Week 2: Your Four Worlds

Westley-MacLean model

Include mechanisms for feedback, or return flow info. from a receiver to the original source, and gatekeeping

What do we mean when we say that meanings are not in words or pictures, that meanings are in people?

Individuals do not receive meanings, they construct them

__________ are in people

Meanings

Rolldown method (rooter)

Reading down each page as though it were on a steadily rolling teleprompter, giving everything the same amount of time and attention—the important and the unimportant, the interesting and the dull

Nose-to-the-ground method

Reading one word at a time, digging slowly, diligently through a story, never stepping back to consider the whole, or the way that story fits into a larger context

Suntan Method

Relax and let it happen

Aromatic or Gourmet Method

Savoring each idea or story as a gourmet savors a choice wine

The mosaic model can be seen as representing our _______ world, that is, our entire communication environment.

Second

The tendency to interpret or perceive information in a way that makes it consistent with one's prior knowledge, attitudes, and behavior is called:

Selection perception

__________ can be explained either by consistency theory or the principle of least effort.

Selective perception

Spearing Method of Reading

Simply spearing bits from what you are reading—a bit here, a bit there—without plan or system

Third World

Small subset of your second world, consists of available sights, sounds, and other experiences that you attend to or that, somehow, strike your senses

SMCR Model

Source, message, channel, receiver

Earlier models suggest the important people in communication are the ________

Sources

Which of the following best describes "scripts" or "schemata"?

Stereotyped sequences of events in memory that are activated by observations or experiences in the present.

By a combination of circumstance and choice, you are exposed to a highly selective sample of the bits of information about any particular topic.

True

Everyone is operating with partial information.

True

Except in extremely unusual cases, any one bit of information about a topic has only an imperceptible effect on the world in your head.

True

Expectations generally help you process, comprehend, and remember the bits of information you sense from your communication mosaic.

True

Few, if any, of your meanings were constructed on the basis of information from a single message in isolation.

True

No two people go through their environments in precisely the same way; therefore, no two people encounter or attend to all of the same bits of information.

True

On almost any important issue, as time goes on you are exposed to a steadily increasing number and variety of bits of information, as well as encountering some of the same bits many times.

True

People tend to process or perceive the information they encounter in a way that is relevant to the needs they feel most strongly at that moment.

True

The Source-Message-Channel-Receiver model of communication grossly distorts the great differences among individuals in patterns of exposure and ways of processing the information they receive.

True

The Source-Message-Channel-Receiver model of communication suggests that a source sends a message through some channel to a receiver who absorbs it in just the way in which it was sent. In other words, the source or sender is in control of what the receiver learns.

True

What are the "unintended bits of information" in the mosaic?

Bits of information from a source with which we construct a message not intended by the source.

The statement "You can't step into the same river twice," applies to communication in what way?

Both you and the communication mosaic are constantly changing

Time is an important dimension in the communication mosaic because:

Both you and the mosaic are constantly changing.

First World

Every bit of information there is to know- for all time and throughout the entire universe (everything God knows)

Second World

Everything around that you could see, hear, or otherwise experience if you chose to do so

The First World is the world in your head.

False

The Source-Message-Channel-Receiver model and the Westley-MacLean model are essentially the same.

False

The differences between entertainment content in the media and news or information content is not nearly as important as most people believe in explaining how and why people construct the worlds in their heads.

False

The media industries do nothing without reason. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will find unintended bits of information in your communication mosaic.

False

The particular path you take through the mosaic is related to which bits of information you encounter, but it has little to nothing to do with the context for these bits.

False

The scientific study of communication is alone in its dependence on models.

False

You must have complete information in order to have a complete idea about something.

False

Your understanding of war has a one-to-one relationship with all of the bits of information about war you have encountered in your lifetime, since these are the bits that make up your fourth world.

False

Which one of the following worlds varies the most from one person to another?

Fourth World

The most important function of feedback is to:

Help sources adjust their communication to their audience.

What are "gaps" in the mosaic?

Important information about a topic that we did not notice or that was not in any of the messages we received.

One large national study showed that the average American adult has more than_____ hours a week of free time. Of those____ hours, at least 50 percent—or slightly over_____ hours a week—are devoted to mass media use.

35, 35, 17

How many dimensions are there in the mosaic model?

4

Variety-seeking and conflict-avoidance behaviors can interact. Considering high vs. low variety-seeking and high vs. low conflict-avoidance results in how many possible categories of behavior?

4 (square model)

On average, about what percentage of their leisure time do Americans spend with the mass media?

> 50 %

Models

Abstract descriptions of a phenomenon; help us perceive things we would not otherwise have perceived or thought of, organize our ideas, and make new predictions that we can test

Variety Theory

Assumes that people need a certain amount of variety or new sensations. They find such variety pleasurable.

Consistency Theory

Assumes that people need consistency among their beliefs, their attitudes, and their behaviors. If these are not consistent, a person tends to be uncomfortable

The mosaic model suggests that the important people in the driver's seat are the _________

Audience members/participants (don't consider as merely receivers)

We ________ messages

Construct

The degree to which people are unable to perceive or evaluate information independent of their prior attitudes, beliefs, and needs, the source of the information, and its context; these people have difficulty tolerating ambiguity

Dogmatism

In what sense do the sources to which you are exposed in your communication mosaic interact?

Each affects your interpretation of information from the others.

The filled in squares in the mosaic model represent:

Either our third or fourth world

A model can describe everything about communication.

False

Because most of us in America have had relatively similar experiences, we will tend to construct the same meanings from news stories we encounter in the media.

False

Each bit of information that you sense affects your response to later information, UNLESS you have completely forgotten the related, similar, or "identical" information.

False

Even though most adults in our society spend a tremendous portion of their lives watching television, they can easily reduce this consumption dramatically or eliminate it altogether.

False

In assessing scientific models, we are primarily concerned with simplicity.

False

In recent years total daily media use has been decreasing slightly.

False

In the mosaic model, each row represents a bit of information.

False

It takes less effort to perceive a message that is contrary to the way you see the world or that is different than what you expect.

False

Once you have constructed a meaning for something, it would be highly unusual for you to change it.

False

One important effect of time is its tendency to make our perceptions of issues, events, and people simpler and clearer.

False

Our interpretations of information are primarily topic dependent. That is, the meaning we construct for one topic is independent of our interpretations of other topics.

False

Repetition is important, but you must also include persuasion if you want to change attitudes.

False

Scripts or schemata are the structures of the newspaper stories, television programs, or other media products to which you are exposed.

False

Since your fourth world is your mental representation of the real world, you build it almost exclusively from facts.

False

In the mosaic model, the mosaic represents:

One topic, and the bits of information and sources of information available for this topic

Social Construction of Reality

Our beliefs and interpretations of information, even our definitions of words and other symbols, are influenced by the people with whom we interact

If one accepts the validity of the mosaic model of communication, which of the following best describes the role in the communication process of people who read newspapers, watch television, listen to the radio, and so forth?

Participants

In what sense is it valid to say that you cannot tell people anything they do not already know?

People cannot perceive or understand anything unless they can relate it in some way to prior experience.

Principle of Least Effort

People perceive things in the simplest or easiest way they can, and it is easiest to perceive them in ways consistent with their prior expectations, attitudes, or beliefs

Intersubjective Reality

People's beliefs about the world are shaped in part by comparing them to the beliefs of other people

Positive Analogy

Properties on which the source and target agree

Negative Analogy

Properties on which they disagree

Which of the following is NOT true of models?

Tend to draw ones attention to specific instances.

Selective Exposure

Tendency to avoid information that is inconsistent with our beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors and to attend more to information that is consistent with them is

The mosaic model is based on the idea that:

The communication environment is like a vast mosaic of information bits

Reference Groups

The groups of individuals with whom we identify and to whom we look for guidance or reinforcement; our information processing is affected by our family, friends, and others with whom we associate or with whom we would like to associate

An "uncertain analogy" is:

The most interesting property of a model because it leads to new predictions that can be tested.

Chunking Style

The size of the information bits or the number of information bits you attend to at a time when reading or viewing

Our beliefs and interpretation of information, even our definitions of words and other symbols, are influenced by the people with whom we interact. Communication scholars refer to this phenomenon as:

The social construction of reality

Selective Perception

The tendency to interpret or perceive information in a way that makes it consistent with one's prior knowledge, attitudes, and behavior

If people are watching a television news story, set or expectation tends to have the greatest effect on their perception when:

They have a well-established script or schema for that type of situation.

The fourth dimension of the mosaic:

Time and memory

The third dimension of the communication mosaic is:

Topics for which you have information

According to the authors of your text, none of the traditional models of mass communication provides an adequate picture of the contemporary world of communication that you and others experience.

True

The Westley-MacLean model points up the fact that, in any form of mass communication, information goes through a series of gatekeepers.

True

We have a great deal of control over our exposure to bits of information, but we cannot control all of it.

True

We routinely fill information gaps without even being aware that we are doing so.

True

What you perceive depends in part on your psychological needs.

True

Whether you experience fear, anger, or excitement depends on your interpretation of your physical state.

True

How do reference groups affect our processing of information?

We tend to test our interpretations of what we read, hear, and see on our family, friends, and others with whom we associated.

In what sense does language "fill our lives with meaningful objects"?

Without names or labels that we can apply, objects or experiences are less likely to have meaning for us

Fourth World

World in your head, very small subset of the third world

Who or what is most responsible for the kinds of information to which you are exposed?

You

Assuming you read with equal care, you are most likely to spot typographical errors when:

You have no expectations about the material.

Cumulative Meanings

Your beliefs about the world are based on bits of information and experiences that you accumulated over time; meanings are not static, they evolve as you experience or accumulate bits of relevant information

Which of the four worlds has the greatest influence on the way you vote in national elections?

Your fourth world

Becker and Roberts describe four worlds in which each of us lives. Which of the following is NOT one of those worlds?

Your social world, the world made up of what the people with whom you associate know and believe.