Summary Communication in Everyday Life / Introduction to Human Communication Study notes
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Course
Introduction to Human Communication (IHC1001)
Institution
Erasmus University
Book
Communication in Everyday Life
51 Pages of Summaries and study notes from the book 'Communication in Everyday life', Lectures, articles and tutorials for the Erasmus University course IBCoM (Communication and Media)
EVERYDAY COMMUNICATION AND THE RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
- Communication: exchange of messages, discriminatory response of an organism to a stimulus,
transmission/transactional use of symbols, influences, guided, understood in the context of
relationships
- Definitions are tools to ensure that we are talking about the same thing, are a construction of reality
which are contested
- Everything involves communication
- ‘Bigger’ Events of human interaction: initial encounter, betrayals, disclosure of secret information,
family upheavals
- Most interactions are of everyday, ordinary variety (quick phone call, brief conversation, text)
- Everyday communication may not be memorable but it does make up a person's life
- All types of communication will interconnect with your everyday life/experiences
- Relational perspective is based on the belief that communication and relationships are interconnected
- relationship to someone influences what is communicated, how it is shared, meaning that is developed
- Communication as Action: Sender sending messages whether or not they are received, leaving a
message at a voicemail, post a message on your desk
- Communication as Interaction: Exchange of information between individuals, sending a message
and receiving a reply
- Communication as Transactions: relation, mutual trust, creates something that was not there before,
construction of shared meanings or understanding between individuals
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
- Bad communication can result in misunderstandings, conflicts, arguments, disagreements
- Communication involves a lot more than transmitting information from one person to another
- A Message is made out of words or symbols allowing one idea to stand for something else
Code word: Menu — it is assumed the costumer knows the meaning in the context of a restaurant
- You have build-in expectations about a relationship between a server and costumer (friendly,
respectful) = it’s a cultural and relational element of communication
- Beyond the transmission of a simple message worlds of meaning are created and perspectives are
being displayed as the results of the message exchange & gender, status, power, politeness negotiated
Key characteristics of communication
- Communication is symbolic - It involves frames
- It requires meaning - It’s both presentation and representational
- It’s cultural - It’s a transaction
- It’s relational
COMMUNICATION IS SYMBOLIC
- Symbol: it’s an arbitrary representation of something else, they are either verbal (language) or
nonverbal, it can be a word, movement, sound, picture, logo, gesture, or anything else which represents
something other than itself (eg. Road sign: symbol communicates meaning that is agreed upon)
- Signs: are consequences or indicators of something specific which cannot be changed by arbitrary
actions or labels), it has a causal connection with what it refers to (eg. Smoke is a sign of fire), always
consequences and indicators of something specific
- There is no direct causal connection between a symbol and what it represents
- Difficulties or misunderstandings may occur that the same symbol can mean a variety of different things
COMMUNICATION REQUIRES MEANING
- Communication requires that symbols convey meaning
,- However, particular meanings aren’t tied to one symbol but can be conveys in multiple ways using
different symbols
Social Construction of Meaning
- involves the way in which symbols take on meaning in a social context or society as they are used over
time, meanings of words have developed through their use over time
- Through the social and relational use of symbols, meanings become associated and assigned
Meaning and Context
- physical context, relational context, relationship shared by the people interacting in which a symbol is
used, will affect its meanings
Verbal and Nonverbal Influence on Meaning
Meaning and the Medium
- also affect the meaning of a message
- Medium- sound waves, sight (interacting face-to-face), smart phones, text messages, social networks,
signals and other methods of communication
COMMUNICATION IS CULTURAL
- Different cultures make different assumptions and take different knowledge for granted
- You’re doing, perfuming, enacting your culture through communication, depending on cultural
expectations
- Culture influences communication, and communication creates and reinforces these cultural influences
- Culture is a first level of communication, second level: interpersonal (watzlawick (1967) the content of a
message may not come across because of the relation),
COMMUNICATION IS RELATIONAL
- Communication affects relationships, and relationships affect communication
- All communication contains both a context (message) level and a relational level (how your socially and
personally related)
- Content of a message may not come across because of the relation
COMMUNICATION INVOLVES FRAMES
- Frames: are basic forms of knowledge that provide a definition of a scenario
- A Communication frame draws a boundary around the conversation and pulls attention towards certain
things and away from others
Coordinating Interactions
- Frames help people understand their role in a conversation and what is expected of them
- Shared understanding of these frames enables people to know what is happening to coordinate their
symbolic activity
Assigning Meanings
- Framing assumptions can also help to make decisions about what symbols are used and how they
should be interpreted
- Shared relational knowledge enables you and other person to assign unique meanings to certain words
which are then particular to that particular relationship
Perspectives
- Communication frames are based on a person’s perspective of situations and relationships with others
which will influence the coordinating of interactions and the assigning of meaning
COMMUNICATION IS BOTH PRESENTATIONAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL
- Representational: describes facts or conveys information, common sense idea of communication
- Presentational: presents your particular version of the facts or events, own interpretation through
personal experiences, creating meaning of yourself, opinion
- Communication always conveys the perspective or worldview of the person sending a message and
therefore it is never neutral
,- Your selection of words and arrangement of them are meaningful acts, presenting ideas and
informations but also presenting your view of the world to others
COMMUNICATION IS A TRANSACTION
Communication as Action
- act of sender sending a message to a receiver which occurs when someone leaves/transmits a message
Communication as Interaction
- an exchange of information between two or more individuals
Communication as Transaction
- the constructions of shared meanings or understandings between two or more individuals
- Communication message transacts/constitutes something beyond the symbols being exchanged
- Constitutive approach to communication: it can create or bring into existence something that has not
been there before, such as an agreement/contact/or an identity
- Communication relationships/gender/sexualities/realities are created through communication
- Communication serves as the actual foundation for most of our life experiences
- Communication is symbolic, presentational, and transactive
Intentionality: basic assumption in communication studies that messages indicate someones intentions
or give insight into the sender’s mental process, the deeper your relationship with someone the more
likely you can understand their intentions
What is communication and how does it work in everyday life?
more than the passing of messages from one person to another = constitutive view of communication. creates
something beyond the specific words spoken. Communication is influenced by relationships that exit between two
persons. These relationships and other taken-for-granted assumptions allow people to ‘go beyond’ the literal sense of
their speech and constitute worlds of meaning that bind them together.
How does communication create worlds of meaning?
Communication is built on the recognition of shared assumptions that require the two partners to understand and
take for granted certain beliefs about how the world operates. Every culture and relationship has built into it such
assumptions, revealed and drawn upon in communication.
How do the assumptions in a culture affect communication?
how people should be treated and how emotions should be displayed are assumptions about the proper and correct way
to interact with other people, the behaviors that constitute rudeness or respect and the manner in which individuals
should communication with each other all influence what is said in interaction.
What are the properties of communication?
Communication involves meaning, representation or presentation of facts and viewpoints, taken-for-granted
assumptions, the use of symbols and intentionality.
What does it mean to say that communication is both representational and presentational and why is the
difference important?
Communication can either represent something that exists in the world (facts) or it can present the speaker’s viewpoint
about something. It is important to notice when presentations of facts are offered to us as mere representations. It is
important to learn to recognise the difference and be aware of how presentation occurs in what appears to be
representation.
What is a frame and how is communication framed?
A frame in communication: form of knowledge that provides a definition of a scenario either because the people agree on
the nature of the situation or the cultural assumptions taken for granted give them a clue. We can frame communication
for example as informal or formal. The frame in which communication occurs will influence what is said and how.
CHAPTER 2 ‘Histories & Contexts of Communication’
THE CHALLENGES OF WRITING HISTORY
- There’s is not only one view about the history of communication but multiple
- The underlying common feature is that it depends on some relationship with the audience
- Historiography: study of the persuasive effect of writing history in particular ways and the reasons why
particular reports and analyses are offered by specific authors (different perspectives and interests)
, - Key goal of research is to make developments and corrections to our understanding leading to a
reevaluation
THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DISCIPLINE
- The roots of communication study can be traced back to well before Aristotle
- Eastern Communication Associated founded in 1910 was the first formally organised professional
association devoted to the study of communication
- The first national Communication Association was founded in 1914 (National Association of Academic
Teachers of Public Speaking)
- Associations are established based on regions of the country
- Such organisations provide the basis for offering degrees in communication studies
Langue: formal grammatical structure of language
Parole: how people actually use language, where they often speak using kinds of informal and
ungrammatical language structure that carry meaning to us all the same
Polysemy: multiple meanings for the same word or symbol, creates ambiguity
THE EMERGENCE OF AREAS OF STUDY
- Communication got its start as a discipline devoted to the study of public speaking, debate,
performance
Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism
- Study of rhetorics originated with the development and delivery of public address
- Rhetoric criticism and theory developed student learning beyond the actual creation and delivery of a
speech but also enabled them to describe, interpret, evaluate the spoken word
- Persuasion
Interpersonal Communication
- Scholars studies interpersonal concepts as characteristics of dyads and interaction rituals at the
beginning of the previous century
- Social relation, links with rhetoric, people are interacting with each other
Mass Communication
- Mass media (newspapers, books, radio)
- Mediated relation which isn’t from person to person but through media
COMING TOGETHER (KIND OF) AS COMMUNICATION STUDIES
- Rhetorics continues to be a notable area in the discipline, but, it’s no longer limited to public address
but also studies all influences of communication including media content, technology, architecture
- The study of media has significantly expanded with the rise of social media
FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION AND THE RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
- If the development of the discipline has not finished, we must assume it’s continuing
- We’re unable to see any area of communication studies which a relational perspective couldn’t be taken
METHODS OF STUDYING COMMUNICATION
- Different methods point researches at different sorts of information and different questions (eg.
Personal interview gives one more detail about behaviour than an anonymous interview)
- Most influential approaches to the study of communication: Social scientific, interpretivist, critical
SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
- views the world as objective, causal and predictable
- Researchers using this approach to study communication week to describe communication activity and
to discover connections between phenomena or causal patterns
Assumptions
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