Communication in Everyday Life - A Survey of
Communication
Written by Steve Duck & David T. McMahan
Chapter 1- An Overview of Communication
Everyday communication and the Relational Perspective
Most interactions are of the everyday, seemingly dull variety. The content of conversations is
mundane (routines).
Everyday communication:
● Constitutes a person’s life
● Creates, maintains, changes and alters relationships and identities as well as culture,
gender, sexuality, ethnicity, meaning and reality.
● Communication creates, reinforces, and modifies all relationships.
Relational perspective:
- Communication and relationships are interconnected.
- The relationship people share will influence what is communicated, how it is shared, and
the meanings that develop.
What is Communication?
Authoritative definition: Communication is the transactional use of symbols, influences, guided
and understood in the context of relationships.
Dance & Larson 1976: Created a list of 126 definitions.
Studying communication: Why do people have misunderstandings, conflicts and arguments?
Words and symbols are used to allow one idea or representation to stand for something else.
● Taken-for-granted cultural assumptions are being made when these symbols are selected.
● Something will take place as a result of a message exchange. Worlds of meaning are
created, and personal perspectives are being displayed. Additional issues such as gender,
status, power, and politeness are being negotiated.
Communication is Symbolic
Symbols: arbitrary representations of ideas, objects, people, relationships, cultures, genders,
races, and so forth.
● Verbal communication involves language, whereas nonverbal communication involves
all other symbols.
● Symbols have no direct connection with that which they represent. → represent
something other than itself (however it may seem as if there is a natural connection)
, ● Because symbols are arbitrary representations of something else, they can be different in
different cultures.
○ Symbols can even mean a variety of different things even in the same culture (e.g.
waving)
Sign: a consequence or an indicator of something specific, which cannot be changed by arbitrary
actions or labels (wet streets are a sign of rain).
● There is a direct causal connection.
Communication Requires Meaning
Communication requires that symbols convey meaning (=what a symbol represents). Particular
meanings can be conveyed in multiple ways using different symbols (e.g. happiness).
Social Construction of Meaning
Social construction: the way in which symbols take on meaning in a social context or society as
they are used over time.
● The meanings associated with and assigned to any symbol have been socially constructed
→ through the social and relational use of symbols, meanings become associated and
assigned.
- A single message or symbol can have multiple meanings when used in different contexts.
● Physical Context - the actual location in which a symbol is used.
● Relational Context - the relationship shared by the people interacting.
● Situational Context - e.g. a phone call, or on your birthday.
- Accompanying verbal and nonverbal symbols will affect meaning (e.g. frown or smile).
- Medium: means through which a message is conveyed, can affect meaning.
- May include soundwaves or sight (face-to-face), as well as smartphones, text
messages etc. Topic is especially important (e.g. breaking up).
Communication is Cultural
Different cultures make different assumptions and take different knowledge for granted. You are
doing, performing and enacting your culture through communication.
- Culture influences communication, and communication creates and reinforces these
cultural influences.
- When you follow cultural expectations (e.g. greeting → eye contact, distance), you are
also reinforcing them. Their position as the ‘proper’ way to do things has been
strengthened.
- Cultural expectations are also reinforced when someone violates them.
Communication is Relational
Relationships are assumed each time you communicate with someone.
, - Paul Watzlawick, Janet Brown, and Don Jackson (1967) - Whenever you communicate
with someone, you relate to him or her at the same time.
All communication contains both a content (message) level and a relational level.
- As well as conveying information, every message indicates how the sender of a message
and the retriever of that message are socially and personally related.
Obvious relational connection between sender and retriever: use of formal relational terms or
terms unique to a relationship (e.g. sweetie).
Less obvious relational connection between sender and retriever: determined with the help of
relational cues with communication (e.g. status difference → through style of communication).
Relationships between people are often not openly expressed but subtly indicated/taken for
granted → content and relational components of messages are not easily separated.
Relationships create worlds of meaning for people through communication.
Communication Involves Frames
Frames: basic forms of knowledge that provide a definition of a scenario, either because both
people agree on the nature of the situation or because the cultural assumptions built into the
interaction and the previous relational context of talk give them a clue.
Communication frame: a boundary around a conversation that pulls one’s attention toward
certain things and away from others.
- Frames help people understand their roles in a conversation and what is expected of
them. A shared understanding of frames is what enables people to make sense of what is
taking place to coordinate their symbolic activities (e.g. restaurant frame).
- Communication frames are based partly on a person’s perspective of situations and
relationships with others → these frames of perspective will greatly influence the
coordinating of interactions and the assigning of meaning, and explain why people do not
always agree on what is taking place (e.g. student asks instructor for an extension on
assignment).
Framing assumptions: used to make decisions about what symbols are used and how these
symbols should be interpreted.
Relationships influence what can be taken for granted or left unsaid (use of symbols/ words with
unique meaning → shared relational knowledge).
Communication is Both Presentational and Representational
Representational: describes facts or conveys information
Presentational: one person’s particular version of, or “take”/spin on the facts or events.
Communication is never neutral → conveys perspective or worldview.
- Your communication with other people presents them with a way of looking at the world
that is based on how you prefer them to see it (e.g. undocumented world or illegal alien).
News channels explain, analyze, and evaluate events differently.
, Communication is a Transaction
Communication as action: the act of sending messages whether or not they are retrieved (e.g.
sending an email).
Communication as interaction: an exchange of information between two (or more) individuals.
- Counts as communication only if there is an exchange of information.
- Remains limited in its scope.
Communication as transaction: the construction of shared meanings and understandings
between two (or more) individuals. Extra meanings are communicated above and beyond the
context of the messages/ symbols exchanged.
Constitutive approach to communication: Communication can create or bring into existence
something that has not been there before, such as an agreement, a contract, or an identity.
Chapter 2 - Histories and Contexts of Communication
Initially separate, parallel interest was founded on the communication between people
(interpersonal communication) and between media sources (newspapers, radio, film, tv) and
large audiences.
The Challenges of Writing History
History is presentational with a particular spin put on things. Each historian writes from a
different perspective and with particular major interests.
One area of study in communication is devoted to historiography.
Historiography: the study of the persuasive effect of writing history in particular ways and the
reasons why particular reports and analyses are offered by specific authors.
A key goal in research: to make developments and corrections to our understanding → such
changes lead to a reevaluation of what has happened and had been assumed to be true before.
The Development of a Discipline
First documented essay on communication: written around 3000 BCE, addressed to Kagemni,
son of Pharaoh Huni.
Earliest existing book on effective communication: Precepts, written in Egypt by Ptahhotep
around 2675 BCE.
In modern times, the communication discipline was formalized for academic study out of the
studies of rhetoric, elocution, and speech.
1910 - First formally organized professional association: Eastern Communication Association
1914 - First national association: National Association of Academic Teachers of Public
Speaking.
