PerformativesA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWtion, by distorting information, by overwhelm-
ing people with overloads of information, or by
obstructing people’s access to communication
channels’. In consequence the Charter urges
support to enable people to develop their own
communication channels through which they
can speak for themselves. Under General Stan-
dards, Article 1 declares the ‘conviction that all
people are entitled to the respect of their dignity,
integrity, equality, and liberty’. Article 2 asserts
freedom of expression, but aligned with that
‘there should be free and independent channels
of communication’ on the basis that ‘Free media
are pluralist media’.
Article 3 speaks of the right to receive infor-
mation ‘about matters of public interest’ and
‘this includes the right to receive information
which is independent of commercial and politi-
cal interests’. Article 7 concerns the right of
reply; Article 8 speaks of the need to nurture
a ‘diversity of languages’ and the need to ‘create
provisions for minority languages in the media’.
Article 9 argues for the protection of people’s
cultural identity. See mediapolis. See also
topic guide under media ethics.
Perception Th e process of becoming aware and
making sense of the stimuli received from our
environment by the senses: sight, hearing, smell,
taste, and touch. Social perception refers to the
application of this process to our attempts to
explain, understand, make judgments about and
predict the behaviour of other people.
Perception is selective. We are surrounded by
many sensations but we tend to direct our atten-
tion to only a few of these. Our decision as to
what to attend to can be infl uenced by environ-
mental and personal factors: for example, envi-
ronmental factors can include the intensity, size,
motion or novelty of the stimuli whilst personal
factors can include present needs and drives,
physiological features, past experiences and
learning – perceptual set – as well as personality.
The influence of personal factors explains
why individuals may pay attention to differ-
ent stimuli, to diff erent messages or parts of a
message. See attitudes; culture; empathy;
expectations; first impressions; halo
effect; labelling process (and the media);
male-as-norm; mores; motivation; norms;
projection; sapir-whorf hypothesis;
selective exposure; self-concept; self-
fulfilling prophecy; stereotype; sub-
culture; values.
Performance See self-presentation.
Performance capture See animation.
Performatives Action words that indicate thePaywall The internet created a tradition of
freely available information and content; and
though the press charged for copies of the
newspapers it published, online information
services were generally free. In July 2010 Rupert
Murdoch’s News International introduced
charges for previously free access to the UK
Times, Sunday Times and News of the World with
the intention of turning a profi t from Net provi-
sion and the hope that the rest of the British
press would follow suit.
Decisions to charge for what has been previ-
ously free refl ect a number of major changes in
the media scene: newspaper sales are in decline
(indeed in many cases their online news is
sampled by more readers than the paper-and-ink
versions); the prime funding source of the press,
advertising, is itself in diffi culties if not reces-
sion; and the availability of news, etc. on mobile
devices and tablets is perceived as a growing
threat to the industry. In particular, the teen and
twenties generation, brought up in the Network
Society, make online data their fi rst, and some-
times only, point of call.
PeaceNet See teledemocracy.
‘Pencil of Nature’ Title of the fi rst book ever
illustrated with photographs, published in
England in 1844, the work of William Henry
Fox Talbot (1800–77), inventor of the calo-
type process of photo-printing. Th e range of
photographs pasted into Th e Pencil of Nature
was extraordinary and included intimate, infor-
mal studies of Talbot’s household at his home,
Laycock Abbey. See photography, origins.
People’s Communication Charter Proposed
by Cees Hamelink in World Communication:
Disempowerment and Self-Empowerment (Zed
Books, 1995) in the light of his vision that the
globalization of communication threatens
to further divide the information-rich from the
information-poor, at the personal, community
and national levels. The Charter provides a
valuable text in which issues are highlighted and
rights and responsibilities spelt out.
Th e preamble to the Charter opens with the
affi rmation that ‘communication is basic to the
life of individuals and peoples and that commu-
nication is crucial in the issues and crises which
aff ect all members of the world community’. It
is mindful ‘that communication can be used to
support the powerful and to victimize the power-
less and that communication is fundamental to
the shaping of the cultural environment of every
society’.
Disempowerment is seen as a major trend; and
it occurs through the ‘withholding of informa-