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Full course summary Introduction to Communication Science
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Full ICS SummaryChapter 1: Launching your study of Communication Theory
What is a theory?
- Ernest Bormann: “an umbrella term for all careful, systematic and
self-conscious discussion and analysis of communication phenomena”
o Used in previous editions of the book
o General enough, but too broad so it doesn’t give us any direction on
how we might construct a theory, nor does it offer a way to figure out
when thoughts or statements about communication haven’t attained
that status.
- Judee Burgoon: a theory is nothing more than a set of systematic, informed
hunches about the way things operate.
A set of hunches
- Theories always involve an element of speculation or conjecture.
- Hunches and not hunch: a theory is not just inspired by one thought or an
isolated idea. Theory construction involves multiple hunches.
Informed hunches
- Before developing a theory, there are articles to read, people to talk to,
actions to observe, or experiments to run, all of which can cast light on the
subject.
- Theorists should be familiar with alternative explanations and interpretations
of the types of phenomena they are studying.
- Fred Casmir’s description of theory (further affirms the informed hunches
part): Theories are sometimes defined as guesses – but significantly as
“educated” guesses. Theories are not merely based on vague impressions
nor are they accidental by-products of life. Theories tend to result when their
creators have prepared themselves to discover something in their
environment, which triggers the process of theory construction.
Hunches that are systematic
- A theory not only lays out multiple ideas, but also specifies the relationships
among them. In common parlance, it connects the dots. It does so, so a
pattern emerges.
Images of Theory
Theories as nets
- Karl Popper: “theories are nets cast to catch what we call ‘the world’… We
endeavor to make the mesh ever finer and finer”.
o The world can be interpreted as everything “under the sun”, requiring a
grand theory that applies to all communication, all the time
, o Catching the world could be construed as needing many special
theories, different kinds of small nets to capture distinct types of
communication in local situations.
o Criticism: The idea that theories could be woven so tightly that they’d
snag everything humans do seems naïve. It also raises questions
about our freedom to choose some actions and reject others.
Theories as lenses
- The lens imagery highlights the idea that theories shape our perception by
focusing attention on some things while ignoring others, or at least pushing
them to the background.
- Two theorists could analyze the same communication event and, depending
on the lenses each uses, find completely different conclusions.
- Criticism: We might regard what is seen through the glass as so dependent
on the theoretical stance of the viewer that we don’t try to discern what is real
or truth.
Theories as maps
- In this analogy, a communication theory is a kind of map that’s designed to
help you navigate human relationships.
- Criticism: The map is not the territory. Like a still photograph, no theory can
fully portray the richness of interaction between people that is constantly
changing, always varied, and inevitably more complicated than what any
theory can chart.
What is communication?
- There is not one single definition that is standard in the field of com.
- The working definition is: Communication is the relational process of
creating and interpreting messages that elicit a response.
1. Messages
- Communication involves “talking and listening, writing and reading,
performing and witnessing, or, more generally, doing anything that involves
‘messages’ in any medium or situation”.
- Communication theorists use the word text as a synonym for a message that
can be studied, regardless of the medium.
o Definition of text: A record of a message that can be analyzed by
others (a book, film, photograph, or any transcript or any
recording of a speech or broadcast).
2. Creation of messages
- The content and form of a text are usually constructed, invented, planned,
crafted, constituted, selected or adopted by the communicator.
- These imply that the communicator is making a conscious choice of message
form and substance.
, - There are many times when we speak, write or gesture in seemingly mindless
ways. These are preprogrammed responses that were selected earlier and
stored for later use (like thank you, excuse me, etc)
3. Interpretation of messages
- Many scholars believe that “words don’t mean things, people mean things” ->
“Humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they
assign to those people or things.”
- Words and other symbols are polysemic.
o Definition of polysemic: A quality of symbols that means they’re
open to multiple interpretations.
4. A relational process
- Communication is a process.
- “Communication is a process of relating. This means it is not primarly or
essentially a process of transferring information or of disseminating or
circulating signs (though these things can be identified as happening within
the process of relating).
- Communication is a relational process not only because it takes place
between two or more persons, but also because it affects the nature of the
connections among those people.
5. Messages that elicit a response
- This deals with the effect of the message on people who receive it.
- If a message fails to stimulate any cognitive, emotional, or behavioral
reaction, it seems pointless to refer to it as communication.
- Communication is the relational process of creating and interpreting
messages that elicit a response.
Chapter 2: Talk about theory
- Behavioral scientist: A scholar who applies the scientific method to
describe, predict, and explain recurring forms of human behavior.
o Objective approach: behavioral scientists use an objective approach,
which is the assumption that truth is singular and is accessible
through unbiased sensory observation; committed to uncovering
cause-and-effect relationships.
- Rhetorician: A scholar who studies the ways in which symbolic forms can be
used to identify with people, or to persuade them toward a certain point of
view.
o Interpretative approach: rhetoricians use an interpretative approach,
which is the linguistic work of assigning meaning or value to
communicative texts; assumes that multiple meanings or truths
are possible.
, - Although it’s true that all rhetorical critics do interpretative analysis, not all
interpretative scholars are rhetoricians. Most are humanists.
o Humanistic scholarship: study of what it’s like to be another
person in a specific time and place; assumes there are few
important panhuman similarities.
- Objective theorists (behavioral scientists, per example) are confident that
once a principle is discovered and validated, it will continue to hold true as
long as conditions remain relatively the same.
- Interpretative scholars (rhetoricians, per example) believe language creates
social realities that are always in flux rather than revealing or representing
fixed principles or relationships in a world that doesn’t change.
o Knowledge is always viewed from a particular standpoint. A word, a
gesture, or an act may have constancy within a given community, but
it’s dangerous to assume that interpretations can cross lines of time
and space.
- For most interpretative scholars, truth is largely subjective – meaning it’s
highly interpretive.
- Objective theorists maintain that objectivity is a myth; we can never separate
the knower from the known.
- Behavioral scientists are working to pin down universal laws of human
behavior that cover a variety of situations.
o Start with a hunch about something, then craft a tightly worded
hypothesis that temporarily commits him to a specific prediction.
o As an empiricist, he can never completely “prove” that he has made
the right gamble, he can only show in tests that his bet pays off.
- Rhetorical critics strive to interpret a particular communication text in a
specific context.
o Uses theory to make sense of unique communication events. It is not
concerned or trying to prove theory.
- When you can compare and contrast theories on the basis of their interpretive
or objective worldview, you’ve begun an integration that’s more impressive
than rote memorization.
- The scientist (objective theorist) is convinced that knowing the truth about
how communication works will give us a clearer picture of social reality. The
interpreter is equally sure that unearthing communicator motivation and
hidden ideologies will improve society by increasing free choice and
discouraging unjust practices.
Chapter 29: Cultivation Theory – George Gerbner
Theory: Mostly objective; socio-psychological tradition; socio-cultural tradition
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