Mass Communication & Journalism

  Language is a term most commonly used to refer to so-called "natural languages" — the spoken and signed forms of communication ubiquitous among humankind. By extension the term also refers to the type of thought process which creates and uses language (cf. innate language). Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation, maintenance and use of systems of symbols, which dynamically reference concepts and assemble according to structured patterns, in order to form expressions and communicate meaning. The scientific study of language is called linguistics. General semantics deals with the relationship between language and reality, and with the ways in which language influences our thinking. A language is a system of signs (symbols, indices, icons) for encoding and decoding information. Since language and languages became an object of study by ancient grammarians, the term has had many different definitions. The English word derives from Latin lingua, "language, ton...

THE PROPAGANDA DEVICES: The seven propaganda devices are name calling, glittering generality, transfer, testimonial, plain folks, card stacking, and band wagon. Each will be defined and discussed with exam¬ples from contemporary society. Name Calling Glittering Generality Transfer Testimonial Plain Folks Card Stacking Band Wagon Name Calling: Name calling occurs often in politics and wartime scenarios, but very seldom in advertising. It is another of the seven main techniques designated by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. It is the use of derogatory language or words that carry a negative connotation when describing an enemy. The propaganda attempts to arouse prejudice among the public by labeling the target something that the public dislikes. Often, name calling is employed using sarcasm and ridicule, and shows up often in political cartoons or writings. When examining name calling propaganda, we should attempt to separate our feelings about the name and our feelings about the...

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare.  The work of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis led to what we can consider a primitives' theory of attitude change. Several of the propaganda devices the institute identified are quite similar to techniques later studied more carefully in scientific research on persuasion. Scientific research shows that these devices have s...

  P ersuasion  is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding oneself or another toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means. Persuasion has probably always been a part of human life. It seems inevitable that peo­ple will try to influence other people, even their closest friends and family members. For centuries people must have operated on the basis of intuition and common sense in their attempts to persuade. Aristotle was one of the first to try to analyze and write about persua­sion, in his classic works on rhetoric. Years later, particularly when mass communication became more widespread, people began to study persuasion even more systematically. The Institute for Propaganda Analysis, with its identification of seven techniques of propa­ganda, was doing some of this early work. Part of the motive for this more careful study of persuasion was obviously fear—the war-inspired fear that propaganda ...

  TECHNIQUES OF PERSUASION Three techniques those are common in persuasive communication-humor, sex, and repetition. The research on the first two suggests that they be used care­fully, because they can be misunderstood or can distract from the message, and there is little evidence that they actually bring about attitude change. Repetition has its pros and cons and should also be used carefully. It increases the chances of penetrating through audience indifference or resistance, and it can lead to greater learning—of a message, of a relationship between a product name and positive associations, or of the connection be­tween a credible source and particular message. But it can also lead to increased counter arguing and increased thinking about other, irrelevant topics. Newer theories of persuasion grant a more active role to the receiver; information-integration theory is one of the more popular of these new theories. Audiences and communicators need to understand their applications...

  HEIDER’S BALANCE THEORY Most writers usually credit Fritz Heider (1946) with the earliest articulation of a consistency theory. As a psychologist, Heider was concerned with the way an individual organizes attitudes toward people and objects in relation to one another within that individual's own cognitive structure. Heider postulated that unbalanced states produce tension and generate forces to restore balance. He says that "the concept of a balanced state designates a situation in which the perceived units and the experienced sentiments co-exist without stress". Heider's paradigm focused on two individuals, a person (P), the object of the analysis, some other person (O), and a physical object, idea, or event (X). Heider's concern was with how relationships among these three entities are organized in the mind of one individual (P). Heider distinguished two types of relationships among these three entities, liking (L) and unit (U) relations (cause, possession, si...

  NEWCOMB’S SYMMETRY THEORY Social psychologist Theodore M. Newcomb took Heider's idea of balance out of the head of one person and applied it to communication between people. He uses the term symme¬try to distinguish it from balance theory and contends that we attempt to influence one another to bring about symmetry (or balance or equilibrium). Newcomb postulates that attempts to influence another person are a function of the attraction one person has for another. In this respect Newcomb's theory is more of a theory of interpersonal attraction than one of attitude change. If we fail to achieve symme¬try through communication with another person about an object important to both of us, we may then change our attitude toward either the other person or the object in question in order to establish symmetry. Because Newcomb's model deals with two people and the communication between them, he labels them A and B (rather than Heider's P and O) and retains X to represent the o...

  OSGOOD’S COGNITIVE THEORY The congruity model is a special case of Heider's balance theory. Though similar to balance theory, it deals specifically with the attitudes persons hold toward sources of information and the objects of the source's assertions. Congruity theory has several advantages over balance theory, including the ability to make predictions about both the direction and the degree of attitude change. The congruity model assumes that "judgmental frames of reference tend toward maximal simplicity." Because extreme judgments are easier to make than refined ones, valuations tend to move toward the extremes, or there is "a continuing pressure toward polarization." In addition to this maximization of simplicity, the assumption is also made that identity is less complex than discrimination of fine differences (either-or thinking and categorization). Because of this, related "concepts" are evaluated in a similar manner. In the congruity para...

  FESTINGERS THEORY OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE The most general of all the consistency theories and, as one might expect, the one that has generated the largest body of empirical data is Leon Festinger's  theory of cognitive dissonance. It is also a theory that has generated considerable controversy in the field of social psychology. Dissonance theory holds that two elements of knowledge "are in dissonant relation if, considering these two alone, the obverse of one element would follow from the other" (Festinger, 1957). As with other consistency theories, it holds that dissonance, "being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce dissonance and achieve consonance" and "in addition to trying to reduce it the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance". In cognitive dissonance the elements in question may be (1) irrelevant to one another, (2) consistent with one another (in ...

  SCHEMA THEORY Schema theory was developed by R. C. Anderson, a respected educational psychologist . This learning theory views organized knowledge as an elaborate network of abstract mental structures which represent one's understanding of the world. The term schema was first used by Piaget in 1926, so it was not an entirely new concept. Anderson, however, expanded the meaning. Understanding some principles from schema theory can help in your work. Here are some principles to apply:  ü      It is important to teach general knowledge and generic concepts. A large proportion of learner difficulties can be traced to insufficient general knowledge, especially in cross-cultural situations. ü      Teachers must help learners build schemata and make connections between ideas. Discussion, songs, role play, illustrations, visual aids, and explanations of how a piece of knowledge applies are some of the techniques used to strengthen connections....