Perspectives and Communication Theory Flashcards
Foundations of the Communication Discipline
Historical Evolution
Communication has been formally studied since antiquity.
It emerged in the 20th century as an official, formal academic discipline.
Communication scholar Barnett Pearce characterized the formal establishment of the discipline as a revolutionary discovery.
Definition of Communication
Communication is defined as the systemic process of interacting with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings.
Core Components of the Definition
Systemic: Communication takes place within interconnected systems of elements that influence one another.
Process: Communication is ongoing, dynamic, and continuously in flux.
Symbols: It relies on arbitrary, abstract, and human-created representations.
Meaning: The central outcome and activity of communication is the creation and interpretation of significance.
Structure and Composition of Communication Theory
Definition and Origins of Theory
Etymology: The word theory is derived from the Greek word theoria.
Definition: A theory is a way of organizing what we know and assume about some phenomenon.
Key Structural Aspects: A theory integrates three primary elements:
Knowledge
Assumptions
Phenomenon
Sources of Theory: Communication theories originate from two primary domains:
Experience
Research
Two Core Elements of Theory
Concepts
Represents the first and most basic aspect of a theory.
Provides a description of a state of affairs at a particular place and time.
Can consist of factual statements.
Functions to label and define specific phenomena.
Propositions
Defined as statements that include two or more concepts and demonstrate a relationship between those concepts.
Example Proposition Question: Does teacher humor enhance student learning?
Scope of Communication Theory
Communication theory can refer specifically to a single, distinct theory.
Alternatively, it functions as an umbrella term encompassing all careful, systematic, and self-conscious discussion and analysis of communication phenomena.
Philosophical Foundations and Perspectives
Definition of a Perspective
A perspective is a point of view that arises from accepting and utilizing a particular set of assumptions, providing the capacity to perceive relevant data in a meaningful way.
Philosophical Roots of Perspectives
Perspectives emerge directly from assumptions grounded in three foundational philosophical themes:
Epistemology: Assumptions concerning the nature of knowledge and how human beings acquire knowledge.
Ontology: Assumptions concerning the nature of being, reality, and human existence.
Axiology: Assumptions concerning the role of values, ethics, and aesthetics in inquiry.
The Seven Traditions of Communication Theory
In 1999, Robert Craig formulated a foundational framework categorizing communication theory into seven distinct traditions.
1. Socio-Psychological Tradition
Core Focus: Focuses on the study of the individual as a social being.
Origin: Originated directly within the discipline of social psychology.
Key Ideas:
Frequently referred to as the science of communication.
Assumes that the underlying mechanisms of human information processing function beyond conscious human awareness.
Views communication primarily as a process of interpersonal influence.
Seminal Theorist: Carl Hovland at Yale University.
2. Cybernetic Tradition
Core Focus: Cybernetics is defined as the tradition of complex systems in which numerous interacting elements influence one another.
Key Ideas:
Communication is conceptualized as a SYSTEM composed of parts or variables that exert influence on one another.
Interacting variables shape and control the overall character and behavior of the system.
Analogous to an organism, a cybernetic system achieves balance (homeostasis) as well as systemic change over time.
Seminal Theorists:
Norbert Wiener, who coined the term cybernetics.
Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver.
3. Rhetorical Tradition
Historical Significance: Serves as the historical origin of the communication discipline, rooted in human symbol use.
Evolution of Scope:
Originally concerned with persuasion, rhetoric was understood as the art of constructing arguments and speechmaking.
Evolved over time to encompass the broader communicative process of adjusting ideas to people and people to ideas.
Five Canons of Rhetoric:
Invention
Arrangement
Style
Delivery
Memory
Core Dynamics: Involves a rhetor (a symbol user) who constructs a text or artifact directed at a specific audience, operating under various situational constraints.
Six Features of a Rhetorical Theorist:
A firm conviction that speech is what distinguishes humans from other animals.
A strong confidence in the efficacy and impact of public address.
A setting characterized by one speaker addressing a large audience with the explicit intention to persuade.
The centrality of oratorical training as the cornerstone of a leader's education.
An emphasis on the aesthetic power and beauty of language to move people emotionally and stir them to action.
Historically treated as the exclusive province of males.
Historical Eras: The rhetorical tradition spans six major historical eras:
Classical
Medieval
Renaissance
Enlightenment
Contemporary
Post-Modern
Seminal Theorists: Broad contributions made by numerous seminal thinkers across history.
4. Semiotic Tradition
Core Focus: Houses a variety of theories regarding how signs come to represent objects, ideas, states, situations, feelings, and conditions outside of themselves.
Key Ideas:
The foundational concept of this tradition is the sign.
A sign is defined as a stimulus designating something other than itself.
Three Primary Sub-fields of Semiotics:
Semantics: The study of how signs relate to their referents (what signs stand for).
Syntactics: The study of the relationships among signs and structural sign systems.
Pragmatics: The study of how signs relate to their practical usage, contexts, and psychological effects on human behavior.
Seminal Theorists:
Charles Saunders Pierce, recognized as the first modern theorist of semiotics.
C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, creators of the Meaning Triangle.
5. Sociocultural Tradition
Core Focus: Addresses the processes through which shared understandings, meanings, norms, roles, and social rules are interactively constructed during communication.
Ontological Assumption: Assumes that social reality is not an objective, external set of arrangements, but is actively constructed through interaction within groups, communities, and cultures.
Key Ideas:
Directs focus toward patterns of interaction between individuals rather than focusing on internal psychological traits or mental models.
Interaction serves as both the ongoing process and the explicit site where meanings, roles, rules, and cultural values are worked out.
Three Contributing Lines of Inquiry:
Symbolic Interactionism
Social Constructionism
Sociolinguistics
Seminal Theorists and Concepts:
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis of Linguistic Relativity, which posits that the structure of a language shapes how speakers perceive and experience the world.
6. Critical Tradition
Core Focus: Examines questions of privilege, ideology, power, and oppression; explicitly stands in direct opposition to many underlying assumptions of other traditions.
Three Essential Features Shared Across Critical Social Science:
Seeks to analyze and understand taken-for-granted systems, power structures, and dominant societal beliefs, paying specific attention to whose interests are served by those structures.
Aims to uncover oppressive social conditions and inequitable power arrangements to foster a freer, more fulfilling society.
Consciously attempts to integrate and fuse theoretical scholarship with practical action (praxis).
Seminal Branches and Foundations:
Marxism serves as the originating foundational branch of critical theory.
The Frankfurt School is largely responsible for establishing and popularizing the formal label critical theory.
Feminist Studies represents a major contemporary trajectory within the tradition.
7. Phenomenological Tradition
Core Focus: Concentrates on the conscious experience of the individual.
Core Assumptions: Assumes that human beings actively interpret their personal experiences to form an understanding of the world; direct personal experience forms the primary data of reality.
Three Basic Principles of Phenomenology (Stan Deetz):
Knowledge is conscious.
The meaning of a thing consists of the potential of that thing in one's life.
Language serves as the primary vehicle of meaning.
Three Schools of Thought and Seminal Theorists:
Classical Phenomenology: Formulated by Edmund Husserl.
Phenomenology of Perception: Formulated by Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Hermeneutic Phenomenology: Formulated by Martin Heidegger.