OCTOBER 2021

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION 

Dear SoC Community,

Well, well, well. Communication is in the news these days, and not in a good way. Recently, a whistleblower from Facebook revealed two main things. First, Facebook and its other parts such as Instagram, are quite dangerous for our mental health because they encourage divisiveness, poor self-images, too much time spent on social media, (the list goes on). Second, Facebook executives knew all this from their internal research, and chose not to do anything to mitigate these problems.

What does this have to do with communication? Pretty much everything. Let’s start with the obvious. Facebook is about as pure a communication company as has ever existed. They have no product except communication: interpersonal, keeping up with your social circle; corporate, company messages and more surreptitious, sponsored influencers; news aggregation with a significant editorial bias. Facebook is in the news; hence communication is in the news. If you intend to have a career in communication, you owe yourself to pay close attention to that.

More subtle aspects of Facebook-in-the-news are also, to me, quite fascinating, but easy to overlook. The term “whistleblower” is interesting. It is a metaphor that is now almost completely removed from any literal meaning. In the 19th century, police and fire patrols would blow real whistles to alert people that a criminal was on the run, or that a fire had erupted, or to raise some other alarm. In the 1960s the term “whistle blower”, then “whistle-blower”, eventually “whistleblower” acquired its metaphorical meaning that we use now. Nowadays, the only literal whistle blowers seem to be sports referees. But you would not refer to a basketball referee as a “whistleblower”. The literal meaning has vanished. The metaphorical meaning is so important to us, that we can’t use the term literally any more. And it is hard to imagine how else we could describe a former Facebook employee who “blows the whistle” on the company’s executives. Metaphors like this are not just poetic flourishes; they are fundamental to our language. If you’d like to think more about the role of metaphor in our language, I recommend Metaphors We Live By, 2003 by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (I won’t link to any well-known booksellers here, you can find the book on your own).

Another subtlety is that the “news” doesn’t seem like news. Is there an adult anywhere who was surprised to learn that Facebook and Instagram can be divisive, time-consuming, and manipulative? The whistleblower told us something we already knew. Likewise, the “news” that Facebook executives already had research on this was not exactly earth shattering. I would have been surprised to find out they had not done that research. So what did the whistleblower actually do? Perhaps nothing. If everyone knows that some statement (call it “P”) is true, then telling a congressional committee “P is true” does not seem to inform anyone. But it turns out that public announcements of true and widely known statements can actually change what everyone knows in a subtle way. Logicians have been puzzling over this for many decades. Which leads to ….

The Puzzle of the Month

This month’s puzzle illustrates the point that public announcements of known facts can change things.

Suppose five clever school children go out to play after a light rain. Each child’s forehead gets a smudge of mud. Each child can see the other foreheads, so each one knows that someone has a muddy forehead. But no one sees their own forehead. As they come in the room, the teacher asks “Does anyone know whether your own forehead is muddy? Anyone who can answer correctly without guessing gets 30 minutes extra play time.” No one answers, even after the teacher asks the same question several times. Now the teacher says “Someone has a muddy forehead.” Note that all the children already knew that. Now the teacher repeats “Does anyone know whether your own forehead is muddy?”. Still no one answers. But after repeating the question a few more times, all the children answer “I know my forehead is muddy” at the same time.

How many times does the teacher repeat the question after making the public announcement that “Someone has a muddy forehead”?

The first two students to slack a correct answer to me with a brief explanation gets an extra 30 minutes of play time (and a free coffee, tea, or other drink of your choice with me).

Sincerely,

M. Andrew Moshier, Ph.D.

Dean, School of Communication

Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science

Director of the Center for Excellence in Computation, Algebra and Topology

Fall 2021 Advising

Do you need to see a program advisor? Program advising is available in person and through Microsoft Teams. You can schedule an appointment with any advisor on Bookings or reach out to them via email if you need to schedule an appointment outside of regular advising hours.

Mr. Travis Bartosh | Doti Hall 210
Monday 2 - 5 p.m. (walk-ins) and Wednesday 2 - 5 p.m. (Microsoft Teams)

Dr. Arleen Bejerano | Doti Hall 211
Wednesday 2 - 5 p.m. (walk-ins) and Friday, 2 - 5 p.m. (Microsoft Teams)

Dr. Andrea Weber | Doti Hall 203
Tuesday 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. (walk-ins) and Thursday 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. (Microsoft Teams)

SoC Announcements

Homecoming is Coming! Join us November 5 & 6

Panthers, it’s time to reconnect with your Chapman Family! Chapman Family Homecoming will take place the first weekend in November, with a variety of in-person and virtual activities celebrating Chapman's 160th anniversary.  We can’t wait to welcome you back for fun events like:

• Master classes with some of Chapman’s favorite professors.
• A virtual 5K run/walk.
• A Chapman Family tailgate prior to Saturday’s big football game.
• The dedication of the brand new Swenson Family Hall of Engineering.

SoC Homecoming Master Class - Jealousy: The Often Misunderstood Interpersonal and Online Experience 

Upcoming Events 

Interterm 2022

Featured Research

Romantic Partner Interference & Psychological Reactance in the Context of Caregiving for an Aging Family Member 

Dr. Hannah Ball, Dr. Jennifer L. Bevan, M.S. alumna Tessa Urbanovich, and Ph.D. Candidate Erin S. Craw explore the impact of family caregiving on romantic relationships in a new study published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Results of a survey of 187 adults caring for an aging family member indicated that romantic partner interference with caregiving duties was related to caregiver perceptions that their partner threatens their ability to choose how to provide care. In turn, this perceived freedom threat was associated with reactance (i.e., anger and negative thoughts) toward one’s partner, which was linked to withholding – rather than directly communicating to their partner – their irritation about this behavior. These findings offer implications for how psychological reactance theory operates within close relationships, as well as communication-based training for family caregivers and their romantic partners.

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Previous Dean's Message Puzzle Solution

Last Month’s Puzzle

 The addition SEND + MORE = MONEY is easier to see if we write it in columns:

    SEND

  + MORE

  ======

   MONEY

We could solve this by trial and error. But in fact, we can work deductively, so that no guessing is needed. Evidently, M has to be the digit 1. So the addition is

    SEND

  + 1ORE

  ======

  1ONEY

Now we know that the S column require that a carry comin from E columm. So S might be an 8 or a 9, but nothing else. If it is 8, then there must be a carry from the previous column, and we get S+1+carry = 1O. So the letter O would have to be the digit 0. Suppose S is 9 instead, then S+1+carry = 1O (That’s the letter O). That result can only be ten or eleven. But it can’t really be eleven because that would mean the letter O is the digit 1. That’s not allowed because M=1. So now we know, no matter whether S=8 or S=9, that certainly O=0.

    SEND

  + 10RE

  ======

   10NEY

Now let’s figure out S. It is either 8 or 9. If it is 8, then E=9. [I’ll let you figure how why this forces E=9]. But E can’t be 9, for then N+R = 19, or N+R+carry=19 and there is no way to make either of those work. So we’ve seen that S cannot be 8 because E cannot be 9.

    9END

  + 10RE

  ======

   10NEY

Now look at the E column. It seems to say E+0=N. That can’t be. So there actually must be a carry coming from the previous column. So we know that E+1=N. We also know in the previous column that $N+R=1E$ or N+R+carry = 1E. Look at E+1=N and N+R+carry=1E. The only way that works is by $R+carry = 9. So R=8.

    9END

  + 108E

  ======

   10NEY

In addition, we know that E+1=N and D+E=1Y because the D column has to produce a carry. Now E can’t be 2 because D+2=1Y would force D to be 8 or 9. Likewise D+3=1Y is impossible because 7 is the only option for D, but 7+3=1Y would force Y=0. But also D+4=1Y is impossible because D=6 or D=7 would Y=0 or Y=1. What about E=6? Then D+6=1Y. But D can’t be 4, 5 because that would force Y to be 0 or 1. D can not be 6 because E is already taking that. And D can not be 7 because E+1=N, so N is in the way. In other words, we eliminate E=6. The only option left is E=5 and N=6.

    956D

  + 1085

  ======

   1065Y

All that is left is to sort out D+5=1Y. I think it’s easy to see that D=7 and Y=2 is the only option. Viola!

    9567

  + 1085

  ======

   10652

For the record, the second puzzle MOSHIER+AMAZES=AMERICA is solved as

 4891236

+ 545039

========

 5436275