Selling The News

These are the lyrics to Switchfoot's song, "Selling the News."

In our world today, medium has become more important than message. If you listen to a lot of the popular songs today,  they all sound really good. Great rhythm, good beats, wonderful vocals. However, quality of the  lyrics has degraded over time. 

Switchfoot, one of my favorite bands talks about this phenomenon in their song "Selling the News." The first part goes, "See opinions are easier to swallow than facts. The grays instead of the whites and the blacks " 

We dislike hearing the things that we sometimes have to know. More often than not, we'd rather hear about what Oprah thinks about this certain brand of clothing than what Pastor Joe has to say about right and wrong, what's moral and what's not. The second part of the verse goes, "See money speaks volumes louder than words. And virtues with wings maybe not quite at first." Media has become a money making industry. The corporations will scrounge up whatever they can, make it look pretty and attempt to sell it.  The problem is, no matter how pretty that thing is, if they got it from the dumpster, it's still trash right?

A few weeks ago, I made a blog about my love for music and the measures my parents took to help me choose good music. As of now, I don't really listen to any of the new stuff on the radio because a lot of today's songs are all about getting laid, how "cool" you have to be, money, being popular, girls, and broken hearts. For example, Akon's song, "I Just Had Sex"

"I just had sex! And it felt so good! (felt it so good)
A woman let me put my penis inside her!
I just had sex, and i’ll never go back..(never go back)
to the not-havin’-sex ways of the past

Have you ever had sex? I have - it felt great!
It felt so good when i did it with my penis
A girl let me do it, it literally just happened..
Havin’ sex can make a nice man out the meanest!

Never guess where I just came from - I had sex!
If I had to describe the feeling: it was the best!
When I had the sex man my penis felt great!
And I called my parents right after I was done"

When I first heard this, it was pretty catchy. But, come on man. What kind of world are we falling into? I heard this song playing in a children's playroom in Robinson's Pioneer. Okay. The thing is, we're all too preoccupied with aesthetics. We usually just focus on how great a song sounds, how nice the visual effects of the movie are, or how clear and vivid the pictures in that men's magazine. Back in the day, when the Beatles talked about love, all they wanted to do was hold your hand.

Basically, what I'm trying to say can be summed up in one phrase.

"The medium is the message"

According to the notes Sir Beaver sent us, 

"Meaning should focus not on what was said, but how it was said."

Burn The Heretic

"Search the building." the captain said. Around a Sentries surrounded the doorway of the abandoned apartment. Three of them took a battering ram and smashed the door down. The men stormed the four storey structure guns blazing. Floor by floor they cleared the building of the rebels, leaving none alive. One of the resistance members dropped his gun and stood up arms raised in a gesture of surrender. A Sentry leap and tackled the man to the ground. He drew his knife and ripped the man's mask off. It was a young man. Without hesitation, the Sentry slit the throat of the unfortunate soul. The Sentry stood up and left the boy to choke on his own blood.

"Scum who dared oppose the All-Father deserved no less to die like dogs." Thought the Sentry to himself as he joined his comrades to search the upper floors. The higher they went, the higher the heaps of bodies became. When they reached the top floor, they encountered an old man standing in front of an ancient holo transmitter. "Fools." the man said. "You know not the truth. You are blind and deaf to the reality of this world. Your almighty Father will fall prey to his children soon enough." The man drew his pistol.

"Shoot him!" The captain yelled. Screams and curses flew from the old man's mouth as bolts tore his body. As he lay dying, he whispered with a smile, "It is already too late for you. The footage has been sent." The captain walked up to the dying man and drew his government issue Hellblazer. "Oh shut up you." said the captain. He cocked the gun and blew the older man's head off. Wiping the grim and blood from the barrel of this weapon, he ordered his men, "Burn it all." His men rushed to incinerate the building. One of his officers asked him who the old man was. The captain replied, "He was a deceiver. Planting seeds of dissent into the hearts of the good people. His words were poison. He was a threat to the rule of the Almighty, so he had to be...bumped off. As they say in the old country."



In comm class, we discussed Counter Hegemony. Sir Beaver talked about how some media is produced to challenge the ideas and morals of "the Man" or they system. The story above is based in a dystopia, and there are members in the society who disagree greatly with how their country is being run. So they decide to smear the name of the "Almighty Father" and expose the dirty secrets of the government by transmitting viral videos through the global system (holo transmitter). The government however, does not with for such secrets to be spread though the population and orders the deaths of the members of the opposition.

Boy Get Your Records On

As I was growing up, my parents taught me many things. How to use the tiolet, how to eat properly, how to act in public and how to behave. I was raised in a Christian home and my parents showed me through example the importance of filtering the media that I consume on a daily basis. When I was young, my parents took to me to the movies quite often. We'd watch all kinds of films; action , romance, and comedy movies.Most especially Disney movies. When a particularly racy scene would appear, my mom gently tell me to avert my eyes and cover my ears. She told me, "Anak, close your eyes ha. I'll tell you when it's finished." I didn't really understand it because I was young, but I appreciate the way my parents protected my innocence.

When I grew older, my taste in music developed, and I began learning how to play the violin. After a few years, I learned the guitar. Of course, with learning music comes listening to it and I dove into all kinds of  genres. Now music is a very powerful influence in the world of youth today. If it weren't for my dad, I don't know what would have happened to me if I had listened to the wrong kind of music. Lyrics are powerful they can really affect your view on life and how you live. My dad was wise enough to make it a rule that every single song I listened to had to pass through his standards. He'd ask me 3 questions whenever I'd bring a new song up to him.

1. What do the lyrics say? Is the message negative or positive? (if there was cursing in the song, it was immediately "banned." Haha)

2. Is the song too heavy? (My parents were very particular about this, they didn't really like me listening to rock music back then)

3. Is there screaming? (metal and hardcore were definitely part of my playlist back in high school)

4. Would Jesus listen to that kind of song? (as a result of this, most of the music I listened to was Christian. I was into bands like Swtichfoot, Relient K, Jars of Clay, and of course Hillsong )

As I grew older, my parents grew more relaxed because they trusted me enough to have the discernment to choose my own tunes. Right now, I still enjoy Switchfoot and Hillsong, but I'm into bands like A Day To Remember, Four Year Strong, Foster The People, Saosin (I LOVE SAOSIN), and Run Kid Run.

Simbolo

Physical Symbols.

In the organizational theory, importance is based on symbols as they can represent so much more that just the brand or the company.

There are several kinds of physical symbols.

Buildings, brand logos, artifacts, emblems, and even flags.

Buildings are often built with such grandeur and height to create an image of power, wealth, and superiority over the competition. Brand names define products and can make or break the success of the company wielding the name. Artifacts, such as swords, carrying the family crest can represent an entire clan, flags represent countries and organizations.

Although for this blog, I'd like to focus on a symbol which I am sure everyone is very familiar with. The Cross.

What comes to mind when you see the crucifix? Jesus? His death? His resurrection?

Well anyway, this symbol has quite an enormous amount of personal significance to me. For me this not only represents what Jesus did for the whole world, but specifically, this reminds me of the choice he made to die for me. The cross reminds me of the sacrifice he made to set the people of this world free from sin.  The cross is also a reminder of the victory Christ won.

How I Got My First Girlfriend

I lied. This isn't about my love life. HAHAHA gotcha.

This whole week in class we've been talking about Structuration. Basically it's all about how rules are made, how they're implemented, and how people react to such rules.

I think the best way to describe this theory is to use something we are all familiar with.


So today, I would like to talk about popularity in college. The theory says that the rules are socially constructed. As we can see, there are rules and strictures that are created within the collegiate society.



An example would be the distribution of power and influence. The rich kids are usually the ones who dominate the classrooms and the hallways. They declare how we dress, how we should talk, and usually the music that we like. Now this isn't really a book of commandments. All these rules are unspoken. Anyone who does not follow these rules are usually looked down upon, unless their deviance causes a new kind of social ruling to be instated. A classic example would be how students and teachers are expected to behave around each other. They are expected to share a professional relationship and it is considered a taboo for a teacher to have a very personal or even exclusive relationship with a student. A more recent example would be the "bench rule." Basically, it's "don't sit on that bench. It belongs to the swimming team. Don't sit on that one either, it belongs to Jzone Ateneo." This is a silly rule in my opinion. Nevertheless,  it is enforced by our own personal behavior and the way we see people.

Now how are these rules enforced? One of the major factors would be tradition. "We've been doing this forever, why change it?" The culture we have in Ateneo is simply a result of 150 years of tradition. Another would be the uncertainty we all share when we are new to a particular environment. Since we don't want to be viewed as weird or out of place, we often just keep quiet and go with the flow. We follow the system just to fit in and not rock the boat.

In conclusion, I believe that this theory is quite valid, yet it is also somewhat a double-edged sword. It's a wonderful thing if we follow the rules and as we continue to obey them, we climb higher and higher up the social ladder, but it's also kind of sad since those who cannot cope or refuse to conform to the rules set by the society can be viewed as lepers and outcasts. and are often treated unfairly. The system can both set you free and arrest you!

H&M Discounts up to 70% in HK and Singapore

Groupthink. To think in a group. To have a group of people thinking in the same way. To think in such a way that individuality is discarded in favor of unity. Hmmmmm I want to do Starwars right now. So groupthink. In the early days of the war between the Republic and the Separatists, a Jedi master commissioned the Kaminoans to start the creation and production of clone soldiers in the event that war would break out. They Kaminoan geneticists searched the galaxy for a donor that would provide them with the DNA they needed to produce the best soldiers for the Republic. They found Jango Fett. A Mandalorian from…Mandalore (yeah MANDALORE). Now, the Mandalorians…from MANDALORE. Are a war-like people. In short, without their enemies, they’re just a buch of zeroes with armor. Fighting is what they are best at. So the Kaminoans cloned Jango and produced thousands and thousands of clone soldiers using Jango’s DNA. They were perfect clones. In essence, each and every one of them were/are Jango. They were all raised the same way, and were all bound by the same ideals and beliefs. To serve the Republic, and give their lives if need be. Now, this was pretty great, since they helped the Republic and the Jedi to drive back the Seperatists. Sadly, Chancellor Palpatine, who was actually Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord, commanded the clones to execute Order 66, which was a protocol that was to be followed in case of a coup of the Jedi. The order called for the elimination of all the members of the Jedi order. So, the clones followed it out, and the Republic fell along with the Jedi, and the Empire came along. So…in relation to the groupthink theory, when people have the same ideals and beliefs and backgrounds, this can be dangerous for the group as a whole. Because the more similarities the group members have, the more likely they are to agree unanimously. Even if what is being asked of them is wrong, for example the extermination of the Jedi. On the other hand, another danger can be the lack of ingenuity and mundaneness. One of the things the Kaminoans did to prevent this was to have each squad of clones trained by a different Mandalorian. Since having different teachers would have differing effects on each students, allowing for the development of differing personalities in each clone. Prime examples of clones with unique personalities would be Commander Cody, Rex, Scorch, Fixer, Sev, and Heavy.  So groupthink is cast in a rather negative light. But it does have its benefits. For example, better cohesiveness and closeness within the group can produce better results. 

I Doughnut Like Economics

More often than not, we measure our relationships economically. We try and see how much THEY can benefit our lives and how much it will cost us to maintain the relationship.How much time, money, information, and dirty little secrets about ourselves. We often try to see if these people are actually worth our time. Thing is, that's really selfish. All we look for in people is how they can make us look or feel better. I don't really agree with this, so here is my take. I know that some of the readers here may or may not believe what I'm going to discuss in this blog, some of you might think this is total shizznits. 

However, this is what I believe.

2000 years ago, there was a man who was born in Bethlehem. Yeah, you know who I'm talking about. Jesus. He was raised by Mary and Joseph. People all over the years have called him a "good man", "a prophet", "a drunkard", "rabbi", and "teacher."

This is the part where I tell you what I know and what I believe in. I know that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus, before he was sent to Earth, was well, King of everything. (Parang kanta lang ni Sara Barillies eh no?)

When he went to earth, he had a great life basically. He was born into a simple family, not too poor, not too rich. He was a respected scholar during his time, a good teacher too. He had many students, he traveled a lot, had VERY MANY FRIENDS, but at the same time many enemies too. Still, if there was Facebook during his time, and you tried to add him, it'd probably say, "You cannot add this person. He has too many friends."

So I told you about Him. How does this relate? The Bible says that Jesus died on the cross to extinguish the penalty for our sins. 

Okay, I have a personal relationship with Jesus. Economically speaking, our relationship exactly the opposite of what we would consider an ideal friendship. The costs he paid far outweigh the benefits of our relationship. He gave everything. I mean everything. His earthly relationships, his social status, his family, his connection with God (the Bible says that God turned his face from Jesus when he was on the cross), his life. 

All for what? A piece of trash like me.

He says in his word, John 3:16 that he loves me for what I am. All the selfishness, the mistakes, the failures, the imperfections, the flaws, and my halfheartedness towards him. 

Honestly, I don't think I could like myself.

If you knew everything about me, I don't think you'd still want to see me every MWF in class. HAHA. 

Although Jesus even if knows everything about me, he still chooses to show grace and mercy towards me even if I mess up. It's basically like treating the person you hate the most like your best friend. Pretty tough. Still, I'm trying to learn this. I can't like everyone, but I want to show them the love the Jesus showed me. 

I pray something that goes like this, "Lord, you loved me first, so please help me to love other people like you do. Help me to see people like you see them."

So yeah. Economics? Bleh. I don't like Eco 102 honestly.

Spirals! 50% off on food stubs!

People and Relationships. We can’t have one without the other right?

Let me tell you a story. One day, a young high school boy meets this girl from his history class. She’s smart, pretty, and very friendly. She introduces herself to him, they become friends. He finds out her favorite color is blue, she finds out he like pistachio ice cream. Her mom is a doctor; his dad is an airline pilot. She tells him her dad died in a car accident, and he tells her that his mom died of cancer.  

As time passes by, their relationship deepens and they become the best of friends. She graduates valedictorian while he gets “honorable mention.” They apply for college, and by stroke of fortune they end up going to the same university. On the first day, the boy walks into the classroom and is surprised to see the girl there. He asks her, “Hey. Is this your class too?” and she smiles and says, “Yeah. Just like high school huh?” The boy smiles back and says, “Exactly.” 

After the first two years in college, the boy realizes he has feelings for his best friend. So he goes, “Hey, do you want to go out this Friday?” and she replies, “Sure!” He takes her out to her favorite place, and orders her, her favorite meal. They talk for a few hours until he finally manages to choke out the words “I love you.” She laughs and says, “What took you so long to tell me?”

They decide to wait until after graduation to pursue the relationship. They tell their parents about their feelings for each other and gain their (parents) blessing. After graduation, they begin dating. After a year or two, the boy, now a man, pops the question, “Will you marry me?” she says yes.  They get hitched and lived happily ever after.

HA. I apologize for the sappy example. I just thought it would be the best way to illustrate a certain principle. Frank Dance described the communication process as a spiral. Starting at one point and getting infinitely bigger and bigger. Basically, communication starts from a single idea and can expand and develop exponentially as time passes.

 In the context of relationships, we can view an idea as a friendship. As the friendship or “idea” grows, the relationship develops and deepens.  So what I want to say is this, life is like a spiral. It goes down and down and down. KIDDING. Communicate the right way, and your “spiral” will get bigger and bigger. Handle friendships and relationships your family and people the right way, and enjoy more and more meaningful moments with your relatives, and the people you love and care about.

Nothing Has Changed!

Theories are made to explain things we cannot be completely sure of, or to give a pattern we can follow to analyze certain phenomena. The dictionary defines theory as

A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, esp. one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained

• - Darwin's theory of evolution

A set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based

• - a theory of education
• - music theory

An idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action

• - my theory would be that the place has been seriously mismanaged

A collection of propositions to illustrate the principles of a subject

Theories are basically a set of rules and principles for an activity, to analyze something or to help understand certain unpredictable happenings.

This week, sir Beaver discussed in detail the dimensions of communication and several communication theories.

First of are the list of dimensions:

1.     Scope

     What does the theory cover? What, and until where is the coverage or the spectrum of the theory?

2.     The Appropriateness/Logical Consistency

Is the theory logical? Does it follow the rules set so it will be easily understandable?

3.     Testability/Validity

Is the information and data used by the theory accurate and valid? If so, can the source be trusted?

4.     Parsimony/Simplicity

Is the theory too wordy? The presentation of the theory must be simple and expressible in one sentence.

5.     Openness

Is the theory open to change?

6.      Utility

What are the uses of the theory?

7.     Test of Time

Will the arguments and truths of the theory remain the same throughout time?

Below are the list of theories concerning Communication. These principles will help us understand the phenomenon of communication.

The Rhetorical Theory

Speaker -->Message --> Recipient

This is the most basic of all the theories. Aristotle said that the most important part of this equation is the speaker. If there is any error, any misinterpretation by the recipient or wrong information in the message, it is the fault of the speaker. The most basic question regarding the speaker is,

“How do I persuade my audience?”

One of the ways is to appeal to one or more of these aspects:

Ethos (Ethics), to plead to the moral beliefs or natural leanings of right and wrong in a person

Logos (Logic), to reason with the common sense.

Pathos (Emotions), to appeal to the convictions and feelings of the audience

The second of these theories is.

The Social Communication Theory

This theory was made by Harold Lasswall 1948

Who? (Source) --> Says What? (Message) --> To Whom? (Audience) --> With What Effect? (Impacts/Effects)

This theory is basically the same as the Rhetorical theory, except they included the effects of the speaker’s message whether it be positive or negative.

The Mathematical Theory

Created by Shannon and Weaver who were two engineers for the a telecommunications company, Bell Inc.

Source --> Transmitter --> Channel --> Receiver --> Destination

Again, the theory has pretty much the same structure as the Rhetorical theory. Although, the two engineers discovered interferences that can disrupt the message of the source, they call these interruptions noise.

Below is a table that showcases the elements of the theory.

Element	Electronic Communication	Human Communication
Information Source	Origin of the Code, the person using the transmitting device	The Brain
Transmitter	Phones, Radios	The Voice
Signal	Codes Transmitter	Gestures, Words
Channel	Cables	Media
Receiver	Decoding Device	Senses
Destination	Recipient Device	The Brain
Noise	Static/Power Failure/Interruptions/Interferences	Physical/Psychological/Semantic Noises

Look at the structure of each of these theories

Speaker --> Message --> Recipient

Who? (Source) --> Says What? (Message) --> To Whom? (Audience) --> With What Effect? (Impacts/Effects)

Source --> Transmitter --> Channel --> Receiver --> Destination

Do you notice anything? There are additions but the structure of each basically stays the same. There is nothing new. Communication has basically had the same elements since the beginning of time. Wherever you are and whenever, everyone communicates in the same way.

Define: Communication *Presses Enter*

What is communication? The word “communication” is pretty old. Comunicacion It’s old French, from way back in the late 14^th century. But actually, it’s even older. Going way into Latin, it’s communicationem (communis). A a noun of action from communicare which means "to share, divide out; communicate, impart, inform; join, unite, participate in," or even "to make common."

But in class, we gave communication this definition, “A social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment.” What does this mean? Let’s break it down.

Social means that we as individuals interact with other people, but without means to do so, whatever we wish to convey will mean nothing. Thus, we use symbols. Symbols by definition are a representation, an object or anything that is given meaning. An example of a symbol could be a flower, which represent femininity or beauty. They symbols help other people understand what we wish to convey to them. Also, by using a system of symbols, we can also interpret and understand what’s going on around us, and what other people would wish to convey to us.

Last Wednesday, our topic concerned the Seven Contexts of Communication, Intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational, public, mass communication and intercultural.

Intrapersonal Communication. This is basically defined as having an exchange of words with yourself. Thought processes, moral debates, decision making, all these are forms of intrapersonal communication.

Interpersonal Communication. This form requires at least two social beings. This form revolves around relationships, people, conversations, etc. even parties can be considered forms of interpersonal communication.

Mass Communication. TV, the newspaper, the Internet, satellites, magazines, etc. all are forms of mass media. All fall under the category of mass communication. This includes the diffusion of information, and media effects just like persuasion or even manipulation of the common man’s opinion.

Public Communication. Albeit like mass communication also involves the dissemination and diffusion of information, also the effects of media on the public. Instead of having mediums such as TV or the newspaper, an example would be a pastor or an orator in front of a rather sizable crowd.

Group Communication. Somewhat related to Interpersonal Communication, Group Communication focuses on the study of well…relationships in a group. It involves the analysis of group development, defining roles, and class analysis.

Organizational Communication. Yes. From the name we can also say that it is sort of related to interpersonal communication. Instead of a group of people, it is more like a group of groups, arranged in order of authority. The source of information in this context is the man in the sky, the big boss, the MAN, or simply the person with the highest ranking in the hierarchy.

Intercultural Communication. This is the final context I will discuss…since I am sleepy and want to finish the movie I am currently watching. This is simply communication between people of different cultures, races, or ethnicities. International politics, diplomacy between nations, apologies for war crimes, sympathizing for natural disasters are all examples of Intercultural Communication.

If you think about it, with all these “contexts” we don’t go a day without “establishing or interpreting meaning in our environment” right? Let’s face it. Communication is happens everywhere, all the time.

I’m sleepy and tired. Goodnight.