Midterm 11.11.19 Flashcards
(43 cards)
What is the definition of Anthropology of Media?
An area of study within social or cultural
anthropology that emphasizes ethnographic
studies as a means of understanding producers,
audiences, and other cultural and social aspects
of mass media.
What is an ethnographic study?
The systematic study of people and cultures.
What is an ethnographic study designed to explore?
It is designed to explore cultural phenomena where the researcher observes society from the point of view of the subject of the study (using immersively and over time). An ethnography is a means to represent graphically and in writing the culture of a group. The resulting field study or case report reflects the knowledge
and the system of meanings in the lives of a cultural group
What does Objective mean?
“Not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased: an objective opinion.”
What does Subjective mean?
Based on opinions, biases, perceptions and or perspectives of an individual.
Definition of Denotation
The literal meaning of a word or image
Definition of Connotation
The associations connected to a particular word or image
What is Rhetoric of an Image?
The way an image invites certain responses from the audience.
What are the THREE elements of Rhetoric of an Image?
Ethos
Logos
Pathos
Ethos
perceived credibility
Logos
the logical appeal
Pathos
the emotional appeal
What is an Icon? (two parts)
- An image, person or thing that has significance that transcends its individual meaning
- The Last Super
- 9/11
- Nazi Symbol - Often a celebrity, event, thing or location of important historical significance
- Marilyn Monroe
- Audrey Hepburn
- Kurt Cobain
What is Representation? (two parts)
- The signs that stand in for and take the place of something else.
- To stand for; symbolize. To depict or portray subjects a viewer might recognize as a likeness.
What is Representational Analysis?
How advertising, television and movies help define, reinforce or challenge stereotypes along the lines of gender, race, class, sexuality, etc.
- Marlboro Cowboy Ad
- Ice Cube with AK47
What is the definition of Ideology? (three parts)
- A body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, a group, a class, or a culture (e.g., ethnocentrism, conservatism)
- Rocky representing the idea of what it means to be an American
- TV show “Survivor” in which people basically fight for resources, in a system where there can only be one winner, and rest losers; in order for someone to win, another person has to lose.
- Superman
OR - A set of doctrines, beliefs, or ideals that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system which attempts to put experience of the world into some order. The result, particularly in Marxist thought, is a distortion of reality to maintain authority over it. Various applications of this sense of the word can be found in feminism and other types of critical activity, often very politically oriented.
OR - One type of symbolic system among others
What did John Berger state about Photographic Truth / The Ambiguity of the Photograph?
“Meaning is discovered in what one connects, and cannot exist without development. Without a story, without an unfolding, there is no meaning. When we find a photograph meaningful, we are lending it a past and future.”
- It’s about what YOU bring to the image, not necessarily what is in the actual image itself, or what actually happened in the moment it was taken
- -20 year olds sitting casually in front of the smoking 9/11 Twin Towers
- -posed “Migrant Mother”
- -astronaut planting the U.S. flag on the moon
- -photos of kids crying with completely separate news titles attached
What did McLuhan mean by “The Medium is the Message”? (four parts)
- A medium shapes its content (the nature of a medium has implications for the kind of experiences which it provides/offers)
- What is important is the change of space, scale or pattern it introduces (form over content)
3**. Message of a medium is its impact on society
- Ultimate message is its transformation of the perceptions of its users.
Ex. the printing press made books, but it did not matter what it printed. The message of this medium is the effect it had on society: people became much more literate; the power of the church over people became minimized; an official written language with rules and spellings was finally defined for the first time ever.
What is the definition of Technological Determinism?
Reductionist theory; claims that a society’s technologies determine the development of its social structures and cultural values
Ex: mass production → mass literacy (through mass publication) → the nation-state
Def of Nation-State: a sovereign state whose citizens or subjects are relatively homogeneous in factors such as language or common descent
What is a Myth, and what does it establish?
- “a sacred narrative explaining how the world & humankind came to be in their present form”
- Establish models of behavior, norms, morals/ethics, values and ideas of justice.
What are Joseph Campbell’s four functions of myth?
- Mystical
- Cosmological
- Sociological
- Pedagogical
What is the definition of the Mystical Function of myth?
reconcile waking consciousness to the mystery of universe (beyond words and representation)
What is the definition of the Cosmological Function of myth?
bring the observable world into accord with the metaphysical and psychological meanings rendered by the other functions of myth
What is the definition of the Sociological Function of myth?
confirm and support the current order,
often based on divine intervention
