Thematic Analysis of the c-Squares
The first batch of 74 cSquares were collected during our 2015 winter course on "Information & Communication Theories" and subjected to thematic analysis.
Thematic analysis is a qualitative analytical technique used to explore recurrent themes appearing in a corpus of texts. As explained on the dedicated wikipedia page, “Thematic analysis goes beyond simply counting phrases or words in a text and moves on to identifying implicit and explicit ideas within the data».
We started by looking at the graphic representations in order to determine what they portrayed (the major themes), then we linked these themes to the information and communication theories they illustrated or evoked. Lastly, we triangulated our interpretation by reading the textual definitions on the other side of the cSquare to see if these verbal expressions corroborated or diverged from our interpretation of the graphic representations. This led us to identify 4 major themes which appeared to be recurrent in this collectiob of 74 cSquares:
Note that these are tentative analyses that will need to be substantiated by more profound studies.
Thematic analysis is a qualitative analytical technique used to explore recurrent themes appearing in a corpus of texts. As explained on the dedicated wikipedia page, “Thematic analysis goes beyond simply counting phrases or words in a text and moves on to identifying implicit and explicit ideas within the data».
We started by looking at the graphic representations in order to determine what they portrayed (the major themes), then we linked these themes to the information and communication theories they illustrated or evoked. Lastly, we triangulated our interpretation by reading the textual definitions on the other side of the cSquare to see if these verbal expressions corroborated or diverged from our interpretation of the graphic representations. This led us to identify 4 major themes which appeared to be recurrent in this collectiob of 74 cSquares:
- Interpersonal communication
- Machine mediated communication
- Mass media propaganda
- Internet and global village
Note that these are tentative analyses that will need to be substantiated by more profound studies.
1. Interpersonal communication
Many of the picture cSquares depicted interpersonal communication situations using either stick figures (cSquares 6, 42, 72, 73 in Figure 1), or whole or parts of persons (faces, mouths) involved in face-to-face interaction (cSquares 17, 30, 33, 41, 46, 61 in Figure 2) as evidenced by the “bla bla bla” repeated in many speech bubbles. These drawings portray some of the most intuitive and earliest conceptions of communication as being essentially a human oral phenomenon. The drawings seem a timely reminder that despite the profusion of ICTs and our enslavery to them, communication is and should still remain a human and face-to-face affair. They evoke early communication theories and in particular the Palo Alto school of thought which studied interpersonal communications amongst psychiatric patients, their caregivers and family members in hospital settings. Paul Watlawick, a founding member of the Palo Alto school with Gregory Bateson, defended the thesis that “we cannot not communicate”. It is the belief that there is no zero behaviour and that everything we do or say or do not do or say conveys a message to somebody and influences others. Hence, according to this school of thought, behaviour is communication, from our facial expressions to our tone of voice and posture, to what we say or do not say and we cannot choose not to communicate! Influenced by cybernetics (Norbert Wiener, 1948) and systemic theory, for proponents of the Palo Alto school, communication is not a linear phenomenon like information (despite Shannon calling his theory “A mathematical theory of communication”) but is enmeshed in a complex chain of actions and interactions. Hence, communication is not an act that can be studied in isolation, independently of its context and of other actors. cSquare (6) illustrates this school of thought by portraying a dyad in communication with the words “Palo Alto, listening, receiver, information, relation, message, dialogue, sender” around them and writing under the drawing “Communication is agreement” (La communication c’est l’entente!). |
2. Machine-mediated communication
In this second set of picture cSquares in Figure 3 (20, 48, 54, 62), communication is no longer viewed as a solely human affair but is mediated by technological devices. These drawings evoke the beginnings of mass media communication with the wide adoption of radio and television in the first half of the 20th century, with more modern technological devices becoming widely available towards the end of the 20th century (personal computers, emails). The 21st century saw the widespread use of social media (Facebook, twitter and email icons are shown on cSquare 62). Although, humans are still present on these drawings, they have a less prominent role than in the interpersonal communication cSquares. Interpersonal and group communication are henceforth mediated by technological devices. Across these three sets of drawings – interpersonal and machine-mediated communication cSquares (Figures 1, 2 and 3), we see the beginnings of a history of ICT inventions and how communication has evolved from being a direct human-to-human interaction to machine-mediated. |
3. Mass media propaganda
The drawings in Figure 4 (cSquares 16, 24, 67) appear to showcase the popular and tenacious belief that the mass media have a big influence on shaping people’s perception of reality and not always in a disinterested fashion. cSquare 16 in particular is an allegorical depiction of the "crowd effect" and portrays the masses blindly following an authoritative voice or a leader who could be the State, a charismatic leader, a gourou, a celebrity and being eventually led astray or to the slaughter. The scene is that of a mass vaccination program, the drawing bears the title “Compulsory vaccination” and the instruction “Direction of queue” with people queuing up and waiting obediently to be injected with the vaccine.
The other two drawings (cSquare 24 and 67) also depict a similar theme. Both have loudspeakers emitting information that is being absorbed by people or by a flock of sheep obediently following their shepherd.
These drawings are allegorical depictions of the early mass media theories of the 1940s which were aligned with the Shannon-Weaver unidirectional model of communication and the functionalist-behaviourist theories. Early mass media theorists like Harold Lasswell 1927[1] and Paul Lazarsfeld et al 1944[2]) studied the effects of mass media on public opinion in the context of war propaganda, elections or for marketing purposes. They perceived communication as an isolated act of persuasion whose effects can be measured by scientific methods, using mainly quantitative and empirical methods (surveys). Hence the earliest mass communications research in the United States focused on measuring the short term effects of messages disseminated via radio, cinema and later television on public opinion.
[1] Harold Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War, NY Peter Smith, 1927.
[2] Paul Felix Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, Hazel Gaudet, The people's choice: how the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign, Columbia University Press, 1944.
The drawings in Figure 4 (cSquares 16, 24, 67) appear to showcase the popular and tenacious belief that the mass media have a big influence on shaping people’s perception of reality and not always in a disinterested fashion. cSquare 16 in particular is an allegorical depiction of the "crowd effect" and portrays the masses blindly following an authoritative voice or a leader who could be the State, a charismatic leader, a gourou, a celebrity and being eventually led astray or to the slaughter. The scene is that of a mass vaccination program, the drawing bears the title “Compulsory vaccination” and the instruction “Direction of queue” with people queuing up and waiting obediently to be injected with the vaccine.
The other two drawings (cSquare 24 and 67) also depict a similar theme. Both have loudspeakers emitting information that is being absorbed by people or by a flock of sheep obediently following their shepherd.
These drawings are allegorical depictions of the early mass media theories of the 1940s which were aligned with the Shannon-Weaver unidirectional model of communication and the functionalist-behaviourist theories. Early mass media theorists like Harold Lasswell 1927[1] and Paul Lazarsfeld et al 1944[2]) studied the effects of mass media on public opinion in the context of war propaganda, elections or for marketing purposes. They perceived communication as an isolated act of persuasion whose effects can be measured by scientific methods, using mainly quantitative and empirical methods (surveys). Hence the earliest mass communications research in the United States focused on measuring the short term effects of messages disseminated via radio, cinema and later television on public opinion.
[1] Harold Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War, NY Peter Smith, 1927.
[2] Paul Felix Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, Hazel Gaudet, The people's choice: how the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign, Columbia University Press, 1944.
4. Internet and global village
Drawings that illustrate this theme in Figure 5 (cSquares 2, 31, 32, 70) move us away from the local level (interpersonal face-to-face communications) through the meso level (machine mediated communication) and onto a macro or global level where the world has effectively become a village. All the continents are interconnected via information and communication technologies (ICTs). ICTs enable people at distant geographic locations to communicate in real-time. In cSquare 2, the surface of the globe is covered by digital communication devices (radio, television, postal mail, email, wifi) with no humans present. These drawings are evocative of Marshall McLuhan’s The Gutenberg Galaxy, in which he predicted that the next set of inventions would make the world a global village. Internet and the web have enabled global and instantaneous transmission of information (rather than communication), thereby abolishing time, distance, linguistic, social and cultural constraints. His prophecy echoes the cybernetic ideal of the free circulation of information and communication, considered of strategic importance by Norbert Wiener for the betterment of the human condition and of the society. What is amazing is how aptly our students' drawings captured complex and abstract theoretical discourse that were propounded decades ago (as early as 1927 for some) and largely debated by the scientific community, without resorting to a lengthy verbal discourse or making very elaborate graphic designs. |