Research Report_Carey_Yadegar

In today’s world of journalism, it is hard to come by a journalist that’s main intentions are to better the publics knowledge of the world and have no other ulterior motive or outside pressures affecting their writing. We are taught to be hesitant, and question every thing we read to find the authors purpose. That’s why when reading James W. Carey’s book “A Cultural Approach to Communication” I was a bit confused. It was not really the book itself that confused me rather, what I found out about Casey and why he wrote the way he did. Casey grew up with a heart problem taking him out of school and being able to play with kids his age, so he filled his life with books and a passion for learning. He went on to graduate the University of Rhode Island; landing jobs as a professor, most notable the dean of the University of Illinois College of Communications and a professor at Columbia University. He was described as “a respected communications theorist whose intellectual acrobatics added heft to the practical education of journalists at Columbia University” (New York Times) and also portrayed as is not universal in the upper-academic realm where Jim dwelt professionally, he loved journalists, and believed that universities have something to teach us'' (Nicholas Lemann). This is what surprised me, Carey did not do what he did for any other purpose but to further the worlds knowledge on journalism, and educate the public on his views and beliefs of journalism, nothing more nothing less. He didn’t have publishers, advertisers, or media owners influencing his work, he wrote about what he thought was important, especially his theory of “the ritual view of communication”. The theory is described as wherein communication–the construction of a symbolic reality–represents, maintains, adapts, and shares the beliefs of a society in time. In short, the ritual view conceives communication as a process that enables and enacts societal transformation. In his book, Carey talks about the importance about religion in reference to communication. At first I though that this had to do with some religious bias Carey had, but that was not the case. He shared this view on how religion affected communication just to educate and bring something to light. He theorized that religion was the reason communication evolved to what it is. This can be described best by the quote with the first telegraphic message, the purpose of the invention was not to spread the price of pork but to ask the question 'What Hath God Wrought?” (Morse), famously said by the inventor of the telegraph, Samuel Morse. “A Cultural Approach to Communication” is a book critically acclaimed for its advancement in the views of journalism, it had no added pressures than what the author felt was necessary for the public to know, and it was essentially an honest piece of work done by a man that loved journalism in its purest form.