Definition of Communication

Communication is effectively knowing how to express oneself in every situation with any
interlocutor both verbally and non-verbally (facial expressions, voice, and posture), in a clear and
coherent manner with one's mood. The listener determines if communication is effective, that is, if
the listener understood, what he understood what he wanted to express, not the speaker

Values of Communication

Communication is vital to the sustained growth of any relationship, whether personal or professional
{1}. The value of communication is based on relevant and timely information. Without such
information, there can be no effective communication {2}. Communication is an important action in
everyday life and among all individuals and without it ideas cannot have a passage, discoveries
would remain hidden, thoughts would not be shared, people would not know each other fully and so
would lack a pooling of positive or negative situations.

References

1. Granatstein, Andrew, "Learning the Value of Effective Communication", JUne 24, 2015, The
University of Arizona, UA News, https://uanews.arizona.edu/blog/learning-value-effective-
communication, accessed May 152. Mader, Ron, "The Value of Communication", October 31, 2017,
Planeta.Com https://planeta.com/communication/, accessed May 15

EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION
References

Language Evolution, Chapter 15 – Evolution of Nonverbal Communication in

Hominids, https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/hss-language-evolution/wiki/chapter-15/, accessed May 27,
2019

Logan, Robert K. 2002, The five ages of communication, OCAD University Open Research
Repositoryhttp://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/891/1/Logan_Five_2002.pdf

Ramaa and Shelar, 2017, An Analysis of Digital Era Human Communication with specific reference to
Late Adolescents in Pune, https://www.scmspune.ac.in/chapter/2017/Chapter1.pdf

RHETORICAL COMMUNICATION TRADITION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqo9iU-yKHY
HALL'S WORKINGS OF POWER THROUGH COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

Norman King

a. What is the image/advertisement/product you chose?

A TV advertisement for a bath soap has been making rounds on social media because of its touching
story about the first Aeta to graduate from the University of the Philippines.

Norman King, who graduated from UP Manila last year, retells the struggles of being an Aeta student
in Manila.

Woven within the three-minute commercial directed by Pepe Diokno is King’s mom’s pieces of
advice that resonated throughout his journey to education. Aptly called Pabaon sa Buhay,
Safeguard’s new commercial tackled the discrimination against the indigenous peoples (IPs) by other
light-skinned Filipinos.

Throughout the commercial, viewers can see some Filipinos’ reactions, thoughts, and treatment
towards the IPs because of their ethnicity (NoliSoli, 2018).

b. What does the image/advertisement/product you chose saying about race?

In the late twentieth century sociologists began to talk about a new identity crisis, once considered
an elementary concept but which was becoming increasingly difficult to define. According to
sociologist Stuart Hall, the cause had to be traced to the structural change that changed modern
societies, fragmenting the cultural spheres of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, and nationality.
These were the contexts of reference to which we anchored our conception of who we are.

One instance portrayed in the commercial was when a guard stopped Norman as he was walking to
enter the university. Because of his ethnic attire, the guard must have assumed that he wasn’t
actually a student—perhaps the guard thought he was just lost. Norman had to present his student
ID to prove he did have business there.
This shows how we always judge people and assign certain fixed ideas or stereotypes to them based
on how they look or what they wear. It’s a totally normal act, but still something we can change and
improve on.

Even Norman’s batchmates, despite being more “educated” supposedly, are guilty of looking at him
through an exoticized lens. Calling his “look” authentic and cool made the traditional attire sound
more like a fashion statement than an expression of culture (NoliSoli, 2018).

c. Hall emphasizes that the mainstream media perpetuates racionalization of people. How does
image.advertisement/product you chose implement this?

Hall states that the rapidity, continuity, and vastness of the change that originated in the 20th
century had generated a sense of instability. Traditions and social conventions are subject to
continuous examination, are challenged and often altered by new information flowing due to the
growing global interconnection. The global marketing leads to the appearance of the same lifestyles,
places, and images in each country, weakening the traditional conception of a stable nationality and
cultural identity. A mixture of global culture implies that identities are now disconnected from the
era, the place, the history and the traditions to which they belonged and that we now find ourselves
with a range of identities among which, depending on the moment, we can choose.

"There are 110 IP groups in the Philippines, with each community possessing its own traditional
knowledge that had been passed on from one generation to the other. But how many of these
groups are known to us? How many Filipinos are aware of them? Many of us do not realize that
various aspects of our modern lifestyle originated from traditional practices. They can help us dig
deeper into their traditional knowledge and relate it to our modern living so that Filipinos will have
greater appreciation of our culture and concern for our culture bearers' welfare (Legarda, 2012).

d. What does the image/advertisement/product say about being Filipino? Why do we need to
imitate other people's race?

One instance portrayed in the commercial was when a guard stopped Norman as he was walking to
enter the university. Because of his ethnic attire, the guard must have assumed that he wasn’t
actually a student—perhaps the guard thought he was just lost. Norman had to present his student
ID to prove he did have business there.

This shows how we always judge people and assign certain fixed ideas or stereotypes to them based
on how they look or what they wear. It’s a totally normal act, but still, something we can change and
improve on (NoliSoli, 2018).

The damaged psychological state of the native people brought on by previous colonial rule of
America has resulted in the success the Filipino skin whitening industry. This can be attributed to the
mistreatment of the native population, and the subsequent development of internalized oppression,
colonial mentality, and an ingrained preference for white skin (Singson, 2015).

e. Why do you think is media perpetuating such one and distinct race and identity?

Within the discourse (system of meanings) of global consumerism, the cultural differences and
distinctions used to define identity have become a sort of global currency. For example, jeans and
sneakers, once associated with "being American", now belong in the same way to the identity of
young Indians or Kenyans. If the Afro-French philosopher Franz Fanon affirmed that blacks had
always been defined as "other" by whites, Hall maintains that on a global scale cultures are put
together with one another, where the other is not simply "there outside ”but also inside. Individuals
increasingly come from a mixture of living spaces, ancestors and different places of birth and are
aware of having within them a series of identities that can emerge at different times. This internal
and external diversity, says Hall, is the force that is shaping our present.

In our consumption-oriented, mediated society, much of what comes to pass as important is based
often on the stories produced and disseminated by media institutions. Much of what audiences
know and care about is based on the images, symbols, and narratives in radio, television, film, music,
and other media. How individuals construct their social identities, how they come to understand
what it means to be male, female, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native American—even rural or
urban—is shaped by commodified texts produced by media for audiences that are increasingly
segmented by the social constructions of race and gender. Media, in short, are central to what
ultimately come to represent our social realities (Brooks and Hébert, 2006)

References

Noli Soli. (2018, June 21) This commercial just revealed internalized discrimination against
indigenous peoples. {Blog}. Retrieved from https://nolisoli.ph/44375/norman-king-safeguard/

Senate of the Philippines 18th Congress. (2012). Legarda highlights role of indigenous media

in giving voice to cultural communities {Press release}. Retrieved

from https://www.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2012/0809_legarda2.asp

Singson F. (2015, April 16-18). Colonialism’s Role in the Success of the Filipino Skin Whitening
Industry. Retrieved from https://auctus.vcu.edu/PDF/SOSCI_FS.pdf

Brooks, D., & Hébert L. (2006, June 11) Gender, Race, and

Media representation, 297. Retrieved from https://www.corwin.com/sites/default/files/upm-

binaries/11715_Chapter16.pdf
SHORT 1

Netflix has revolutionized the world of web TV but it has also changed my lifestyle habits. My desire
to spend a couple of hours at home in the evening, relaxing and watching a movie or a TV series in
fact has changed over time. I seldom use television in favor of a laptop and mobile phone due to the
nature of my job, I rarely go to the cinema and it has also reduced my use of social networks. Nights
have become privileged moments to spend time with my family on Netflix whenever I am in the
Philippines to watch a new series or the latest film. It has also intensified my binge watching habit in
a good way because I just stay at home veering away from compulsive buying whenever I am at the
mall or supermarket.

Home entertainment has therefore reached a turning point thanks to the fact that that I can choose
when and how much I want to see my favorite programs. With Netflix I can choose what
to see, when to see it and how . I am the master of what I want to watch and it has relegated
television to its original role as a simple household appliance. Some of the strengths of Netflix
include accessible costs, comfort, quality and originality. Another aspect is the attention that the
company reserves to the tastes, comments and opinion of the public that is constantly monitored
through the internet to understand the liking or otherwise of a TV series or a movie.
Netflix uses its own platform to understand what its users like and above all to understand what
they would like to see. Being able to understand what your customers like is not just to ensure a
personalized experience, but to understand what to aim for to produce new successful television
series.
Another factor that makes it an innovative service for me is the fact that the content database is
developed and updated daily starting from the reactions, comments and interactions with users that
allow the company to measure the public's satisfaction with the contents in quickly, directly on the
internet.
Netflix is one of the most loved brands and has been able to create a new , engaging customer
experience and introduce new levels and systems of interaction with consumers while always
maintaining their attention and expectation on products and services.
I am talking about a company that is probably unique in its kind, always capable of attracting the
curiosity of the public through constant word of mouth and without having to resort to large
advertising investments.

Photo:
(Screenshot of Netflix website) Retrieved from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix

SHORT 2

It has become impossible to keep track of the hoaxes put around. It’s has become normal to see
the web and social media flooded with fake news or distorted news. About fifty years ago it was said
that freedom could be threatened by the scarcity of information, and instead, today is exactly the
opposite. The Internet, with the great mass of information it produces and disposes of, appears to us
problematic and ambiguous, as full of opportunities as it is of pitfalls. In reality, it seems that social
media is no longer a simple means of communication, rather they have entered so strongly in
everyday life that it now appears as our real habitat. It is as if the new medium had become true and
proper reality builders, beyond the reality itself. We are in front of a weakening of the real for the
benefit of its representations which is often false. We all now know well how social networks are at
the center of every social, work and human dynamic. From vacations to the death of a VIP, from the
terrorist attack to the weekend's after-party, everything, in short, seems made to give news on
social networks. We are in the age of the spectacle of every little fragment of life, and it doesn't
matter if what has just been shared on social media is real or not.

Newspapers, radio, and television do not have the same dynamic as social networks. Through the
Internet, anyone can contribute to spreading news even in good faith. Once, at most, they were
shared with family, friends or colleagues. Today we can communicate any news to thousands of
other people, without having the tools to understand if it is true. In doing so, however, we run the
risk of spreading falsified information, which has a lasting impact on public opinion.

But what drives us to believe in fake news? Probably the extent of the false news, which usually cites
credible, but untruthful, sources or a particular transport towards the news. All this leads us to
believe and reconstitute what in reality does not exist. The digital natives who can, without
problems, switch from Facebook to Instagram easily get deceived when they have to evaluate
information passing through social media. The role of social networks is crucial and central to
information, they are the sounding board, through massive and instantaneous sharing, of news and
information, including fake news. With the advent of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
various blogs, readers' ever-increasing sharing is increasingly important in orienting both content
production and distribution, and people's moods and fears. Social networks have the function
of "megaphone": through easy sharing - with a click - they amplify the scope of more or less founded
news.

Fake news is permanently accessible thanks to the internet, while at the same time the control of
the contents by the media has weakened. This means that every citizen now has to start and learn to
think a bit like a fact-checker. To combat misinformation people need to recognize hoaxes. Social
media is an extraordinary tool of communication but we should carefully follow what happens,
without being overwhelmed by fears. We must be cautious. The use of fake news can undermine the
basis of our civil coexistence. With a strategic spread of fake news, not even too complicated and
expensive to implement, you can quickly destroy the trust in the institutions of a state and plunge a
population into total confusion. It can be difficult because fake news is packaged by experts. Those
who spread fake news are logical and start from true or plausible facts. Their purpose is precisely to
make it difficult or impossible to recognize the true from the false. We need to develop our
defenses: we should not rely on the Internet for unnecessary personal information; we should not
consent to the processing of our data on the Internet when we use an application that is also trivial.
We should be wary of anonymous or doubtful accounts, we report the fake profiles we encounter
and most importantly we pay attention to the news we read and share.