WilliamHartPhD's Notes: September 2018

Monday, September 24, 2018

MediaTheory: Wilbur Schramm: Founder of Communication Study (W6-P6) Fa18

"Uncle Wilbur"

In his book, A History of Communication Study, Ev Rogers wrote:

"Wilbur Schramm was the founder of communication study. If his contribution to the field could somehow be removed, there would not be a field of communication study. It is doubtful that anyone else could have founded the field" (p. 476).

Whether we accept this fully or to a lesser degree, we still owe Schramm some respect and appreciation for his contributions. He is a key part of our intellectual family. The founding father?

For me personally, I have much admiration for Schramm. Besides being a part of my intellectual family, he may be part of my actual family (haven't quite finished the genealogical research on this). There are Schramms in my family tree. We were born in the same small city (Marietta, Ohio). We went to the same small college (Marietta College). While I won't come close to accomplishing what he accomplished, I can at least say I'm part of "Uncle" Wilbur's family (if only intellectually). And in turn, my students get to call him "Uncle" Wilbur too as they join the intellectual family tree of teacher-student-teacher-student...

Below is a timeline of Wilbur Schramm's life and contributions to our field.*

My scribbles in the margins. I made those scribbles when I was a Ph.D. student in Ev Rogers' History of Comm class in 1997 or 1998.

***

Schramm's history told from a slightly different perspective.

This shift in perspective leads to what changes in the story?

* Source: Rogers, A History

If the timeline is not showing above for you, the Schramm timeline can be also be found at this link.

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MediaTheory: In Honor of Everett M. Rogers (W6-P5) Fa18

I teach many of my courses in of honor of Ev.

He was my professor, adviser, co-author -- and my mentor. He is missed.

Everett M. Rogers (1931-2004)

Ev was a noted scholar in our field. His key contribution to the field is his book

DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS, 4TH ED.

Ev also had a keen interest in and an appreciation for the history of our field. Out of this interest and appreciation, he wrote

History Of Communication Study

Now, let's a little of Ev's story through a video.

"Ev Rogers was a leader in the development of the communication field. His early research focused on diffusion of innovations, opinion leaders, and the adoption of new ideas, concepts that framed much of his work throughout his career. He is remembered as a gifted teacher, a generous mentor, and a prolific scholar, with more than thirty books and hundreds of articles in publication at the time of his death in 2004. Importantly, Ev Rogers was a change agent, who sought to use scholarly research to advance policies and practices that improved peoples' lives. This documentary features rare footage taped just prior to his death, exploring his early life on an Iowa farm, professional choices, love of teaching and research, and ideas about diffusion. Writer/Producer: Glenda R. Balas, University of New Mexico; Videographer/Editor: Jason Balas, University of North Texas."

"A Conversation with Everett Rogers" (on Vimeo)

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MediaTheory: History and Interdisciplines (W6-P4) Fa18

When talking about the history of a field of study and especially the beginnings of that field of study, a key term should be discussed.

Interdiscipline: "a field of scholars who identify with various disciplines but share a common interest in a theme that crosses traditional [academic] boundaries“ (Littlejohn).

If we want to get metaphorical, we could think of an interdiscipline as an oasis.

Oasis: "A fertile spot in a desert where water is found" (Oxford Dictionaries).

An oasis (public domain image, Wikipedia)

What is the relationship between an interdiscipline and an oasis?

At what point in the historical development of a field of study does the oasis or interdiscipline ideas fit in? When was communication study/media study an interdiscipline? The beginning? The middle? Now?

The beginning, especially. Why?

Another question: Early in the study of communication/media where did the theories come from?

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MediaTheory: What is History and Why Study History? (W6-P3) Fa18

Source: Flickr (CC - KN6KS)

History: "The study of past events, particularly in human affairs" (Oxford Dictionaries), e.g. Italian history, history of science, art history.

Is history the telling of a story, a narrative?

Narrative: "A spoken or written account of connected events" (Oxford Dictionaries)

What's the difference between the above two definitions?

If we see history as narrative, we might start to think of characters (people) in a story, the plot of the story (the cause-effect of connected events), yes?

In the case of our study of media history, the characters in our story will inventors of media technologies and key media scholars. In some ways, we may also see some media technologies as characters in our story.

***

What is the difference between "The History of Something" and "A History of Something"?

Example: "A History of Communication Study" by Everett Rogers

The "A" suggests a recognition of a limited perspective. How so?

Historiography: "The study of historical writing" (Oxford Dictionaries).
Or put another way, it is the study of the study of history.

So, in short, there may be limitations or weaknesses in any history told or written.
Can we fix that? How?

***
And, now an especially important question to ask as we embark on a study of media history.

Why study the history of media or any history for that matter?*

To satisfy our curiosity.
To gain an appreciation for the work done and the progress made.
To show a little respect for those who came before us.
To gain a sense of identity with a community.
To learn from the past to help understand the future.

*Source: Based on Hart, 1999.

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MediaTheory: A History of a Science: Thomas Kuhn (W6-P2) Fa18

Now that we've covered, to some degree, the three big names of Darwin, Freud and Marx, we can start to see their influence on communication study.

Next we'll take a look at some particular sub-fields within communication study and discover the influence of the big 3 on those specific sub-fields.

However, to do that, we need a good understanding of Thomas Kuhn and his concept of scientific revolutions.

Earlier we talked about study of history in general, now, with the help of Kuhn, we will look at the history of science, our science -- communication study.

Note: Earlier the readings for this course, we covered Kuhn's concepts of paradigm and paradigm shift.

While not as visually appealing, let's also take a quick look at this informative description of Kuhn and his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Kuhn's theory of scientific development can be used to understand the history of communication study and specific sub-fields within the discipline of communication.

For example see:
Rogers, E. M. & Hart, W. B. (2002). The histories of intercultural, development, and international communication. In W. B. Gudykunst and B. Moody (Eds.), Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication, 2nd Edition (pp. 1-18). Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage Publications.

Kuhn's ideas have also been used to tell paradigmatic history of agenda-setting theory.

Rogers, E. M., Hart, W. B. & Dearing, J. W. (1997). A paradigmatic history of agenda-setting research. In S. Iyengar & R. Reeves (Eds.). Do the Media Govern?: Politicians, Voters, and Reporters in America (pp. 225-236). Thousand Oaks: CA, Sage Publications.

Before reading the agenda-setting chapter, it may be helpful to get a good grasp of the basics of agenda-setting theory.

Did you spot the parts of paradigmatic history just in this short video?

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MediaTheory: Research and Theory Development (W6-P1) Fa18

Theory building is a process. It starts with observation and, in a way, ends with observation. See below.

Related terms:

Deduction: “inference in which the conclusion about particulars follows necessarily from general or universal premises“ (Merriam-Webster).

Source: Research Methods Database

Induction: “inference of a generalized conclusion from particular instances“ (Merriam-Webster).

Source: Research Methods Database

So, based on the above, where does research fit into the theory building process? Are they the same thing? What do the definitions tell us?

Now let’s try to develop some theory.

A more complete picture of the theory building process.

So, based on the above, where does research fit into the theory building process? Are they the same thing?

MediaTheory: Media, Normative Theories and a Chomskyan Critique (W4-P3) Fa18

One of the general types of theories talked about in the beginning of media theory books is normative theories. It is usually covered along with a general introduction to critical theories.

What is a normative theory and what does it have to do with media?

“Normative theories … don’t describe things as they are, nor do they provide scientific explanations or predictions. Instead, they describe the way things should be if some ideal values or principles are to be realized” (Baran and Davis, p. 61).

When looking at media we could start to ask questions like: How should media be organized? What relationship should there be between media and government?

One normative political theory that can be applied to media is libertarianism.

Libertarianism: “In the most general sense, libertarianism is a political philosophy that affirms the rights of individuals to liberty, to acquire, keep, and exchange their holdings, and considers the protection of individual rights the primary role for the state” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Libertarianism in 6 Minutes

Chomsky and his Critique of (American) Libertarianism

“Noam Chomsky ... is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes described as "the father of modern linguistics," Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is the author of over 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism” (Wikipedia).

Noam Chomsky - Freedom of Speech I

Chomsky and Manufacturing Consent

On of Chomsky’s books that deals critically with media is Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. This is also a title of a documentary and Chomsky and his idea.

Manufacturing Consent (trailer)

When watching the full documentary, take careful notes on terms like hegemony, manufacturing consent, necessary illusions, media consolidation/concentration, the Herman & Chomsky propaganda model and flak Note also lists like those associated with the propaganda model.

If you are interested, parts of the Manufacturing Consent doc are available YouTube.
Also, if you interested, you may find "Key points in 'Manufacturing Consent'" helpful.

Also, if interested, there is a more up-to-date video of 5 filters of the propaganda model.

Lastly, if you are interested in what Manufacturing Consent says about today's media landscape, you may want to check out these two videos, one a more recent interview of Herman and the other of Chomsky.

MediaTheory: What is Research? (W4-P2) Fa18

Research is:

“Disciplined inquiry...studying something in a planned manner and reporting it so that others can replicate the process” (Frey et al.)

Keywords: planned, reporting and replicate

What do they mean in this context?

Research, as discussed here, is more than "research" done at the library. Instead of reading through books and online materials for answers that some other researcher has found, you conduct original research on your own to find the answer. That is, you conduct an experiment or a survey or a textual analysis or some other research method to find the answer. Someone is not telling you an answer in a book or report, you are finding the answer to your research question on your own.

Two types of research:

Scholarly

conducted to promote public access to new knowledge
usually conducted by a professor at a university

Proprietary

conducted for a specific audience, results not shared
usually conducted by a researcher at a company

Why are results not shared in proprietary research?

Could you give examples of each of the two types?

Which of the two types of research would you be more likely to do in the future?

How does this discussion of research relate to the earlier discussion of science? Are the doing research as defined above?

How's this definition of research relate to the MythBusters clip shown earlier?

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Monday, September 24, 2018