THE COMMUNICATION THAT ALIENATES
In the context of a hyper urbanized and hyper
computerized world, in a world where the news
travel at an amazing speed, and where the social
contacts are easier and easier to establish and
more diverse, the communication represents the
binder, the relational structure that gathers in a
bundle the threads of this world, maintaining its
cohesion, its nature, even when it sustains the
dispute, the conflict or the lie.
THE LONERGANIAN REVOLUTION IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Abstract
In his Insight. An essay on human knowledge (1957),
chapters 2 to 5, Bernard Lonergan draws a rational
reconstruction of science and summarizes its precepts of
research, as well. The author demonstrates how scientific
insights can be one of the possible responses to the
universal human desire of knowledge. By revolutionizing
the understanding of scientific research, the author changes
from an object-oriented methodical perspective to a
subject-oriented heuristic one that requires the scientist to
be attentive, intelligent, rational, responsible and passionate
for his, or her, research if he, or she, wants to be objective.
Keywords: epistemology, heuristics, scientific research,
emergent probability, schemes of recurrence, revolution of the
subject, ethics, cosmopolis.
A STUDY OF THE USE OF ICT AMONG RURAL FARMERS
Abstract
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can
revolutionize Indian farming sector and can benefit all
farmers including small landholders. Agriculture is the
most important sector with the majority of the rural
population in developing countries depending on it. The
traditional approaches of agriculture being adapted, has
numerous challenges in terms of production, marketing,
profit etc. The challenges of the traditional agriculture are
addressed significantly by using Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) that play an important
role in uplifting the livelihoods of the rural small landholder
farmers. ICT helps in growing demand for new approaches.
It also helps in empowering the rural people by providing
better access to natural resources, improved agricultural
technologies, effective production strategies, markets,
banking and financial services etc. This article explores the
role of ICT in agricultural sector.
Keywords: Agricultural Market Information, Market
Access, Information and Communication Technology (ICT),
Small Land Holder Farmers.
CRITICAL READING AND LITERARY COMMUNICATION
Abstract
The informational content provided by literature has a
specific nature. Literature is defined as an equally mediating
and mediated system, the transmission-reception (writingreading)
activity establishing the transmitter-receiver
contact, thus assuring the transfer of some piece of
information. Nowadays, one may mention the formation
of a new culture of reading, along with a deadlock in the
theory of reading: no comment upon reading - which is not
in itself reading - is possible, any longer. The semiology of
reading attempts at filling in some blank spaces, which
assumes a systematic examination of all aspects involved
in the action of reading, from deciphering of graphical
signs up to problems of interpretation and reception.
Critical reading has the power to bring together all these
facets of reading. By its all-embracing capacity, it may be
viewed as an enciclopaedic metatextual discourse, which
renders difficult to circumscribe its borders. Critical
reading possesses a series of features which may be equally
viewed as definining elements: it is multiple, open,
reiterated, retro-active, being, generally, the result of a
series of re-readings. The multiplicity of critical reading
may also derive from the diversity of contexts (space, time,
socio-historical conditions, etc.) within which the act of
reading is produced. Implicitly and compulsorily, critical
reading is intertextual. Just on the line, it tends to be total
or totalizing, when aiming at bringing together as many as
possible modalities for understanding the text.
Keywords: reading, reception, intertextuality, critical
communication.
INTEGRATING STUDENT PRESENTATIONS IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM
Abstract
The most important goal that communicative language
teaching aims to reach is the ability to communicate. EFL
teachers try to make their classes more communicatively
dynamic by encouraging students to take initiative, think
beyond the textbook, and use language creatively and
interactively. This paper aims at presenting some aspects
related to the benefits of using oral presentations in the
English classroom and a guideline that will help develop
students’ receptiveness to them. It is important that the
teacher should understand the skills involved in giving
presentations, and the possible difficulties oral
presentations can present for second language learners.
Oral presentations, if properly guided and organized,
provide a learning experience and teach lifelong skills that
will be beneficial to learners in all school subjects, as well
as later in their careers. Among the many advantages of
making oral presentations for students are: bridging the
gap between language study and language use; using the
four language skills in a naturally integrated way; helping
students to collect, inquire, organize and construct
information; enhancing team work; helping students
become active and autonomous learners.
Keywords: oral presentations, multi-skills, critical thinking,
improving learning.
DUMITRU MUSTER’S CONTRIBUTION TO ROMANIAN POSTMODERN PEDAGOGY
Abstract
The two orientations of psychological pedagogy
launched in the interwar period, stated in the postwar era
– experimental pedagogic psychology and theoretical
pedagogic psychology - mingle and complement each
other. The experimental research is necessary in any
theoretical approach, undertaken especially in school and
extracurricular environments. This calls for experimental
research designs like the one proposed by Dumitru Muster,
promoted during 1970-1980. Dumitru Muster coordinated
the editing, for more than a decade, of a monumental work,
Pedagogic Dictionary (see Pedagogic Dictionary, general
coordination, Anghel Manolache, Dumitru Muster, Iulian
Nica, George Văideanu, The Didactic and Pedagogic
Publishing House, Bucharest, 1979), for which he elaborated
an impressive number of articles (132). The most important
pedagogical concepts, defined from the perspective of the
postmodern evolution perspective registered in the field,
are those of: pedagogical research; research method (in the
field of pedagogy); experimental method (in the field of
pedagogy); experimental pedagogy. Dumitru Muster’s
most important contribution to Romanian pedagogy, in the
postmodern period, after the 1960s-1970s, is the work “The
research methodology in education” published at his own
initiative, at Litera Publishing House in Bucharest, in 1985.
The value of the book, bearing the subtitle “A guide for the
elaboration and presentation of communication and
methodical-scientific works of promotion” is evident to
this day, being widely used by kindergarten educators,
teachers and professors, but also by assessors, who apply
the conception and evaluation of methodical-scientific
work for obtaining their first teaching degree in education.
Keywords: social pedagogy, experimental esychology,
psychological theory in pedagogy.
EMIL M. BRANDZA’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGICAL PEDAGOGY
Abstract
Emil M. Brandza alongside Dumitru Muster, leading
teachers of “Studies Circle” have been instrumental in the
development of experimental interwar psychological
pedagogy. Emil M. Brandza’s outstanding contributions to
the development of modern experimental psychological
pedagogy in the interwar historical era may be proved,
particularly at the level proposed methods amid the
owning the doctrinal and action requirements that belong
to the experimental investigations: a) the method of the
biographical surveys; b) pedagogic diagnosis; c) the
pedagogic file for the academically professional guidance;
d) experimental verifications. Emil M. Brandza’s
contribution in promoting experimental psychological
pedagogy is demonstrated in the study entitled “The
pedagogic experiment through integral method of the
equivalent groups” where he insists on the “integral
method” mark required when called upon the “integral
method of equivalent groups”. The psychological
argument of the hypothesis refers on the anticipation of
the fact that in the mentioned circumstances “the students
have immediately the opportunity to comprise the
movement within itself or as it’s alternatively called to feel
the alternative structure of the movement”.
Keywords: experimental psychological pedagogy, pedagogic
action.
HISTORY OF THE 25TH FRAME. THE SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE
Abstract
The visual subliminal perceives 24 frames per second.
In this sequence succession there can be inserted the 25th
frame, in no relation with the visible message, yet perceived
consciously by the human brain. The subliminal images
are invisible at normal speed. The eye would not see them
and the spectator would not question this image. Sigmund
Freud has demonstrated that a word or an image can
activate a juncture, a complex, a repudiated feeling. But
even if images or usual words, which are part of the
immediate reality, come up weird, forced in a context,
there is a relation of retrospect to a domain, to a form or a
structure in the subconscious, fixed through other anterior
relations. In transmitting a message, what certainly exists
is only the intention. On the way of transmitting, the
message suffers various modifications, and if it reaches the
subconscious zone, it can be no longer controlled and
enters a medium with its own mechanisms of action.
Keywords: communication, subliminal message,
subconscious, frame, mass media.
UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF MEDIA EDUCATION IN THE AGE OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM. RHETORIC OF DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES
Abstract
The term ‘audience’ in media studies and communication
research draws from a wide range of theoretical orientations
and can be understood as the product of the interpollination
of the role of media with the play of culture,
society and politics in any milieu. In this paper, I wish to
delineate the major transitions in audience studies and
tease out the dilemma presented by the discussion about
the activity and passivity of the audience. Audiences are
positioned as a group of individuals who are negotiating
with the process of influence and ‘conscientization’
simultaneously. I argue that audiences are both active and
passive at the same time and that the dialectics of (in)action
makes it possible to understand how the role of media
education can be conceptualized in the age of religious
extremism. Here, media education is the platform where
the active and passive nature of individuals gives way to
a dynamic conceptualization of the ‘politicized media
audiences’ and acts as a site for both appropriation and
resistance. Media education can offer the required
competencies, skills and affordances to the audiences, so
as to enable them to appropriate the mediascape. Also, a
critical understanding of the media narratives and intertextuality
will help the audience understand the politics of
religious nuances in media discourse and its implications
on public interest. It is in this context that I propose to use
‘master’s tools to dismantle master’s house’, as media’s
influence is contingent to its effective use if to encode the
content then also to decode it.
Keywords: media education, audiences, critical media
pedagogy, religious extremism, Indian politics.
LIFELONG LEARNING – A RESPONSE TO A COMPLEX MARKETING STRATEGY OVERCOMING THE GENDER GAP
Abstract
One of the main concerns nowadays, all over the world,
is related to the fact that there is no society which can
provide equal opportunities for women and men. In this
paper we are analyzing the fundamental categories of
gender gap, such as: economic participation and
opportunity, educational attainment and political
empowerment and their levels in the European Countries.
Further on, we reveal the correlations between gender gap,
customer orientation and competitive advantage, as main
aspects of a complex marketing strategy. In our opinion, a
high level of customer orientation and innovation can be
achieved through the specialization given by the lifelong
learning.
Keywords: Lifelong Learning, Gender Equality, Gender
Gap, Customer Orientation, Competitive Advantage.
INGREDIENTS PRODUCING VISUAL IMPACT OF A NEWSPAPER. A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW OF PARTICULARS IN TODAY NEWSPAPERS’ INFLUENCE BY IMAGE AND COLOUR
Abstract
The visual impact of a text is the combined outcome of
graphic communication and semiotics. Good media literacy
practices do not overlook the fact that everything is a sign
of something else, and signs are everywhere around us. It
is in the nature of the human being to be influenced by
image and colour. Behavioral psychologists claim that
most of our decisions are based on intuitive judgment and
emotions. Graphic communication is increasingly used
because graphics acts both cognitively and emotionally.
While text can only influence through words and it takes
longer to influence as it appeals to cognition, visuals have
a quicker and stronger influence as they first appeal to
senses and emotions. We interpret visual texts by taking
into account the elements that make up that text: images
(colour), words (titles, headlines captions), typographical
features (font, size), and layout (spatial arrangement).
Various design choices; starting from the geometric
dimensions of pages, sizes of type, texture of the paper,
column widths, their spacing and alignment would exert
subtle but important impact on the nature and quality of
communication. Obviously, words are essential, yet verbal
communication can be transmitted visually, by printing (or
handwriting).
Keywords: visual, impact, newspaper, media, design.
BUILDING UP THE INDIVIDUAL IMAGINARY AND DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
Abstract
The present study outlines the manner of building up
the individual imaginary by the development and
structuring of whct classical psychanalysis defines as the
unconscious. Individual images are created in relation with
affective shades, forming together compact groups of
images which are merging into deep, inactive structures
whose reference is the symbol. Within the relation between
the active imaginary (which may be easily activated and
the passive imaginary (the unconscious structures) human
personality is being built up as an individual ego.
Keywords: imaginary, active imaginary, passive imaginary,
unconscious.
BUILDING UP THE INDIVIDUAL IMAGINARY AND DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
Abstract
The present study outlines the manner of building up
the individual imaginary by the development and
structuring of whct classical psychanalysis defines as the
unconscious. Individual images are created in relation with
affective shades, forming together compact groups of
images which are merging into deep, inactive structures
whose reference is the symbol. Within the relation between
the active imaginary (which may be easily activated and
the passive imaginary (the unconscious structures) human
personality is being built up as an individual ego.
Keywords: imaginary, active imaginary, passive imaginary,
unconscious.
