(MIM 8) Outlining the Importance and creating structure

Draft 1 

Power of the media / Media makes an individual braver / Online Warrior

Face to face communication is fundamental to good communication, perhaps majority think this way because communication is more heartfelt through this method by predicting one's raw emotions by body language. Despite that, do people realise how much of an influence the media is massaging and manipulating their state of mind? In this current time of the digital age, the media is a massive contributor in how the mindset of the public work and hence required in order for individuals to be cultured in all aspects, or rather “up to date”. In this essay, the author will be exploring the bigger medium of communication and the effects of it, rather than natural sensory organs; the media.

Structure

Digital Communications: Revealing Ourselves & Making Bullies

1. Introduction
1. Ppl are communicating more and more using digital tools
2. Development of multiple fake identities
3. Developed a constant need to know.

Thesis: Good communication can exist online, but for it to happen, we need to have a clearer understanding of the real problems and potentials.

Problems

1. Development of multiple fake identities
2. Developed a constant need to know.
3. Hence, Turning People into Keyboard Warriors and Cyberbullies

Potentials

1. Get to know people’s online personality better
2. Engaging convo is easier
3. Spectating for better understanding

2. Turning People into Keyboard Warriors and Cyberbullies
3. Revealing Our Real Selves and Making True Friends
4. Conclusion

(MIM 7) Music as a form of communication

Music is also a form of communication. This is because as a receiver, I can understand the feelings of certain music and the emotions that song is trying to convey. Even without understanding the lyrics of a song, we can tell what kind of aura and messages the song wants to convey. As an evidence, music is more deep tones and slow rhythm can symbolise a sad emotion. A song with faster beat and rhythm can symbolise happiness or silliness. Different genre in music can also imply a different type of mood. A person's song genre preferences can also define what kind of person they are. A simple song can make one person feel various emotions and sometimes can't even be put in words. Some songs can trigger a bad memory and some songs help heal a broken heart. It is definitely a form of entertainment but beyond that. it is a form of communication; indirectly.

According to English magazine, music was probably used more for communication rather than entertainment in early stages of human life. The use of drums were a type of signal to other countries or counties. Also, this can be considered as another form of semiotics.

References
English Magazine (n.d.) Music and Communication. n.d. [online] Retrieved from: https://english-magazine.org/english-reading/english-for-culture/994-english-culture (Accessed on 30 June 2018)

(MIM 6) Internet as a platform for communication

As I mentioned before, the Internet/virtual and digital appliances is one of my points to counter face to face communication. According to EzTalks , there are only verbal and non-verbal communication before the advent of electronic media. This all changed after the introduction of the world wide web, where people and also computers communicate through an Internet network (Bruce E. 2017).

The internet and digital appliances allows people to connect with one another in a bigger and wider scale with more ease compared with traditional form of communication. By that statement we can say that online communication provides more advantages to people . For example, the flexibility to connect with someone without the need to look for them in person via e-mail, social medias or text messages, especially if they are overseas; canceling the slower method by physical mail. Not to mention, it also gives a sense of warmth by either phoning or texting someone as a form of concern. This is an evidence that online /virtual interaction can also emit emotion without physically meeting one another. This form of interaction also give certain people (socially awkward people) courage and comfort without the worry of the added emotional stress while in contact with other people.

It is quite straightforward that the Internet or the mass media is an easy platform to use for communication. It also broadens a human's mindset in various aspects; creativity, speech and knowledge. According to Michael McLuhan, he states that "technology inevitably causes specific changes in how people think, how society is structured and in the forms of culture that are created" (pg. 286). The immediate response I have in this is to take social medias now as an instance. Instagram; when people give lesser likes in a recent photo as compared to the previous, some people immediately lose a bit of confidence in themselves subconsciously. Or when certain people forgot or didn't like a certain photo of them, a subconscious thought is that they would feel less important. About social structure, this is where celebrities come in. More and more internet stars are appearing and I'm not talking about singers or actresses for movies but for social medias. The amount of followers people get on their social media can determine the social structure of an individual in this era. These are not considered bad influences if utilized correctly, and by that I meant if internet stars aren't promoting immoral attributes, it can influence good in people. The Internet provides a platform for people to thrive for a voice in society, a medium to promote various businesses and it can help the needy as it is a Macroscopic Societal communication phenomena; A platform with a mass audience for communication. It can be used to voice out dissatisfaction of the public on the government or give awareness to the public of the poor or the needy to promote help. The Internet created a community where a person's voice can be reached by many.

Taking Princess Diana of Wales for instance, she was overwhelmed by the public with adoration via mass media both Hot and Cool. Some people might think, hey! She's famous! Many people can only be famous in their dreams! And it was something to be proud of. But it wasn't like that at all in the view of the princess herself. I watched a few of her documentaries and it was revealed that standing inside that spotlight made her suffered mental illness then to physical illness and she also stated that she had no sense of privacy. I recalled that Michael McLuhan stated this in his theories too, that in vast media, people will have no sense of secrecy and in this case, Princess Diana was one of the victims. The change of perception was what Princess Diana had to change the annoyance and depression into empowerment. She used the mass media to promote organisations like hospitals by giving funds and recognition. She was one of the icons of the mass media in the late 1990s and early 2000s, so adored by the media she was basically at the peak of social structure. As an evidence, Princess Diana was no doubt one of the examples of McLuhan's statement.

There are 4 levels of communication that I got from a book (Mass Communication Theory) and I got to understand their meanings:

1. Intra-individual
Communication that occurs within the individual; thoughts and questions that people ask themselves.

2. Interpersonal
Communication between 2 people or a small group of people.

3. Network or organizational
Communication that happens within an organisation or a larger group of people

4. Macroscopic societal
Communication in large social systems; Internet medias


References
Bruce E. (2017) What is Online Communication? July 5. [Online] Retrieved from: https://www.eztalks.com/unified-communications/what-is-online-communication.html [Accessed on 28 June 2018]

Jennings T. (2017) Diana: In Her Own Words. August 6. [Online Documentary] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6M_vYUUx20 [Accessed on 28 June 2018]

Stanley J. B. and Dennis K. Davis (2000) ‘Two Views of Communication Science’ in Mass Communication Theory. Belmont, CA, US: Webcom, Ltd: p. 336 [Accessed on 27 June 2018]

(MIM 5) Visual Communication (Semiotics)

I learnt semiotics in class and I know that it is divided into 2 categories, which are signifier and signified. Signifier is the theory and signified is the concept. To explain this simply, refer to the image below:

Concept
A concept is an abstract idea, general idea or understanding of something and it is a mental image. There's no solid theory for a concept. A faint understanding of something without backed up evidence.

Theory
A theory is scientifically credible general principle that explains a phenomenon. For example, words. Something that are backed up by science and proven true.

According to sign salad (Sign Salad n.d.), "everyone is a semiotician, because everyone is constantly unconsciously interpreting the meaning of signs around them – from traffic lights to colours of flags, the shapes of cars, the architecture of buildings, and the design of cereal packaging". They also mentioned that semiotics doesn't necessarily has to be a visual, sound can also be considered a semiotic. For example, a police siren that signals a type of reaction. 

Semiotics was defined by a Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure which is also the founder, as the study of “the life of signs within society” (Encyclopedia Brittanica n.d.). He discovered 3 types of signs and those are iconic, indexical and symbolic signs.

An iconic sign is often used to describe objects that has strong physical resemblance, for example an apple or a tree! A symbolic sign of a tree or a traffic light is an iconic sign.

An indexical sign is that the signifier(theory) has some relation to the signifier(concept). It's somehow directly connected to the concept. For example, sunlight or brightness is related to the sun. That is one of the reason we see a symbol of a sun when we adjust our smart phone's brightness. 

A symbolic sign is that there are no inherent relationship between the signifier and the signified. This connection is culturally learned. For example, the fact that the sign of the cross is related to Christianity is culturally learned since the two concepts have no intrinsic relation (DifferenceBetween.com, 2017).

"Semiotics started out as an academic investigation of the meaning of words (linguistics), it moved into examining people’s behaviour (anthropology and psychology), then evolved to become an enquiry into culture and society (sociology and philosophy), following that it moved onto assisting with analyses of cultural products (films, literature, art – critical theory), and finally and more recently became a methodology for researching and analysing consumer behaviour and brand communications" (Sign Salad n.d.).

References
DifferenceBetween.com (2017) Difference Between Signifier and Signified (March 2) [online] Available at: https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-signifier-and-vs-signified/ [Accessed 28 June 2018]

Encyclopedia Brittanica (n.d.) Semiotics (n.d.) [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/semiotics  [Accessed 28 June 2018] 

Sign Salad (n.d.) What is Semiotics? (n.d.) [online] Available at: https://signsalad.com/our-thoughts/what-is-semiotics/ [Accessed 28 June 2018] 

(MIM 4) Visual communication

First off, let's talk about visual communication. From the lectures I've attended in college, visual communication is always introduced in most classes and the reason is simply because obviously I'm studying art and design hahaha. Back in the B.C. cave paintings were one of a form of interaction among humans. This can be my evidence that visual communication was first used even before verbal communication. This is because during tribal age, the ear was the dominant sense organ and hearing was more used than any other sense organ. The definition of visual communication is "a transmission of information and ideas using symbols and imagery" (Study.com, n.d.). Then, when cave paintings evolved it became normal to use symbols to communicate. As an example, hieroglyph by the Egyptians and ideogram by the chinese. Evolutions of these symbols slowly crafted what we all call words and semiotics now became a norm in the modern era. As can be seen from the transitions, words now contribute a lot and can ease human communication but visuals are still in use. In fact, it plays a big role alongside words.

Symbols and words are considered visual communications and it helps us humans to interact much faster and decrease misunderstandings. It also allow more productivity for humans. For example, civilisation and industrialisation respectively. As evolvement continues, people discovered that applying visuals into words increases functionality because it eases understanding. According to TechSmith' blog (Allison B. 2018), people only remember 10 percent of what they hear after three days, but if a relevant image is paired with that same information, retention goes up to 65 PERCENT! and almost 50 percent of our brains are involved in visual processing. These are evidences that visuals are crucial to good functionality whether if it's for a design or for a simple word document. 

A few examples of the usages of visual communication includes: Billboard, sign, maps, website user interface, games, videos, social medias, food menu and more! Visual communication play a big part in making things easier to understand and creating good user interface.

References
Allison B. (2018) How To Use Visual Communication and Why It Matters. (June 12) [online] Available at: https://www.techsmith.com/blog/why-visual-communication-matters/ [Accessed 27 June 2018]

Study.com (n.d.) What Is Visual Communication? - Definition, History, Theory & Examples. (n.d.) [online] Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-visual-communication-definition-history-theory-examples.html [Accessed 27 June 2018]

(MIM 3) My point of view

After speaking to my lecturer for more explanation of the topic that I picked, he mentioned that if the topic isn't clear, we can explore the possibilities of the topic. Hence, I think I would like to talk about several aspects to counter verbal communication as the fundamental medium for good communication. In class, we were taught that right after the receiver receives a signal, for example, a electrical device such as a phone, communication occurs. As per what google says, communication literally means: of sending or receiving information, such as telephone lines or computers. Another definition is: the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium. In other words, communication for what we often perceive as face to face communication, isn't exactly only that. 

When I first saw this topic, I thought about a few examples that I might be able to explore. As cliche as it is, in a design school of course by using visual communication is one of the examples. For visual communication, it can be divided into two categories; pictorial or literature. Another example is that in our modern era, a lot tend to rely on the internet and social medias to communicate and people might argue with me that facetime or skype or any other video call platforms are basically face to face communication. But the thing is, in video calls, we can't predict one's raw emotions by body language, for example, fidgeting. A lot of things are masked by what the other person wants you to see via screen not to mention lag too. The point I'm trying to imply here is that devices are used as a medium here and it isn't via speech. The third example is through music. Music for the longest time are often used to express emotions or even used to voice out human rights. For example, "Minority" sung by a band named Green Day, the lyrics of the song is empowering people to do what they want and in my opinion, they are also indirectly telling the minorities to voice out their disatisfactories against the government. 

Reference 

1.      Green Day (2009) ‘Green Day - Minority (Video)' YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDBlqu6KF4k (Accessed 26 June 2018)

(MIM 2) Picking a Topic

There are 5 topics to choose from in this particular project. Among 5 I chose the one that most interest me; "Face-to-face interaction is fundamental to good communication. Is this statement true?"  In our current situation and generation which is the 21st century, face-to-face interactions are not the only way to convey heartfelt conversations and communicate but is it the fundamental to good communication? In this blog we are going to do more analysis on it. 

There are several context that I have questions on and I am not sure if they are applicable. 

1. Target audiences: introverts and extroverts? deaf people? generally?
2. Is the question solely based on verbal communication? 

At the moment, my opinion on this is that Face-to-face interaction is in fact fundamental to good communication but, from an introvert point of view, some prefers to not have contact with whoever they are talking to. Also, for people who are deaf and could not possibly listen to what we have to say, will Face-to-face interaction still be fundamental? Conveying messages and communicating can also be by visuals, not only biasing visual communication because there are blind people too but my point is, to discover the possibilities of communicating with or without face-to-face interaction.