Communication Theory: Definitions and Study

Introduction to Communication Theory

• Agenda includes definition, process of inquiry, methods of inquiry, dimensions of theory, and components of theory
• Critical conceptual differentiation conveys that choices regarding definitions should not be taken lightly
• Definitions launch scholars down different theoretical trajectories and predispose certain questions
• Definitions have different functions and enable the theorist to do different things
• Some definitions are broad and inclusive, while others are restrictive
• Intention may be included in some definitions when message sending and receiving is purposeful, while other definitions may omit it
• Some definitions involve a statement of success, effectiveness, or accuracy whereas others do not contain such implicit judgments

Study of Communication

• Communication is a "revolutionary discovery" because of communication technologies, industrialization, big business, and global politics
• Popular 20th-century philosophies of progress and pragmatics further promoted communication, which stimulated a desire to improve society through social change after WW1
• Persuasion and decision-making became central concerns in the social sciences after WW2 amidst widespread use of propaganda
• Communication is producing theories on its own, instead of relying on sister disciplines
• After WW2, communication theory had a different history in Europe, Asia, and Africa than in the US
• US focused on quantitative research as a social science
• Europe was more influenced by Marxist perspectives and cultural methods
• Eastern theories focus on wholeness and unity, stressing emotional and spiritual convergence

Paradigm and Theory

• Communication is broad, so it cannot be essentialized or confined within a single paradigm
• A paradigm is a framework used to organize observations and reasoning
• Theories are systematic sets of interrelated statements intended to explain aspects of social life
• Theories start with facts and concepts and use variables such as gender
• Theories identify relationships and develop explanations that can be tested
• Theories are "organized sets of concepts, explanations, and principles of some aspect of human experience"

Inquiry, Scholarship, Communication Theory

• Inquiry is the systematic study of experience which leads to understanding, knowledge, and theory
• Three stages of inquiry include asking questions, observation, and constructing answers
• Methods of inquiry includes scientific, humanistic and social scientific scholarship
• Scientific scholarship is associated with objectivity, standardization, and generalizability
• Replications of a scientific study should yield identical results because scientists assume that the world has observable form
• Humanistic Scholarship is associated with subjectivity
• It aims to understand individual subjective response and it is more interested in individual cases than generalized theory
• Humanistic scholarship is suited to problems of art, personal experience, and values
• Social scientific scholarship uses methods borrowed from the sciences
• In seeking to observe and interpret patterns of human behavior, social science scholars make human beings the object of study
• A social scientist must establish consensus on the basis of what is observed, and behavioral phenomena must be explained or interpreted
• Philosophical assumptions, concepts, explanations, and principles are the four components of a theory

Philosophical Assumptions

• Basic beliefs underlie the theory
• Assumptions determine how a particular theory will play out
• Every theory includes assumptions about the nature of knowledge, how it is obtained, what exists, and what is valuable
• Epistemology questions knowledge
• Ontology questions existence
• Axiology questions value
• Epistemology:
• Branch of philosophy that studies knowledge, or how people know what they claim to know
  • Asks to what extent knowledge can exist before experience
  • Asks to what extent knowledge can be certain
  • Also asks by what process knowledge arises
  • Rationalism suggests that knowledge arises out of the power of the human mind to know the truth
  • Empiricism states that knowledge arises in perception
  • Constructivism holds that people create knowledge to function pragmatically in the world
  • Social constructivism teaches that knowledge is a product of symbolic interaction
• Ontology:
• Questions existence and deals with the nature of being/human social interaction because the way a theorist conceptualizes interaction depends on how the communicator is viewed
• Asks to what extent humans make real choices
• Determinism, pragmatism, and middle-position fall under real choices
• A question to ask is whether human behavior is best understood in terms or states or traits
• Traits fairly stable dimensions
• Believe that people are mostly predictable because they display more or less consistent characteristics across time
• Do not change easily (humans are static)
• State temporary conditions affecting the people
• Humans are dynamic and go through numerous states in a lifetime
• Is human experience primarily individual or social?
• Individual behavior vs social life
• To what extent is communication contextual?
• Human life and action are best understood by looking at universal factors and others believe behavior is richly contextual and cannot be generalized beyond the immediate situation
• Axiology:
• Questions value and is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of values
• Asks can the the theory be value free
• To what extent does the process of inquiry affect what is being seen?
• Should scholarship be designed to achieve change? Or is it a function simply to generate knowledge?
  • Value Free is objectivity and knowledge
  • Value Conscious is the importance of values to research and theory

Approaches to Communication Theory

• Approaches include their goals, view of the nature of reality, their view of the methods and the proper role of human values in research and theory build
• Four approaches to communication theories includes Postpositivism, Cultural Theory, Critical Theory, Normative Theory
• Postpositivism:
• Is based on empirical observation guided by the scientific method with understanding that humans are not a constant
• The Goal is explanation, prediction, and control
• Knowledge is advanced through the systematic, search for regularities and causal relationships employing the scientific method
• Views reality as objective and external to individuals
• Assumes that there is an underlying truth that can be discovered through empirical investigation
• Strives for objectivity and minimize personal biases and values pursing for objective knowledge
• Cultural Theory:
• It seeks to understand contemporary cultures by analyzing the structure and content of their communication
• The Goal is to explore how communication is shaped by and shapes cultural practices, norms, and values in the social world
• Knowledge is local specific to the interaction of the knower a known
• Acknowledges that reality is socially constructed and varies across different cultural contexts
• Reality is subjective and influenced by cultural perspectives
• Recognizes the influence of cultural values and encourages researchers to be reflexive about their own cultural bias and acknowledges subjectivity inherent in cultural interpretations - Critical Theory
  • Seeks transformation of a dominant social order to achieve desired values
  • Goal- to gain knowledge of that social world so they can change it
  • Knowledge is advanced it only serves to free people and communities from the influence of those more powerful then themselves
  • Reality as socially constructed and influenced by power dynamics
  • Acknowledges multiple realities and perspectives based on social positions
  • Committed to social justice - Normative Theory
  • Explains how a media system should be structured to conform or realize a set of ideal social values
  • Goal: to set an ideal standard against which the operation of a given media system can be judged
  • The study of a media system or media system is undertaken in the explicit belief that there is an ideal mode of operation based in the values of the larger social system.

Communication Theory Traditions

• There are seven approaches: Socio-psychological, Cybernetic, Rhetorical, Semiotic, Socio-cultural, Critical, Phenomenological

Socio-Psychological Tradition

• Communication is defined by interaction and influence
• Examines how individual cognition and social factors influence communication behavior, attitudes, beliefs, and social influence
• Question: "What predicts friendship that lasts over time?"

Cybernetic Tradition

• Communication is defined as a system of information processing with feedback
• Examines communication as a system of information processing and feedback
• Question: "How are friendships shaped by their connections to other people?"

Rhetorical Tradition

• Communication is defined by Artful Public Address
• Communication is viewed as the art of persuasion and how people use language effectively
• Question: "How did Obama persuade people by appealing to close relationships?"

Semiotic Tradition

• Communication is viewed as the process of sharing meaning through signs
• Examines how signs and symbols are used to convey meaning in communication
• Question: "What does the word intimacy mean to people in the context of friendship?”"

Socio-Cultural Tradition

• Communication is defined as the creation and enactment of social reality based on the premise that as people talk, they produce and reproduce culture
• Emphasizes the role of culture and social context in communication
• Question: "What communication practices shape deteriorating workplace friendships?"

Critical Tradition

• Communication is defined as a Reflective Challenge to Unjust Discourse
• Challenges the contemporary society by challenging the control of language to perpetuate power imbalances
• Critical theorists condemn any use of words that inhibits emancipation; focusing on the role of mass media in dulling sensitivity to repression
• The goal/question - What oppressive ideologies of race and friendship are produced through the TV show Psych?

Phenomenological Tradition

• Communication is defined as the experience of self and others through dialogue
• Emphasis is placed on people's perception and their interpretation of their own experience
• Asks: "How do people create mutual understanding of each other in their friendships?"

Survey map of communication traditions:

The field includes objective and interpretive territories with the following traditions:

• Semiotics and Critical
• Cybernetic
• Socio-psychological
• Rhetorical
• Phenomenological
• Socio-cultural
• Charting the field
• Free and open borders -Theories can live in multiple traditions
• Every tradition has an "airport."
• The chart is incomplete

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Human beings often have conflicting beliefs with actions they take, or other beliefs leading to cognitive dissonance
• This dissonance creates tension reduction automatically sought by changing our evaluations by some degree
• Desire consistency in beliefs
• Inconsistency between two relevant beliefs creates discomfort
• Psychological work will be done to dissipate dissonance
• Belief most resistant to change prioritized over recent belief

Social Judgment Theory

• Focuses is on how people perceive and evaluate persuasive messages and how perceptions influence attitudes and behaviors
• Terms to familiarize includes Ego Involvement, Latitude of acceptance, Latitude of rejection, Latitude of noncommitment, Assimilation, and Contrast

Uncertainty Reduction Theory

• Focuses on individuals interact with one another to promote predictability and lessen uncertainty, especially strangers
• Believes one way people lessen uncertainty is communication
• Asserts when interacting people need information about the other party to reduce their uncertainty
• Verbal Communication - words are exchanged during an interaction
• Nonverbal affiliative expressiveness - specific nonverbal expressing positive feeling
• Information-seeking behavior - number of questions an individual asks of another.
• Intimacy level of communication content - to which personal is low risk
• Reciprocity - equal sharing of information
• Similarity - people that share similar view and reflect the agreement
• Liking - positive feeling from another

The Spiral of Silence Theory

• Explains how public opinion is formed and how individuals decide when to voice their opinions or remain silent
• Focuses on how people's perceptions of public opinion can affect their willingness to express their own opinions on controversial topics
• Hypothesizes that when people perceive opinions minority, they are more likely to remain silent
• More likely to express when they believe their opinions align
• This process the process of conformity and silence can reinforce dominant opinions and shape public discourse
• According to Noelle-Nuemann, the building blocks are
  • Human ability to gauge trends of public sentiment
  • Individuals' justifiable fear of isolation
  • People's hesitancy to express minority views
• Media accelerates as represents opinions disproportionately to their actual strength

Attribution Theory

• Attribution Theory provides a psychological framework that examines how people explain the reasons of events and the results in their lives

Postpositivist Theories:

• Social Penetration Theory:

• Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor.

• Theory explains how relationships develop and deepen over time as people gradually disclose more and more about themselves to one another.

• Referred to by some as the Onion Theory, as it likens the process of self-disclosure to peeling back layers of an onion

• Cognitive Dissonance Theory:

• Leon Festinger

• Believes that humans often have conflcited beliefs with actions they take or other beliefs they have

• Social Judgment Theory:

• Muzafer Sherif

• The theory focuses on how people perceive and evaluate persuasive messages and how these perceptions influence their attitudes and behaviors.

• Uncertainty Reduction Theory:

• Charley Berger and Richard Calabrese

• Focuses on the individuals interacts with one another in order to promote the predictability and lessen uncertainty especially when dealing with strangers

• Spiral of Silence Theory:

• Elisabeth Noelle-Nuemann

• Is the theory seeks to explain how public opinion is formed and how individuals decide when to voice their options or remain silent in a social context

Agenda Setting Theory

• Dr. Maxwell E. McCombs and Dr. Donald L. Shaw (1972)
• The press] may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, and it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.
• News media priorities become public priorities (Littlejohn and Foss, 2009).
• Journalism: Involves selection in deciding to approach a topic from a particular direction(McCombs, 2014)

Elaboration Likelihood Model:

• Richard Petty and John Cacioppo
• Information processing model: explains the level of elaboration, or effort, brought to evaluating messages (Baran and Davis, 2013)
• Elaboration" refers to the amount of effort an audience member has to use in order to process and evaluate a message, remember it, and then accept or reject it

Use and Gratification theory 2.0

• Uses Active media decision like a user, base the media on preference , and goal.
• Gratification diverse forms like social reaction, or personal identity also emotional release

Cultivation Theory

• The contribution that that television, and viewing makes to peoples, conceptions of reality the cultural. -The indicators Project a regular periodic examination of television and programming the conceptions of social reality that viewing caltivates it cold and adult audiences.

Diffusion of Innovation theory

• Dr. Everest M. Rogers Diffusion means process by which the innovation makes it the way to its time to the members of a social system

Theory of Planned Behavior

• It is designed to predict and explain human, behavior and specific contexts -TBP individual attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control contributed to the formation, of behavioral intentions that predict actual behavior Little John and frost 1992

Social Construction of Reality

• Argues that individuals and societies construct their own understanding of reality through socialization. Peter L. Berger & Thomas Luckmann

Symbolic Interactionism

• A micro level, theoretical framework and in sociology that addresses how society is created through repeated interactions among individuals
• George Herbert Mead

Dramaturgy, what is it?

• Ering Goffman (1956) described
• manage the impression of ourselves within social interactions and setting a cooperation in our

Face Negotiation

• Stella Ting Tomey
• Is a relationship have conflict
• A negotiation theory explains cultural different people influenced conflict management

Framing the Frame Analysis

• Robert and Timmen framing essentially involves selection and salience and important keypoints

Speech Act Theory

• A job Seral and J. Austin
• He lies people with words. how the person accomplishes How people accomplish things with words.

Critical-Cultural Theories

There to are the theories

• Culture Industry
• And, Medical Reproduction
• Politcal Economy
• Theory
• Feminist Standpoint Theory
• Marxism
• Joshua and
• Max Horkeimer
• water Benjamin
• Carole Richter

I hope these help your studies!