The gift of cows

The cows and the Kenyan village represented values. By this i mean, the value that is represented by the media in the US is not the same as represented by the cows, but the values themselves are very similar. By giving the cows they were showing sympathy in giving up something they hold most dear. This would be similar to an America giving up their car or house to someone else. But instead the US represented their thanks by giving away education, something much more invaluable than would be giving a material object.

Communication as culture, Ch. 1

What I found most captivating about the two communication models was infact how truely different they both were, but when combined, make an immense amount of sense. The Transmission Model was mostly about the sender and receiver of a message. It relies upon mostly interpersonal communications and the sharing of meaning to understand. There's always something to be received, but merely receiving the message is not enough, in order for it to be a meaningful exchange, the receiver must "decode" the contents of the message.
A good point the book makes is that communication is thought to be the answer to all problems. It seems the way to solve a bad relationship or strife in the work place is merely through having better communication. But this broad statement is just a concept without further disecting what it means to have "good" communication. Something a lot of people just aren't willing to put the time in for.
The Cultural model, at first, seemed extremely obtuse and almost out-dated. But as I read on, its theories on how reality and culture inevitably mesh to create meaning seemed to ring true. "... with culture, reality becomes ordered and manageable." Basically, our culture gives a great amount of meaning to the issues and happenings around us, and without culture, we would cease to have the direction to find meaning in reality (or at least meanings are comprehensible between one another.)

*Representation

I found, ironically, when the images started flowing behind the professor as he was talking, it was extremely hard to concentrate on what he was saying. Kind of proving the how very image-based our society is. It was almost alarmingly easy for me to just focus on the circulating images while totally blocking out what I was trying to ascertain.

However, from the 5 minutes of lecture, I gained some better ideas about representation in society. A major form of representation was that of politicians representing the public. Although this is a bit different from image representation because we vote them into office, it's still a major example of one aspect representing (also taking the place of) a whole.

The media RE-presents something that was already there. This is the part of his conjectures I found most interesting. This is represented by the fact that different news stations can report the same event in angles.

Representation is the meaning that is given through depictions. Without meaning, the depictions are merely images. It is through the media, and the media's society, where certain images develop certain meanings. The American flag (as shown in class) is an excellent example. In American media, it is no doubt depicted as a symbol of unity, but in other countries, it could be depicted as a symbol of oppression and imperialism .

"True meaning" vs. media representation is another topic briefly brought up at the end of the lecture. True meaning seems to be merely an ideal because the meaning of something is acutely subjective based on someone's outside influences. The question arises, then, can true meaning exist on all levels of cognizance? Or will it only ever be on a personal level because our personal realities are what inevitably shape how we interpret and process meaning?