com theory

Basic components of communication:

• originator of the message. Sometimes the two are slightly different. The sender may be an announcer while the source may be a script-writer.

text or stimulus sent to the receiver. May be verbal, non-verbal, both.

means by which the message is conveyed. (voice, print, airwaves, image, etc. )

destination for the message.

anything that interrupts the process of transmission of the message

response of the receiver to the message and the sender/source. (not overly significant in this model)

context of the communication

Linear Model (sport analogy)

Interactional Model

Transactional Model

Communication involves...(3 things)

Define communication

"a _____ process in which individual use ______ to establish and interpret _________ in their environment."

key elements in the Nature of Communication

it depends on the use of signs:

(looks like what it means)

(can figure it out; symptomatic-- it indicates something else as in fever indicates infection)

(you must learn it because it is created to convey meaning)

(combination of something natural and something symbolic -- like the "Mom look"; or a growl when one is angry)

• act/interact on those thoughts with another human being

• sender and receiver being aware of each other

• the receiver must be actively involved to some degree

types of communication contexts:

the way people interpret sensory information

involve things like a limp, body odor, race, body size. These things can influence our perceptions of other people without any intentional communication.

Sometimes receivers meanings associated with those kinds of characteristics, and may associate them with intent to communicate in someway when that is not the case. (stereotypes)

communication plan

says that we don't like a lot of cognitive activity because it's more work and a restful state is more pleasant
o so we tend to take the easy way
o 'auto-pilot' through most communication processes

The Functions of Communication (3 of them)

connects the person's relationships with the environment (be friendly to 'get along' )

communication which facilitates mental growth; (ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes)

 the ability to think beyond the present, time, place, etc.
 to think about the past or the future
o a higher mental activity

o when the child or individual is influenced by other people or elements in the environment
o this results in learning

The study of signs

(Com is the creation and activity of social reality) Communication produces more than just words or images; it produces culture.

Saphir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity

The Critical Tradition

Communication Theory traditions

(com as artful public speaking)

(experience of oneself and others through com)

the process whereby each individual is continually evaluating experiences and understanding them in relationship to the self and to others.

What is it? What is “knowable”

How does it work?

Why does it happen? Also the study of knowledge itself and how we know.

Should it happen? The role of values and morality in research and the building of knowledge.

(bowling) dominant until 20th century, though the transition to modernism began much earlier
o God exists
o truth exists
o to find truth, find God

Dominant until the last quarter of the 20th century (reflected in Ping-pong)
o truth exists
o God may or may not exist
o human beings can find truth through rational means
 objective observation
 rational analysis and organization

(post-positivism) Dominant world view at the present time (but obviously not to the exclusion of the others)
o God does not exist (myth)
o truth does not exist but is a "construct" based on our perceptions
o experience and interpretation are the only means of explaining the world (or rather our perceptions of it)

"a set of systematic informed hunches about the way things work."

3 things a theory is compared to

a metaphor for the relationships in a process.

A successful theory must fulfill the following purposes:

Theories grow by...

that means they are repeatable; if you do the project in the same way, you will get the same results.

the measure what they intend to measure

Does it apply to the real world? Are the conditions in the study like those of the real world or are they artificial.

Does it apply to more than just the people in queried in the project?

It follows the laws of logic, among them that no two mutually exclusive qualities can exist at the same time in the same object. (Water can't be liquid and solid at the same time.)

Mass Com researchers and those in education or psychology should find the same results when they do the same experiment.

standard steps in scientific study

the 3 methodologies

_______is rooted in the basic qualities of physical science.

A way of looking at the world in order to study and understand it. They offer a perspective or world view which becomes a foundation on which theory is built.

What are the three key research paradigms in social science?

The positivism/post This paradigm assumes the following:
the audience is _________
the meaning is in the ______ _________
therefore _______ is in the content
direct effects occur

Direct Effects:

A trade-off effect which occurs because something else is not happening. (ex. Kids who watch a lot of television get fatter not because TV causes them to gain weight, but because they are sitting there eating instead of going out to play and burn calories.)

• Number of exposures + duration of the effect

How important other conditions are for the effect to take place. The fewer the other conditions exist, the more direct the effect.

Power of the Effect =

While many of the positivist assumptions apply to limited effects theories, Functionalism is based on different assumptions:
• audience is ________
• content is ____where the power is (the same content could have different uses)
• the audience has ______for media use
• assumption of a _______audience

things within society that meet a social need, exchange privilege for service

HERMENEUTIC THEORY:

Hermeneutics (def):

• Representational theory—

Those who adhere to the hemaneutic paradigm believe that the subjects of their inquiry are the fields of meaning that make up the projects of human life -- what we do, where we do it, with whom we do those projects
• Inquiry is conducted by __________meaning and texts
• Such theory can be ___________ to the meaning an individual draws from a text or how meaning is drawn by a society as a whole.
• Meaning does not exist as an ____________, but is a construct.
• People understand their world in _________ schemes or structures
• We're always thinking about what we're doing, what we've done before, what we're going to do next
• Things which happen in life are always _________-________
• Empirical methods don't address those things because they can't deal with them
• __________ methods are necessary to answer these questions

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALISM.

• Ethnography --

• Discourse Analysis --

• Ecological Psychology --

Cultural Effects:

The process by which a culture's social structure is preserved.

Normative Theory:

• ________ those in formal research, experiments
• __________ those in survey research
• ________ those in qualitative, more informal research

The ability to repeat the study and get the same results. It may not always be expected, partial replication is all we can hope for.

does it measure what you want it to measure?

does it measure what you want it to measure?

Does it measure what we say it does?

Do the findings relate to the real world? Is it isomorphic?

The study of WHAT words/signs mean.

The study of HOW signs mean.

the study of how signs fit/work together.

the study of how signs are used.

the means of transmission of the sign

Basic Requirements of Communication:

The study of signs; the process of creating and maintaining signs

Something that stands for something else .

o __________ is the tendency of people to over-value youth and to expect themselves to be forever young and physically attractive. It emphasizes the privilege given to youth and youthful appearance.

A collection of signs within a system of signification that have a set of rules for governing the relationship among its signs.

A reality defining system. Some call this a reality-producing system. Language is the most important and thorough example here.

o interpretive biases for the spoken word; hearing is better than seeing

o linguistic communication is better than non-verbal forms and unspoken feelings; eye and ear offer better information than touch or taste or smell.

o bias toward that which is seen: SEEING is believing and text is better than spoken word

People in cultures agree to use the same signs to name things.

(or agreement to use the same signs) is held on a broad scale-- we're born into it

o _________= data that can be received from a communication
o __________ = the significance and application of the message to the receiver

o _________= data that can be received from a communication
o __________ = the significance and application of the message to the receiver

o _________ are all types of signs governed by specific rules which may be spoken or unspoken

The underlying world view of the culture; this is the final goal or product of deconstructive criticism

The stories used to transmit these values and ideology;

A VALID ACT OF COMMUNICATION IS TO MUTUALLY ESTABLISH A COMMON __________!

"a cognitive act involving the creation of a concept transcending experience and referencing that concept with a sign."

"The product of interpretive performances by which the sign(s) are made sensible in some ongoing action."

Characteristics of conversation: (3 things)

• The mass society theorists who argued from a position based in cultural norms, ideals, and values. Seen as biased toward "the way we were"

• Those people IN the media who defended media. Their concerns were practical and business/industry-related. Perceived as biased toward "what's good for business." (saw "few if any effects")

• Social Scientists studying mass communication and using empirical research methodologies.

August Comte

Herbert Spencer

Ferdinand Tonnie and THEORY OF SOCIAL BONDS

Gesellschaft societies:

Durkeheim's Analysis of the Division of Labor

7 psychological theories

5 filters of modern propoganda theory:

• increased media concentration and control of gate-keeping and information flow

• - promoting consumption and focus on THINGS and not issues which might threaten those elites

• limit number of resources which can be accessed

P.R. efforts to spin or manipulated impressions and truth

• -- miracle market; market is everything valuable...