Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
Chapter 12: Communication as a Means of Social Action
Lecture Outline
Chapter Overview:
In this chapter, Fassett and Warren explore how we can use our communication as a
means of social action. The chapter begins with a discussion of discipline and the ways in
which the field of communication studies is a discipline and the ways in which our bodies
are and have been discipline by institutions, such as the classroom. The authors’ also
discuss what can happen when we continually engaged in public advocacy and working
against the grain: cynicism, nihilism, and exhaustion. Warren and Fassett conclude the
chapter by suggesting six small, but meaningful, ways we can engage in social action in
our own lives.
Chapter Goals:
Articulate what social action means and how to engage in it
Explore the role of power in constraining our ability to act
Identify options for engaging in public advocacy
Become advocates for the issues you believe in while learning to listen to others
in a critical, compassionate manner
I. We are disciplined to think about situations we encounter, which leads us to
alternative interpretations and understandings of the same phenomenon or
experience.
a. Discipline has at least two connotations.
i. Discipline is about shaping behavior, punishment.
ii. Discipline is also a process of gaining expertise in a given area of
study or academic field.
b. Discipline is malleable and evolving.
i. It involves people’s participation and approval or dismissal of
certain practices.
ii. We tend to trust a disciplined hand, such as a speaker who has a
certain amount of ethos (or credibility).
c. People oftentimes resist discipline, thinking of it as a way of selling out.
i. These voices remind us that we develop some insights and lose
sight of others.
d. We learn to discipline ourselves and others.
i. This discipline occurs through communicated messages: stern
looks, verbal warnings, physical punishments, etc.
ii. Our bodies are easily controlled.
II. We are disciplined into likenesses (representations) of those before us.
a. This discipline is a type of simulacra.
i. It relies on the power of the relationship of those representations,
the suggestive power of real-ness.
b. Simulacra helps us see how culture is manipulated by others.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
III. We need to better understand the relationship between identity and
communication.
a. Identity is produced through communication.
b. We must account for how we contribute to and challenge power
relationships.
c. We must–in understanding culture and communication–learn about the
potential causes and effects of culture and how we are all implicated in
power relationships.
d. We need to consider what unites us—what we share and how we unite
along lines of difference.
i. We should ask how and for whom difference matters to us and why
we identify certain (but not all) differences.
ii. We produce difference, rather than recognizing that difference is
inherent in all we do, see, and are.
1. That is, what we share is difference; this does not
necessarily mean opposite.
2. Opposition limits our ability to act along and across narrow
conceptions of who we are.
a. Difference is more complicated than binaristic (the
root “bi” meaning “two” separate) lines.
3. Simple binaries limit the way we imagine who we are and
how we build relationships.
IV. So, what?
a. The idea that we’re always pushing against the grain, unable to move
under the weight of a “problem” is exhaustion.
b. Exhaustion can become cynicism, as though the work of critical
engagement is not worth the effort.
c. And, cynicism can lead to nihilism, or doom, despair, and hopelessness.
d. Exhaustion, cynicism, and nihilism can work to undermine critical efforts
for social justice.
V. With hard work comes possibility, and everyday communicative actions (and
inactions) help to change (or reaffirm) social structures.
a. Communication is central to advocacy.
i. Communication can produce change.
ii. We should balance our positions in systems of power.
iii. Listening allows us to elicit a critical orientation to the world,
looking beyond what we encounter.
iv. Diversity is all around us; seek strength in difference.
v. We must acknowledge the struggles we might encounter and put
forward great effort in those instances.
b. Reflexivity is the process of analyzing the role each of us plays in systems
of power.
i. It is about being accountable for our actions that enable systems of
oppression.
c. Engaging in dialogue is about encountering another with humility.
d. Critical literacy involves looking beyond the surface of a text.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
i. It requires that a reader of a text seek the agenda or ideology
endorsed by the text.
e. To be an advocate, we need to listen to the content of messages and the
relationships that accompany messages.
f. Speaking up is an important way to fight for justice for all and to fight
against forces that work against you and others.
g. Alliance building can be done by meeting others where they are, and
learning from them, dialoguing, and trusting can build alliances.
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