This article is about Russian airliner that crashed near a city in the Urals, killing all 88 people on board, caught fire and exploded in mid-air. Although this is a typical news report of a plane crash, there are many communication tools being employed in just this one article. Reading the article, one can see the different types of cognitive schemata being used here to portray the information intended. Such use of cognitive schemata include scripts where there is an organization of events, or pieces of information arranged in specific sequences. For example the article starts of by stating the amount of casualties, time and place of the event. This is followed by witness accounts and description of what happened during the flight. Other organizational principles used here include figure ground where a picture of the burning inferno is shown at the backdrop of dark shadows of buildings. Such contrasting images of the inferno of the plane wreckage and the dark shadows of the buildings forces readers to focus their attention to the inferno more clearly. Although sometimes local news or even foreign news may just be a day to day event, do open your eyes and notice the subtle use of such communication devices to alter and restrict our perceptions on a particular issue or event. As the human mind is complex and we store different schemata and have different stero and prototypes, each individual perceives the same piece of information given differently. All in all for such public display of information, communication devices such as cognitive and schemata and organization principles help the majority focus with the same intended objective.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
News! Open your eyes and you will see things more clearly
This article is about Russian airliner that crashed near a city in the Urals, killing all 88 people on board, caught fire and exploded in mid-air. Although this is a typical news report of a plane crash, there are many communication tools being employed in just this one article. Reading the article, one can see the different types of cognitive schemata being used here to portray the information intended. Such use of cognitive schemata include scripts where there is an organization of events, or pieces of information arranged in specific sequences. For example the article starts of by stating the amount of casualties, time and place of the event. This is followed by witness accounts and description of what happened during the flight. Other organizational principles used here include figure ground where a picture of the burning inferno is shown at the backdrop of dark shadows of buildings. Such contrasting images of the inferno of the plane wreckage and the dark shadows of the buildings forces readers to focus their attention to the inferno more clearly. Although sometimes local news or even foreign news may just be a day to day event, do open your eyes and notice the subtle use of such communication devices to alter and restrict our perceptions on a particular issue or event. As the human mind is complex and we store different schemata and have different stero and prototypes, each individual perceives the same piece of information given differently. All in all for such public display of information, communication devices such as cognitive and schemata and organization principles help the majority focus with the same intended objective.
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3 comments:
AH! I see you are a fellow BBC follower!
Yup, if you want to look for various communication tools in action, then you will need to look no further than the media.
In fact, the media knows that the art of communication is invaluable. That is why many communications students end up working in the media.
I also noticed the use of pathos in describing the accident. The interviews with eyewitness and the part about an eyewitness' daughter waking up in the night really helps us to realise the severity of the crash.
You mentioned about cognitive schematas. The media would do well to take the audiences' perception in mind. If not, the audience may misinterpret the news, causing misunderstanding to arise. As the ideal news agent should report the undiluted truth, this is something to look into.
I guess they arranged it this way to attract the reader's attention? Starting the article with large numbers of casualties, showing how tragic it was. With the accident being more severe, more people being killed, the more excitement the article has and therefore giving the reader more reasons to read the article. Sad, but that's how most of us are.
There was a study done, where the reaction to witnessing real life violence, and the reaction of witnessing violence on TV is noted.
It was found that people are so de-sensitised to violence, and disasters on the TV, papers, or the media. It has become the norm, and we tunnel-vision in our small little world, choosing to shut the rest of the world out, telling ourselves we can't do anything.
Ignorance is bliss. But ignorance doesn't induce change. It's true that we can only do so much to earthquakes in another country. However, I believe we should be asking what can we do for someone today in our small circle of life?
Regards,
Shawn Lee Wei Bin
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