiving reality of our world is multiplied ten-fold and we have no hope of escaping it. If our 18th Century forefathers had a “hunger for experience”, then we have a hunger for escape.

Social media allows us to escape the world, and to enter an alternate make-believe sphere of our own desire. Why do I say this? To list a few, we can manipulate what we wish to see in our “news feed” and whom we wish to “befriend”. We can delete people’s posts or comments if we don’t like them, and we can ‘untag’ unflattering photos. We can choose to portray a particular representation of ourselves that is not neccessarily congruous with reality, and we can seemingly engage in a conversation with our favorite celebrity on twitter. We can make a statement, and within mere seconds, have 100 people respond. We can subscribe to or “follow” purely fluffy news sources, or whatever else it is we deem relevant. Online, it feels like we have God-like powers.

In essence, social media gives us back the control that we sorely lack in reality.

In a conversation today, a classmate stated that social media allows us to indulge our 7 deadly sins* every time we go online.

Upon further introspection, I believe she was right.

*(The ‘7 deadly sins’ are; wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.)

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