LECTURE 7- THE MASKED AND UNMASKED

Question 1

What is marking and unmarking

Answer 1

• Marking- a word will have a standard meaning when put in a particular context, but as humans use communication creatively, we are always able to repurpose a word and use it for a different intention
• People use signs to MARK events that run counter common expectations.
• Events that are aligned to common expectations are otherwise unmarked
• Marking signals something special, out of the ordinary

Question 2

what is accountability

Answer 2

• When an event departs from shared expectations, people are commonly expected to provide an explanation
• This is a central aspect of human communication- termed accountability

Question 3

what did Kitzinger find?

Answer 3

• She examined heteronormative assumptions in after-hours calls to the doctor
• ‘’heteronormativity refers to the myriad ways in which heterosexuality is produced as a natural, unproblematic, taken for granted, ordinary phenomenon’’
• Heteronormality comes with many associated assumptions
• The doctor whose calls Kitzinger examined made inferences based on the caller’s use of family terms
• The assumption of a biological link (the doctor assumed the two children were biologically the same, from the same parents) is taken for granted and treated as normal (unmarked)

Question 4

what is backgrounding and foregoing

Answer 4

• Foregrounding: making the unmarked (e.g. straight white cis non-disabled man)
• Backgrounding: unmarking the marked (e.g. global majority; salesperson)