ClassA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWsonal communication observed by Erving
Goffman in Behavior in Public Places (Free
Press, 1963), where, after initial eye contact,
a person quickly withdraws visual attention
from another to avoid any further recognition or
need for further contact. As Goff man says, ‘In
performing this courtesy the eyes of the looker
may pass over the eyes of the other, but no
“recognition” is typically allowed.’ Th e ritual of
civil inattention, Goff man explains, is one that
‘constantly regulates the social intercourse of
persons in our society’. See indicators.
Clash of Civilizations See mcworld vs jihad.
Clapper board See shot.
Claptrap See verbal devices of speech-
making.
Class A factor of vital importance in the analysis
of interpersonal and mass communication is
the concept of class; and the most signifi cant
impact on the development of that concept was
made by the German philosopher Karl Marx
(1818–83). For him, class denoted a relationship
to the means of production in any given society.
Marx identifi ed two main classes: the owners
of the means of production (land, factories),
whom he called the bourgeoisie, and those who
were obliged to sell their labour to the owners to
make a living – the proletariat. Although aware
of other classes, he considered them of minor
importance.
Marx argued that as a result of their position
in the economic order, members of each class
shared common experiences, lifestyles and
certain political and economic interests. He
believed that there was and would remain, in a
capitalist society, an inevitable confl ict between
the interests of the bourgeoisie and the prole-
tariat. He further argued that group identity,
class-consciousness and collective political and
economic action would develop in the course
of economic and political confl ict. Proletarian
class-consciousness was particularly likely to
emerge as its members were thrown into serious
diffi culties and close daily associations at work.
Th e dominant class – the bourgeoisie – would,
according to Marx, seek to impose its culture
upon the rest of society. Its culture would
become the dominant culture, its ideology
the dominant ideology. Consequently the
communication systems of society would refl ect
the dominant culture of the bourgeoisie and
also the confl ict between the two classes. From
a Marxist viewpoint, control of many facets of
the mass media by the ownership of capital gives
that class the opportunity to disseminate its own
culture and ideology. Such control, in MarxistTheir vision and entrepreneurialism turned
experiment into performance, private screenings
into public, commercial profi t. ‘What did I do?’
Louis Lumière is reported to have said. ‘It was
in the air.’ Auguste Lumière was less modest
than Louis: ‘My brother,’ he said, ‘invented the
cinema in one night.’ On 28 December 1895, the
Lumières, already highly successful in the photo-
graphic business, opened in the Salon Indien, in
the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines.
Seats were priced at one franc. Within weeks
they were a worldwide success. Immediately the
Lumières trained a brigade of cameramen-cum-
projectionists and sent them abroad to several
foreign countries; in quick time, some 1,200
single-shot fi lms were produced, including the
Diamond Jubilee procession in London.
Cinéma vérité Or Catalyst cinema. In a 1961
documentary, Chronique d’un Été (Chronicle
of a Summer), Jean Rouch, instead of simply
recording the daily routines of Parisians, chal-
lenged them to face the camera and answer
the question, ‘Tell us, are you happy?’ Rouch
and co-producer Edgar Morin were suddenly
on-camera participants. Th eir subjects, having
been fi lmed, were invited to see the fi lm rushes.
Their discussion of these was filmed and
recorded and used as part of the end-product.
Th e style was named cinéma vérité in homage
to the Russian movie pioneer Dziga Vertov (see
spinning top), and translated from the term
used by Vertov and his associates, kino pravda,
film truth. Erik Barnouw in Documentary
(Oxford University Press, 1974) writes, ‘The
direct cinema documentarist took his camera
to a situation of tension and waited hopefully
for a crisis; the Rouch version of cinéma vérité
tried to precipitate one. Th e direct cinema artist
aspired to invisibility; the Rouch cinéma vérité
was often an avowed participant.’
Cinerama Extra-wide screen system invented
by Fred Waller and fi rst demonstrated in Th is
is Cinerama (1952). Three projectors, elec-
tronically synchronized, created a three-section
picture on the screen, giving a disturbing visual
wobble at the joins. Th e fi rst fi lm story using
the process was How the West Was Won (1962).
Shortly afterwards the three-camera system was
abandoned in favour of ‘single-lens Cinerama’,
practically identical to cinemascope, though
with higher defi nition.
Circumvention tools Alternative term to
describe online anti-censorship tools. See tor.
Citizen journalism See journalism: citizen
journalism.
Civil inattention Phenomenon of interper-