Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Ideology

What is ideology? Ideology is an idea that society creates and holds as a standard. The biggest example of ideology I believe, is the ideology of 'beauty'. Society has for a long time created a conception and an idea of what beauty is and what classifies as being beautiful. From when your a little kid till your an adult, the media pushes this idea of beauty on you, and forcefully socielizes you to have an strict idea of what beauty is. The media creates a standard which all women are to be measured to and to be determined if they are beautiful or not. The idea of beauty that is mostly portrayed is a tall skinny woman with a large bust and a toned body. A woman that has long flowing hair and a good looking face. The media, forces this idea of beauty on us in many ways. When you are a kid, girls are meant to see this idea through their barbies and their dolls, which are created to represent what society finds attractive. When your an adult, movies and tv are constently pushing this idea of beauty. However the ideology of beauty is just that, it is an idea, it is not a confirmed fact, it is not proven right. Beauty can be representing in someone that isnt skinny and has big boobs. Beauty can be found in various shapes and sizes. and beauty is often missed because of the ideas that the media portrays

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Models of Communication

There are two models of communication. The first developed model of communication is viewed as transportation, a process of sending and recieving a message. The model is known as the Transmission Model. This model is pretty straightforward and focuses communication on being a process of moving a message from a source through a medium to a reciever. This model shows communication at its most basic level and is based on intrapersonal context. This model also implies that the challenge with communication lies in properly relying the message; so that the source or sender of the message delievers the message so that the reciever recieves the message and interprets the message to hold the same meaning the the sender intended it to. For example, If I was on the phone with one of my friends and I said something to them and ment it in a joking way but they took it as serious and got upset, then the meaning of my message wasnt interpreted by the reciever in the way i meant it to and it would be a challenge in our communication.

The second model of communication focuses more on the social communication and the production of a common culture. This is why it is called the Cultural Model of Communication. First of all, this model focuses on the importance of cultural and social life, which is something that greatly bonds people to one another. However, it is understood that you can not achieve a culture or shared bond with others unless there is a common language or use of symbols that allows each other to communicate. Culture however, is not just communicated through verbal messages but also through experience and personal meanings as well. Which suggest that communciation is an on going process. "The cultural model of communication sees communication as the construction of a spared space or map of meaning within which people coexist." -(Media Making pg.22) Communication is not only verbal it is through cultural practices, ceremonies, symbols and gestures. Doesn't celebrating someone getting married communicate to others? Doesn't the celebrations we have communicate the importance we put on such events? Basically, the cultrual model of communication shows that there is a broad sense of meaning and common communication shared between mostly everyone, but different cultures communicate there beliefs and meanings to other cultures and society by the actions and symbols that they express daily. For example, if you were to go to a wedding and see the groom wearing a small disc-shaped hat covering the top of his head, that would communicate to you that the wedding was a Jewish wedding. In conclusion, there are two models of communication, the transmission model and the cultrual model. Both of which are different but both of which are important and used widely in everyday life.