Department of
Communication Studies
COMM 200 Notes
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COMM 200 Notes |
COMM 200 Home | Comm Courses Index
I. Basic Concepts/Model
A. Source (tranceivers)
B. Message
F. Feedback
**Simplistic and limiting but highly influencial in discipline
II. Defining Communication- Nature of Definitions- limiting and focuses- but remember the complexity of communication
Infante et al's definition: Communication occurs when humans manipulate symbols to stimulate meaning in other humans
III. The Nature of Communication (Infante)
A. Communication is a symbolic process (rhetorical/linguistic)
1. sign- something which stands for another thing
a. symptom- sweat = heat, sneeze = cold
b. symbol- deliberately created to represent something
-intersubjectivity and language
-Burke- humans as symbol users
2. communication = the activity of using symbols
B. Communication is a Social Process (sociological)
1. communication is more than cognition and perception, it is social
2. perception only the first step in communicative exchange
3. intersubjectivity and shared reality
C. Comm involves coorientation (philosophy)
1. co-orientation - mutual awareness = necessary condition of comm.
D. Comm involves individual interpretation (Cognition and Psychology)
1. meaning in people not words- cannot transfer meaning
2. seek as closely as possible, shared meaning, intersubjectivity and shared reality
E. Comm involves shared meaning (communication studies)
1. meaning making related to shared culture and language
2. meaning is complex concept wrapped in every aspect of comm theory- traits, verbal, nonverbal, interpersonal, culture, etc.
F. Comm occurs in a context (situation in which communication occurs)
-all communication is context dependent but not all contexts define communication
-Disciplinary distinction- limited (mediated)
1. ipc, icc, family
2. small group, organization
3. public, mass
4. political, health
IV. Points of Controversy (issues for future discussion, no resolution)
A. Intentionality
1. Must a person intend to communication in order for communication to occur?
- one cannot not communicate and everthing is comm
2. involuntary processes - sweat, sleep, yawn
unconscious behavior -
3. Infante = social means that both parties intend to send and receive messsages
-four necessary features of communication (Motley)
1)interactive
2)encoding
3)exchange of symbols
4)fidelity (quality)
4. my position is that communication is meaning making and intentionality is irrelevant (meaning is greater than perception)
-ritualitistic/cultural approach (not dyadic or individual as center)
B. Planning
1. set of behaviors which a person believes will accomplish a purpose
2. habitual, broad plans used over and over
3. Mindlessness (Langer)
C. Transactional
1. communication = mutual influence in which participants'motivations interact
2. context-bound, unique, processual
3. Content and Relationship dimensions (Watzlavick)
V. Functions of Communication
A. instrumental- gets stuff done- work
B. interpersonal- connects us with others
C. identity- creates a sense of self, full life
VI. Importance of Comm-
A. Creating Cooperation
B. Acquiring Information
C. Forming Self Concept
D. Entertainment
E. Democracy
VI. Interdisciplinary Approach
What are theories?
*Theory is a set of inter-related propositions that suggest why events occur in the manner that they do
*For Infante, et al, all theories involve testable hypotheses or proposition to be "proven"
*Considerable disagreement concerning the definition of theory and what can be called a theory (later in the semester)- Critical, Dialectic
Four essential questions related to theorizing:
I. What do theories do?
A. Epistemology
1. the study of knowledge:
b. how we know
c. how we know we know it
2. Knowledge as socially constructed
3. Theories work to define, constrain, expand, and guide what is knowledge
4. an objective "Truth" vs. multiple realities
-find existing Truth or help construct truth
-determinism vs. free will
B. General Functions
1. Describe
a. describe complex processes (thick description- Geertz)
b. building blocks of theory
2. Explain
a. why?
b. in order to predict, we must clearly understand multiple causes, nature of processes, etc.
c. most important part of theorizing
3. Predict
a. practical understanding of future
b. prediction is area of contestation
4. Control
a. how to behave
b. applied
B. Specific Objectives of Theories
1. Organize Experience
a. like definitions, theories emphasize and limit understanding-reductionistic- clarify, focus
b. emphasize specific variables in infinite frame of experience
c. "map is not the territory" (abstraction of reality)
d. toulmin- fishing net and lens
2. "Extend" Knowledge
a. understand unknown, unobserved experience- inferences
b. generalizability of theory
3. Stimulate and Guide Further Research
a. must test, retest propositions
b. heuristic value
c. critique of theory yields research
4. Anticipatory Function
5. Emancipate
a. feminist/afrocentric theory
b. Generative- change way of life
A. Data vs. Intuition (Both/And)
B. Experience/Observations/Past Research/Reflection/Social Needs
III. How do theories change?
A. extension: build upon theory with new concepts
B. intesion: deeper understanding of the original concepts and variables (subtle, complex understandings of aspects of theory)
C. Scientific Revolution: major change in long-standing theories
2. new paradigm grows (evolution)
3. conflict then change (physics)
4. socially constructed knowledge
D. Tested "hypothetico deductive method"
1. empirical research (intimately related theory, APP A)
2. form hypothesis, decide how it is to be observed, carry out experimental procedure, accept or reject hypothesis (interpret observations)
3. do not seek to confirm theory, but disconfirm theory (falsify)
4. adapt, expand, modify theory or even reject
5. Reliability- repeatability by same procedures
6. Validity- measure what claim to measure
IV. What is a good theory?
A. Contested Criteria: Science vs. Humanism vs. Critical
B. Criteria
1. Logical Consistency
a. not internal contradictory
b. increased complexity = increased contradictions
c. Appropriateness- epistemological, ontological, axiological assumptions appropriate for the theoretical questions
2. Consistent with Accepted Facts
a. socially constructed truth
b. scientific revolution = change
3. Heuristic Value (Testable)
a. operationalize variables
b. observable
c. circular logic
4. Simple and Parsimonious
5. Practical Utility
6. Pleasing to the Mind (intuitive, resonance)
7. Insight into Human Condition (the dah criterion)
Perspectives Toward Communication Theory
Chapter 3
I. Covering Laws
A. Basic Concepts
1. Based on Logical Positivism
2. Assumes natural regularities can be empirically observed
3. antecedent conditions lead to effects, if x then y
4. causality
5. predictable relationships
6. generalizability
B. Positivistic vs. probabilistic conception of laws
C. Discovering communication laws
D. Experimental Model
E. Example of Covering Laws research in comm
F. Strengths
1. prediction
2. heuristic value
G. Weaknesses
1. inadequate emphasis on human choice
2. predicts group, not individual, behavior
3. fragmented research oversimplifies communication
II. Human Action Perspective
A. Basic Concepts
1. emphasis on subjective experience
2. goals
3. individual vs. social rules
4. choice
B. Personal Construct Theory (Constructivism)
1. Basic Concepts
a. humans act as naive scientists
b. individuals develop perceptual categories- constructs
c. constructs help interpret and predict events
d. constructs are hierarchically organized
e. construct systems change with maturity and experience
2. example of construct research
C. Coordinate Management of Meaning
1. Basic Concepts- Definition rules, behavior rules, context
2. application
D. Strengths Human Action
1. Values human choice
2. explanatory power
E. Weaknesses
1. lack of predictive power
2. relatively few studies
III. Systems Perspective
A. Historical Development
B. Basic Concepts
1. definition of system
2. types of systems
a. closed
b. open
c. cybernetic
C. Properties of Comm Systems
1. heirarchy
2. interdependence
3. nonsummativity
4. self-regulation through homeostasis
5. equifinality
6. teleological
7. complexity
D. Examples
E. Stregths of Systems Approach
1. Flexible and open
2. adequate to represent complex comm systems
3. situation-specific generalizations, not laws
4. describes explains predicts complex interaction
F. Weaknesses
1. too general
2. lacks explanatory power
3. relatively few studies generated
4. overlooks individual
The Development of Communication Theory" (APP B)
To understand current state of comm theory we need to:
(1) describe the development of paradigms in comm theory
(2) establish an intellectual context for comm theory- rich history
I. Paradigm and scientific revolutions
A. Scientific Revolution: major change in long-standing theories
1. unable to answer new questions
2. new paradigm grows (evolution)
a. new answers to questions- new empirical evidence
b. compete with old perspective
3. conflict then change (physics)
a. old paradigm resists new paradigm
b. time = new perspective
4. socially constructed knowledge
B. Paradigms
1. grand models or sets of theoretical assumptions shared by many theories
2. Comm theory = several simultaneous paradigms
3. "preparadigmatic"
4. postmodern- accept mulitiple paradigms
5. Debate demonstrated state of comm theory- constant debate
II. Paradigmatic Debates in Communication Studies (for purposes of class)
A. Rhetorical Debate (Oldest Discipline)
1. Sophists
(classical rhetorical studies)
a. taught public speaking
b. rhetoric, power of persuasion
c. empasis on style
d. truth through rhetoric and beauty
e. truth as intersubjective
2. Philosophy
a. Socrates and Plato: absolute Truth (debate with sophists)- rhetoric mere cookery
b. neoAristotelians: Rhetoric within philosophy- conduit of truth- until very recently
c. rhetoric was relagated to second class role to science
-Ethos, pathos and logos
-logic- enthymeme, syllogism
-Cicero & Quintillian- political and democractic
(examples: public speaking, comm and democracy, great speeches, etc.)
Comm studies floundered- elocution movement, etc- then moved into contemporary academic disciplines of sociology, psych, etc.
These paradigms occur simultaneously, not sequecially
B. The Social Scientific Revolution (Covering Laws)- Fit with Aristotle
1. emphasis on measurement, control, quantification
2. explores communication piecemeal, the communication model S-R
3. predicting, measure effects- pretest and post-test
4. human behavior as probabilistically predictable
C. The Humanist Movement (Human Action)
1. subjectivity of experience
2. relativity of meaning- interpretation
3. co-constructed norms
4. personal experience guides behavior
D. The Critical Critique (Ideological Turn)
1. The ideological turn, social movements (not classical logic)
-response to neoAristotelians
2. cultural studies movement= comm as political
3. meaning in social action and discourse
4. concern with popular culture, sophistic rhetoric, meaning making
E. Today, agree to disagree- New Pluralism
Chapter Four: Trait Approaches
Outline
I. Traits, Contexts, and States
A. Trait View--Traits Consistent Across Situations
B. Contextual View--Behavior Varies Across Contexts
C. State--Behavior at a Particular Time and Context
II. The Cross-Situational Consistency Issue
A. Situationists--Behavior Shaped Primarily by the Situation
B. Trait Position--Individual Predispositions Explain Behavior
1. Studies Conducted Unrealistic Laboratory Environments
2. Traits Predispose People to Seek Certain Situations
3. Too Few Situations Studied
C. Interactionists--Behavior Joint Product of Traits and Situational Variables
III. Personality Traits and Communication
A. Persuasibility
B. Self-Esteem
1. Low Self-Esteem, High Persuasibility
2. High Self-Esteem, Low Persuasibility
C. Dogmatism
1. Don't Separate Source from Message
2. Dogmatics Easily Persuaded by Highly Credible Sources on Rather Unimportant Topics
D. Machiavellianism
E. Cognitive Complexity
1. Complexity Related to Social Perspective-Taking Ability
2. More Cognitively Complex, Better Able to Adapt Message To Receivers
3. Cognitively Complex People Should Be Better Persuaders
F. Those with Strong Need for Social Approval Persuaded by Opinionated Language
IV. Communication Traits
A. Personality Traits Concerned Particularly with Human Symbolic
B. Four Types of Communication Traits
1. Apprehension Traits
a. Communication Apprehension (CA)
(1). Traitlike CA
(2). Audience-Based CA
(3). Situational CA
(4). Possible Causes
(a). Low Self-Esteem
(b). Parental Reinforcement
(c). Inherited Trait
(d). Excessive Activation (e). Inappropriate Cognitive Processing (f). Inadequate Communication Skills
b. Receiver Apprehension
c. Writing Apprehension
d. Unwillingness to Communicate
(1). Social Alienation
(2). Introversion
(3). Low Self-Esteem
(4). Skills Defiency
(5). Ethnic/Cultural Divergence
2. Presentation Traits
a. Predispositions toward Verbal Behavior
(1). Hesitating, Pausing
(2). Vocal Forcefulness
(3). Length of Utterances
(4). Verbosity
(5). Dominance
b. Communicator Style
(1). Definition: How One Communicates, Not Content
(2). Communicator Image
(a). Impression Leaving
(b). Contentious
(c). Open
(d). Dramatic
(e). Dominant
(f). Precise
(g). Relaxed
(h). Friendly
(i). Attentive
(j). Animated
c. Disclosiveness
(1). Intent
(2). Amount
(3). Positiveness
(4). Depth
(5). Honesty
d. Clothing Predispositions
(1). Dimensions
(a). Clothing Consciousness
(b). Exhibitionism
(c). Practicality
(d). Designer
(2). Research Example
3. Adaptation Traits
a. Rhetorical Sensitivity
(1). Positioned with Noble Self, Rhetorical Reflector
(2). Research Example
b. Communication Competence
(1). Two Aspects
(a). Appropriateness
(b). Effectiveness
(2). Controversy Over Situational Differences
c. Interaction Involvement
(1). Responsiveness
(2). Perceptiveness
(3). Attentiveness
4. Aggression Traits
a. Constructive Traits
(1). Assertiveness
(a). Directiveness
(b). Social Assertiveness
(c). Defense of Rights and Interests
(d). Independence
(2). Argumentativeness
(a). Tendency to Approach Argument
(b). Tendency to Avoid Argument
(c). Interactional Model
(d). Research Results
b. Destructive Traits
(1). Hostility
(a). Four Dimensions
(i). Irritability
(ii). Negativism
(iii). Resentment
(iv). Suspicion
(b). Research Results
(2). Verbal Aggressiveness
(a). Research Findings
(b). Four Causes
(i). Transference
(ii). Disdain
(iii). Social Learning
(iv). Argumentative Skill Deficiency
Chapter Five: Persuasion Approaches
I. What are the Persuasion Approaches?
A. Concerns of Persuasion Theorists
1. Attitudes (evaluations)
2. Perceived Choice (opportunity to change)
3. Coercion (physical or verbal aggression)
4. Compliance (strategic)
B. Belief-to-Attitude-to-Behavior Model
C. Context/Situation (intimacy, dominance, resistance, rights, personal benefits, long-term consequences)
D. Consciousness, Planning, and Scripts (Intentionality)
E. Covering Laws vs. Human Action (rules, schema, and expectations)
II. Early Persuasion Research (Variable Analytic Approach)
A. Emerged from WWII propaganda and new mass media (Media Effects)
B. Manipulated Variables in Persuasion Process (i.e., S-R Model) and Tested Predictions
1. Fear Appeals (manipulation of vulnerability and threat)
2. Evidence in Messages
3. Language Intensity
4. Opinionated Language
III. Toulmin's Model of Argumentation
A. Model of practical/everyday reasoning
B. Toulmin's Model
For more information and explanation- Please see the web site at
www.unl.edu/speech/comm109/Toulmin/index.htm
IV. Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger)
A. Assumptions:
1. inconsistency is psychologically uncomfortable
2. two beliefs are related either in a state of consonance or dissonance
3. the more mental discomfort, the more we are motivated to change something to make things comfortable
B. Factors that influence Dissonance
1. self concept and beliefs
2. magnitude of dissonance (e.g., attitude toward speaker or proposal, effort, number)
3. selective exposure, rejection, distortion
C. Dissonance and Persuasion
1. possible solutions offered to reduce dissonance
2. persuasion achieved by eliminating dissonance
V. Social Judgment Theory
A. Assumptions
1. persuasion is dependent upon a person's current beliefs
2. people accept assimilated messages but reject contrasted messages
B. Predicted Persuasion Effects
1. Latitude of Acceptance (all statements the person finds acceptable)
2. Latitude of Rejection (all the statements the person rejects)
3. Latitude of NonCommitment (all statements the person neither rejects or accepts)
4. Ego involvement (personal investment in topic)
4. Persuasion dependent upon where on continuum the advocated position lies and the person's level of ego involvement
VI. Compliance Gaining
A. Assumptions
1. people employ strategies in order to influence other's behavior
2. compliance gaining strategies are context-specific and relationship- bound
3. compliance gaining strategies are influenced by expectations and emotional response
B. Compliance Gaining Strategies linked to Trait Approaches
(e.g., dogmatism and Machiavellianism) and Interpersonal Communication
C. Examples of Compliance Gaining Strategies
1. Promise (compliance yields reward)
2. Threat (punishment)
3. Liking (friendly and helpful)
4. Debt (past favors)
5. Moral Appeal
6. Self Feeling
7. Altercasting (good person)
BEGIN, EXAM TWO MATERIAL
Week 9: Interpersonal Communication Theories
I. What is the Interpersonal Context?
A. theory based on number in and kind (personal) of relationship
B. Some relationship between two to blah people
C. Family, romance, friends, coworkers, boss, siblings, etc.
II. Approached from a variety of perspectives: Human Action, Covering Laws, Systems
III. I'll focus on four theoretical areas
A. Uncertainty Reduction
B. Relational Development
C. Dialectics
D. Motivation
Uncertainty Reduction (Berger and Calabrese)
I. Uncertainty Reduction Theory
A. Assumptions
1. when strangers meet for the first time, their primary concern is to reduce uncertainty
2. motivation: In order to describe, predict, and explain others so one can gain control of life and environment
3. initial interaction is a process of formulating attributions of others' behaviors in order to reduce uncertainty
B. Predictions (examples)
1. Perceived Similarity (reduces uncertainty) 2. Amount of Verbal Communication and Reciprocity
3. Information Seeking (increase with high uncertainty)
4. Nonverbal Affiliative Expressiveness (increase when uncertainty decreases)
5. Intimacy and Liking increase when uncertainty is reduced
II. Predicted outcome value (Sunnafrank)
A. Uncertainty not the central goal for relationships, only a vehicle for discovering outcome values (social exchange)
B. Individuals seek to maximize positive outcomes
1. greater attraction with greater positive predicted outcome
2. positive outcomes will extend initial interaction and develop future contact
3. negative predicted outcomes will result in termination
Baxter: Dialectic Tensions
I. The Tensions
A. contradictions of two forces, paired opposites B. essential to change and growth in relationships
C. Forces are interdependent yet mutually negate one another
D. Negotiation of tensions leads to changes in relationships
II. Tensions of Interpersonal Relationships:
Integration/Separation Stability/Change Expression/Privacy
Internal connection/autonomy predictability/novelty openness/closed
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External inclusion/seclusion conventionality/unique reveal/conceal
Motivation
I. Interpersonal Motivations or Needs
A. Individuals have certain goals or endpoints for IPC
B. Motive is internal state of readiness to act to achieve that goal
C. Locus of control (internal or external)
C. Motives
1. Inclusion: be apart of other's activities
2. Control: in charge of situation, power
3. Affection: to like and be liked
4. Escape: avoid engaging in other activities
5. Pleasure: social, fun, entertaining
6. Relaxation: relax and unwind
D. Fill out ICM scale on page 280
Relational Stages (Knapp)
1. Initiating: 1st come together, strangers . . . greetings
2. Experiementing: getting to know unknown, basic info ("small talk")
3. Intensifying: "close friends"- increased self disclosure more informal, us/we, private symbols, direct commitment
4. Integrating: "coupling" or "fusion"- definite "we" and artifacts of coupling, still some individual identity
5. bonding: public ritual
6. differentiating: becomming distinctive- "my"
7. circumscribing: constricted comm, less info, decreased comm and disclosure, maintain public persona
8. stagnating: motionless or inactive, marking time, awkward, narrow, & rigid comm
9. Avoiding: overt restriction comm
10. Terminating: distance & dissassociation
Direction through Stages
1. Movement is generally systematic and sequential.
2. Movement may be forward or backward. (toward, away from intimacy)
3. Movement occurs within stages.
4. Movement is always to a new place. (can't go back again)
5. Rate of movement influeced by
a. perceived rewards (social exchange)
b. similarity (homophily)
c. self concept and motivations
attraction and the matching hypotheses
Week 10: Critical Theory (Kellner article on web site)
****How do we assess critical theory and research?
Griffin's Five Standards
a. New understanding of people: insight into human condition (Ron Lee, "the a hah factor)
b. Clarification of Values: unmask ideology (define later on)- often seek equality, freedom, liberty
c. Aestetic Appeal: The theory and writing are artistic
d. Community of Agreement: support by community of scholars- argue, persuade others in the field (no absolute truth, coconstructed)
e. Reform of Society: generates change (Afrocentricity)
What are critical cultural theorists interested in:
(1) "culture" and "meaning": popular culture, media, cultural production, reception, etc.
(2) Political: power, social change, resistance
(3) theory not objective truth but means of social critique and change
***Two key concepts: Ideology and hegemony
1. Ideology (from Marx)- Hall: Ideological terrain of study:
Ideology = Three Things
(a) set or chain of meaing (larger than text, text utilizes larger cultural meaning-race)
(b) collective process- naturalized
(c) position of idenitification
2. hegemony and counterhegemony- Gramsci
(a) incorporate and resist
(b) system of production co-opts resistance
(c) negotiation of power, maintenance of power
(d) naturalisation- rap music
I. Text (the thing studied): some sort of cultural artifact, often popular culture, practice, or ritual
A. Literary theory and semiotics
B. Meaning lies in the close analysis of a cultural text (Similar to conversation analysis)
1. rules or conventions of texts (formula)
2. genres
C. narrative theory (life as series of narratives) Fisher (1984)
- relationship between narrative structure and form and ideological commitments (myth and archetypes)
humans as storytellers, culture as stories and myths
D. Intertextuality
II. Context (not text, surround text)
A. Ideological Analysis
1. theoretical perspective or approach: Marxism, feminism, postmodernism
2. subject position (social position of producers and consumers)
Kellner and the Malboro Man/Virginia Slims
-media literacy- lifestyle advertising- Jhally and fetishism of commodities
B. Marxist Theory
1. system of production
2. commodification
3. class and power
C. Feminist Theory
1. concern with gendered power relations
2. uncovering ideology of gender
3. standpoint theory
D. Afrocentric Theory (Asante)
1. African/African American history and empowerment
2. Sense of autonomy and control over identity and image
E. Postmodern Theory (After modern era)
1. social changes: transportation, information technology, global economic systems, dispersed communities
2. New Cultural Forms and/or meanings
a. fragmentation of contemporary technology (Lanham)
b. Lyotard- collapse of metanarratives (literary canon)
c. Baudrillard: hyperreal and simulacrum
d. Jamison: pastiche and commodification OR
d. subjectivity and heterogeniety leads to new pluaralism
III. Reception
A. Text creates reading positions
1. Hall: dominant, oppositional, negotiated readings
2. placement of reader in relation to text creates meaning
B. Active Audience (Fiske)- bottom up, not top down
(1) ethnographic methods
(2) polysemy and voice to marginalized
I. Early Theory: Direct Effects (Magic Bullet)
A. Effects and Violence (break presussuposition
B. McCluhan and determinism
C. Two-Step Flow (political communication)
1. frequent attenders receive information
2. opinion leaders interpret information
3. media influence individuals through informal personal contacts
D. Agenda Setting Function
B. Parasocial Interaction (Scale in book) "one-sided interpersonal relationship that viewers establish with media characters" (Rubin and McHugh, 1987)
1. quite common, even normal
2. uses and gratification: use media for psychological needs
a. like interpersonal needs
b. inclusion, affection, control
3. characters break fourth wall, share personal information, immediacy behaviors
4. viewers reduce uncertainty, attribute meaning
C. Link to IPC theory
1. uncertainty reduction
2. liking and homophily
(3) What is uses and gratifications theory? How does the film demonstrate aspects of uses and gratifications?
A. Users as active, media does not act upon (reception theory in critical)=
Seek media to gratify personal needs
B. How, What, and Why people use mass media
C. Motives (some uses)
1. learning and information seeking
2. relaxation
3. companionship (parasocial)
4. escape
5. excitement and arousal
D. Viewer types
1. ritualized: habitual, patterned
2. instrumental: for information
E. Audience Activity
1. preactivity- seek for needs
2. duractivity- involvement during viewing
3. postactivity- after exposure
F. Lifestyles
1. disengaged homemaker
2. outgoing activist
3. Restrained activist
4. working class climber
(4) What is cultivation theory? How does the film demonstrate the cultivation of certain "realities" in the mass media?
A. Media effects? Beyond immediate effects.
B. Cultivation Theory (Gerbner)
1. relationship between television viewing and perception of reality
2. norms and values- enculturation
3. violence and perception of crime (fear) heavy viewers
4. real and televised confused (tv characters)
C. The Social Construction of Reality
1. experiences (including media) create reality
2. media provides information beyond tangible experiences
3. information stored in memory retrieved when making social reality decisions.
II. Mediated Communication: Communication via mediated channel
A. Many forms
1. television and film (parasocial)
2. telephone, telegraph, letter
3. computer-mediated
B. Hyperpersonal Communication (Walther, 1996): adaptation of CMC participants in order to form intimacy
a. emoticons, etc.
b. relational level adaptations over time
1. users adapt to CMC contexts
2. with time, context-specific dyadic relationships develop
3. computer-mediated communicators "overcome" limits of settings
C. Normative Group Domain (Spears and Lea)
1. users identify with mediated groups
2. salient identification leads to the maintenance of group norms
3. groups utilize social control to maintain normative behavior
D. Goffman and Dramaturgy
1. Playful drama of human experience
a. roles
b. follow scripts
c. frontstage and backstage
d. audience
2. CMC as postmodern performance
1. Hypercontextuality
a. CMC requires context-specific norms of interaction
b. a "virtual community" (Rheingold, 1993) forms that is unique to the specialized mediated context (e.g., the SIDE model)
c. the context is not predetermined but rather negotiated between interactants
2. Co-Constructed Group Norms
a. hypercontext is formed via negotiation between users (Turkle, 1995)
b. new, unique group norms required to facilitate communication (Feenberg, 1989)
c. a "consensual hallucination" occurs and users maintain the agreed upon reality (Bromberg, 1996)
3. Dramatic Performance
a. group-based human interaction can be best understood as group performances (Goffman, 1959)
b. CMC is a public performance
(1) users are always being "observed by others" in CMC settings (like an audience)
(2) CMC as Foucault's panopticon (Spears & Lea, 1994; Wynn & Katz, 1996)
c. CMC is fiction (i.e., a virtual world)
(1) users control and maintain a virtual, socially constructed drama
(2) e.g., MUDs and MOOs are fabricated virtual worlds
4. Heightened Consciousness
a. users create and maintain a unique identity (i.e., selective self presentation) (Walther, 1996)
b. CMC requires greater consciousness and decision-making processes concerning self presentation, group performance, and communication situations
c. due to hypercontextuality and co-constructed norms, users ultimately control, and must decide upon, the communicative performance of CMC
Week 12: Intercultural
A. What is culture? Culture Defined- very difficult (don't confuse with "cultured", more than "country")
1. Broad definition- part of the environment made by humans
-objective culture- visible, tangible aspects of culture
-subjective culture- values, beliefs, norms, roles, etc
2. Narrow definition- acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experience and generate behavior- set of rules
3. Culture- a blueprint- way to think, feel, and behave in society
4. Macro (dominant) and Micro Cultures:
-gender/sex, ethnicity, religion, class, geography, exceptionality
B. Very few unique theories to ICC (new subfield)
1. ICC incorporates existing theories into "theoretical framework"
2. ICC researchers utilizes
a. interpersonal theory (uncertainty reduction, motivation)
b. critical theory (Afrocentrism, feminism, narrative theory)
c. verbal (Sapir-Whorf)
d. nonverbal (proxemics, touch, expectancy violations)
e. media (cultivation analysis)
C. So, What is the ICC theoretical framework
1. Humanistic Model (distinguish uniqueness of cultures)
a. rules and roles
b. high and low context
c. values
2. Patterned, Conventional Behavior
a. language
b. nonverbal codes (examples)
(1) emblems (OK)
(2) illustrators (head nod)
(3) affect displays (space and touch)
(4) paralanguage (body odor)
c. rituals: WHAT ARE RITUALS?
-co-constructed, socially sustained performances- include implicit values and norms
3. Interaction between and within cultures
a. perception: select, organize, interpret
b. Ethnocentrism: What is it? your culture as central
c. prejudice: link to stereotypes and perception
4. Systems Approach (in book only, not in class)
a. communication theory of acculturation
b. communication between nations and political leaders
c. communication related to social change
d. four models
Applied Communication Theory: Final Unit
What is "Applied" Communication Theory? While all theory should be "applicable" if valid, Applied Theories are designed to adress specific issues, problems, or concerns in social world
I. Organizational Communication
A. involves exchanging messages to stimulate meaning within and between organizations and their environments
B. Organizational Assessments (specific recommendations)
1. "styles" communication
a. between coworkers and managment, "layers or organization"
b. power, aggression, avoidance, etc
2. organizational "culture" and "climate"
a. roles
b. rituals
c. values
3. organizational communication processes and structures
a. decision making
b. problem solving
c. communication network
II. Family Communication
A. obviously, fundamental institutions in culture, socialization, communication, etc
B. relationship between practitioners and comm researchers
1. conceptualizing the family: what counts- (not nuclear, step, gay, postmodern) language as constitutive and reflective
2. family as system of communication: nonsummative, equifinality, whole
-subsystems, interdependence
3. Humanistic issues- roles, rules, rituals, (Discuss blended family project)
4. violence: communication of power, aggression, gender, feminism, etc.
III. Health Communication
A. Health care providers fail to communicate effectively (Patch Adams and ER)
1. functional communication: diagnose, cooperate, counsel, educate
2. health care as system or organization (see above)
3. provider-client communication (relational control, perceived control, compliance, immediacy, uncertainty reduction)
4. comm competency: awareness, compassion, descriptive, receptive, adaptiveness, ethics
IV. Political Communication
A. Ancient concern for ethical and prudent political discourse
1. social meanings: symbolic convergance- fantasy chains, national fantasies, myths, narratives- concern over Monica, yellow ribbons
2. effects: voting, attitudes, agenda setting, etc (alter via mediated channels-
3. voice, power, and hegemony