Proposition: We construct our reality in our communicating.
The simplest communication model is the "Transmission Model" based on early telegraph technology. I.e. The sending and receiving messages or transferring information from one mind to another.
NARRATIVE THEORY
http://n21nunez.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/do-fairy-tales-come-true/
Humans are storytelling people. Storytelling is the most basic of human activities. The narrative is a paradigm for human communication. It is an organising framework for communication and analysis. It works as a way of explaining how people symbolically transact who they are. Stories insulate our lives as we grow up, as a child we are told 'fairytales' that contain morals and lessons about the dominant paradigm. As children are very influential the tales that they are told shape their reality. Good VS Evil, almost everyone expects good to rival over evil but further tales in history bring us to the reality, that it's not like the 'fairytales' we know so well or we live naively.
CASE STUDY
"A Century in Pictures". Subtitles 100years of people and events who shaped Australia.
http://www.tower.com/a-century-in-pictures-news-gazette-hardcover/wapi/107261661
Photography i a huge part of history, a huge part in telling the details of the stories, capturing it in a still image.
A photograph tells a thousand words, it can capture a moment in time and explain in detail what was going on in that moment. During the first world wars Australia was able to experience the war like none other, photographers brought home images of the conflict and revealed to the public the huge scale of war that was going on. The photograph has developed along with technology, originally taking months to receive an image from overseas, now it is practically instant with satellite phones, etc.
The ANZACS fought a brutal war in 1914 the cameramen tagged along on the journey and captured history. The reason it is so raw and real is because he became almost invisible to the men, he caught an important historical report through images. (Charles Bean worked for the Telegraph at the time) Ever since a camera has been taken along on these dangerous pursuits to capture the events of the men, their bravery and perseverance. The Iraq war (2003) bought back coloured images of the cold atmosphere in torture houses of Sudam Husayan. Kate, the photographer found it very important to capture the reality over there to show to Australian public and make them aware.
Within Australian history there are a lot of natural disasters, fires and droughts and floods, continuously tearing are environment up, the epic images of these events bring a reality to many citizens that anything can happen in almost the blink of an eye. The 'dingo ate my baby' story was developed into a narrative that had the best entertainment value, the public took the rumours and believed them because that was how they were told. Narratives told my word or image is hard for us as humans to ignore as a type of truth regardless of the absurdity.
There are many Communication theories. Some of them are
1) Cognitive dissonance theory - we don't willingly 'read' a message that contradicts out strongly held beliefs (eg. turning the radio off when a talk back topic conflicts with our morals, etc)
2) Attribution theory - do we attribute the cause of certain events to internal of external influences (e.g. wondering if a bf/gf hasn't called because they are just busy or with another lover)
3) Rhetoric theory - a theory that supports the idea that we construct our reality with communication (e.g. assertive voices saying things like, "this is how it is" in newspapers etc)
4) Social cognitive theory - social learning, narrative intended to teach (e.g. discouraging teen smoking with an ad campaign)
Social Theory
Karl Marx and William Morris
http://africasacountry.com/2011/03/16/the-prophet-karl-marx/osho-on-karl-marx/
Socailist = industrial revolution
Society was divided (happy and unhappy) the bourgoise (people that owns/controls the means of production) and proletariat (the people that are engaged in production for wages).
Society has a substructure (economic/modes of production) economic conditions underpins the society such as capitalism or communism. It is also underpinned by the class structure.
The substructure includes non economic factors such as religion, politics, art and literature.
Marx - prevention of humans full potential, dehumanisation. Industrial/technical alienation of society groups. There is an imbalance of the external world and the individual. Needed critical thinking of society to make sure things don't get out of hand, relentless criticism.
http://www.marxists.org/subject/frankfurt-school/
The Frankfurt School
1923 the school grew out of Marxist ideology, committed to the critical analysis of societies current state as well as to the development of alternatives which might enable humans to transcend their unhappy situation through critical thought and action (as apposed to blind following the rules). Political theory should be protected from the contemnations of commercial culture. More a moral force working towards human emancipation. (Hitler ruined Frankfurts schools progress).
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