TCHAIKOVSKY - Symphony no6 (Pathetique) - Herbert von Karajan & Wiener Phil

Beethoven, Symphony 6/2 - Andante molto mosso (F Major Op.68) "Pastoral"

Heifetz-Beethoven Romance No. 2 in F Major (Op. 50)

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.14 in C sharp minor, op.27 no.2 (Moonlight Sonata)

Mozart Clarinet Concerto

Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication by John Durham Peters

Two branches of communication theories: propaganda and anti-propaganda

(1) Propaganda: Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays, Georg Lukacs, Lasswell: The inevitability of manipulation

     ...That symbols are not just aesthetic ornaments but prime movers of social organization. Strategically cultivated perceptions lost or won battles and sent men in the trenches to their graves.
   
     "If the mass will be free of chains of iron, it must accept chains of silver." (Lasswell)
   
     If the will of the people was little more than a bog of stereotypes, censorship, inattention, and libido to be manipulated by experts or demagogues, what did that say about the rationality of the public?

    The revolutionary process was inseparable from the development of class consciousness on the part of the proletariat and hence involved choosing the right slogans and rallying cries. (Luckas)

(2) Anti-Propaganda: Ogden, Richards: Communication as the means to purge semantic dissonance.

     .... The alternative to elite rule is to raise the level of communication through a direct study of its conditions, its dangers and its difficulties. The practical side of this undertaking is, if communication be taken in its widest sense, Education.

    Words... are at present a very imperfect means of communication.

    Language ties us dangerously to our primeval origins (- the word-magic).

   Since meaning is in the mind of the beholder, the labyrinth of solipsism always looms.

  The criterion of successful communication remains the identity of consciousness between speaker and hearer. Psychology therefore remains the best science for studying communication.

   Luckas: sees solitary selfhood not as a general existential condition but as a specifically bourgeois plight: the system of private property creates souls who know only the freedom of preying on other isolated individuals.

   In conclusion, isolation and propaganda are two sides of the same coin. No wonder the lonely crowd is so vulnerable (gullible) to the wiles of propaganda!

 

   

Summer Online Classes: COM 325 Intercultural Communication; MA 260 Foundation of Mass Media

Textbook:

COM 325: Intercultural Communication
Communication Between Cultures (8th Edition) by Samovar et al.

MA 260: Foundation of Mass Media
Media and Culture (9th Edition) by Campbell et al