Communication and Social Relation

Week: 5

Topic: Culture, Context and Cultural Literacy

Concept: Context

When the idea about cultural literacy was introduced in class, it is interesting for me to know how the contexts affect communication practices in changing the meaning. I incidentally saw the print ads of McDonald in 2005 which supports me to demonstrate my knowledge in terms of this concept. Apparently not all messages can be accepted by everyone in the world. Each country has different religions and culture, each person has their own unique background, and human’s perception is changing over time. Therefore, the meaning of communication practices will alter depends on different people, places and time. According to Schirato and Yell (2000), context is the combination of meaning formation, material conditions and participants. It frames human’s thinking, constitutes perception, also creates different codes and signs in specific place and times. In Schirato and Yell’s text, Jacques Derrida is mentioned, claiming: ‘there is nothing outside the text’. This implies idea is understood in specific context. If the idea is presented in another place or time, the idea may be not comprehended as intended. Context somehow may hinder people to communicate.

Any communication product should be produced base on the particular context to prevent it from misunderstanding. The McDonald’s adverts “I’d Hit it” will indicate the importance of applicable context.

Figure1. Reproduced from Collegeonline.org (2005)

When McDonald created the marketing campaign aims to attract teenagers, after hearing kids using the jargon, the ad executives decided to make ‘I’d hit it’ to be their big slogan. Unfortunately, this slang is used by male who wants to have sexual relations with a previously identified female. (Urban Dictionary.com) McDonald’s designers are middle-aged so they got confused with the meaning of this phrase in vernacular of the younger generation. Therefore, it created a huge negative reaction. Teenagers...