Critical literacy & interaction (GE4C)

1. Critical literacy & interaction (GE4C) University of Aruba FAS: SW&D / OGM August 23, 2010 UNIT 1

2. Today’s program: • Meet & greet: introduce • Course logistics and rules of engagement • Unit 1: • Introduce the course: framework • Communication as departing point: humans as social beings, sharing and negotiation of meaning and identity

3. Meet & Greet • Let’s here each others voices: tell something about yourself and what you expect to learn from this course

4. Class learning Community • Welcome to our learning community! • We form a group (students together with instructor) who, for a while and motivated by common vision and will, are engaged in the pursuit of acquiring knowledge, abilities and attitudes. We inspire and support each other during this learning journey. We are building together our own learning environment • YOUR ACTIVE ROLE is essential for the reaching of an overall enjoyable learning climate

5. Core principles of a learning community

6. Course organization & logistics… • 12 units12 classes • Each unit deals with a specific theme. All themes are connected to each other. • Class: Plenary, discussions, assignments • Self-study • Assessment: Written Exam and Essay • Optional: Bonus assignment • Wikispace: • Assignments • Reading instructions; core concepts etc • Room for discussion, further questions (students can try to answer, I’ll give guidance) • Conversation starters: more information on the subjects (non-mandatory)

7. Link: www.critical-literacies.wikispaces.com More guidance: • Module description • Reading list • Contact teacher: Nadia Dresscher nadiadresscher@gmail.com

8. What is this course about? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOENu0fK0uM&feature=related The following scene of the movie “Dead Poet Society” sets the tone for the exploration of ‘Critical Literacy’

9. The (changing) meaning of literacy

10. The power of symbols and language

11. “Read the world by the word”

12. Critical: questioning

13. Identity, diversity, a colorful spectrum of voices…

14. Concepts: Learning about Critical literacy • Unit 1: The departing • Framework module • Communication as departing point: humans as social beings, sharing and negotiation of meaning and identity • Unit 2: Spinning webs of meaning, language and social reality • Unit 3: Making sense of the world and its codes: the meaning of literacy • Unit 4: The blooming of the inquisitive mind: taking a critical stance • Unit 5: Constructing reality through discourse • Unit 6: Ideologies, social identities & the reproduction of these in society

15. Praxis: Critical literacy in every-day life • Unit 7: Devices that generate meaning, construct reality and shape identities 1: Metaphors • Unit 8: Devices that generate meaning, construct reality and shape identities 2: Storytelling • Unit 9: Critical literacy in the 21st century 1: Media literacy and Framing • Unit 10: Critical literacy in the 21st century 2: Political literacy: how to see through the political rhetoric • Unit 11: Expression of the self and diversity: Voicing and dialogue of voices • Unit 12: Reflection on the course

16. Key competencies • The ability to think critically about the symbolic nature of communication (messages are constructed) • The ability to analyze and critique the relationships among texts, language, power, social groups and social practices. • The ability to formulate questions that explore the sometimes hidden (implicit and discursive) intentions, creative strategies, representation of social groups, ideologies (ideas and believes) that are at the core of subjects mediated through discourse. • The ability to recognize the existence of diverse voices in terms of ideas, believes and experiences. • The ability to think critically about the self in terms of ideas, believes and experiences. • The ability to articulate the own unique voice in creative ways by using narratives and metaphors.

17. Unit 1: Communication as departing point: Humans as social beings, sharing and negotiation of meaning and identity

18. Objectives: • To present a starting point for the understanding of human communication processes • To explain the properties and dynamics of the communication process • To approach the communication process in a contextual manner • To try to make the ‘intangible’ communication process more ‘tangible’ by focusing on the different components of the process • To translate the communication process in terms of transactions of ‘codes’ • To relate communication with the concept of identity

19. What does communication to mean to you? • ?

20. Etymology  • = the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time: • Communication: from the Latin "communicare“ literally means "to put in common", “to share". The term originally meant sharing of tangible things; food, land, goods, andproperty. ‘ to put in common’ ‘communicare’ ‘to share’

21. Communicationto be human • Human communication -the ability to symbolize and use language- separates humans from animals! (this proposition is of course disputable) • Communication with others is the essence of what means to be human! • We conduct a life through communication • We define ourselves • Is a vehicle; to initiate, to maintain and to terminate relationships

22. Humans are social beings • Our essence being social • The world is web of relationships: • So, communication has a social function!

23. Why do we communicate? • Biological motives (nurturing a child, helpless, need of attention, need for security) (nature/nurture debate) • Interpersonal motives (one’s identity shapes and re-shapes itself through interaction with other and the world) • Social/societal motives (societies are based on cooperation networks in the broadest sense of the word)

24. So many definitions… • Different, numerous, depending on what perspective you choose! • holistic approach properties of communication, rather than 1 definition. • And when we refer to ‘communication’ in a certain context, we will use the lasso technique and define the perspective and properties we choose to focus on!

25. 8 properties/definitions(!) • Process • Dynamic • Interactive - Transactive • Symbolic • Intentional – unintentional? • Contextual • Ubiquitous (omnipresent) • Cultural

26. Dynamic process • Ongoing, ever-changing, and continuous • Doesn’t have a specific beginning or endpoint • Not static, always moving, change • analogy: human body is a process: it is always aging communication is always developing. • For verbally their may be a beginning/end. Non-verbally is more intangible. • it does not stop, is irreversible: it affects future communication • Can’t be captured easily: flexible, fluid, adaptive • Models, pictures, graphs give just a little help; ‘the dynamics of communication’ are impossible to replicate identically

27. Transactive-interactive • It happens between people • Active participation of people, sending and receiving, consciously directing: two-way flow • Transactional implies simultaneously sending and receiving; negotiations • Example: tell me what you did last weekend? See how I communicate with you, with my eyes and my face expressions, while listening to your story…

28. Ubiquitous (omnipresent) • Simply means that communication is everywhere, done by everyone, all the time. Whenever one goes there is communication happening • “ one cannot not communicate” (Watzlawick et.al) Ok, let’s get philosophical, what does this mean? “ one cannot not communicate” ???

29. Logic of this argument: Reasoning: • Behavior has no opposite, one cannot not behave in an interactional setting. • All behavior has informational (message) value, since behavior is informative, it is communicative • And one cannot not behave, then one cannot not communicate

30. Communication is symbolic • The fundamental difference between information and communication • Example: information communication

31. Information vs. communication • Everything that reaches our human senses is information. What ‘you’ use as information, depends on your needs, knowledge and experience • Communication implies signals (example sounds and images) that are symbolic in their nature. • Symbolic = an arbitrarily selected and learned stimulus that represents something else. They don’t have any natural relationship with what they represent. • Symbols are the vehicle by which the thoughts and ideas of one person can be communicated to another person. • Both verbal as non-verbal symbols are arbitrary!

32. (un)Intentional? • Communication is intentional  people consciously engage in interaction with a purpose! Eduard: “ do you want to go tonight to the movies?” Sarah: “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea” • Communication is unintentional  think about the statement: “One cannot not communicate?” purpose=function

33. Purpose fulfilled? • Effective communication implies that the purpose of a communication utterance was fulfilled! “Did he get my message?” “ I didn’t mean that at all, you misunderstood me completely” “ That Is precisely what I meant”

34. Communication is Contextual • Communication is dependent on the context in which it occurs • What is context?

35. Context (1) • Refers to the setting, situation, circumstances, background and overall framework within which communication occurs. • example, study the following picture, and imagine the context where the communication process takes place: • multilayers

36. “Girl talk” or “gossip”?

37. Different contexts • Psychical context: girlfriends talking to each other after class, in the university’s beautiful garden • Social context: friend to friend (relationship) • Psychological context: each girlfriend’s thoughts and emotions

38. Context (2) • A world filled with people producing communication utterances: people who have social, cultural and personal identities, knowledge, beliefs, goals and wants, and who interact with one another in various socially and culturally defined situations (Schriffrin, 1994) • We can perceive this world as a frame (frames in frames) that surrounds the communication process • Our meanings and understandings of a utterance are dynamic, and constantly re-adjusted in the progression of communication

39. Context (3) • Dimensions of context are not fixed and immutable • Instead they are dynamically and socially constituted by the communication processes themselves. • Communication is constrained by context, but it also reveals, sustains, and provides context

40. Communication is cultural • Culture shapes communication, and communication is culture-bound • A specific context that influence communication: the cultural context • This topic will be extensively elaborated in UNIT 5 of this course.

41. Can you grasp it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omc-LerO92c

42. Capturing the process • Communication is a dynamic process! Now let’s try to ‘take a picture’ of this process; let’s try to capture it for the purpose of awareness, analysis and reflection. • What components are involved in this process? Let’s visualize and appoint the components

43. Components involved in the process • Sender & Receiver (continuous role switching) and their psychological personal world consisting of: accumulated knowledge, experience, attitudes, believes… • Channel • Medium • Message • Coding of message • Decoding of message • Multiple layers of context • Negotiation of meaning  interpretation • Feedback • Noise

44. We use a model to help capture the process

45. But models, just like maps, or frames only capture a specific aspect of reality: always keep this in mind!

46. Communication models • When trying to capture the communication process in order to analyze it, models can be helpful! • What is a model? • =a systematic representation of an object or event in idealized and abstract form. The act of abstracting eliminates certain details to focus on essential factors • = it is a metaphor. it allow us to see one thing in terms of another • = is merely a picture; that is even distorting, because it stops or freezes an essentially dynamic interactive or transactive process into a static picture

47. Fiske, 1990 • Chapter 1 • Fiske tries to capture the communication model in models • Models: • Shannon and Weaver’s model (1949) • Gerbner’s model (1956)

48. Examples of models (1):

49. Examples of models (2): Gerbner’s model: perception and meaning

50. Can these models capture new forms of communications?