Key Concepts in Communication & Culture

The social construction of technology

(SCOT) An emphasis on technology as cultural practice; as a site of cultural production & negotiation in which meanings & identities are formed, tested & reformed.

Practices

A Marxist term translated from the German 'praxis.' Louis Althusser (1918 - 1990) argues that ideology can be found in everything we do not just our thoughts.

The circuit of culture

A diagrammatic representation of the construction of social identities in a capitalist system as a constant interplay of representation, identity, production, consumption, & regulation.

Pluralism

A picture of society - linked to liberal capitalism & free market economies - as composed of broadly equal interest groups in open competition.

Convergence

A process involving the bringing together of previously separate industries & the merging of media that has wide implications for cultural practices & social identities.

Ideology

A system of ideas characteristic of a group or culture.

Myth

A traditional story that explains a natural phenomenon, an aspect of human behaviour, or a mystery of the universe. For Roland Barthes (1915 - 1980) "the function of myth is to empty reality" by stripping human acts of their complexity & replacing this with simplicity of explanation & depthless clarity of meaning.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private property & free enterprise.

Discourse

Can refer to: a language event; a type of language used by a particular group in a particular context; a way of constructing & controlling reality or knowledge in order to exert power. This latter definition we would term Foucauldian.

Mode of address

Concerns the ways in which meanings are generated in communication between message & receiver; the question might be: "Who does this text think I am?" or even: "Who does it want me to be?"

Dominant ideology thesis

For Karl Marx (1818 - 1883), in any epoch in history, the ideas of the ruling class - i.e. the class that controls the means of material production - are dominant.

Interpellation

For Louis Althusser (1918 - 1990), under capitalism, we are not free agents making free decisions; we are "brought into being" as subjects by discourse (addressed in different ways by a more or less invisible yet all-pervasive ideology) via a process of "hailing."

Power

For Michel Foucault (1926 - 1984) discursive practice objectifies individuals & forces them into delimited roles by imposing ideas of what is 'normal' & 'appropriate' behaviour. There is no underlying 'truth' so what we term 'knowledge' merely reflects current discursive dominance.

Masterplot

H Porter Abbot's term for stories that recur in several forms & reflect deep cultural values e.g. rags to riches, Cinderella, the love triangle, star-crossed lovers, etc.

False consciousness

Marx's term for the condition of the working class under a capitalist ideological hegemony that prevents them from recognising their own interests.

Technoculture

Refers to the idea that contemporary culture is defined by its relationship to technology because it saturates all aspects of life & changes so rapidly that it constantly demands new responses.

Narrative

Refers to the way in which meanings are structured as stories composed of a sequence of events linked by a cause-effect relationship, taking place over time & formed into a whole around a consistent subject i.e. the 'why, when & where' of a story.

Common sense

Suggesting that ideology becomes so much a part of what we do & think that we come to see it as 'just how things are.'

Ideological hegemony

Term associated with the Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci (1891 - 1937) which has the ruling ideology in a constant tactical battle for dominance with competing ideas.

Polysemy

The ability of a sign, symbol, or text to have more than one meaning or to be subject to many possible interpretations or to be read in a number of different ways.

Story

The combination of narrative & plot in a creative whole that can be 'told.'

Technological determinism

The idea that technological development drives economic, social, & cultural change. Arguably oversimplifies a more complex interrelationship.

Plot

The organisation of the events of a story & the prior planning of narrative discourse. The sequence of events presented to the viewer from which they infer the story. Recounting the plot would be a basic account of 'what happens' in the story rather than actually telling the story.

Identity

The personal mythology we construct & project utilising the narrative codes at our disposal e.g. 'my life's journey'. Organisations use this too in developing & marketing a corporate mythology.

Framing expectation

The way in which narrative codes are used to validate & reinforce cultural norms & values e.g. the way in which women are divided into marriageable or promiscuous & narrative outcomes reflect this.

Subjectivity

The way in which you see yourself as a person; for Althusser, under capitalism, the product of an incessant process of interpellation.

Positioning & register

Two key aspects of mode of address concerned with placing the receiver as a particular subject & modifying codes of communication to fit the requirements of particular situations e.g. the way in which an advertisement finds a target audience & 'speaks their language.'