COM 101 Chaps 1-3

WEEK 1

• Aristotle+Plato’s opinions on comms

  • Aristotle’s 3 proofs

    • Ethos- a person’s character

    • logos- arguments/logic

    • pathos- appeal to emotions

    • mythos

  • aristotle’s model of comms

  • 

• Need examples and enthymemes to express an argument acc to Aristotle

  • Enthymemes-syllogism w a suppressed premise (only one premise+conclusion)

  • Syllogisms- part of deductive reasoning

    • Major premise

    • Minor premise

    • Logical conwitt

    • ^3 step process to prove cases

• Forefather of comms

  • Harold Lasswell (1902-1978)

    • Research in prop. During WW1

    • Invented content analysis rm to measure comms

  • Paul Lazarsfeld (1901-1976)

    • pioneered market research

    • initiated media effects tradition >dominant paradigm in mass comm research

  • Kurt Lewin (1890-1947)

    • field theory still referred to widely in comms research

    • interpersonal and grp comms influencer

  • Carl Hovland (1912-1961)

    • Sleeper effect (you agree more with someone than you disagree with them)

    • You will remember more about what you agree with than what you disagreed w

    • dyadic communication

  • Wilbur Schramm (1907-1987)

    • Father of mass communication

    • schramm spoke w a stutter and sought to understand why

    • named head of journalism in 1943

    • started the first mass comm doctoral program in a J-school, created a gen model for comms study in unis

WEEK 2

• communication: the process by which info is exchanged among 2 or more systems that exist within a common environment- Brian Reynolds

• interpersonal comm: comm btwn individuals focusing on relational processes

• intrapersonal comm: comm with oneself

• nonverbal communication: communication without the use of words

• mass comm: comm using tech as a medium to communicate to a large audience

• international comm: comm among nations, regional entities, and international orgs

• intercultural communication: communication that occurs in interactions between people who are culturally different, understanding how different ppl communicate and act differently

• group communication: comm which occurs in groups, looking at characteristics such as collaboration, cohesion, structure, identity, and decisions making in small scale and large scale contexts

• organizational communication: comm in and by an organization. an org is a structured collection of interdependent members with a common interest, working together to achieve goals

• model: abstract representation of a general set of elements of a phenomenon, showing the relationship of those elements and clarifying their details in context

• uses of a model

  • explain: explain the relationship btwn the elements

  • predict: understand directionality of changes w/in and btwn elements

  • control: one can potentially control the elements

• Linear Model of Communication

  • Sender: person who communicates the message

  • message: set of info or symbols produced by sender to which meaning can be attributed

  • channel: the means via which we send a message (eg- video call, cell phones, TV)

  • receiver: the recipient of the message

    • 

• Interactive Model of communication

  • Encoding: process of creating meaning into a specific form of a message

  • decoding: process of extracting meaning from a message

  • feedback: response to a message

  • noise: interrupters in the environment of the message

    • physical/external- literally physical noise

    • psychological/internal- might affect one of the senses which will impact ability of message to be sent and received

    • semantic/social- using words known by fewer ppl

  • 

• Transactional model of communication

  • mutual influence: ongoing and active contribution/influence of all parties in the communication process

  • transactional: simultaneous and mutually influential process of encoding and decoding messages

  • communicator: the sender/encoder and receiver/decoder in the communication process

  • 

• Lasswell’s model

  • Context: productive process of communication effects

  • who → says what→ in which channel→ to whom→ w what effect

    • 

• Shannon-Weaver model

  • Mediated Communication

    • Context: communication w others via a device or tech

  • info source: communicator originating the message

  • message: the info sent directly by the source

  • transmitter: the device sending the message

  • signal: the form in which the message is sent via the device

  • noise source: interference w message transmission

  • received signal: the device receiving the message

  • received message: what is actually produced by the receiving device after receiving the signal

  • destination: indivi who is the target of the mediated message

    • 

• Gerbner’s Model

  • Context: journalism- describes the process of observation and communication of observed events: perception and representation

  • Perceptual dimension

    • E- event that is perceived by a person

    • M- person

    • E1- perception of the event through objective and subjective interpretation

  • Means and control dimension

    • S- form: availability of channels of the source; particular characteristics of chosen channel(s); skill of message source using chosen channel (s)

    • E- content: info abt the event

    • SE- statement construct by source abt the event

  • lower horizontal arm

    • M2- destination: a decoder (audience) interprets the info received via the channel used by the source (M)

    • SE1- perceptual filtering in the decoding process generated an interpretation of event

  • 

• Berlo’s SMCR model

  • Context: complexity to achieve fidelity (accuracy) in comm

  • interdependent components w/in basic linear elements

  • Source

    • communication skills: skill of the invid to communicate

    • attitudes: attitude towards audience, subject and oneself

    • knowledge: communicator needs to be knowledgeable in the subject

    • social systems: values, beliefs, culture, and a gen understanding of society

    • culture: also comes under social systems

  • message

    • content: body of the message

    • elements: non verbal cues

    • treatment: the accuracy of the message being conveyed

    • structure: how the message is arranged

    • code: the form and means in which it was conveyed (eg- body language, gestures etc)

  • 

• Westley-Maclean model

  • Context: journalism

  • A- reporter (observer)

  • C- editor (gatekeeper)

  • B- audience (receiver)

  • f- feedback

  • X^1- message

  • X^11-modified message

  • X1- info

  • 

• the convergence model

  • Lawrence Kincaid (1979)

  • Context: Processual communication- change in communicators’ relationships, the understanding of each other, and continuing communication together over time. focuses on global tendencies in comm exchanges

  • “and then…”- any comm interaction is based upon what has come before and is part of a larger system and is part of a layer system of communication

  • A+B: communicators who interact in cyclical patterns of information sharing (I1)

  • each interaction represents a transaction in which participants express and interpret information

  • 

Week 3

• Perception- the process by which we make sense of the world around us

• Using senses to acquire info abt the surrounding environment to situation

• Active perception- your mind selects, organizes, and interprets that which you sense

  • Physiological process-receiving info through our senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell

  • Cognitive- the sorting, organizing, and interpreting of our senses

• Subjective perception- uniquely constructed meaning attributed to sensed stimuli

  • Psychological influence-own mental outlook shapes our own thought processes, character, and experience

  • Social influence- communication interaction of and with others

• Our communication should exist before any perceived reality

• our perception creates the world which requires comm

• comms is based on perception not on reality

• Perception process

  • Selection

    • How we choose which sensory info to process

  • Organization

    • How we arrange or order that info

  • Interpretation

    • How we attach meaning to that perception

• Selection process

  • frequency: things that occur repeatedly

  • contrast: things that stand out in some manner

  • intensity: things are particularly strong or extreme versions of a phenomenon

  • novel: things that are new to us

  • Other influences

    • Own individual characteristics- past experiences, socialization, knowledge and social roles

    • Social factors- social media, mass media

    • Consciously focusing on stimuli- narrow focus on an item

  • errors in selection

    • omission: inaccurate perception of events due to not selecting an important piece of information for processing

    • distortion: the incorrect prioritizing of what info is essential or imp

    • oversimplification: selection of unnecessarily significant info for a superficial or oversimplified understanding of something

• Organization process

  • cognitive schemata: mental framework that are applied when organizing information about a situation, event, person etc

    • established through experience, socialization, familiarity, and biological ‘hard wiring’

  • types of schema

    • personal constructs

      • physical constructs: how ppl are organized according to their physical attributes

      • role constructs: ppl are organized based on their social role and position

      • interactional constructs: ppl are organized based on their social and interactional qualities

      • psychological constructs: ppl are organized based on their disposition or personality traits

    • prototype: idealized representation that is most representative of a category and its qualities

    • scripts: a cognitive framework for an event or action

      • chronological or sequential to anticipate future/ongoing events or actions

      • series of events and linked responses

      • govern our behaviour is familiar occurrences

  • figure and ground

    • figure- the focal point

    • ground- the bg against which your focused attention occurs

  • closure

    • tendency to fill in missing info to complete your perceptive understanding

  • proximity

    • the principle that items physically close to each other will be perceived as a unit or whole

  • similarity

    • elements grouped together bc they share attributes like size, colour, or shape

• Interpretation

  • subjective interpretation of associations of meaning we have learned for numerous stimuli as part of our culture, socialization, and past experiences

  • attributions and context-

    • context- perceived rules, norms, and principles that govern our behaviour in the short and long term, in familiar and unfamiliar settings

    • attributions- assigning cause to behaviour

      • internal- external locus of control; cause of behaviours is w/in the person or beyond their control- eg. failed an exam due to bad study habits or exam is too difficult

      • stability- short or long-term behaviour- eg. failed an exam due to tiredness or dyslexia

      • control- ability to exercise control over his/her actions- eg. failed an exam bc went to an all-night party the night before

  • tendencies in perception

    • self-serving bias- judge ourselves more tolerantly than we judge other by overemphasizing situational explanations for our own actions

    • fundamental attribution error- tendency to assume the cause of the behaviour is with the person

    • out-group homogeneity- tendency to view out-grp member as more alike than in-grp members

    • persistence of first impressions- we tend to send out, infer, or assume evidence that confirms our initial reads