Combining an arts-informed and textual approach to teaching information and communication theories

3.2.1A thematic analysis of the cStories

First the texts of the 86 cStories collected between 2015 and 2018 were read to determine the theme of each story, the communications theories evoked and how they shed light on the relevance of these theories in modern times. This led me to identify seven thematic classes. As in the analysis of cSquares, the process of assigning a story to a thematic class is unavoidably subjective and the outcome depends on the pragmatic and hermeneutic goals of the analyst/interpreter. Table 1 hereafter summarises the salient features of each thematic class. As shown in this table, 32% of the stories came under the “chosen theories” category. These are real or imaginary situations interpreted through the lens of one or more chosen communication theories. Stories recounting the “history of communication came in the second position” (21%). In the third place, “communication modalities” (18.6%) referred to stories on how people communicate use different communication modalities (verbal, non-verbal and machine mediated communication such as the Internet, web, mail, radio, TV, telephone, social media). In the fourth position were stories illustrating the use of communication theories in political campaigns. Here we found stories recounting how the Obama’s, Trump’s, Clinton’s electoral campaign strategies brought into play some of the communication theories discussed in the textual/verbal lectures. In the fifth position were a few stories illustrating how specific mass media theories were deployed in advertisements and communication campaigns of global brands such as Ikea, Benetton, McDonalds, Apple, Coca-Cola, etc. Lastly, the two thematic classes “communication satire” (4.7%) and “misuse of communication” (4.7%) were ex-aequo in the sixth position.

Figure 3 hereafter summarises the distribution of the stories in the seven thematic classes.

Figure 3.

Pie chart showing the distribution of the stories in the seven thematic classes.

3.2.2Understanding real life social phenomena through the cStories

Two examples of cStories serve to illustrate the creativity of the students and their ability to interpret real life events or imaginary social phenomena through the lenses of abstract communication theories.

In general, stories classified under “communication campaign strategy” illustrate how the marketing and advertisement industries still call on mass media theories propounded in the first half of the 20th century to achieve their goals. A cStory in the 2015 series showcased the planning stages of an international marketing campaign aimed to launch a fictitious product by a team of communication consultants. This cStory artfully illustrated the fact that to attain a marketing goal, it is often necessary to draw from more than one communication theory. The different stages of the campaign were illustrated by seven drawings. The first stage of the design of the advertisement campaign labelled “Know your target” drew on Harold Lasswell’s hypodermic syringe model of communication to design one-way messages to a target audience. However, since Lasswell’s model alone cannot account for how public opinion can be changed, the students equally drew on Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow communication model to reach those segments of the audience that are refractory to the mass media and are likely to be influenced by opinion leaders, or by their circle of friends or colleagues. In the text of their story, the students explained how certain brands or messages become successful because they have been adopted by celebrities who serve as opinion leaders. By analogy, the shepherd in the drawing in cSquare 67 (Fig. 4 below) is the celebrity or the opinion leader influencing his flock of followers. The next stage relied on Roman Jakobson’s six functions of language to define the three objectives of the campaign which were cognitive, affective and conative. Marshall McLuhan’s prediction that ICTs will make the world a global village was evoked next to show how certain commercial brands such as Apple’s iPhone or McDonalds have become global household names.

In a fourth stage, the students raised the teleological question (intention) via a drawing that portrayed the fact that the same message can be interpreted in different ways depending on the cultural context in which it is received and therefore the cultural element needs to be integrated in the design of a marketing campaign. As an example of how a message can be misunderstood by the target audience, the students cited the case of Benetton a company that specialises in provocative publicity campaigns that often ended up having a negative effect than the positive one intended by the company.

The question of feedback was tackled in the fifth stage where the students correctly analysed the strategic importance of the empowering capabilities that web 2.0 technologies have given to customers allowing them to have a powerful voice and therefore the capacity to trigger a negative buzz that can destroy the reputation of companies, brands and celebrities in a few days. The students correctly analysed that feedback can be a positive thing in that it can enable an organisation to adjust its message but it can also be negative in the case of bad buzz. The theoretical justification for the importance of feedback is of course Wiener’s cybernetics theory of communication. Wiener defined two types of feedback: positive feedback which accentuates the phenomenon and negative feedback which diminishes the effect expected. Once again, students illustrated the consequences of a negative feedback by citing the case of IKEA who had removed all feminine presence in one of its catalogues destined to Saudi Arabia in order to conform to that kingdom’s very conservative outlook on women’s role in society. This however generated a negative feedback from viewers in the western world.

Figure 4.

cSquare 67 depicting “sheperd-flock” or opinion leader phenomenon.

The story then concluded by recalling the three ingredients deemed fundamental for a successful communication campaign: choosing one’s target, defining one’s objectives and choosing the adequate means to get the message across as effectively as possible.

A second story from the “chosen theories” category was used to illustrate the relevance of Shannon’s linear information transmission model and particularly of noise and interference in the case of a real life event. The background was the fatal collision of two planes caused by communication problems that resulted in heavy casualties. The accident took place on 27th march 1977 at the airport of Los Rodeos at the north of Tenerife island where a KLM plane attempting to take off and running at more than 260 km per hour collided with a Pan American plane on the runway. Five hundred three people died, “making it the deadliest accident in aviation history.”1010

In part 1 entitled “The scenario”, the students set the scene by describing the events that led to the two planes being on that particular airport. In the first stage entitled “Two planes were diverted”, we learn that flight Pan Am 1736 flying from Los Angeles was informed that a bomb attack by a local separatist movement had caused the Las Palmas airport on Canary islands where it was scheduled to land to be closed. The crew asked to wait for the airport to be reopened but was ordered to fly to Los Rodeos, a neighbouring regional airport. Flight KLM 4805 also received the same order.

In the second stage entitled “Traffic jam at Tenerife”, we learn that the airport of Tenerife where the two planes had been diverted to was experiencing a traffic jam. Five big jumbo jets were already stationed on it whereas this airport was not equipped to receive such traffic. Furthermore, the runway was covered in fog. After an announcement that the Las Palmas airport had reopened, the two planes were authorised to prepare for take off. At 16:51 hours, one of the planes obtained authorisation to start its engine. At 16:52 hours, the second plane also requested and obtained permission to start its engine. The two planes began to taxi on the runway for take off.

The third stage entitled “The drama looms close”, the sequence of communication failures leading to the accident is staged. At 17:00 hours, the control tower ordered the American Boeing (PanAm 1736) to begin taxiing up the runway and to take exit 3. The crew was in doubt about the number of the exit: was it the “third” or the “first”. The plane also began to lose its way in the fog. At the same time, the KLM flight began taxiing on the runway where the lighting was out of order. In the absence of this lighting, the PanAm flight crossed exit 3 without being aware of it.

In a fourth stage 4 entitled “The collision”, the control tower gave “clearance” to the KLM flight but this does not mean that the latter had the authorisation to take off. The pilot began the manoeuvre and accelerated on the runway without seeing all the messages. At 17:06:41 hours, the two planes collided into each other.

In part two of the story entitled “Links with information-communication theories”, the students explained the communication failures through the prism of chosen theories.

First, Shannon’s linear communication model illustrated the negative effect of noise in a channel in the transmission and reception of messages between the control tower and the planes’ crews. The noise and interference during message transmission caused the PanAm crew to confuse “third” and “first” and to remain on the track without knowing which exit to take. The students’ interpretation here is quite astute because in Shannon’s mathematical theory of communication noise and uncertainty are usually seen as positive things because they increases the level of entropy which in turn creates uncertainty and surprise and subsequently imply a high information content. In this real-life scenario, we see that entropy had a very negative human consequence because noise and uncertainty in message received proved fatal and caused hundreds of death. This illustrates if need be that the purely mathematical and statistical nature of Shannon’s theory of communication is not adapted to human communication. The fact that the noise on the channel raised the degree of entropy and that the information content was high did not result in a positive social and human outcome. Indeed, a high degree of noise means that the information failed to be received correctly leading to negative real-life consequences. Thus while Shannon’s mathematical theory of communication has proved crucial for telecommunications and for data compression, it is not at all preoccupied by the social outcome of what it encodes and transmits and should therefore not be applicable to human communication. The effects of entropy in this story is indeed more wienerian than shannonian. Shannon and Wiener gave conflicting definitions of information and entropy. For the former, information is positively associated with noise, entropy, surprise and uncertainty. For Norbert Wiener in the “The Human Use of Human Beings”, entropy was the absolute evil to be combated because it caused disorder in a system, leading eventually to its disintegration. In contrast with Shannon, information was synonymous with order and regulation for Wiener.

Next, the students evoked Marshall McLuhan’s questionable distinction between “hot” and “cool” media to explain the PanAm crew’s inability to compensate for the failure of one of the five senses1111 in decoding the message received. According to McLuhan, hot media have a “high definition” because the information received by the senses is rich but paradoxically, they encourage less participation from the brain. Hot media develop or enhance one sense to the detriment of the other senses. McLuhan classified in this category radio, cinema (film), printed books and photography.

“Cool media” on the other hand had a “low definition”, they affect many senses simultaneously and profoundly while giving only a low degree of information. They therefore require a strong participation from the receiver in order to determine its signification. McLuhan put in this category television (whose definition was very low in the 1960s), seminars, comic books, voice and the telephone. The students argued that when the functioning of a hot media is impaired, perception becomes blurred because one cannot turn to another sense. In this instance, the radio was the hot media which solicited the hearing sense (audition) of the crew but when the radio reception was impaired, the crew was thrown into doubt more so as the other sense they could have solicited (sight) was also impaired due to the presence of fog on the runway.

Finally, theories stressing the importance of context and of non verbal communication in any human interaction were evoked to explain the catastrophic failure in communication between the crews of the two planes and the control tower: Palo Alto school’s axioms on interpersonal communication, in particular, Gregory Bateson and Paul Watlawick’s focus on the context and meta-communication over the verbal content of messages; Ray Birdwhistell’s analysis of the importance of kinesics and Edward T Hall’s work on proxemics in The Silent language were all invoked in the closing paragraph of the story.