Blog Post #2 - Resource B

James W. Carey has outlined two distinct approaches to the study of communication: communication as transmission, and communication as ritual. Carey's transmission model conceptualizes communication as the transfer of information across space for the purpose of controlling, efficiently managing, or influencing other individuals or groups. This approach views messages as being sent, received, and ultimately evaluated based on their success in terms of their intended effect. In contrast, Carey conceptualized his own model of communication, which he referred to as "communication as ritual." According to Carey, communication as ritual is a way of understanding communication as a means by which societies maintain themselves over time by producing shared meanings, promoting participatory engagement, and establishing a sense of community among participants. Therefore, communication as ritual is concerned with fostering a sense of fellowship, utilizing symbols, and participating in actions that create and recreate community.

"Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong," an article in The Atlantic, provides examples of the manner in which grassroots resistance to Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis utilized Carey's logic of ritual communication instead of a logic of transmission. While the coverage of news organizations focused upon transmitting information about raids or policy disputes related to immigration, the actual political power of the movement was derived from neighborhood-organized mutual aid networks and collective care activities. Therefore, the Minnesota movement relied more upon relational practices (such as neighborhood organizing and providing mutual aid), rather than upon broadcasting messages or calls-to-action to alter public opinion. For example, the article reported that when community members saw the need for assistance in response to ICE activity, they would provide rides, shelter, food, and legal support to one another, as well as physically show up to demonstrate their support for one another. Such actions were functioning as forms of ritual communication due to the fact that they reinforced a shared moral universe centered around values such as protecting the dignity of all people, and collectively assuming responsibility for the welfare of community members. Participation in the movement itself became meaningful and important.

Carey argued that ritual communication functions in a manner similar to that of a ceremony or a cultural practice. The act of participating in a ritual establishes a symbolic space in which individuals identify as part of a collective. In Minneapolis, the various forms of mutual aid and rapid-response networks, as well as neighborhood mobilizations, have established such symbolic spaces. Furthermore, each act of protest has served to reinforce a collective identity opposing the violence of the state and its policies of exclusion. Therefore, resistance has become less an event and more an ongoing social process.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's concept of "sintering" further develops this analysis. In her book Theory of Water, Simpson uses sintering to refer to the process in which separate components combine under pressure to form a single, solid unit. As a metaphor for Indigenous practices of solidarity, sintering refers to the formation of coalitions between neighbors - human and nonhuman - through the process of working together through shared struggles, caring for one another, and taking responsibility for one another.

Simpson emphasizes that sintering is an adaptive, relational, and experiential process. Her ancestors, she writes, engaged in sintering by developing ways of living that created relationships of dependence between themselves, the land, and the water, creating webs of interdependence rather than systems of control.

Therefore, communication and relationship-building cannot be separated in the case of sintering. Thus, this analytical tool allows us to better understand the effectiveness of the Minneapolis resistance. The movement did not rely on a top-down, centralized leadership or a broadcast style of messaging. Instead, it developed through a decentralized system of bonds formed among neighbors who watched out for one another, volunteer teams formed rapidly to address emergency situations, and neighborhoods organized to provide mutual aid. These practices reflect the sintering process. Each individual action - such as offering someone shelter, resources, or warning of ICE activity - acted like a snowflake bonding with other snowflakes, eventually forming a dense network of resistance.

Moreover, this type of communication resists the logic of state power embedded in the transmission model of communication. ICE relies on surveillance, documentation, and bureaucratic messaging systems to control populations across space. However, Minneapolis residents responded to this system of control not by attempting to out-message the state, but by creating alternative communicative structures that are based on trust and reciprocity. The power of the Minneapolis resistance lies in its proximity and participation, not in its reach.

Finally, Carey's ritual model of communication will help us to understand why these types of movements continue to exist. Movements that rely on a transmission model of communication tend to burn out quickly after the initial wave of attention has passed. On the other hand, ritual communication creates a form of sustained communication because it is deeply embedded in the daily routines of the participants. The acts of mutual aid become habits, and the solidarity becomes a natural part of the community's social fabric. The community does not simply react to emergencies, it continuously produces itself through the shared practices of its members.

This illustrates Carey's argument that communication is not about moving messages across space, but rather about maintaining society over time. Therefore, the networks in Minneapolis are not simply responding to ICE, they are creating an alternate social reality based on care rather than coercion.

When taken together, the theories of Carey and Simpson provide a strong analytical framework for understanding the nature of resistance today. Carey shows us how ritual communication creates collective meaning, and Simpson shows us how sintering transforms that meaning into concrete solidarity. The movement in Minneapolis demonstrates both processes at work. Communication in this movement is not limited to media coverage or political rhetoric, but is expressed through the relationships, shared labor, and physical presence of the participants.