Culture and Communication 2

In the past, communication mostly occurred from talking to one another.  People were only affected about events that occurred in their area; there were no forms of communication to connect people over far distances.  The ability to communicate to large masses of people in different countries began with the invention of the printing press. The ability to reproduce the same piece of writing or artwork with little time and money, allows access to any social class.  Albert Durer was one of the first artists to mass-produce images for popular markets.  “These prints became an early form of mass culture that helped to foster consumerism in the lower classes of society”(Culture and Communication 23).  Fine art could now be distributed widely and influence different cultures across the world.  Now thousands of people could interpret the meaning behind artwork and form their own opinion.  Printing paved the path to new mediums of communication: novels, the telephone, photography, radio, advertisements, television, the Internet, etc.  “As new technologies developed in the industrial age, they had to find away to serve the new society”(Culture and Communication 28).  Society today revolves around these technologies to inform them of local and worldwide news.  People began using these mediums of communication to express themselves and to share ideas with others, creating mass culture.  Mass culture continues to increase around the world as developing countries go through the EPS cycle, but not all approve of it.  Critics think that popular culture is not genuine and is superficial in a way that one with no background of fine art or literacy can perfectly understand the countless forms of art posted online.  “The democratization of art, critics continue, leads to the homogenization of our culture, which is analogous to the homogenization of milk: The globules of cream are evenly distributed throughout the milk instead of floating separately on top”(Culture and Communication 32).  All types of culture have now mixed together.  There is no dividing line between what society sees as elite or folk art. 

The advancement of technology has given the chance for many people to share their own creations and become apart of popular culture.  Some argue that popular culture is like a flood that takes any type of culture displayed and jumbles it all together.  In the film Press Pause Play, Andrew Keen states, “A young Hitchcock, a young Scorsese, they wouldn’t make it in this business.  Slap up their early stuff on Facebook, on Youtube.  It would get lost in the Ocean of garbage “(Press Pause Play).  Culture today may be too saturated with visuals, sounds, pictures or any other medium of communication.  This upcoming generation has been labeled the “me” generation because people are obsessed with sharing information about themselves. There has been lack of appreciation of quality art produced by trained professionals.  Never the less, the availability of technology allows for people without the greatest economical standpoint to make a name for themselves.  One only needs a smart phone to write a book, take pictures, create film, or even draw.  David Girhammar says, “I would not be where I am today if I lived 15 years ago, because I was in the age of the specialist”(Press Pause Play).  One can now publish a book or post their own music by themselves online and become their own boss without larger companies interfering; A third party is not needed to be involved to distribute ones art and taking a percent profit from the artist.  Anybody with an imagination can create whatever he or she wants and can share it with the world.  Moby says, “The human spirit when it’s allowed to become made manifest through art invariably is going to create greatness.  It almost doesn’t matter what the medium is…when humans make things, they tend to make interesting things”(Press pause play). With all the different kinds of technology and social media, almost anyone can express themselves in a way they want to.  Anybody can belong to a culture or even create their own.      

                     

              

   

              

Culture and Communication

The advancement of technology through time has changed how one accesses and creates culture.  Culture “is everything that occurs in a society-all of the customs and practices handed down from generation to generation”(Culture and Communication-4).  Culture in the old days was split into two categories: Elite culture and folk culture.  “Elite culture consisted of fine art, literature, and classical music.  Folk culture consisted of street carnivals, tavern drinking, and folktales”(Culture and Communication-4).  In today’s world, these two types of culture are blending more and more together, creating popular culture.  The average class citizen can now access cultures that only wealthy people could, due to the advancement of technology.  “Although some elite culture exists today, ordinary people can at least observe some of it on TV shows featuring the “rich and famous”…”(Culture and Communication-4).  The democratization of culture allows for anyone to make their own art or music and with technology, they can share their work across the Internet for anyone to see.  The ability to spread culture around the world with a click of button allows for culture to be mass-produced.  The media progression cycle explains how this process works in three steps.  Culture starts in the elite stage, eventually enters the popular stage as the nation develops, and then lastly the culture is spread to any segment of the population (specialization stage).  “Alvin Toffler describes this trend as the “demassification of the mass media,” and he believes it will continue as we complete our move from the industrial age to the information age”(Culture and Communication-6).  Many argue that this mass production of culture is too consuming, and that real/skill requiring art is lost among the countless other works shared to the media.  However, culture is defined as everything that occurs in society.  Therefore, no culture is being lost; it’s just evolving as society and technology

changes.

The concept of culture would not exist without communication.  Communication allows for individuals to share information, feelings, and concepts to create culture.  Sharing is a key word in communication because it “implies that the source and the receiver are actively working together for common understanding”(Culture and Communication-7).  There are many different types of communication:  intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and mass communication.  All of these types of communication include a source, a channel, and a receiver.  The channel is how information gets from one to another, whether it’s by talking, writing, drawing, texting, calling, etc.  This allows for culture to spread through society.  The more channels there are to communicate through, the more one can share their culture.  Communication is an ongoing process of “what information, ideas, and attitudes are shared, how much is shared, when they are shared, and what tools are used to share them”(Culture and Communication-7).  Communication is not always understood or transmitted to the receiver.  This is called communication noise.  There are three types of noise: channel noise, (the message did not send or is unreadable) semantic noise, (misunderstanding of the message) and psychological noise (choosing whether to read the message based on one’s beliefs on that topic).  Psychological noise can also be defined as interoperating information the way one wants to see it.  “Philosopher Marshall McLuhan pointed out, “everyone has his own set of goggles,” and we all think that what we see with our set of goggles is what everyone else sees”(Culture and Communication-11).  The way different individuals interpret information creates differences in culture.  This is why there is not just one big culture that everyone believes in, but many different cultures.  Communication and culture go hand and hand with each other, one would not exist without the other. 

                      

                                                                                                       sharing 

Smoke Signals

The film, Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre, displays a contemporary native nation of the Coeur d’Alene.  It focuses on two men, Thomas and Victor, which are born into a world of poverty, alcoholism, and posttraumatic stress.  Thomas is saved by the Forth of July fire by Arnold Joseph, but his Parents could not get out in time.  “You know there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them... Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash”(Thomas-Smoke Signals).  Victor grows up with constant rage and anger of his dad’s drinking problem (the flame), where as Thomas becomes very naïve, but is weak to anyone that confronts him (ashes).  Arnold Joseph leaves Victor at a young age, and eventually passes away in Arizona.  Victor decides to voyage out of the reservation with Thomas to collect the ashes of his father.  Along his journey, Victor faces his past of growing up with his father.  Thomas constantly tells stories about Arnold, to a point where it angers Victor.  However, Thomas is telling these stories to Victor to make him confront his past and deal with his problems.  “Hey Victor! I remember the time your father took me to Denny’s, and I had the Grand Slam Breakfast.  Two eggs, two pancakes, a glass of milk, and of course my favorite, the bacon.  Some days, it’s a good day to die.  And some days, it’s a good day to have breakfast”(Thomas-Smoke Signals).  Thomas is trying to show Victor that deep down, Arnold did have good intentions and there were reasons for what he did.  Victor can only see the alcoholic and abusive father he was, and does not realize that he gave up on his family too.  “Thomas you don't even know my father. Did you know that my father was the one that set your parent's house on fire? Did you know that my father beat my mother? Did you know that my father beat me too?”(Victor-Smoke Signals) and Thomas says, “All I know is that when your father left your mother lost you too”(Thomas-Smoke Signals).  Thomas becomes the flame and rage in that scenario that pushes Victor to the breaking point.  After a long trip home, victor is finally healed and the ceremony is complete.  Victor realizes that his father did not mean to leave; it wasn’t his fault.  It was because of the Vietnam War and the Oppression of Native Americans that caused Arnold Joseph to become an alcoholic and burn the house down.  He always wanted to come back, but he couldn’t, knowing that he had Thomas’s parent’s blood on his hands.  Victor eventually releases the ashes of his father off a bridge down a cascading waterfall.  Victor screams all of his frustration, anger and breaks down like ashes, only to rebuild his new life.

Smoke Signals also displays the contemporary culture and interaction of white people and Native Americans.  White people are still oppressing Native Americans to this day and most white people don’t even realize they are doing it.  Thomas and Victor grew up watching western films, which portray common stereotypes of Native Americans and white people: The cowboy always wins and the Indians are perceived as uncivilized enemies.  Victor embraces the personality of the stoic, mean Indian, where as Thomas embraces the personality of a medicine man.  “You gotta look mean or people won’t respect you.  White people will run all over you if you don’t look mean.  You gotta look like a warrior!  You gotta look like you just came back from killing a buffalo…this ain’t “Dances With Salmon” you know”(Victor- Smoke Signals)!  Even though the Coeur d’Alene were fishermen, white people assimilated all Native Americans as one nation.  All of the culture and traditions of different nations were never integrated into society, but replaced by one culture of the plain nations: hunting buffalo, Teepees, face paint, etc.  Society still sees Native Americans as less superior to white people.  For example, Thomas and Victor had to sit in the back of the bus because two white men took their seats.  They had no choice but to sit in the back because if they fought back, they would be kicked off the bus; no one would stand up for them.  A white man also accused Victor and Thomas for the whole car wreck and said that Victor was the drunk one.  “This man apparently wants to press charges against you.  He said and I quote “you assaulted him and pushed him to the ground”(Police Sheriff- Smoke Signals).  If it wasn’t for the wife calling her husband “a complete asshole,” Thomas and Victor may very well have been arrested for the car wreck.  Victor tells the sheriff, “I don’t drink, never had a drop of alcohol in my life, not a drop”(Victor-Smoke Signals), and the sheriff says, “what kind of Indian are you”(Sheriff-Smoke Signals)?  One can tell how ignorant the sheriff is by assuming that all Indians are uncontrollable alcoholics.  Although equal treatment between Native Americans and white people are getting better, there is still “invisible oppression”(people don’t even realize they are doing it) and assimilation of Native Nations.