Sheldon Rampton of CMD (Center for Media and Democracy) emphasizes how the negative connotations associated with sewage sludge prevented its proper disposal. Sludge, typically a solid matter, is produced by water and sewage treatment. In an attempt to dispose of the sludge, sewage has been dumped into oceans, resulting in serious ramifications. Authorities have since then attempted to use sludge as a fertilizer for crops. However, to their dismay, farmers were less than excited to cover their crops in a healthy layer of sewage sludge. In this particular situation, the issue was not in the material of the sludge, but the meaning that accompanied the word.
“In this era of exploding media technologies, there is no truth except the truth you create yourself,” stated Richard Edelman at Edelman World Wide. This suggests that any object or idea can be given a symbolic label.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4XT-l-_3y0)
This is directly related to the idea in Understanding Human Communications. The book reads, “Meaning is not in words themselves but rather in the way people understand them” (Sevigny, Rodman, Adler 85).
A word absorbs connotations that people associate with it over time. For example, the word mankind once represented the entire human race. Through changing times, the term mankind is now seen as politically incorrect and sexist, and the word "humanity" should be used in it's place. Similarly, the word “sludge” is associated with an unpleasant, disgusting form of waste and the thought of fertilizing crops with it is revolting. Meanwhile, animal fecal matter is used to do the same thing.
People of the Water Environment Federation created a “Name Change Task Force” in charge of determining a swift and orderly name change. Their hope was to burry the negative connotations associated with “sludge” and replace them with the freshly welded word, "biosolid".
Eventually, with enough use by the Water Treatment Industry, the word “biosolid” was printed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as planned. “I’m pleased that the term "sludge" will not appear in the definition of biosolids. In waste water industry it is not politically correct to use the term sludge any longer” stated Pete Machro, National Biosolids Partnership. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biosolid
However, a word is not part of language until it is accepted and associated with a meaning by a mainstream group. For the word "biosolid", this didn’t occur until 2002, twelve years after "biosolid" was published in a dictionary. The majority of biosolids were finally being applied to agricultural lands that had refused to be fertilized by sludge twelve years prior.
This illustrates the power of interpretation that people put into words and language. People can be controlled by manipulating the way by which they view certain words. This is a powerful tool that can, and often has been misused. This is but one of the multiple examples that Sheldon Rampton uncovers many similar stories through CMD. Below is Sheldon Rampton’s blog and the presentation where he speaks about the introduction of biosolids.
Changes in communication frame the future of human civilization. As explained by Minerva’s Owl, changes in modes of communication send a shock wave through humanity. Thus forcing society to collapse and re-emerge from the ruins. Held within the heart of change are the values and social functions of society. In the words of Harrold Innis , "the effect of the discovery of printing was evident in the savage religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries" (Innis 12).
Communication is so strongly linked with change that it's definition on wikipedia.org uses the word "change" ten times throughout the page.
The world is in the process of a huge technological advancement, recreating communication. Large scale changes are expected to occur in this time of reorganization. As they have been seen in the past, "application of power to communication industries hastened the consolidation of vernaculars, the rise of nationalism, the revolution, and outbreak of savagery in the twentieth century" (Innis 12). Changes in behaviour can be found in the wake of this evolution.
Communication is and has been adapting through technology. The Economist Magazine suggests mobile devices are soon to be the new personal computer and main source of communication. The iPhone is taking communication and information technology to a new level. The following commercial demonstrates the extent to which communication tools have advanced. The video pushes the limits of personal morals and privacy. How is this going to remodel society?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k3zvI2tyPM)
Before the iPhone proposed such issues, there was the creation of the Internet. Once invented to enhance communication, the Internet detonated a bomb destroying the film and music industry. The majority of this media is now downloaded for free. Today twisted values now allow theft to be a common occurrence. How will tomorrow be affected by the new values given life by communication?
The rubble that was once societies foundation is being rebuilt by the ideas of a technological minority. A butterfly effect is in the process of spawning a new era, allowing media, technology, economy and government to be revamped. The video developed by XPLANE in association with the Economist Magazine shows how communication and technology are further changing humanity. Are you prepared for what the future has to come?
