Lecture 10Important Concepts The constitutive view of communicationCommunication and Reality traditional view: we use communication to describe a world of facts that exists independently from us, the observershelps you name things around youhelps you point at stuff that is already there *constitutive view: we use communication to:1. make sense of the world togetherto get on the same page of what is going on in the world…2. … in order to be able to exist and act togetherwe want to do stuff with each otherExample 1: “Drinking in college”popular view of drinking in college:too much drinking student misconductEngstrom: the popular view is inaccuratetoo much drinking  student talk about too much drinking student misconductthat talk does something important that then leads to misconducttalking about alcohol has something to do with “being a man” and masculinitytalk normalizes misconductEngstrom the communicative constitution of excessive drinking collegetalking about it as if it were okay or cool (normalization)talking about it as if it were manly (dangerous, tough, wild—> college masculinity)college masculinity is a specific type of being a mantalking like this enough to make such talk familiar, recognizable, usefulresults: a casual relationship between college drinking and misconduct is created that seems real and natural to manystarts to seem normal that college student misconduct is common because of drinkingExample 2: how do we define “human”? humans have been defined in a number of ways throughout history:culturecivilizationrightsphysical abilities the way we talk about humans has changed over timeculture18th century European thinking: Kultur = high artaroditeearly 20th century thinking: everyone is a member of “a culture”21st century/today’s thinking: almost everyone belongs to multiple “cultures”civilization18th century European thinking: thought the Europeans were the most civilized people in the world; the pinnacle of humanity21st century European thinking: don’t believe that the border of civilization divides eastern and western EuroperightsCivil Rights Movement had to fight for equal rights for all humanstoday’s thinking: can only humans have rights? what about other organisms? animals?physical abilitiesin Ancient Greece: fascination with the natural human bodytoday’s thinking: fascination with the augmentation of the human bodyhow can we enhance our physical abilitiesour bodies are no longer enougha future issue: where does a human stop being a human and become a machine?Is nothing “really real”if all reality really depends on how we talk about it, does that mean that nothing is “really real”?the philosophical question that prompted The Matrixconstitutive view of communication: we, humans, create our own reality together by consistently applying language and other communication resources to our shared experiencewe take a lot of things for granted and misunderstandthe more people around us talk about something, the more “real” it becomes to usex. politicians buy ad time on TV so you hear it over and over againthe constitutive view does not believe that nothing is really realphysical reality is in fact realExample 3: “Gravity”is gravity real?yes, in the sense that if you trip you will fall (physical fact)also yes, in the sense that you can know and say things about that physical fact (human/social facts)once you start talking about it, it becomes a social/human fact rather than a physical factex. we can explain why we fallwe can come up w/ explanations of why it’s dangerous to fallwhy we don’t always fallwhy it’s sometimes funny or embarrassing to fallCOMM 1210 1st Edition Lecture 10 Important Concepts The constitutive view of communication Communication and Reality  traditional view: we use communication to describe a world of facts that exists independently from us, the observers- helps you name things around you- helps you point at stuff that is already there  *constitutive view: we use communication to: 1. make sense of the world together- to get on the same page of what is going on in the world…  2. … in order to be able to exist and act together- we want to do stuff with each other Example 1: “Drinking in college”- popular view of drinking in college:o too much drinking student misconduct- Engstrom: the popular view is inaccurateo too much drinking  student talk about too much drinking student misconducto that talk does something important that then leads to misconduct talking about alcohol has something to do with “being a man” and masculinity o talk normalizes misconductThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. Engstrom  the communicative constitution of excessive drinking college- talking about it as if it were okay or cool (normalization)- talking about it as if it were manly (dangerous, tough, wild—> college masculinity)o college masculinity is a specific type of being a man- talking like this enough to make such talk familiar, recognizable, usefulo results: a casual relationship between college drinking and misconduct is created that seems real and natural to many o starts to seem normal that college student misconduct is common because of drinking Example 2: how do we define “human”?  humans have been defined in a number of ways throughout history:- culture- civilization- rights- physical abilities  the way we talk about humans has changed over time- cultureo 18th century European thinking: Kultur = high art arodite o early 20th century thinking: everyone is a member of “a culture”o 21st century/today’s thinking: almost everyone belongs to multiple “cultures”- civilizationo 18th century European thinking: thought the Europeans were the most civilized people in the world; the pinnacle of humanityo 21st century European thinking: don’t believe that the border of civilization divides eastern and western Europe- rightso Civil Rights Movement had to fight for equal rights for all humanso today’s thinking: can only humans have rights? what about other organisms? animals?- physical abilitieso in Ancient Greece: fascination with the natural human bodyo today’s thinking: fascination with the augmentation of the human body how