A Reflection Paper on Sociology of Communication
Back to my earlier education and formations, I had been, just like most of us, bombarded with so many answers to so many questions. Upon knowing these and that, we would feel so smart. But when we go to the community and when we are being faced with complicated true-to-life circumstances, we would hear others asking us questions we’ve never heard before, and even arrive at the crossroads of our lives that we began asking ourselves confusing questions and we don’t know how to respond. From there we found ourselves searching for meaning.
Sociology is also being viewed as a study of relationship among systems and entities in our society. Communication is relationship too. The best graphics are created not by the mind alone but with the heart. The graphics have emotions on them.
Sociology of Communication is made up of images created by the mind as influenced by the heart’s emotions. According to Fr. Francis Lucas, old books would traditionally define it to be process of using signs and symbols. Sign indicates something else. It points to a particular concept or idea but it is not the thing itself. Meanwhile, symbol has meaning of its self. Sound is a sign. The notes and g-clef are symbols. However, what would be the most appropriate word is “image.” Image implies something bigger and deeper. It goes beyond signs and symbols. It involves even feelings and imagination.
Social Communication is anything we say. Mass media refers to instruments, means, technologies and programs as diffusion channels of communication. It is the amplification of bits and pieces of reality.
Academics are just part and parcel of what we are doing in action. We study communication and when we really start immersing ourselves into it, we found ourselves realizing that everything is communication. Sociology of Communication is conveying the reality of life. We had been given by the academe so many technical ways of defining communication but basically communication is sharing. We are senders and receivers at the same time. This is not about information alone. The power is actually experienced from having the right information in the right time for the right purpose.
One of the things that struck me was the discussion about self-talk. It is the inner speech that includes the questions and comments we made to ourselves. It is a powerful influence that we can use in thinking things through, in interpreting events and messages of others, and in responding to experience.
In studying about communication, it is important and life-changing to include the concept of self-talk. Positive self-talk increases focus, concentration and performance. When you stay encouraged and positive, your body will feel good. But if you believe you cannot do something, your brain will tell your body and it will shut down.
In communicating, knowing the factor of double image is also important. It depends on where our focus is. It is part of our perception. The angle that we see depends on where we are coming from. In media, it is known as the spin. Perception process is the process we use to assign meaning to data about ourselves and the world around us. Our perception is actually influenced by intensity, repetition, uniqueness, and relevance which are affected by interest, needs and motivations.
Mass media controls the mind and the heart. It can be very effective teacher and preacher. It has massive reach, deep impact and can attack the psyche. It can easily change the social behavior. In the negative side of it, it can be a very effective ‘rapist.’ It can corrupt the mind. It can promote negative values. Our mirror neurons can lead us to imitate and to be engaged in the feelings and actions of what we are watching. The web and the internet expert can use our mirror neurons to lead us to the way where they would want us to go.
But what is the key to any communication media is its soul. Man’s disposition should be expressed. For the soul to be committed to something, for it not to be empty and be rattled easily, it should have its purpose. What do we communicate? What do we give to the society? The global trends now are modern slavery, destruction of the natural resources and biodiversity, cancerous growth of urban centers of power and prestige and disintegration of families and community. It is a generation without parents, the third wave generation of digital age but a world with losing of much spiritual values. Inequity and disunity enhance moral crisis. It is the bankruptcy of morality that creates so much violence, pain and death. It happens when people start to misunderstand, and resort to war and conflict and turned lives into nothing but just collateral damage. It’s about time that we communicate for the purpose of building faith communities, authentic relationship, sustainable development and collective successes.
The world today has become richer than any other time. But we have so many poor compared to any other period of our history too. It seemed that we live in a world of contradiction. What do we say about poverty? We call it a state, and we try to compute it, but our problem is that we just define poverty and not really feel it. Have we asked how the poor feel, and really see them and understand them? Social communication is going beyond defining what’s going on with our society. It is not just making reports, statistics, and action plan. Social Participation is empowering the people how to decide and not just giving choices. On a personal level, I should get more into the habit of analyzing not only what to decide but how to decide. We should look at the reality and listen and feel the situation of others so that it will penetrate in our hearts too and make our communication a part of the solution to the problems of the world.
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| Communication for Development Summer Class 2013 Asian Social Institute |
