mass-communication-theory

318 Section 4 Contemporary Mass Communication Theory
are essentially meaningless except to others who know how to decode them. When
we write, we cover pages with complicated markings. To read them, someone must
be literate in our language. According to Mead, the use of symbols transforms the
socialization process—freeing it from the bonds of both space and time. Using symbols,
we can create vivid representations of the past, and we can anticipate the future.
We can be transported anywhere on the globe or even into the far reaches of
space.
In Mind, Self, and Society, Mead (1934) argues that we use symbols to create
our experience of consciousness (mind), our understanding of ourselves (self), and
our knowledge of the larger social order (society). In other words, symbols mediate
and structure all our experience because they structure our ability to perceive and
interpret what goes on around us. This argument is similar to the one made by
information-processing theorists (see Chapter 9). In information-processing theory,
sets of symbols called schemas that we have learned in the past enable us to routinely
make sense of the new sensory information we take in. Mead believed that
mind, self, and society are internalized as complex sets of symbols. They serve as
filtering mechanisms for our experiences. For information-processing theorists,
schemas perform a similar function.
This might seem to be an extreme argument. Most of us take for granted our
ability to look at the world around us and see the things that are obviously there.
We might assume that we were born with this ability. But think about it. Why do
we notice certain things and not others? As we move through daily life we’re
constantly encountering ambiguous, complex situations. Unless we are unusually
fastidious, for example, we will not notice small amounts of dust and dirt when
we enter a room. We’ll ignore most of the background sounds. According to
Mead, human perceptual processes are extremely malleable and can be shaped by
the sets of symbols we learn so that we will see only what our culture has determined
is worth seeing. (Has your perception of Middle Eastern cultures changed
since September 11, 2001? Are you more likely now to notice a woman wearing a
head scarf? What mental images spring to mind when you hear the word terrorist?
Twenty years ago the image might have been of an Irish Republican Army bomber
or a Latin American drug criminal—now it’s most likely a Middle Eastern male.)
Mead’s arguments anticipated cognitive psychology research, which is beginning
to empirically demonstrate much of what he hypothesized.
Thus symbolic interactionism posits that our actions in response to symbols are
mediated (or controlled) largely by those same symbols. Therefore, a person’s understanding
of and relation to physical or objective reality is mediated by the symbolic
environment—the mind, self, and society we have internalized. Put another
way, the meanings we give to symbols define us and the realities we experience.
As we are socialized, culturally agreed-upon meanings assume control over our interactions
with our environments.
Consider the meaning that you attach to the stitched red, white, and blue cloth
that constitutes an American flag. A flag is, in reality (objectively), little more than
a piece of colored cloth. That is, it is little more than a piece of cloth until someone
attaches symbolic meaning to it. We have decided that a particular array and formulation
of colors and shapes should become our flag. Each of us experiences the
flag differently, yet there is shared meaning as well. To many who support the
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