Touro Communication Club Notes #34

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The summer heat is up. The surrogate misstatements (Phil Gramm for Senator McCain; Jesse Jackson for Senator Obama) continue. They continue to cloud the substance of both campaigns. How to maintain control of the candidates' message is extremely difficult for people who are used acting like Lone Rangers. Obama’s trip to Afghanistan and Iraq pursued by the 3 network news anchors and 300 of his closest aides seems to ratchet up the importance of his visit, particularly when McCain traveled with virtually no news people. Bias? Prejudice? Who is to say?

The economy (housing, gasoline, food) continues to capture our attention. Pocketbook issues are major campaign issues, while we struggle to make ends meet. We can always be distracted from bread-and-butter issues by celebrity happenings– Brangelina’s twins among them. What’s happened to Britany. lately? Don’t you miss your nightly Britany fix?

By the way, Hal is reading an interesting new book by Howard Fineman called, “The Thirteen American Arguments.” Fineman is Senior Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine and frequently appears on MSNBC. His thesis is that because we have a form of democracy that Americans must have always argued about everything – Who is a person? What do we know? What do we believe? Etc.

If Fineman’s thesis is true, I would say that Americans should know how to argue, not just shoot off their mouths, if we are a country in which basic premises are always
being argued. The recent 5-4 landmark Supreme Court decision on gun control is a case in point. A fascinating thesis for those interested in Communication.

Here’s the upcoming schedule:

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 – 1 pm Debate – Continue discussion about what we learned, a new topic and SPAR Instant debates

Because of Graduate Education classes meeting in Room 610, we are meeting in Room 615 near the Department office. Follow the posted signs.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 – 1 pm– Club – “Persuasion” an open-ended discussion about a volatile Communication activity. Hal makes the statement that “Everyone is always selling something.” Let the arguments begin.

What happened on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 – 1 pm – Club

Again we met in Room 615 because the Graduate School of Education has taken over our usual room 610 for summer classes. Olushile Akintade, James Millner and Kazi Faltah and Lorinda Moore joined faculty members Richard Green, David Nussbaum and Hal Wicke in a rousing discussion. Although our topic was “Cultural Rituals – Do They Work?” the energy was drawn to the controversy of the week – the New Yorker cover cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama dressed as Muslim terrorists.

Immediately, the question of freedom of speech – First Amendment rights came up. Opinions flew back and forth. Everyone agreed the cartoon was not a positive portrayal of the Obamas. Although satirical, no one thought the cartoon was funny. Some said the magazine should be stopped from publishing derogatory cartoons (censored). Others said the Bill of Rights allows this in America.

Shile and Kazi both said such cartoons would be dangerous in their countries of Nigeria and Bangladesh respectively. Shile commented that he found it “shocking” that people would make fun of their elders. Kazi agreed that some of this American “freedom of speech’ was sometime difficult to understand.

The incident of Danish cartoons making fun of Muslims and Mohammed causing riotsand a death in Europe was recalled. Someone remembered the statement of the 18^th century philosopher, Voltaire, “I may disagree with your statements, but I will defend to the death your right to say them.”

What then are the limits of free speech? We agreed that if someone yelled “fire” in a theater was one limit to free speech. Free speech seemed to allow anyone to say anything at any time. We couldn’t agree on what other limits should there be. In the 1970s the Nazi march in Skokie, Illinois, a Jewish community outside of Chicago, tested severely the limits of free speech. David clarified the details of the incident.

The discussion moved toward persuasion as a natural outgrowth of free speech. Then the free-wheeling discussion moved to advertising as persuasion. One person stated categorically that advertising was “the lowest form of persuasion” especially when it is used to sell harmful products. Other people felt that the tools of persuasion, like guns or hammers, are neutral, but became dangerous weapons in the hands of certain people.

There were lots of disagreements about the purpose of advertising and its relation to free speech. Questions of ethics came up as advertisers want to change the habits of potential consumers so that they buy these products.

Issues flying by were too numerous to capture in these notes. It was clear that we had much to explore about the topic of persuasion. So persuasion will be the topic of the next club meeting.

Once again, I forgot to ask the following questions that Lorinda suggested at a recent meeting. These are:

1. How did I feel about the discussion?

2. What part of the discussion influenced me the most?

3. Was there something that did not change the discussion?

4. What will I definitely do after this discussion?

Shile, Lorinda and Hal remained after everyone left to talk about taking some action. Shile shared his experience in the Computer department trying to start a Computer Club without success. Lorinda suggested that the Communication Club could sponsor a Freshman “Meet and Greet.” Both agreed that they would contact Dean Taylor about attaching such an event to the Freshman Orientation in the fall. We’ll report next time.

Join us as we try to promote more light than heat! See you next time. Bring a friend!

Hal Wicke