A Dictionary ofCommunication andMedia Studies

CALL

was crude but effective, containing all theessentials - a source of light with a reflectorbehind it and a lens in front, a painted glassslide and a screen. Kircher's astonished audi-ence spoke of black magic. Undaunted, theinventor published a description of his find-ings. The projection of moving pictures wasfirst demonstrated by Baron Von Uchatius(1811-81) in 1853. He used a rotating glassslide, a rotating shutter and a fixed lens. Animproved version contained a rotating lightsource, fixed slides and a series of slightlyinclined lenses whose optical axes met on thecentre of the screen. See CINEMATOGRAPHY,ORIGINS.

Project Mercury See SATELLITE TRANSMISSION.Project work In Case Studies and Projects in

Communication (UK: Methuen, 1982), NeilMcKeown writes of project work that it 'allowsyou much more freedom than you normallyhave in the real world, or on traditional aca-demic courses. You can work on your own, orchose to work with student colleagues whoshare your interests.' Projects offer opportuni-ties for wide and varied research, not only inlibraries but in the community, and the fruitsof that work can take the form of films, slide-tape shows, RADIO programmes, VIDEO andexhibitions as well as written reports.

McKeown tells his A-Level readers that proj-ect work 'is going to involve your developmentas a "social being" more than most traditionaltypes of classroom learning'. You go out andmeet people; sometimes you share their work-ing lives; you have to persuade strangers thatyour requests for information and help aredeserving of the time and effort they may giveyou. You will need a constant flow of FEED-BACK in the preparatory process, and courageto go on when lines of enquiry vanish into cul-de-sacs. The Project in the AEB A-Level inCommunication Studies is submitted in the sec-ond year of the course and counts for 30% ofthe overall final mark. See Chapter 5 inMcKeown.

Prolefeed The rubbishy entertainment andspurious news piped to the proletariat by theParty in George Orwell's novel Nineteen

Propaganda Usually deliberate manipulation"" — try — m«a«fi — OT SYMBOLS (words^ gestures",

images, flags, monuments, music, etc.) _ofjjther people's i thoughts, behaviour, attitudesand beliefs. The word originates with theRoman Catholic Congregation for the Pro-pagation of the Faith, a committee of cardi-nals in charge of missionary activities of thechurch since 1622. See ADVERTISING; BRAIN-WASHING; EFFECTS OF THE MASS MEDIA; LOBBY-ING; RHETORIC.

Prosodic signals Timing, pitch and stress ofutterances to convey MEANING.

PR: Public relations \ 5

Protest song Popular vehicle of dissent with along tradition. In the 20th c. the term has beenwidely used to describe the songs prominent inthe US and Western European radical move-ments of the 1960s and early 1970s. Thesemovements were concerned with three mainissues: Civil Rights for Negroes in the US, anend to US and Western European involvementin the Vietnam war and an extension of demo-cratic rights generally. There was also at thistime a revival of Folk music and with it therevival of many traditional protest songs. JAZZ,particularly the 'Blues' tradition, likewise con-tains many songs which express the USnegroes' protest at their oppression in US soci-ety. See POP MUSIC.

Proxemics The study of the way peopleapproach others or keep their distance fromothers; the analysis of what we do with space asa dimension of non-verbal communication (SeeCOMMUNICATION, NON-VERBAL). There appearto be definite features that mark the distancepeople observe between each other in com-munication situations. Within three feet is inti-mate; up to about eight feet is personal; overthat distance is semi-public or social. The prox-imity between communicators differs, obvi-ously, according to the nature of the MESSAGEand varies between cultures, classes andnations. The personal but not intimate distanceof Arabs, for example, can.be as little as 18inches - intimidating for an English listener.Middle-CLASS distances tend, it has been found,to be slightly greater than those maintainedbetween working-class communicators. Pro-xemics extends to the way we allocate space tothose extensions of ourselves - rooms, houses,towns, cities - and the manner in which weoccupy those extensions. See DEFENSIBLE SPACE;PARA-PROXEMICS.* E.T. Hall, The Hidden Dimension: Man'sUse of Space in Public and Private (UK: BodleyHead, 1966).

PR: Public relations In Advertising asCommunication (UK: Methuen, 1982), GillianDyer cites the aim ofcPR as being 'to promotepositive and favourable images of people orfirms in public life, without actually appearingto do so'. Most companies have PR departmentsdedicated to creating and sustaining agood image with the general public. PR hasalso grown big in the service of politicians andpolitical parties. As Dyer says, 'The "publicityboys" rehearse politicians before they go infront of the camera . . . they stage-managewalkabouts . . . kissing babies, all for thebenefit of the mass media. Politicans and cam-paigns are marketed like soap.' In winning the1979 and 1983 general elections in the UK,Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Partyowed not a little to the PR work of Saatchi &Saatchi. Even the Labour Party in 1983 used an