As I stepped inside the classroom on the first day of classes(June 13,2007), I was excited but at the same time nervous. Knowing that our first subject would be CA 201, I had many questions lingering in my mind. "What are the things that would be discussed; how would it be discussed; who would be our professor and what kind of professor would he/she be? After a few minutes of waiting, our professor arrived with her water container and laptop. As she started to set up the visual projector, I was amazed! All my life, I never experienced as a student to be taught using such gadgets. After a few seconds, I realized that laptops and other gadgets play an important role in studying this course, CA 201. What is this course all about?
As I've learned so far, CA or Communication Arts is all about communication. It is a broad survey of communication in the modern and post-modern life, with a particular emphasis on the information revolutions and their impact on the historical, social and cultural movements. Upon reading the course description in our syllabus, I knew it was all about communication. It is for us to know and understand the basic concept of communication in relation to Communication Arts as a major; for us to develop an insight to the history of mass communication , its role in the society and in the development of ideas; for us to have increased capacity in using the internet as a tool for research and learning and, for us to develop critical attitude regarding the history, development status, problems and use of Philippine media so that we can use all these, we apply for jobs in the near future( since we chose CA as our major).
On the first week of classes, I learned more about communication. I didn't know before that communication has fundamental characteristics. All I know is that communication is a process wherein the sender transmits a message from a channel to a receiver. Among the five fundamental characteristics of communication, there's this one characteristic that I never knew before. The characteristic is that, communication is the exchange of meaning symbols. Yes, I know that we communicate by speaking , writing and in many other ways but I didn't realize before that we are actually exchanging meaningful symbols. The second thing I've learned about communication is that it has 6 levels which are defined according to the number of individuals who participate in the communication process. There are also four dimensions of the communication context(one of the 9 elements of the communication process). The meaning of the message varies in each dimension.
On the second and third week, the introduction to mass communication was discussed- the definition of mass communication and its characteristics. Mass communication is the transmission of public messages directed at a large heterogenous and scattered audiences. Indeed, this is true. One example is that of the talk shows, where the hosts are mentioning the source of the message before or after they tackle an issue. It means that the source wants the public to know what he knows about the issue. Another example is that of print-ads and commercials.Companies talk to the public by mass communication. They want their products to be bought by many people and so, they make commercials as their way of encouraging and pleasing the public. But how do these people communicate to large audiences? Well, it is through media(t.v, radio, newspaper, internet, etc.). However, like any other things, mass communication has consequences and dysfunctions. The thing we should do is to use the mass media properly. Well of course we use it to obtain information, to relax and in some other ways but, we should bear in mind that we should not rely too much on the views carried in the media. We should still use our critical ability in interpreting things and as we adopt values from it, we should also learn to distinguish whether it will be good for us to adopt it or not.
As weeks go by, I learn more and more about the field I chose. As we move on to the next topics, I'm sure that it will be much more complicated. Thus, it will require a hundred percent effort on my part which I intend to do.
