Class Notes for Sociology of Communications - Spring 2006

Grading Formulas used on May 9:

Quizzes = ([Quiz One]+[Quiz Two]+[Quiz Three]+[Quiz Four]+[Quiz Five]+[Quiz Six]+[Quiz Seven]+[Quiz Eight]+[Quiz Nine])/9

Assignments = ([Enrolling]+[My Yahoo Page]+[Personal Home Page]*2+[Brainstorming]+[Outline for Hyperlink Essay]+[Five Paragraph Essay]*4+[Writing In-Class Feb 16]+[Writing Exercise Feb 23]+[Writing About the Global Brain ]+[Media Essay 750 Words]*5+[Historical Trends]+[Excel Trends]+[Library Assignment]*3+[Bivariate Crosstabulation]+[Multivariate Crosstab]*2+[Media Powerpoint]+[Multiple Bivariate Crosstab]*2+[Comparative Trend Analysis]*2+[Oral Presentation]*3+[Introduction/Ref]*3+[Poster/Presentation]+[PapersonWEBsite]*2)/40

Predicted Course Grade = [Quizzes]*0.2+[Assignments]*0.2+[Attendance]*0.1+[Midterm Essay]*0.1+[Midterm Objective]*0.1+[Research Paper]*0.3+ extra credit

April 13.  Learning Public Speaking Skills.  These are summarized on the Guidelines for Oral Presentations form which will be used in grading your presentations next week.  We will view some videos by TJ Walker of Media Training Worldwide.  These are available on the Google Video site.   To see them, just go to Google Video and type "Media Training Worldwide" in the Search box.   Two that may be particularly useful to us are learn the art of public speaking, don't overdo your powerpoint presentations"  and "the rule of three". 
 Some of his  material is also available by link to his site in wmv format, but it is not as useful for us because it focuses on media relationships.:
 
Part 1 - How Can The Power of the Media Help You Indirectly
TJ explains why you should never under estimate the power of the media to help
you.
http://members.speakcast.com/video/tjwalkerspeakingep20.wmv

Part 2 - Be Cool
TV cools down your energy so make sure you have enough to come across strong.
http://members.speakcast.com/video/tjwalkerspeakingep18.wmv

Part 3 - More Is More 
More is more in media world. The more press you do the better.
http://members.speakcast.com/video/tjwalkerspeakingep19.wmv

Part 4 - Keep It Simple 
TJ Walker explains why you need to keep your message points simple and easy to
understand. 
http://members.speakcast.com/video/tjwalkerspeakingep43.wmv

Part 5 - Answering Questions 
TJ Walker gives you useful tips on answering questions so they that always go
back to your key message points. 
http://members.speakcast.com/video/tjwalkerspeakingep31.wmv

April 9 - presentation by Ben Goertzel on the Future of the Global Brain and the Path to Posthumanity.  References:    Wikipedia entry on The Global Brain.  Nova Spivack - Blog Entry, January 24, 2006. Ben Goertzel and Stephan Vladimir
Bugaj, "The Internet as an Artificial
Brain," in WEBCT

We can also look at some other online speeches, some of which are examples of poor speaking.  E.g., NYC Political Candidates,   MartinKoppel:  SWP.  Note stiffness, lack of arm movement. Al Gore.   Daniel
Imperiale.  Ian's True Confession on Quitting Smoking.  Bush 911.  LTTE leader.     Reagan
News Conference Video. 

April 11.  Visit from Ben Goertzel.  Ray Kurzweil's Web site.   Wikipedia on Chatbots.    Eliza chatbot.   Alice chatbot.  

ALICE
http://www.alicebot.org/

KURZWEIL

   	Kurzweil's Law (aka "the law of accelerating returns") by   	Ray Kurzweil

In an evolutionary process, positive feedback increases order
exponentially. A correlate is that the "returns" of an evolutionary
process (such as the speed, cost-effectiveness, or overall "power" of
a process) increase exponentially over time -- both for biology and
technology.

"The Law of Accelerating Returns" from Kurzweilai.net.


April 4  -    Discussion of the projects for the remainder of the semester.  The schedule has been posted.  The research paper will include:
Today we will examine my research on South Jersey as an example.  This includes:
  1. a presentation posted on the WEB. 
  2. a Research Report
  3. a poster to be viewed in class.
We will discuss your ideas for your projects and, if there is time, begin to look at some material on public speaking.

Powerpoint Logic? -  Three Points to Powerpoint - Gettysburg Address in Powerpoint -  Gianotti Graduation Speech -

One way to learn public speaking is to imitate great speeches.  Some texts we cn use are at:   JFK Inaugural Address  - Martin Luther King "I have a Dream" speech-Winston Churchill's Battle of Britain speech.  (These are available online  History Channel or other sites).   Shakespeare:  To Be or Not to Be.  Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.   With luck we might be able to watch streaming video from American Rhetoric or the History Channel  or elsewhere.  C-Span "Analyze a Speech"  TJ Walker "Don't Overdo Your Powerpoint Presentation"  Google Video seems to be a great source of videos that run quickly online.  See Paul Daniels "Stress Free Guide".  Speakcast:  Nothing is Worse than a Well Written Speech:  

March 28 - We will do an input causal diagram and a multivariate cross-tabulation analysis.  Here is an example and some explanation.

                                               Marital Status and Frequency of Sex by Age

                              Under 50           50 and Older          Total

                            Divorced  Never       Divorced    Never    Divorced  Never
                            Widowed   Married     Widowed     Married  widowed   Married

Less than Monthly            29.7%     30.8%       77.9%      70.2%    54.7%      34.0%   

Monthly or More              70.3%     69.2%       22.1%      29.8%    45.3%      66.0%

TOTAL                        100%      100%        100%       100%     100%       100%

                              p=.75                p=.24                 p=.000

There is a statistically significant difference between the divorced or widowed respondents and the never married respondents in their frequency of sex.  However, when we control for age, this relationship is no longer significant.  Age is an antecedent variable, so the relationship between marital status and frequency of sex is spurious. 

Spurious means that it is not causal, the correlation is due to a third variable which is antecedent.

We compare the strength of the correlation in the total sample table with the correlations or percentage differences in the partial sample tables.  

If the correlations or percentage differences is jabout the same, we would say that the relationship was confirmed or supported.

If the correlation disappears, we would  have to ask whether the control variable was Antecedent or Intervening.  If it is antecedent, the relationship is spurious.  If it is intervening, we have a causal interpretation.

If it disappears in one case but not in the other, we would say that we have specified the relationship.         

March 23.  We viewed a s streaming video on causal analysis, and did a bivariate cross-tabulation analysis.

March 21 -  we discussed writing research reports, and used an experimental study of internet downloading as an example.  The materials are available in WEBCT (see the listing for Quiz Eight).
March 9 - library assignment.   Readings on the Global Brain.  Use of Statistical Data Sources.   Google Scholar is a more intelligent scholarly searching tool. 
March 7 - we did the Microcase Trends assignment.
March 2  Here are the formulas used to compute the grades:

Attendance =  [Attend Raw]/0.11  (out of 12 possible classes)

Assignments and Quizzes =  ([Enrolling]+[My Yahoo Page]+[Personal Home Page]*2+[Brainstorming]+[Outline for Hyperlink Essay]+[Five Paragraph Essay]*4+[Writing In-Class Feb 16]+[Writing Exercise Feb 23]+[Quiz One]+[Quiz Two]+[Quiz Three]+[Quiz Four]+[Quiz Five]+[Quiz Six])/18

Predicted Course Grade =  [Assignments & Quizzes]*0.3+[Attendance]*0.1+[Midterm Essay]*0.3+[Midterm Objective]*0.3

  Synecdoche   Metonomy  

A good answer to the last essay question on the midterm:
The television show "Will and Grace" is a great example of several theoretical points from our reading. "Will and Grace" displays unchanging human nature through their unconventional lifestyles. It also expersses individuality through their strong characters. "Will and Grace" shows social conflict in a different light through the humours senarios that they create. This show portrays some great examples of media styles through its plot lines and characters.

Feb 28 - midterm

Feb 16.   The White House "was notified" . 

Feb 14:  J.R. Vannevar Bush and the Memex Machine -  J.R. Licklider and man Computer Symbiosis.  -  Growth of the Web -
-
February 9 -  Some WEB sites on Describing People:   Describing People.   Hangman Game.   Bill Gates described. 

February 7 - Discussion of Chapters 6 and 7: critical and analytic writing.  Writing samples on the WEB site that accompanies our book.   Discussion of Bush's State of the Union speech.  We are interested in the rhetorical devices used, not in the politics or content of the speech.  Critical and Rhetorical analysis of the State of the Union speech.  Here is a sample rhetorical analysis Bush's 2001 address.  Here are some notes on the theory of argumentation. 

February 2-   We worked on organizing our arguments into five paragraph  five paragraph essays.   There are arguments for and against using this as a teaching tool, but I find it useful.  The outline should follow a standard form. 

Bandwagon Appeals
Begging the Question
Either-Or
False Analogies
Hasty Generalization
Name Calling
Non Sequitur
Oversimplification
Polarization
Post hoc Fallacy
Rationalization
Slippery Slope
Straw Man

For a sample outline, here is one I did for the essay  "Growing Up in the Peanut Gallery"
  1. Introductory Paragraph
    1. Motivator: First generation to grow up with TV, what did it do to us
    2. Subtopic One:    A white bread, racially homogeneous, middle class world.
    3. Subtopic Two:     Individualims or collectivism?
    4. Subtopic Three:     Traditional Gender Roles
    5. Transition to next paragraph:   These topics are illustrated by three television shows...
  2. First Supporting Paragraph
    1. Restate subtopic one in different words:   Howdy Doody was a mass TV show with a puppet, etc.
    2. First Supporting Detail or Example:    It was a homogeneous bunch of kids, a red haired pupper with freckles
    3. Second Supporting Detail or Example:  It seemed a conformist ethos, the kids just watched and were entertained
    4. Third Supporting Detail or Example:   Girls and women had only subordinate roles
    5. Transition:     This was for little k ids, a few years later we were watching the MMC
  3. Second Supporting Paragraph
    1. Restate subtopic two in different words:  MMC, first Disney mass TV show for kids, had an ongoing cast of children
    2. First Supporting Detail or Example    Very white middle class:
    3. Second Supporting Detail or Example:  More individualism is coming through in that the young people on it were real characters we could identify with.
    4. Third Supporting Detail or Example:   Girls were striving to be attractive and cheerful, no discussion of careers.
    5. Transition:   This may have been more for girls, boy watched Westerns...
  4. Third Supporting Paragraph
    1. Restate subtopic three in different words:   The Lone Ranger was a character who appealed to boys, fitting into the genre of the Western
    2. First Supporting Detail or Example:  He was white, Tonto was a stereotypical sidekick.  The scenes were frontier small towns, socially homogeneous
    3. Second Supporting Detail or Example  This is a strongly individualisti theme, the man on the white horse who saves people the system has failed:
    4. Third Supporting Detail or Example    Women are totally in traditional and p eripheral roles.:
    5. Transition:    We have had three somewhat different shows, perhaps reflecting different age groups in the audience or some development of the medium over time.
  5. Closing or Summary Paragraph
    1. Synthesis of Main Topic in Different Words:  The examples are all traditional in sex roles and in class homogeneity, but they vary in terms of individualism
    2. Synthesis of Subtopic One:  all the same except for Tonto
    3. Synthesis of Subtopic Two:  HD was conformist, group oriented, MMC had personalities, LR is an individualist crusader
    4. Synthesis of Subtopic Three:   Traditional all the way through
    5. Final Concluding Statement:  TV did not anticipate change, it was purely entertainment, had strong male leading figures. 
January 31 -  Brainstorming the essays on American Values and the Media.  
January 26 -  We will discuss the question of how or whether the Mass Media shape American Values.  Two readings on this were distributed in class.  A Powerpoint summarizing these readings is in the "Taking Sides Powerpoints" folder on our WEBCT.  We will also discuss the article "Red Sluts, Blue Sluts"  a critical review of the Desperate Housewives television show.   Students last semester who wrote on television shows and media include :   Ashly Burlingame, Rebecca Moulder, Jenny Popov,  Terri Ann Sauter, Dara Silich, Steven Sooy, Kimberly Yumul (fashion magazines),  Shariar Mahmud, Scott Long (superstars) , Michael Bradis, Andrea Bird. 

January 24 -  After a lecture on McLuhan  and some discussion of "Are Newspapers Doomed?" we will begin work on personal home pages.  This semester we will use Yahoo Geocities  instead of putting the sites on clam.  This will give you a tool you can use after leaving Rutgers. It also offers tools that Mozilla Composer does not offer, including putting sound clips on the site.  The sites will have advertising (unless you pay for an ad-free site) but this is of some interest since it is keyed to words on your page. You will need to log on with the Yahoo accounts you already created.
 The tools we will be using will be the Yahoo Pagebuilder and the File Manager. although you are welcome to explore using the other tools Yahoo offers if you wish.  Your assignment is to create a site similar to Fulano de Tal's Geocities site.  Your site must include:  
  1. A home page (index.html) with your picture which you can take off of our class photos site (right click on your picture and save it to disk, then upload it to your page) and at leasta paragraph about yourself including at least three working hyperlinks to relevant sites on the WEB.  You may also put anything else you like on your home page.
  2. [later on]a link to the text of your paper on "How My Values Have been Influenced by Communications Media".  You will write this paper in word processor such as Microsoft Word or Netscape Composer, save it in html format, and upload it to the site using the file manager.  It must have a unique file name so you can link to it.
There are complete instructions for doing this in Yahoo (I figured it out yesterday) so you should be able to do it on your own.  However, I will demonstrate it in class and we can allow class time to work on it on Tuesday and Thursday.

January 19 -  Discussion of some of the purposes of writing.  What kind of writing are you likely to be doing on the job after graduation?  Emails.  Letters.  Reports.  Powerpoints.  What will make that writing successful? 

Open an account on Yahoo.com and set up a "my yahoo" page.   What connections to online media are most valuable, interesting or important to you?  Share your page with the class as a way of introducing yourself.

Class photographs will be taken.  Anyone who prefers to send me a picture of their own can email one to me later today.

For this class, the first writing assignment will be a personal home page to be posted on clam.  We will used Mozilla composer to write these.  It is also possible to do a home page with Yahoo Geocities, in the past this has not worked so well but it may have improved.

The second writing assignment will be a five paragraph essay on the topic will be a five paragraph essay on the topic "How My Values have been Influenced by Communications Media"

January 17 -  We went over the use of WEBCT and other departmental systems.  This information is in the enrolling assignment.