Stories have probably existed for as long as humanity has existed. We love to tell stories about ourselves and our experiences, whether they are good or bad. Stories over time also get passed down and they can become memorable. Us humans do tend to think of our lives as stories. In this article by Tom Corson-Knowles, he writes about why these stories are important for not only our lives but our culture as well. Stories can be universal, understand ourselves, teach us a lesson, broaden our perspective and even help us better understand others. Stories shape who we are.

In the text, Griffin mentions Fisher and his beliefs. Griffin states that “He [Fisher] is convinced that that we are narrative beings who “experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing narratives, as conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles and ends.”” (297). This means that human communication can be seen as stories. Additionally we often tell these through narratives. Narration is defined as “Symbolic actions—words and/or deed—that have sequence and meaning for those who live create or interpret them.” (299). You can see these symbols in many stories, some great examples are cultural stories like myths, legends or traditions. Much of our communication is through narratives. The narrative paradigm is defined as, “A theoretical framework that views narrative as the bases if all human communication.” (300). We tell stories everyday, in our personal lives, at school or even at work.

How we tell stories, the stories that are passed down and the stories of our cultures can all be used to help understand the narrative paradigm. First and foremost, one of Fishers main beliefs is that we communicate and understand our lives as stories. When we tell others about our lives we are telling each other about our experiences and emotions that we felt at the time, along with the lessons learned during those moments. Additionally, we do often see our lives, as the beginning, middle and end. Our beginnings are our birth and childhood the middle of our story could be where we are in our lives and the end is when we near the end of our lives. Stories of our cultures always have symbolic meanings in them, which can be used as examples of narration (now that does not mean that the story is untrue). One story that you can look at is the story of Rapunzel. It teaches about the consequences of stealing and how important patients and determination are. Humans are storytellers and these stories are important can can teach us many lessons. They can teach us how to act and give us wisdom. They can influence the way we communicate, our opinions on genre and so on. Stories can influence us in different ways, especially if it is something that we see as believable or fits in, in our beliefs. When stories do fit our morals or the beliefs that we have, this is when stories are most influential to us. This is why can tell so much about us and who we are.

The media has always been a large part of American history. This article explains how it has evolved over time. Politicians especially have used media in order to influence public opinions. It has gone from the news papers, to the radio and TV, and through various other sources of media. Politicians will always take full advantage of these resources. You can see it in the past and even today. These sources have influenced everything to our views on parties, whether or not we support a war, to our views on other countries and their policies.

Griffin’s main topic is Media ecology and Focuses on McLuhan’s study. The media creates different environments and these change due to new communication technologies. Media ecology is defined as, “The study of different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies.” (310). This means that different communication technologies (newspapers, radios, TV etc.) create different environments in how we socialize and in our personal lives.  According to McLuhan we are currently in the electronic age, “An era of instant communication; a return to the the global village with all-at-once sound and touch.” (315). Information and the ability to connect to others globally is so much easier. According to Postman he believed that new technology is like a Faustian bargain, “A new technology sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates.” (317). New technologies seem like a gamble sometimes they can help society and there are times when they do not.

Different mediums create different personal and social environments. As the mediums have advanced to the TV, radio and other media sites these have changed overtime. As technology has increased and gotten better, the way things are portrayed have become more emotive. People focus more on how information makes them feel and form opinions through that.  A large part of American history has been in the electronic age. This can be seen through the technologies we have used for communication such as; Radio’s the T.V, Service announcements and so on. These forms of media shape our environments, our opinions and our ideologies. One example used in the article was how the news portrayed the cold war in the 80s. The example given with this is how Poland had a crackdown on the Solidarity Union. While the media can be good and can open up new avenues for us to communicate there can be downsides to these new technologies. With how things are portrayed sometimes we do not always think fully rationally and instead think with our emotions. Many forms of media rely on our emotions, from politicians to advertisements. These technologies are controlled by people can they can heavily influence are views to fit agendas. One example given in the article was that while they covered the issue in Poland they did not cover what was happening in Turkey at them time. Such as the militaries brutal crackdown on the trade unions. A final note is that as the technologies increase is that communication and how we interact becomes impersonal.

Everyone watches the news or is exposed to it in some way. Some people get the news through papers, news channels, or even social media. There are multiple sources  were people can get their news. In this article, Zaria Gorvett speaks about how the news can change the way that we think and the way that they behave. The first example given was about the Boston marathon bombing.  According to a study one of the groups that had been affected the most were those who had consumed the news. They had shown to have a high stress response and affected their mental health. Domestically the news can affect our views on immigrants, it can affect our dreams, world views, views on other countries and so on. Although sometimes the news can warp our views negatively.

In the text Griffin talks about media agenda and how it affects our perceptions. First and foremost media agenda is defined as, “The list of issues emphasized by the news media at any given time.” (368). This means that media shows us what we should be focusing on. Secondly, the news does not just affect our opinions, “But in his most recent book on agenda setting, McCombs presents several intriguing findings showing that media priorities also influence people’s behavior.” (373). Media does influence our behaviors by a lot. Lastly,  Agendamelding is defined as, “The social process by which we meld agendas from various sources to create pictures of the world to fit our experiences and preferences.” (376). This means that we combine our sources of information to fit our own world view. This is not always a good thing because we only end up view things that we agree with.

This article is a great way to understand  how the media can set agendas, and influence the ways we think and the ways that we behave. As stated in the article, the media can influence what we focus on. In one case it can be immigration. This is a big focus here in America. Let’s take two news channels as an example; Fox news and CNN. On one hand CNN will defend immigrants that come to America while Fox News will advocate to deport them if they cross the border. They both show the story to get people to focus on it and in some ways the way the news portrays it, in order to fit their agenda, affects our beliefs and behaviors. The article also gave an example of how the news can affect our behavior. An example given was how the media frames the Coronavirus, which causes people to have high stress and anxiety. Leading people to seek out help for mental health, which has increased the demand for therapy. Lastly, Angendamelding is something that we all do. In turn many people will only look to news sources that they agree with even if it is harmful. If people are on the more cautious side when it comes to the Coronavirus they will listen to news sources that fit their views and provide them with more information. If they don’t believe in it or don’t think it is as bad as it is then they will go to sources that support their views. The news is not always a good thing as it can affect us in many negative ways.

Culture and cultural groups are everywhere, even in the work place. In America we have a dominate culture and that culture even affects the workplace.  In this article by Allaya Cooks-Campbell, she discusses what dominate culture is and what it means for the workplace. This includes that professionalism is very white centered. Allaya also discusses how sub-cultures form and how those can turn into counterculture to combat the dominate culture. At the end of her articles she talks about how we can start to promote a workplace that is not biased.

First and foremost dominant culture is defined as, ” In the US, the empowered group of relatively well-off, white, European American, nondisabled heterosexual men.” (449). Success is very white centric in America. Additionally another point made is about the aggressive approach which is, “Communication practices that are seen as hurtfully expressive, self promoting, and assuming control over the choices of others.” (451). People in these groups are often seen as pushy. A final point made in the book is assertive accommodation, “Co-cultural members whose abilities and interpersonal skills are valued work cooperatively within the dominant culture. They openly advocate for the needs of people in both cultures.” (454) This is a way to describe the middle ground where co-cultures work with dominant cultures to make accommodations without one group being pushed out.

The article is a great way to understand Co-Cultural theory. Starting with the dominant culture.  This is even seen in the workplace. Professionalism is very white centered in America. This includes how the wealthy are portrayed by media, name bias, hair and fashion among various other things. The wealthy and successful are portrayed as white business men. There is also a name bias, if you do not have a European sounding name or a name viewed as “unusual” you may be asked to use a different name or may not be hired at all. As seen not that long ago natural hair for African American women was a huge topic and still is today. There were places that viewed natural hair as unprofessional and required them to relax or straighten their hair in order to be more “professional”. In terms of subculture becoming counter culture: counter culture can easily be described as an aggressive approach by co-culture groups. Often times counter culture groups are viewed as pushy with how aggressive they can be in their approaches. Additionally, it is very confrontational in nature. As stated in the article, counter culture can not co-exist with the dominant culture, one is always undermining the other in some way. Finally,  the last part of the article is a good way to understand assertive accommodations. It takes initiative and reaching out in order to improve. It is also important to talk about the subject and include both sides in the discussion so one group is not pushed out. Being too aggressive will not fix anything. It is important to bring awareness to the perspective of other groups so perhaps both can start to understand, and perhaps meet at the middle ground.