American Newspaper in Relation to Some Aspects

¶ … American newspaper in relation to some aspects of public and group communication. The three aspects to be discussed are focused on the formation of public group identities. Also, the essay will discuss the influence of the mass media on conceptions of public, group, and interpersonal communication. Mainly, it will examine the way that the mass media allows for feedback in public and group communication. The chosen article describes the recent controversy around the comments of Senator Trent Lott. Last week at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, Senator Lott praised Sen.

Thurmond's 1948 run for president. The author of the article explains that Sen. Strom Thurmond is a controversial figure because of his views on civil rights. His platform while running for president in 1948 supported racial segregation, and, later in 1957, as Senator for South Carolina, he vehemently argued against a civil rights bill. Lott's exact words from the birthday party were, "We're proud of it [Thurmond's 1948 run for president].

And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." After Lott began receiving criticism for this comment from all sides of the political arena, and apologized by saying, "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize for my statement to anyone who was offended by it." How does this article relate to concepts of communication? First of all, Lott's remark concerning Thurmond's 1948 candidacy is an example of how group identity is formed through public discourse. Trent Lott's comment about Thurmond is authoritative because Lott is a Republican Senator. As a public figure, Lott's communications are different from the communications of non-public figures.

Although he made the controversial remarks at a semi-private occasion (a birthday party), his remarks are not the usual interpersonal communication. In his case, he was speaking not only as a Senator, but also as a highly visible Republican. As such, his comments might be given an air of validity and respectability that otherwise might not exist.

The result of this could be that some who agree with racial segregation or who do not support civil rights, might construe his comments to mean that Republicans in general believe in such things. This is not an absurd possibility, given the nature of the history of southern conservative views for which Thurmond is a well-known symbol. Whether Lott knew it or not, his remarks contributed to the imagery that comprises Republican public identity. Lott's remarks caused both unity and dissent among the Republican Party.

All of these responses, when broadcast through the mass-media, give the public the impression that they are participants in national discussions about politics. Secondly, the recent Lott controversy illustrates an aspect of public or group communication that also is found in interpersonal communication: feedback. In interpersonal communication, some situations allow for feedback and some situations do not. Mass media is capable of making public communications into interpersonal communications.

News articles, internet, and television all allow for feedback from the public who is listening, reading, or watching the media's coverage of a public communication. In the case of the Lott situation, many people gave feedback. The interesting thing is that, unlike some public figures, Lott responded to the feedback. People who were offended by his comments expressed themselves and his response was to apologize and explain that his comments were not an accurate representation of what he was actually thinking or what he actually believed.

Even though mass media is often viewed as being impersonal, this is a case that demonstrates that even the impersonal media is capable of allowing for elements of interpersonal communication such as feedback. This brings us to the third aspect of public and group communication, which is the intersection of the mass media with public and group communication.

Does mass media zoom in on interpersonal communication and make the "private" conversations into "public" conversations? Or is the media making "public" conversations into "private" ones? On the one hand it seems that the mass media is functioning to broadcast private conversations so as to make them into public ones. Conversations about race and civil rights policies are ongoing in interpersonal communications, especially in political circles such as the Thurmond birthday party.

It makes sense that when these conversations are televised or reported, the result is that the general public glimpses a portion of the conversation. On the other hand, by bringing the remarks of Lott, a public figure, into the homes and offices of individual Americans and families, the media might be making public communication into one-on-one interpersonal communication. This might happen when a family sees the coverage of the Lott controversy on television and then discusses it among themselves.

It also might be possible to argue that the mass media only creates the appearance of interpersonal communication. It might be the case that without the mass media, not many people would have heard about Lott's remarks. If this were the case, people might not have responded the way they did. So without the mass media, maybe Lott's public or group communication may not have allowed for any feedback.

Or maybe the feedback simply would not have reached Lott so quickly (or at all) and he would not have been as quick to apologize as he was. All of this raises issues about media and public group identity. It seems that it is important to remember that the media might not be the most accurate reflection of the interpersonal communications that.