Group Three.

I was particularly intrigued by James Carey’s definition of communication: “A symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed.” According to this definition, all communication—news, entertainment, social networking—is, effectively, propaganda. Communication is propaganda in the sense that, intentionally or not, it serves to promote and maintain a particular—and, until recently, collective—idea of reality.

This communication-cum-propaganda has played a vital role in the construction and maintenance of the nation-state; it has been instrumental in fostering the “imagined community” that is an essential ingredient in uniting disparate peoples who happen to fall within politically determined geographic borders. We are symbolic creatures, and communication has “produced, maintained, repaired and transformed” our reality with national and societal symbols. Flags, events, wars, disasters—each can act a symbol that helps define our perception of the nation-state. Mass media have thus far been the vehicle for diffusing these symbols. As Bernard Cohen states, “Media doesn’t tell us what to think, but what to think about.”

However, over the last few decades, media have fractured more and more in an effort to cater to specific communities and groups of interest. Social media have increased the ability of niche groups to communicate and organize, and thus encouraged our natural tendency to gravitate to others like us. Increasingly, we seek out others with like views on the Internet, watch TV stations that cater to our particular political disposition, and read blogs that reaffirm our own views. More and more, we no longer share the same symbols. We no longer “think about” the same things.

If the existence and maintenance of the nation is so dependent on the collective consumption and acceptance of symbols, and our repertoire of symbols is less and less uniform each day, how can the nation-state as we know it continue to thrive? If we’re each subject to our own, specialized propaganda machine, how can we sustain our societal bonds?