Arthur Asa Berger - 50 Ways to Understand Communication. A Guided Tour of Key Ideas and Theorists in Communication, Media, and Culture

I should point out that a number of the selections found in this book can be used in conjunction with my book Games and Activities for Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies Students. These selections and the games are shown in the chart below:

Let me offer learning games and activities derived for some of the other selections in this book.

These learning games should be played as follows (to the extent it is possible):

1. Break the class into small groups of three students (optimal).
2. Ask the students to cooperate in playing the game.
3. Appoint one student as a scribe to write down the conclusions of the team.
4. Have the scribe report what conclusions or answers the team reached.
5. Discuss the different answers or conclusions the various teams reached.

New Learning Games and Activities

1. Find a print advertisement with text and images and analyze it in terms of its signifiers, signifieds, metaphors, metonymies, and symbols. Choose one that is richthat is full of symbols and such.
2. A person smiles. From a semiotic (facial expression) perspective, how many different meanings might that smile have? How do we know which meanings are correct? Can we know? What role does context play here?
3. Locate the scripts for a sitcom and a serious drama. Analyze the dialogue in the scripts in terms of the theories about conversation discussed in this book. You can also do this game with a comic book, analyzing the dialogue in the balloons (and the lettering, the shape of the balloons, etc.).
4. List six common activities in which people participate. Then consider the latent functions of these activities. Some activities to consider (but you can add your own to the list):

   Watching a football game on television	Going out to eat in a fast-food restaurant
   Listening to music on a device such as an iPod	Text-messaging a friend
   Going to church, synagogue, or mosque	Playing a video game online

5. Consider the logical implications of the following metaphors (though you can add your own to this list):

   I am a camera.	Life is a dream.
   Happiness is a warm puppy.	I am an empty seashell.

6. Use the Berger model of art/artist/audience/America/media to deal with a film, a specific music video, or a novel. Pay attention to the role the medium plays in the creation of the text and its dissemination.
7. Look for examples of intertexuality in the following film texts:

   Matrix	Lord of the Rings
   Star Wars	Blade Runner

8. Find a script of a narrative (such as a film or television show), and use Tannens ideas to see how men and women use language differently. You can also do this using dialogue in comic strips and dialogue in novels.
9. Analyze a buddy film featuring a black and a white actor team in terms of bell hookss ideas about race and mass culture. You can also record several hours on prime-time television and count the number of men and women, people of color, and other groups to see who is overrepresented and who is underrepresented.
10. Record some commercials. Then turn off the sound and examine them in terms of the facial expressions and body language of the actors and actresses in the commercial. How does their body language connect to spoken language or printed matter in the commercial? What techniques are used to sell the products and services being advertised?
11. If there are hidden meanings found in everyday objects, analyze some of them to find those hidden meanings (latent functions). Topics to consider:

    Microwave ovens	Birkenstock sandals
    Trash compactors	Low-fat lattes
    Electric knives	Low-rider jeans
    Electric toothbrushes	iPods

12. Write an advertisement for each of the members of your team. What should you emphasize? What is your audience? How will you reach them? Consider the language, images, and other devices you can use. Write an advertisement for the course you are taking in which you are playing these learning games.
13. Roland Barthes comes back to life in America to write a new Mythologies. What topics would he write about? Write about one of them from a Barthe-sian perspective.
14. Marshall McLuhan comes back to life. What would he say about

    Cellphones	Rap music
    iPods	Reality television
    Text messaging	Postmodernism
    Smart mobs	Saturday Night Live

15. You are appointed editor of POMO: The Magazine of American Postmodernism. Find a postmodern building or mass-mediated text (film, television show, commercial) and write an essay in which you explain the ways it is postmodern and discuss what its impact might be on American culture and society.
16. Create a new video game concept. Describe its features. What will you call it? What will happen in it? How will you reach its target audience?
17. You are appointed president of CBS Network. Think up a new genre that will draw large audiences. What are the characteristics of the new genre? What attributes in it will appeal to audiences? What will you call your first show? Who will be in it? What will happen in it? (You can deal with this matter in just a few sentences, summarizing the action.)
18. Keep a diary for one day of all the narrations to which you are exposed. To the extent you can, list the time of the narration, what medium carried it, how long it lasted, and what it was about. What conclusions do you draw from this list? Share your list with your team members. What conclusions do you draw about each list and the lists in general?