Pictures still speak the most universally understood language...

Walt Disney the master mind behind the creation of the great Disney work, right from a mouse who can talk to the last fairy tale Princess with extraordinary long hair, ones made a statement ‘Of all our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language. ’ By this statement he simply meant that the pictures always speak louder and a thousand word than any regular normal language.

One of the best example to support the above statement is ‘The Girl in the Picture.’ It only took a second for Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong to snap the iconic black and white image 40 years ago. Phan  Thi Kim a Vietnamese girl at about nine years of age running naked on the road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack. The Girl in the Picture deals primarily with Vietnamese and American relationships during the Vietnam War, while examining themes of war, racism, immigration, political turmoil, repression, poverty and international relationships through the lens of the family and particularly through the eyes and everyday lives of women. It communicated the horrors of the Vietnam war in a way words could never describe, helping to end one of the most divisive wars in American history. 

When the image of the naked little girl emerged, everyone feared it would be rejected because of the news agency's strict policy against nudity. It was a chilling photograph that came to symbolize the horrors of the Vietnam War and, ultimately, helped end it. Also this photograph helped Huynh Cong "Nick" to win the Pulitzer Prize.

The second example is an image that captured an epic moment in U.S. history the ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ where a sailor locked in a passionate kiss with a nurse in New York City's Times Square at the end of World War II. The photograph is known under various titles, such as V-J (Victory over Japan) Day in Times Square, V-Day, and The Kiss This couple who won the nations heart was captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Kissing was a favourite pose encouraged by media photographers of service personnel during the war, but Eisenstaedt was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square as the announcement of the end of the war on Japan was made by U.S.

News lost during Translation

Language is a way through which a man communicates with other human being. This communication of language can be through use of words, pictures, video clips, sign language, etc. Communication through language through talk or verbal use of words is the easiest and the clearest way of communication.  But this can happen only when sender of information and receiver follow a common verbal language. If there is difference in language while communicating, the message is lost as the receiver is unable to understand the language used by its sender. This is where translation comes in handy. But many times it is observed that due to translation the meaning of the news or information and the essence of the story is lost. Translation acts as one of the major communication barriers. The Italians have a saying: "traduttore tradittore" meaning "the translator is a traitor". Sometimes when translating, there might be the difficulty, of finding a word that expresses or means the same thing, and because there isn’t one specific word that means the same as the other, instead of putting one word, many are used, to describe the words meaning.

Each language has a specific way in which the words structure a sentence (grammatical rules to structure a sentence), so that the sentence can make sense. Because meaning changes from one language to another, words need to be added or omitted and the structure of the sentence needs to change, so that meaning of the words can be more accurately translated.

When translating, at times one needs to translate the meaning, and not the words, because the words could have different meanings. On an American TV Channel Hilary Clinton said that there should be ‘resetting’ between nations. Some Russian Channel misunderstood the word ‘Reset’ and broadcasted it as ‘Overcharged’ in Russian language. This where language can sometimes get slippery.  Sometimes even though the structure has changed the meaning can still be the same, they are just said in different ways. Like in America the word ‘closet’ means a ‘cupboard’ whereas in British a ‘cupboard’ is called ‘cupboard.’

Each language has it’s own set of grammatical rules, which is why when one word is translated into a different language, the grammatical structure also has to be correct, in order for the sentence to make sense. So in many cases, when translating, the grammatical structure needs to change too. After translating the words or sentence, and changing the grammatical structure, when the meanings are compared in different languages, they are more or less the same. But if you translate the words in their direct meaning, the sentence won’t make sense.

The first thing to remember is that translation is the transfer of meaning from one language to another. It is not the transfer of words from language to language. You must translate the meaning of what is being said, rather than do it word-for-word. This is because languages are not just different words. Different languages also have different grammar, different word orders, sometimes even words for which other languages do not have any equivalents. There are infinite numbers of possibilities that can affect the matter; equally, there are infinite numbers of possibilities that can affect language, which are almost all lost in translation. True translation, like alteration, is nearly impossible.

Culture and Communication

The term “culture” refers to the collection of knowledge, folklore, language, rules, rituals, habits, lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs, and customs that link and give a common identity to a particular group of people at a specific point in time.

A group also develops a culture which is composed of the collection of rules, rituals, customs, and other characteristics that give an identity to the social unit. Where a group traditionally meets, whether meetings begin on time or not, what topics are discussed, how decisions are made, and how the group socializes are all elements of what, over time, become defining and differentiating elements of its culture.

The most rich and complex cultures are those that are associated with a society or a nation, and the term “culture” is most commonly used to refer to these characteristics, including language and language-usage patterns, rituals, rules, and customs. A societal or national culture also includes such elements as significant historical events and characters, philosophies of government, social customs, family practices, religion, economic philosophies and practices, belief and value systems, and concepts and systems of law.

Communication is the process of conveying ones message through the use of language. Communication can be verbal and non verbal too. Verbal communication includes the use of language of word by talking and non verbal includes the use of sign language, emails, video clippings, etc.

The relationship between communication and culture is a very complex. First, cultures are created through communication; that is, communication is the means of human interaction through which cultural descriptions; whether customs, roles, rules, rituals, laws, or other patterns are created and shared. It is not so much that individuals set out to create a culture when they interact in relationships, groups, organizations, or societies, but rather that cultures are a natural by-product of social interaction. In a sense, cultures are the “residue” of social communication. Without communication and communication media, it would be impossible to preserve and pass along cultural characteristics from one place and time to another. One can say, therefore, that culture is created, shaped, transmitted, and learned through communication. The reverse is also the case; that is; communication practices are largely created, shaped, and transmitted by culture.

To understand the implications of this communication-culture relationship, it is necessary to think in terms of ongoing communication processes rather than a single communication event. For example, when a three-person group first meets, the members bring with them individual thought and behavioural patterns from previous communication experiences and from other cultures of which they are, or have been, a part. As individuals start to engage in communication with the other members of this new group, they begin to create a set of shared experiences and ways of talking about them. If the group continues to interact, a set of distinguishing history, patterns, customs, and rituals will evolve. Some of these cultural characteristics would be quite obvious and tangible, such that a new person joining the group would encounter ongoing cultural “rules” to which they would learn to conform through communication. 

New members would in turn influence the group culture in small, and sometimes large, ways as they become a part of it. In a reciprocal fashion, this reshaped culture shapes the communication practices of current and future group members. This is true with any culture; communication shapes culture, and culture shapes communication. Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging.

Cultures provide people with ways of thinking with ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. But no culture is complete without communication. It is only through communication that there is spread and recognition of cultures.

The words of My Book Nothing, the Drift of It Everything

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

He ones said “The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything.”  This simply means that until and unless the world doesn’t know of your work but you, its pointless and worthless. If you happen to share your work be it writing or films, etc. it helps in spreading word. Instead of keeping certain creditable subject only to yourself will only help you. But if you pass on your work to others, people give their opinion and views regarding it which may in future be very helpful to you.

This is exactly what happens in media. The media shares its work that is its news and stories to everyone. This helps in educating and informing its masses. If the media gets hold of a particular story and keeps only to itself, without sharing it to its audience, the value of that story falls eventually. The media helps us in understanding what is right and wrong. Where two people debate over a same topic and the media doesn’t share one persons view and keeps it hidden for some reason, it then does the job of giving one sided story.

Walter Whitman’s this statement shows us the importance of word through the audiences point of view. Only when your work is spread out people notice it and give their opinion and views on your statement making it known to all and sometimes helpful in the future.

The Media Language

David Bordwell is an American film theorist and film historian. He argues that there is a difference between a story given to the viewer through the media language. His statement simply states that when the media gives a story out to the public it is given differently than regular narrative ones. Here differently basically means that the media uses its distinguished language of camerawork and editing to convey a story by making it more colourful and flashy than that of only the story being plain narrative.

What happens when a story is plain narrative, it becomes more or like monotonous and the audience eventually loses interest in it. Therefore in order to create or rather grab the audience’s attention media uses its unique language of introducing various camera angle like panning, tilting, zooming, etc. It’s pretty obvious that any normal human being will get bored and tired of hearing the anchor just reading its script. This used to happen years back on Doordarshan Channel where the anchor or the host just read the script provided without much of video clippings or photographs.

There, where in 90’s many exclusive 24x7 news channel came up. In order to convey its news to major audience it came up with colourful headlines, voiceovers and that is where not only the host talked for hours.

Recently the concept of breaking news came and wooed the audience. This not only lead to competition between the news channels but also lead to the entertainment plus news for the audience.  Almost all news channels follow the method of panel discussion, where a debate is held. Such panel discussion place two different viewpoints on the same subject making its audience think, reciprocate and then provoking to take a stand. 

Religulous: Movie Review

Religulous is a 2008 American comic documentry film written by and starring comedian Bill Maher and directed by Larry Charles. The title of the film is derived from the words "religion" and "ridiculous". The documentary examines and mocks organized religion and religious beliefs. 

A range of views on various world religions is explored as Bill Maher travels to numerous religious destinations including Jerusalem, the Vatican, interviewing believers from a variety of backgrounds and groups.

Religulous begins with Bill Maher, standing alone in Israel a worthless pile of rubble where many of the planet’s religions believe the end of the world will begin. From there, Maher pushes us into an intense, honest, and brutally funny discussion of blind belief, presenting the possibility that maybe we should all consider doubt instead. He makes us follow him around the world, as he travels from place to place talking to religious people of different faiths on different continents. The surprising thing here is that even though Maher definitely has an agenda, his movie never distort into the territory of misinformation.

He talks to truckers in a roadside chapel, he chats with random, middle-class tourists at a Christian-themed amusement park. He talks to religious shop owners, small town preachers, Jews for Jesus, U.S. Senators, Vatican priests, religious scientists, gay Muslims, people in America, Europe, and even in Jerusalem. These are for the most part sane, rational, even intelligent people who believe something which Maher believes is insane.

The first half of the film is mostly focused on Christians, how they believe in things like a 5,000-year-old earth, etc. Ever the equal-opportunity atheist, Maher spends the second half of the film undermining religions and cults of every shape and size and even gets high with a leader of a religion based around marijuana. He goes to the Vatican and interviews some crazy Catholic priest, and Jerusalem to deconstruct Judaism and Islam. Maher is particularly hard on Islam, offering somewhat surprising pronouncements about the inherent violence and of that most touchy of all world religions.

All along the journey, Maher and Charles jazz up the images with mocking voiceovers and music, and some very clever quick-cut editing. It's stylishly presented, to be sure, but for all its showiness, Religulous is ultimately a very unpredictable movie.

Language and Statement follow their own rule?

Language is a way through which a man communicates with other human being. This communication of language can be through use of words, pictures, video clips, sign language, etc. Communication through language through talk or verbal use of words is the easiest and the clearest way of communication.  On the other hand statement is nothing but a sentence that is formed with the help of language. A proper structured statement helps one in conveying the message. Without a language a statement cannot be formed and without statement there is no point of simply having a language. Here is where statement and language go hand in hand and follow their own rule.

But the relationship between our statement and the world outside is not rule governed. When we make a particular statement as such in public sometimes due to some sort of misunderstanding the words and language is twisted and turned and different meaning is added to our original statement. Sometimes this job of twisting and turning the statement is done by the media.

Like when Raj Thackeray gives speeches on Marathi man or the son of the soil should get benefit over outsiders, some part of the media hypes his statements by changing its tone. Whereas the remaining part of the media gives the right and clear picture of the statement. 

PISA- An Eye Opener...

PISA (Program for International Students Assessment) is an international study that was launched by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) in 1997. It aims to evaluate education systems worldwide every 3 years by assessing 15 year old students in the key subjects of science, mathematics and reading.

The PISA results were recently out and it was shocking to see India landing on the 2^nd last position among 73 countries that participated. However, it wasn’t shocking to those whose children go to the Indian schools. It was told that the results are not a reflection of Indian’s poor state of schooling. Instead the failure has been certified to a cultural disconnect between the questions and Indian students.

This shows the quality of education that is provided to the students in India. Schools are strictly controlled in such a way that the students score high marks in examinations. In fact they study for only exams and not to develop themselves, to think or to analyse. The fact is that the quality and quantity of education in India is pathetic. Never ever is there any focus on practical learning. Whereas, science is all about learning theories, with there being no facility to visit science centres to see the theories work in practise. Not only this but the evaluation of marks for certain subjects and the quantity of syllabus included for certain marks are not proportional.

This incident should be considered as an eye opener. Our Indian Constitution talks of the fundamental Right of Education to every Indian. The government should look into improvising the educational standards. If merely being able to write one’s own name makes one literate, then that’s not going to be enough in this rising world. 

Justice Delayed Is Better Than Justice Denied...

           

 After 10 long years, the India judiciary has woken up from its sleep. Out of the 2 important and right verdicts, namely Kasab’s death sentence and secondly the Naroda Pati massacre, were passed by the apex court of India. The Naroda victims will finally be at peace as justice will be awarded to them.

            Maya Kodnani along with 32 other convicts was accused for the 2002 Godhra train slaughter. This verdict is regarded as landmark one. It is for the first time that an Indian court has ever convicted a sitting MLA — Maya Kodnani who was also a minister in Narendra Modi’s government 2007- 2009. She was accused for mob aggression against members of a religious community. All the 32 convicts should be punished, particularly, Maya Kodnani who despite being a woman had lead to such a bloodshed which included more of women and children. Not only has this but also, later, case of gang rape and sexual harassment were observed.  If Kasab is guilty of killing innocent Indians as are the Godhra case convicts. They should be punished for their heinous crime and then and only then justice will be served. These convicts do not deserve a place in the society.

                        Sadly, this ‘stunning verdict’ took 10 years to punish the accused. Our judicial system is a long way road to be entirely justfull at the right moment. But the brighter side is that justice still prevails in India. Justice delayed is at least better than justice denied.

Is Capital Punishment valid for terrorists?

There are many kinds of crime and sins that a human being commits on every day basis, calling it the ‘human nature’. Every holy book talks of Karma as to what you sow you reap but not encouraging killing of human beings, in particular. Unlike the holy books, one of the measures of the government is to punish the sinners (terrorists) by imposing Capital Punishments. Indian law follows the traditional way of hanging by the neck until death.  

          

In simple and understandable words, Capital Punishment is the act of killing or executing a person who is found guilty of a very serious crime in the eyes if the law. Application of this kind of punishment is quite a debatable topic considering it brutal and justful at the same time. In most of the cases, punishment for terrorist actions with capital punishment is necessary. If once a Capital Punishment is awarded to criminal a threat will be incepted in the minds of others who wouldn’t dare to disrupt the peace and harmony in the society. This way people involved in criminal activities will feel the power and strength of the existing law.    

        

However, if Capital Punishment has to be imposed on any criminal, on what background has he committed the crime and how badly has it affected the society should be taken into consideration and then and only then, the punishment should be given. Like when a student commits a school felony he should be educated rightly by elders.

            It is the basic math that the punishment should equal to the rate of crime. Some crimes are so horrifying that people consider revenge is the only option to satisfy their sorrow through seeing the terrorist receiving capital punishment.  This reasoning is not based on logic but on emotions, like an eye for an eye ideology. But here people fail to realize that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
   

          

In conclusion, Capital Punishment is one effective method to prevent and curb crime but at the same time one must consider the reasons of crimes and think for, if, any additional better way to resolve the problem.