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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
Chapter 11: Mediated Culture(s)
Lecture Outline
Chapter Overview:
This chapter explores the ways in which mediated message impact our lives from the
Internet to PowerPoint. In doing so, Warren and Fassett examine the purpose of media,
the expected audience of media, how the way we act is determined by media, and how
cultural meanings are created through our relationship with mediated messages. The
authors conclude by offering the ways in which media can be utilized to more effectively
present a public message.
Chapter Goals:
Explore what media, in all its forms, is and how it relates to culture
Articulate the role of power as produced through media
Define our responsibilities as consumers of mediated images/messages
Explore how media shapes our identities
Apply critical communication theories to our use of media
I. Mediated messages are all around us and have the power to develop and shape our
perceptions, goals, desires, and beliefs.
a. We have the ability to read the media critically and to be aware of the
affect of the media.
b. Some examples of the media are television, advertising, internet,
magazine, newspaper, music, personal communication devices, and video
games.
c. It is nearly impossible to escape the media.
d. We use the media to serve our needs.
i. Coconstitution is a doubled effect of the media that explains how
we use and create media even as the media uses and creates us.
II. Consumers of media are encouraged to consider purposeful messages.
a. Feminist research has greatly affected the study of media and mediated
messages in magazines, television, and film.
b. Cultural studies and critical research attempts to show how media portray
power, privilege, and social inequalities.
c. Advertisers carefully design products and prepare a sales plan that features
those products in a way that ensures maximum profit.
d. Mediated representations are crafted and intentional.
i. These representations of reality have the power to do something to
an audience.
1. Representation has a multi-faceted meaning.
a. Fundamentally, representation is the re-presentation
of something, a replica.
b. Representation is also something that takes the
place of or stands in for something else.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
i. This understanding also suggests that
representations give meaning to the thing
they reflect.
ii. Learning how to see the power of media messages helps us to
become critical consumers and to make choices about what to
believe.
III. Media always has an expected audience.
a. Interpellation is a concept developed in an effort to explain how
individuals become who they are.
i. The call (hail) to an individual enabled a person to become
interpellated—to become the person the hail was meant for.
ii. Answering Ellsworth’s (1997) question “Who does this film think
you are?” is an example of call and response, or mode of address.
1. Mode of address relies on an understanding of an intended,
imagined audience so that the audience can engage or find
a relationship to a particular media.
2. Media attempt to create multiple points of connection that
allow an individual audience member to construct a
relationship to a mediated text.
IV. How we act is determined by the social norms established by the institutions in
which we participate and that guide and regulate our actions.
a. Some of those systems are government and educational.
b. One of the ways our actions are guided and regulated is through a strict
system of surveillance, which enables certain groups to surveil and
discipline others.
i. Power is sustained by maintaining a careful watch on those we
might wish to watch.
ii. Surveillance has a double effect:
1. No one has to be watching for discipline to work; we
behave as if we’re being watched all the time.
2. As technology increases, so does the power of surveillance;
we are accustomed to being watched more than ever before.
V. Because culture is in process, cultural meanings emerge in relationship between
people and social systems (i.e. power is always at play).
a. We negotiate social systems by understanding norms and behaviors.
i. Culture is a homogenizing force that maintains a kind of stability
within and across a social system.
b. Popular culture, rather, is inherently resistant.
i. Popular cultural texts are made by citizens to resist the dominant
messages one encounters.
ii. These texts work as a mechanism for talking back to systems of
dominance.
iii. Popular culture, then, is a micro level of resistance, located in the
everyday actions of people living their lives.
c. Media generally function as part of the dominant culture to hegemonically
reinforce norms.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
VI. Each day, individuals move through power and social control, in order to
negotiate their everyday lives.
a. French philosopher deCerteau suggested “strategies” and “tactics,” acts
used to establish or challenge power structures.
i. A strategy is something people already in power use to maintain
power.
ii. A tactic is an attempt by dominated individuals (and groups) to
accomplish their own goals.
1. These tactics change often in order to survive within the
power structures.
VII. Media aids and organization coupled with the audience, purpose, and speaker’s
voice enable a speaker to best construct a presentation.
a. Media aids for speaking refer to a variety of tools, including PowerPoint
slides, videos, and the chalkboard.
i. Using these media require careful practice and planning.
ii. Media should be appropriate to and fit the topic.
iii. Effective use of presentation media means: referring to – rather
than reading from – the media; putting an easily referenced amount
of text, graphics, and sources on the media (i.e. PowerPoint); and
careful editing and proofreading.
iv. Presentation media should strengthen a speaker’s credibility.
v. Video and audio segments should be used sparingly.
vi. Make certain visual aids are easily readable from a distance.
vii. Be strategic about distributing handouts and showing images.
b. Messages should be carefully built so that it is organized for both the
speaker and the audience.
i. Develop a topic along its central points, organizing them in a way
that helps the listener follow the argument.
1. Build a speech (or essay) in a way that helps the audience
learn what you’re sharing, helps them ask questions,
anticipates their concerns, and makes it possible for them to
apply the information to their lives.
ii. Limit the number of main points
1. Too many can cause confusion about the speaker’s (or
writer’s) argument.
iii. Choose an organizational pattern that is suitable for the topic.
1. Some examples of organizational patterns are
chronological/historical, topical, spatial, problem-solution,
and cause-effect.
c. Mediated and organizational choices do not carry a presentation alone;
these elements build with others to affect an audience.
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