Com 250 Exam

opposite of background/ context, anything that pulls something from the background into the foreground. Also helps to w/ the Def of situation shifts the meaning of stuff. A simple message or interpretable act (oral/ written statement, gesture, picture, logo)

interested in the relationship between technology and society, technology drives the social world (tugboat metaphor) technology is separate from society. Technology drives society. Cars replaced feet etc.

the medium is what really changes the social world. Internet/ cable news TV has changed politics; the fact that we use a technology arranges a society.

study meanings of body movement, physical appearance. Vocalics- the study of how voice can create context for understanding words. Haptics- the study of how people develop meanings for touch behaviors. Proxemics- the study of distance as a comm. Message. Environment- the study of how meaning is affected by where people interact. Artifacts- study of communicative potential of object display. Chronemics- study of how people communicate different messages through the manipulation of time.

the behavior we signal to another person the desire to be closer to them, emotional responses, attraction, dominance and arousal.

stuff you can’t move, lacks permeability, humans have to adjust to the architecture it disturbs intimacy, fell uncomfortable (courthouse, jail, campus)

airports in his indictment of hard architecture. These funnels and tunnels rank high in any list of socially destructive buildings. Example, people stand in front of plastic chairs in an airport because this seating is arranged to discourage conversation. They stand to form social circles and communicate more directly.

explains the means by which people maintain inner balance, congruency or consistency among attitudes, opinions and beliefs. We try to behave in consistent ways, the internal picture of yourself that we work hard to maintain.

system balance or preferred state.

The overall system of symbolic message structure

A particular and unique property of spokenness

stand in a one – to – one unambiguous relationship to what they represent

verify the relations between things. Direct and organize our thoughts or references. The relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary and held together by culture (Example banana is the signifier and fruit is the signified.

a sign that resembles its objet in some way, it looks or sounds like it. It bears resemblance to its object. There is some necessary relationship between signifier and the signified. (photograph)

in an index there is a direct link between the sign and its object, the two are actually connected. There is a necessary relationship between the signifier and the signified is highly motivated (smoke is the signifier and fire is the signified) (Sneeze signifies a tickly nose)