tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post6389681387371980595..comments2024-03-23T04:01:39.348-04:00Comments on Understanding Society: Meanings and mechanismsDan Littlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15953897221283103880noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-48650820006180315742017-10-30T14:15:21.405-04:002017-10-30T14:15:21.405-04:00Greigos, Thank you for your thoughtful reflections...Greigos, Thank you for your thoughtful reflections on how media may influence people's social and political assumptions. Your thoughts fall in line with the worries that a lot of people have about the effects of the personalized Facebook news feed, with the tendency to bring the same set of messages to an individual from seemingly different sources. The most worrisome part is the implication that your example of one-sided media and my example of tailored FB news feeds raises is that individuals have little choice about what they think about a given issue.Dan Littlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15953897221283103880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4058766287077382431.post-5626353944049001152017-10-30T13:54:33.829-04:002017-10-30T13:54:33.829-04:00Dr. Little, you state "The actor-centered per...Dr. Little, you state "The actor-centered perspective takes seriously the meanings, values, cognitive and practical frameworks that individuals bring to their interactions in the social world, and it urges social scientists and historians to improve upon their current theories of the actor." <br /><br />You also ask and suppose "Why do ordinary non-racist citizens fall prey to the hateful messages of the extreme right? Presumably a convincing answer will depend on the specifics of the communications strategies and messages conveyed by the nationalist party, interlocking with an astute reading of the fears and suppressed prejudices of the majority population." <br /><br />With a background in education and on street photojournalism, I concur that individual actors create the social circumstances the rest of us encounter and deal with. And while there are some constants across individuals relative to their internal phycological dynamics, there is high variability as to the meaning ascribed to words, signs, signals, colors, sounds, expressions, modes of dress, grammar, accent, and even inflections of voice. Have you given any thought to the failures of public education in its effort to regularize and minimize such dissimilar personal meanings and understandings across individuals, and to the success of mass modes of communication, especially asymmetric modes, at reinforcing and strengthening ideation that pushes groups of people farther and farther apart in a manner not much different than similarly charged subatomic particles?<br /><br />Listening to religious radio as I travel across the US, it occurs to me that their insistence on repeating over and over again the same formulaic assertions might be far more effective at creating citizens that share and act upon similar understandings than what has become normal within public education as "critical thinking", wherein individuals are encouraged to independently examine and assess all new information and analysis, but are not encouraged nor given rigorous forum for comparing the results of that individual critical thinking so that more of us might have opportunity to adjust and regularize our own thinking to something that fosters higher more effective cooperation across all individuals within a given society. Is that a perception that strikes you as valid?<br /><br />Please note that I have only just today discovered your blog. Impressive in the vastness of topics covered. Well done. And I apologize if my questions have actually been covered by you in other of your posts or monographs. Just point me in the right direction with links that I might review your relevant previous writings. My intellectual interests include community, public health, and the sociology of knowledge. Thank you for your time and thought and for any comments or suggestions you may offer. <br /><br />-- greigos greigoshttp://www.refertogrey.comnoreply@blogger.com