Message Propagation

When Claude Shannon (1949) developed his model of information, he was concerned with noise in telephone systems and how to reduce it or change the message structure to insure its reception. Human information systems have noise, too.

To avoid any confusion with other various notions of information, which fail to recognize that one can receive information without being informed, one may use a specific definitional model by noting the difference between the message and meaning in the definition of information. This definition critiques Paisley’s (1980) notion of information, which refers to any stimulus that changes the information recipient’s cognitive structure (see also, Hayes, 1991).

Since the term information may require particular focus on the information seeker or recipient – which is beyond the concern of this post – I prefer using the term message propagation.

In his definition of information, Hayes (1991) emphasizes the need to differentiate among facts, data, information, communication, and understanding. Information, according to Hayes involves data processing. We will assume that the processing of data is similar to message propagation, a process that is external to the information recipient. Once the information is communicated, the recipient derives the meaning from the message.

This process of message propagation is dependent on various factors such as context and the cognitive ability to both code and decode the data. A STOP sign in the Gujarati language is a piece of message. But my cognitive inability to understand the language makes me unable to decode the meaning.

Information does not therefore necessarily incorporate the element of meaning. Since the process of crafting the message is not similar to the process of extracting meanings, one must use the term message propagation to refer to what is ordinarily defined as information. I have adopted this approach in examining the process of propagating the message - not meaning - in a restrictive information environment.

Although Hayes (1993) has used this approach in his examination of the relationship among terms that informs information complexity, he demarcates terms as either internal or external to the recipient. I have advanced that argument by positing that message propagation requires an understanding of factors external and internal of the recipient.

Discourse Analysis

There was a time when the phrase discourse analysis (DA) meant something that was fairly clear and conceptually coherent.It dates from the early to mid 70s. It was part of the dissatisfaction with a linguistic tradition that dealt with nothing above phrases and sentences, a tradition that had no appreciation for "discourse" as a profoundly social venue of social action. Austin reminds us that we do things with words. An early work of this kind was by Sinclaire and Coulthard's (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse, Oxford University Press. (I encourage my students to get and read the preface and introduction of this text). These two sections provide the reader with a profound historical account of this development.

But, that was then, and this is now. And what 'DA' means now is very difficult to say. It has become a generic phrase. Of all people, Foucault was hugely responsible for popularizing the phrase [epistemic discourses, historical discourses, etc.]. It has become a covering phrase for 'programs' that otherwise share very very little in common. I recommend reading Foucault's The Archeology of Knowledge (1969), Routledge.

When working on my dissertation, I examined what I called the Janusian* figure of the Zimbabwean president,Robert Mugabe for his presence in both antagonistic positions in a communication battle in a political setting – as first the rebel clandestine broadcaster, and then as the sanctioned oppressor of communication. In my study, I examined message propagation in an information restrictive environment. It paid attention to this complex communication process by analyzing the discourse of messages propagated by sanctioned and clandestine radio stations.

This kind of DA encompasses, among other approaches, the idea of turn taking, the looks of transcript, ways of finding structure,and the clash of information cognitive authorities.(Read Patrick Wilson's (1983)Second-hand knowledge: An inquiry into cognitive authority.

There are other researchers who work with a different form of literature, and make use of other terms: Conversation analysis,conversational analysis or sequential analysis (Thanks to my friend, Dr. Doug Macbeth, Ohio State University). According to Macbeth, sequential analysis is fundamentally a sociological program. It treat conversation as the primordial site of "language use." It has strong affiliations to "natural language study."

In an e-mail message to this author, Macbeth argued that sequential analysis treats talk (conversations) as social action, and the achievements of talk as the achievements of common understanding and thus worlds in common.

But natural conversation is not what I examined in my dissertation research. My research is about radio messages. Is that a form of 'discourse'. Well, yes.

People have said that how we "dress" is a form of discourse too. Is it analyzable? Of course. But sequential analysis would not have too much to say about it. Sequential analysis looks at "talk-in-interaction." It looks at sequential structures, how we "go on" in conversation.

Analyzing a billboard, for example, is quite different from analyzing a moving image document. There, we must say something about its 'content'. Sequential analysis speak of what people say too -the content- but as social action. That is, what we 'mean' is inseparable from 'how we say it', e.g., the difference between a joke and an insult. Thus, the practice of talking is inseparable from what gets said. How we interpret and react to a STOP sign on a highway is different if we saw it on our neighbor's backyard.

PS: Visit University of North Texas library for an electronic version of D.N.Wachanga's (2007)Sanctioned and controlled message propagation in a restrictive information environment: The small world of clandestine radio broadcasting.
___________________________________________________
*Janus was a Roman god who guarded the doors – both the entry and the exit – of Forum Romanum, the idyllic center for the Roman People. Janus was therefore portrayed as double-faced, looking back and forward, the beginning and the end.

Beauty

There is a common phrase: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But different eyes may need different lenses. Some eyes may not need any lenses. Would such variations affect perception?

That the perception of beauty is inborn, with certain similar features exhibiting universal recognition, is intriguing. Is perception, then, a socio-cultural construct?

From where I come from, for instance, there are tales and ethnic mythologies constructed around beautiful girls who have a gap between their milk teeth.I am using the term "myth" in a very broad and deep sense. Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski sees myths as characters of extant social institutions. They are anything but allegories of physical processes. In various African folklore, we have beautiful village girls escaping unhurt when the ogres strike. Many a times,it is the boy who spears the ogre. The order of patriarchy may explain why.

But let us also think about other forms of beauty - like the one exhibited by the Egyptian Nefertiti, the clean-shaved epitome of feminine beauty in the Egyptian mythology (the beautiful-perfect-woman has come, being the meaning of her name) who lived and mysteriously disappeared more than 3,500 years ago. What about the ancient Greek sculpture of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty? Both were not gap-toothed but beautiful.

A gap-toothed girl from the Kenyan highlands who exhibits features of beauty that makes her a "village belle" may not feature in an American beauty pageant or appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine. I am not sure she would interest music video companies, unless for other purposes but beauty.

But we can look at it this way, too. As I understand, there are social constructs built on top of "hard-wired" constructs. So, e.g., one culture may prize gap-toothed women, and another despise gap-toothed women; however, men in both would look for symmetry of features and other signs of good health (an asymetrical face would possibly mean a bone malformation - a sign of an ailment or genetic mutation not desirable in a child-bearing woman). This might lead us to another question: Does physical attraction - assuming beautiful women attract men - trigger child bearing psychological circuits?

Other studies show a tendency of women to be sexually attracted to square-jawed muscular men, but to want less square-jawed men to be the parent of their children (quick evolutionary psychology explanation: the square-jawed man can get any female he desires and thus would not stay around as a a parent; the less square-jawed man gets the promise of sex and care in return of sticking around to help with the kids!)

African documentary Film?

What exactly do we mean when we talk of African documentary film? Is there a canon, an authority that can help us define it as a discipline, profession and its scholars, in other words, which people and ideas belong to it as a genre and which do not?
Is African documentary film about Africa even when it is produced by a non-African? What about an African producing a documentary film about a non-African society? What if a documentary film is produced by a non-African, is about Africa, but with the producer as the narrator? We may also think of a documentary film about Africa that uses a non-African language.Do such films qualify as African?

Class,let us address these questions before our next meeting.

Dr. Wachanga

Todd,A:theteej-mythoughts.blogspot.com
Jordan,A:jordan4415.blogspot.com
Mendez,A:andrewmendez4415.blogspot.com
William, A: wca0013.blogspot.com
Nathan,B:loveitman.blogspot.com
Canon, B:canonbuckingham.blogspot.com
Oswald,B:oz19.blogspot.com
Michael,B:
Joseph,C:jwc4415.blogspot.com
Christopher,C:dominuschris.blogspot.com
Dirk, E:dirkellerd.blogspot.com
Stephen,G:srgreen.blogspot.com
Heather,H:heatherhahn.blogspot.com
Michael,H:mikeh4415.blogspot.com
Lakesha, H:LakeshaHaskins.blogspot.com
James,H:holtarts.blogspot.com
Mitchell, H:mitchellhester.blogspot.com
Joey,K:
Dustin, M:rtvf4415dustin.blogspot.com
Sofia, M:lifelikenow.blogspot.com
Edwardo, M:bigmez.blogspot.com
Kristen,N:ktn4415.blogspot.com
Courtney,P:courtney1382.blogspot.com
Frederick,Q:frederick-quaye.blogspot.com
Anthony,R:
Olivia, S:africangirl25.blogspot.com
David,S:davidcsavage.blogspot.com
Prudence, U:prukwis.blogspot.com
Villarreal, V:vcvillarreal.blogspot.com

RTVF 4415
Spring 2008
Cultural and Community (mis)representation in African Documentary Films
RTVP 264
Wednesday 1- 3.50 p.m.

Professor: D. Ndirangu Wachanga, PhD
Phone/Office­­­: 940-369-8886/GAB 550 J
E-ddress: wn0003@unt.edu
Blog: wachanga.blogspot.com
untrtvf4415.blogspot.com/

Course ­­description - (with thanks to Dr. Lambiase)

Documentary films and movies are often charged with misrepresentation or with generating misleading cultural representation by the use of stereotypes. Yet, documentary film, like mass media depends on these stereotypes to be efficient in communicating to large and diverse audiences. These challenges are the concerns of this course. We will use case studies of selected African documentary films to examine how documentary films use stereotypes in their portrayal of the African community and its cultures. We will use various readings as tools to analyze cultural and community portrayal and stereotyping of Africa in the selected documentary films.

Stereotyping is not new. African storytellers, for instance, have long used a kind of shorthand when they refer to the lion, elephant, hyena and hare in their stories. Sometimes, these characterizations may be justifiable ways to do cultural work. However, stereotypes have increasingly become a languid way of (mis)representation that may do damage in subtle ways to audience perceptions and beliefs.

Walter Lippmann (1912) has noted that the “subtlest and most pervasive of all influences are those which create and maintain the repertory of stereotypes. We’re told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them.” Seeing through stereotypes subjects us to partial truths. Of more concern is the absence of any representations of some groups (a kind of visual annihilation); but even with multiple representations, some groups are narrowly portrayed, so multiplicity doesn’t necessarily lead to diversity.

This course seeks to engage students in scholarly pursuits of the pattern of African cultural portrayal in documentary film and the history of these patterns. Also, the course seeks to examine how these patterns have become part of documentary film structures and the people who work within these structures. To meet these challenges, students will critically appraise documentary films through semiotic and the analysis of images and discourse.

Texts
This class does not have a required textbook. You will create a blog through www.blogger.com where you will post your discussions from class readings. Reading materials will be provided in class. You will, however, be required to make copies of necessary course and presentation materials for your colleagues.

Sample Readings

1. Diawara, M. (1989). “Oral Literature and African Film” Narratology in Wend Kuuni, in Questions of Third Cinema, Pines & Willemen (Eds).
2. Fiske, J. (1996). “The Codes of Television” in Media Studies, Marris & Thornham (Eds).
3. Hall, S. (2000). “Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation” in Film and Theory: An Anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller (Eds).
4. Kierkegaard, A. (2001) “Questioning the origins of the negative images of Africa in Medieval Europe.” In Encounter Images, Palmberg, M. (Ed).
5. Palmberg, M (2001). Encounter Images: In the meeting between Africa and Europe
6. Rouch, J. (2003). “The Situation and Tendencies of the Cinema in Africa” in Cine-ethnography, Steven Feld (Ed).
7. Ukadike, N (1994). “Western Image of Africa” in Black Africa Cinema

PS. Other readings will be provided in course of the semester.

Goals

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the African culture and its (mis)representation in documentary film
2. Trace structures that create or enforce African stereotypes
   
3. Develop skills to critique documentary film as a representation of culture and community
4. Develop skills to critique images, language and sound, and how they convey messages of cultural identity or lack of it
5. Examine the view of Africa by the “other,” and cultural interpretation by the “other” in documentary film
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of groups in a global society in relation to documentary film
7. Think creatively, critically and independently
8. Write correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for the communication professions, audiences and documentary critics

Evaluation

Two research projects 40%
Presentation 15%
Blog 10%
Participation 5%
Final Project 30%

Grading of these assignments will be based on a sophisticated analysis of prior classroom discussion and assigned readings, on thorough research, and on skillful use of language and exhibition of a critical faculty. Late assignments will NOT be accepted. Professional standards will be modeled and upheld for presentations and written assignments.

Office hours

I will be in my office 11 to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, and just before and after our class. Other office hours are available by appointment.

Attendance
One absence in the course is the limit without penalty toward your final grade, unless you have communicated with me from the beginning about an extraordinary problem. Coming to class late or leaving early may constitute an absence for that day.

Accommodation

If a student requires special accommodations, s/he must contact the instructor and the Office of the Disability Accommodation. I am happy to work with any special needs you may have.

Academic Honesty

Any form of cheating is prohibited by the Department of Radio, Television, and Film code of ethics. When you submit work for this class, that is the same as making a statement that you have produced the work yourself, in its entirety. Plagiarism, copyright infringement, and similar uses of other people’s work are unacceptable. Plagiarism in a nutshell is using other people’s written words as your own. Some people consider the use of 7-10 words in a row, copied from another source, as a plagiarism. Be sure to include citations when using other people’s writing, because plagiarism is a serious offense in any discipline. It’s a firing offense in the professional world. In this department, students face a range of penalties for plagiarism (depending on the importance of the assignment): grade “F” on a minor assignment; a request that the student drop the class; withdrawal of the student from the class, initiated by the instructor; a referral to the UNT Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities; a notation on the student’s transcript; and expulsion from the university. A combination of the penalties may also be applied.

Syllabus

Week 1, Jan. 16: Course introduction, deadlines; conversations guidelines, blogging instructions

Week 2, Jan. 23: Lecture - (De) colonizing the gaze: Stereotypes; a way of thinking and self-perception, colonial projections and African responses.

Week 3, Jan 30: Film and discussion – “Rouch in Reverse” by Manthia Diawara

Week 4, Feb 6: Africa and the cinema; media in Black Africa before the arrival of the cinema, Western images of Africa: Geneology of an ideological formulation

Film and discussion - “An Ox for a Baby”

Week 5, Feb 13: Research day: Find a documentary film and attempt to establish patterns of portrayal of people and cultures. Are stereotypes included? How did you establish them? Of what value are these depictions? What value, if any, do they serve? By placing the film within its production context, do the stereotypes reveal a representation of any particular era/period?

Ps. You will write a three-page, double-spaced report of your own findings (Due Feb. 20). You will make a brief presentation in class about your findings. We will discuss about the presentation schedule in class.

Week 6, Feb. 20: Film Day; The Gods Must Be Crazy. Discussion; Report due

Week 7, Feb 26: Lecture: Decolonized thought, Africa betrayed, the mirror-space, struggle with one self, oral tradition and documentary representation, impact of modernity.

Week 8, Mar 5: Guest speaker: Prof. Brian O’Connor

Film – “No Place to go”

Week 9, Mar 12: Guest Speaker- Prof. Jacque Lambiase

Lecture: Culture and film of politics of liberation in Africa; – Cultural portrayal and stereotyping

Week 10, Mar 19: SPRING BREAK – NO CLASSES

Week 11, Mar 29: Film and discussion, “The Mother’s house,” 2nd assignment due

Week 12, Apr 2: Guest Speaker: Prof Brian O’Connor; Film - “In Reserve”

Week 13, Apr 9: Presentations

Week 14, Apr 16: Presentations

Week 15, Apr 23: Guest Speaker. Prof. Mitch Land

Film and discussion, “Of Fatwas and Beauty Queen.”

Week 16, Apr 30: Semester overview Contours of emerging trends, the centrality of culture in documentary films about Africa, The future of black Africa’s cinematic practices; Discussion.

Week 17, May 7: Final project due