Communication Chapter 1

Chapter 1

• Essential Question: Why is the study of communication significant now?
• Fact 1: A medium is an intervening technology facilitating communication/human expression. Understanding how mediums affect messages is crucial.
• Fact 2: Interpersonal communication involves exchanging information, ideas, and feelings verbally or nonverbally between two or more people. It's used extensively daily.
• Fact 3: Digital literacy is the ability to use communication technology proficiently, accessing and understanding information on digital platforms. This is vital with advancing technology and internet use.
• Fact 4: Communication is the encoding of a message by a sender, transmitted through a medium, and decoded by a receiver. This is used daily and essential for life.
• Concept: Oral culture vs. written culture: Oral culture is passed down verbally; written culture, with written records, is important because it was a significant shift in communication.
• Person: Dennis Diderot, a French philosopher, attempted to capture knowledge of the Enlightenment in writing, and this was a crucial step in the development of written culture, enabled by mass printing.

Chapter 2

• Essential Question: What is the structure of unmediated face-to-face communication, and what skills are needed?
• Fact 1: Perception is a three-step process: selection, categorization, and interpretation. This is vital in how people interpret messages from others.
• Fact 2: A turn construction unit is a complete unit of speech recognizable by a listener. These cues drive interpersonal conversations.

Chapter 3

• Essential Question: What frameworks do people use to understand communication's impact?
• Fact 1: Judicial rhetoric is used to determine truth/falsity of past events, often used for public persuasion
• Fact 2: Hegemony is when a societal group gains control over another by making social relationships seem equitable; this can be related to media and culture.
• Fact 3: Ceremonial rhetoric deals with praise or blame in present situations. It's vital for developing and clarifying ideas.
• Fact 4: Deliberative rhetoric determines if a future action should be undertaken.
• Concept: "Magic bullet" / "hypodermic needle" theory: Explains the idea that media injects messages into viewers, leading to immediate and anticipated/unanticipated effects.
• Person: Elihu Katz: researched and determined that the media does not affect everyone directly, rather the media impacts certain groups of people.

Chapter 4

• Essential Question: What are the key ethical and legal rules shaping communication?
• Fact 1: Restrictions on speech depend on domain (public, private), type (expressive, political, commercial).
• Fact 2: Netiquette is important online behavior.
• Fact 3: Two domains of speech exist: public and private. The domain affects how the speakers delivers the message.
• Fact 4: Copyright is authors' exclusive rights to distribute works.
• Concept: Controlling Speech: Controlling speech can involve controlling content, access, audience, and who speaks.

Chapter 5

• Essential Question: Role of communication in forming social identities?
• Fact 1: Ethnic press communicates experiences within ethnic groups to outsiders.
• Fact 2: A global village is the idea of a worldwide community.
• Fact 3: Participatory culture involves audience engagement in the creation of popular culture.
• Fact 4: Television became the most powerful medium due to its popularity in communication.
• Concept: Social identities represent group identification, impacting how individuals perceive themselves and connect with others; this includes communities.
• Concept: Communities are imagined, with a sense of belonging to a place or shared experience.

Chapter 6

• Essential Question: What is the media's role in politics and the United States?
• Fact 1: Political speech is crucial for self-governance.
• Fact 2: Technology has significantly changed campaigning and governing.
• Fact 3: Political advertising is a powerful form of political communication, but it also increases the costs of campaigns.
• Fact 4: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates electronic media, including television and the internet.
• Concept: Negative advertising: This is advertising that aims to damage the reputation of an opponent, rather than directly supporting a candidate.
• Concept: Open and free communication is crucial for democracy.

Chapter 7

• Essential Question: Relationship between communication and economic practices?
• Fact 1: The marketplace relies on the timely and accurate exchange of information.
• Fact 2: Commodities are items that can be exchanged for money.

Chapter 8

• Essential Question: What is the nature of celebrity and its relationship to media?
• Fact 1: The development of mass celebrity was influenced by advancements in technology, such as the steam engine, telegraph, and the rise of photography.
• Fact 2: Modern media, like the press and the radio, brought celebrities closer to the public.
• Fact 3: Celebrity culture has been affected by open access to communication media, making fame more accessible.
• Concept: Fame vs. celebrity: Fame is defined by reaching a broad audience with significant achievement or character whereas celebrity is public image creation that may not necessarily be true.

Chapter 9

• Essential Question: How have technological changes shaped mass communication and types of content?
• Fact 1: Movable type/printing press allowed faster and cheaper printing.
• Fact 2: Convergence allows various media to be consumed from a single platform.
• Fact 3: Technology adoption has five stages (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards).
• Fact 4: Metcalfe's law: Network value increases exponentially with more users.
• Concept: Digital Divide: Communities/people have unequal access to technology.

Chapter 10

• Essential Question: Defining common forms and genres of media; why are differences significant?
• Fact 1: Different media are better suited to certain stories.
• Fact 2: Archetypes are universal story representations.
• Fact 3: Story success is connected to content, communication channel, and conventional use.
• Fact 4: Narrative and storytelling are essential for understanding ourselves and others.
• Concept: Hard vs. soft news: Hard news is factual reporting, whereas soft news is opinions and perspectives.

Chapter 11

• Essential Question: What principles/processes guide the development/evaluation of mediated content?
• Fact 1: Aesthetics deals with beauty, value, style, and worth.
• Fact 2: Medium aesthetics determine what constitutes good work in a specific genre or format.
• Fact 3: Synaesthesis describes how senses combine to form experiences of the world.
• Fact 4: Design principles guide the development of media content.

Chapter 12

• Essential Question: Defining the characteristics and needs of business communication.
• Fact 1: Audience focus is key for effective business communication.
• Fact 2: Clarity is essential in business communication.