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Communication Theories Ambo University College of Social Sciences and Humanities Department of Journalism and Communication Communication Theories English 2nd year By: Bedada Yadeta May , 2022 Ambo, Ethiopia
Introduction The Nature and Definition of Communication • The word communication originates from the word "communis”, which means common. • Communication, therefore, is an act by which a person shares knowledge, feelings, ideas and information, in ways such that each gains a common understanding of the meaning, intent and use of the message.
Contd…  Sociologists, educationists and psychologists have defined communication according to the disciplines to which they belong. • “It is a process by which two or more people exchange ideas, facts, feelings or impressions in ways that each gains a common understanding of the message. In essence, it is the act of getting a sender and a receiver tuned together for a particular message or series of message” (Leagans)
Contd… • “Communication is the force by which an individual communicator transmits stimuli to modify the behaviour of other individuals”. (Howland) • “It is a process by which information, decisions and directions pass through a social system, and the ways in which knowledge, opinions and attitudes are formed or modified” (Loomis and Beegle).
Definition WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? o So far we have seen how we use communication. Now let’s try and define communication. But defining communication is not very easy. o It means many things to many people. Unlike definitions of a theory or some scientific term ‘communication’ has no definition accepted by all experts. o We know that when we convey something by words, we may call it a message. o If you are used to a mobile phone you would know the term ‘SMS’. This SMS is the short form for ‘Short Message Service’. Here the messages are short sentences or just a word or a phrase or a sentence like “I am in a meeting’’.
Contd… “Please call me at 4:00 P.M” or “congratulations” or “see you at home”. • These are all messages. They are short and when someone receives them they ‘understand’ it.  Communication can be defined in many ways. In simple terms communication is: • Information transmitted • A verbal or nonverbal message • A process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior
Contd… Communication is the process of exchanging information. Information is conveyed as words, tone of voice, and body language. Studies have shown that words account for 75 percent of the information communicated. Vocal tone accounts for 55 percent and body language accounts for 38 percent. To be effective communicators, team members must be aware of these forms, how to use them effectively, and barriers to the communications process.
Contd… Communication is a slippery concept, and while we may casually use the word with some frequency, it is difficult to arrive at a precise definition that is agreeable to most of those who consider themselves communication scholars. Communication is so deeply rooted in human behaviors and the structures of society that it is difficult to think of social or behavioral events that are absent communication.
The Need for Effective Communication o The following actions have been observed in teams with effective communications skills. • Acknowledge (“Roger”) communications. • Provide information in accordance. • Provide information when asked. • Repeat, as necessary, to ensure communication is accurately received. • Use standard terminology when communicating information. • Request and provide clarification when needed.
The Need… • Ensure statements are direct and unambiguous. • Inform the appropriate individuals when the mission or plans change. • Communicate all information needed by those individuals or teams external to the team. • Use nonverbal communication appropriately. • Use proper order when communicating information.
The Importance of Effective Communication • People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communications. • Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intragroup, organizational, or external levels.
Barriers to Effective Communication Language The choice of words or language in which a sender encodes a message will influence the quality of communication.  Because language is a symbolic representation of a phenomenon, room for interpretation and distortion of the meaning exists.  Note that the same words will be interpreted differently by each different person. Meaning has to be given to words and many factors affect how an individual will attribute meaning to particular words. It is important to note that no two people will attribute the exact same meaning to the same words.
Barriers… misreading of body language, tone and other non- verbal forms of communication  noisy transmission (unreliable messages, inconsistency)  receiver distortion: selective hearing, ignoring non-verbal cues  assumptions–e.g., assuming others see situation same as you, has same feelings as you distrusted source, erroneous (not correct) translation, value judgment, state of mind of two people
Barriers… Perceptual Biases  People attend to stimuli in the environment in very different ways. Stereotyping is one of the most common. This is when we assume that the other person has certain characteristics based on the group to which they belong without validating that they in fact have these characteristics.
Barriers… Interpersonal Relationships  How we perceive communication is affected by the past experience with the individual. Perception is also affected by the organizational relationship two people have. For example, communication from a superior may be perceived differently than that from a subordinate or peer
Barriers… Cultural Differences Effective communication requires deciphering the basic values, motives, aspirations, and assumptions that operate across geographical lines. Given some dramatic differences across cultures in approaches to such areas as time, space, and privacy, the opportunities for miscommunication while we are in cross cultural situations are plentiful.
Seven Steps to Effective Messages Know your target audience – who are they, what do they need, how can you reach them?  Set clear objectives – what do you expect from the message, how will you measure it, when will it happen? Work for approval – your audience should chose your message over the others that are also coming its way  Be strategic – use words, images and sounds that are acceptable to your audience because your main purpose is to make them listen.
Seven Steps… Work for acceptance – is your message credible, do people believe your message and the communicator, who and what will people believe? Work for recall – the message should remain with the audience, make it catchy, make it funny, repeat if necessary, use different types of media Review and re-plan – are you reaching the intended audience, are you achieving the objectives, do you need to change, do you need a new message?
Historical Development of Communication • Denis McQuail (“Towards a Sociology of Mass Communication, 1975) sees ‘human communication’ as the sending of meaningful messages from one person to another. • These messages could be oral or written, visual of olfactory. He also includes laws, practices, customs, and ways of dressing, gestures, military parades and flags as methods of communication. • Human communication went through different stages of development that include the age of signs and signals, the age of speech and language, the age of writing, the age of printing, the mass communication age, and the age of information revolution.
Historical Development… The age of signs and signals Prehistoric humans were physically unable to talk. Communication was limited and determined by instincts. It was the age o signs and signals- drum messages, smoke signals, music, dance, etc. The age of speech and language Man’s first achievement was speech and language. It gave him an eminent position over others. Growth of different languages gave birth to different expressions that denoted distinctions within communities.
Historical Development… The age of writing About 5000 years ago, hieroglyphic writing was developed by the Mayans and the Chinese. They used pictures with a standardized meaning. The Sumerians developed a different form of writing that represented sounds by symbols. This allowed information to be stored and for traditions to be passed on in writing. Clay, stone and later papyrus was developed and used as portable media. Writing gave permanence to the spoken language.
Historical Development… The age of print In the 1st century, AD, China invented paper. In the 8 century the Arab world began to manufacture paper.  In the 15th century, the Gutenberg press was invented and printing began in Europe. As a consequence, information could be copied much faster and with far fewer mistakes than before. Availability of information was no longer restricted to the Roman church and to nobility, but open to a wider section of European societies. Books were followed by the development of pamphlets and the newspapers in the 17th century.
Historical Development… The mass communication age In the 19th century, communication was determined by several media forms. Print media, especially newspapers, were supplemented by telegraph and telephone. The introduction of radio, film and television in the 20th century saw the emergence of the mass communication era.
Historical Development… The age of information revolution At present, we are living amidst an information revolution. Integrated multimedia applications are now possible due to networks established from the development of digital communication technology. Hypertext structures form the basis for communication and navigation within the system.
Purposes of Communication • Most of us are surrounded by others, trying to understand them and hopping that they understand us: family, friends, coworkers, teachers, and strangers. • There’s a good reason why we speak, listen, read, and write so much. Communication satisfies most of our needs. Physical Needs Communication is so important that it is necessary for physical health. In fact, evidence suggests that an absence of satisfying communication can even jeopardize life itself.
Purposes… Medical researchers have identified a wide range of hazards that result from a lack of close relationships. For instance: People who lack strong relationships have two to three times that risk of early death, regardless of whether they smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, or exercise regularly. Divorced, separated, and widowed people are five to ten times more likely to need hospitalization for mental problems than their married counterparts etc.
Purposes… • Studies indicate that social isolation is a major risk factor contributing to coronary disease, comparable to physiological factors such as diet, cigarette smoking, obesity, and lack of physical activity. Identity Needs  Communication does more than enable us to survive.  It is the way-indeed, the only way- we learn who we are. Our sense of identity comes from the way we interact with other people.  Are we smart or stupid, attractive or ugly, skillful or inept? The answers to these questions do not come from looking in the mirror. We decide who we are based on how others react to us.
Purposes… We gain an idea of who we are from the ways others defines us. The messages we receive in early childhood are the strongest, but the influence of others continues throughout life. Some scholars have argued that we are most attached to people who confirm our identity. This confirmation can come in different forms, depending on the self-image of the communicator.
Purposes… • People with relatively high self-esteem seek out others who confirm their value and, as much as possible, avoid those who treat them poorly. • Conversely, people who regard themselves as unworthy may look for relationships in which others treat them badly. This principle offers one explanation for why some people maintain damaging or unsuccessful relationships.
Purposes… • If you review yourself as a loser, you may associate with others who will confirm that self- perception. Of course, relationships can change a communicator’s identity as well as confirm it. • The role communication in shaping identity works in a second way. Besides other’s messages shaping who we think we are, the messages we create often are attempts to get others to view us the way we want to be seen. For example, the choices we make about how to dress and otherwise shape our appearance are always attempts to manage our identity.
Purposes… Social Needs  Besides helping to define who we are, communication provides a vital link with others.  Researchers and theorists have identified a range of social needs we satisfy by communicating: pleasure (e.g. “because it is fun” to have a good time); affection (e.g. to help others, to let others know I care); inclusion (e.g. because I need someone to talk to or be with, because it makes me less lonely) etc.  As you look at this list of social needs for communicating, imagine how empty your life would be if these needs weren’t satisfied. Then, notice that if would be impossible to fulfill them without communicating with others.
Purposes… Practical Needs We should not overlook the everyday, important functions that communication serves. Communication is the tool that lets us tell the hair stylist to take just a little off the sides, direct the doctor to where it hurts. Beyond these obvious needs, a wealth of research demonstrates that communication is an important key to effectiveness in a variety of everyday settings.
Purposes… For example, a survey of over four hundred employers identified “communication skills” as the top characteristic that employers seek in job candidates. It was rated as more important than technical competence, work experience, or academic background. In another survey, over 90 percent of the personnel officials at five hundred US businesses stated that increased communication skills are needed for success in the twenty first century.
Purposes… Communication is just as important outside of work. College roommates who are both willing and able to communicate effectively report higher satisfaction with one another than do those who lack these characteristics. Married couples who were identified as effective communicators reported happier relationships than did less skillful husbands and wives. In school, the grades point averages of college students were related positively to their communication competence.
Levels of Communication Scholars categorize different levels and types of communication; it is helpful to consider various factors. The distinguishing characteristics include the following: o Number of communicators o Physical proximity of the communication in relation to each other(close or distant), o Immediacy of the exchange, whether it is taking place either(1) live or in apparently real time or (2) on a delayed basis o Number of sensory channels (including visual, auditory, tactile and so on) o The context of the communication( whether face to face or mediate)
Levels… Intrapersonal Communication Intrapersonal communication means communicating with oneself. You can tune in to one way that each of us communicates internally by listening to the little voice that lives in your mind. Intrapersonal communication takes place within a single person, often for the purpose of clarifying ideas or analyzing a situation. Other times, intrapersonal communication is undertaken in order to reflect upon or appreciate something. Three aspects of intrapersonal communication are self concept, perception and expectation.
Levels…  Self-concept is the basis for intrapersonal communication, because it determines how a person sees him/herself and is oriented toward others. • Self-concept (also called self-awareness) involves three factors: beliefs, values and attitudes.  Beliefs are basic personal orientation toward what is true or false, good or bad; beliefs can be descriptive or prescriptive.  Values are deep-seated orientations and ideals, generally based on and consistent with beliefs, about right and wrong ideas and actions.  Attitudes are learned predisposition toward or against a topic, ideals that stem from and generally are consistent with values. Attitudes often are global, typically emotional.
Levels… Beliefs, values and attitudes all influence behavior, which can be either spoken opinion or physical action. • Some psychologists include body image as an aspect of intrapersonal communication, in that body image is a way of perceiving ourselves, positively or negatively, according to the social standards of our culture. • Other things that can affect self-concept are personal attributes, talents, social role, even birth order.
Levels… • Whereas self-concept focuses internally, perception looks outward. Perception of the outside world also is rooted in beliefs, values and attitudes. It is so closely intertwined with self-concept that one feeds off the other, creating a harmonious understanding of both oneself and one’s world. • Meanwhile, expectations are future-oriented messages dealing with long-term roles, sometimes called life scripts. These sometimes are projections of learned relationships within the family or society.
Levels… Intrapersonal communication may involve different levels of communication activity: internal discourse, solo vocal communication, and solo written communication. • internal discourse involves thinking, concentration and analysis. Psychologists include both daydreaming and nocturnal dreaming in this category. • Prayer, contemplation and meditation also are part of this category, though from a theological point of view the argument may be made that this is not solely internal to one person. • In Sufi tradition, this is similar to the concept of nafs, negotiating with the inner self. Example: Consciously appreciating the beauty of a sunset.
Levels…  Solo vocal communication includes speaking aloud to oneself. This may be done to clarify thinking, to rehearse a message intended for others, or simply to let off steam. Example: Talking to yourself as you complain about your boss.  Solo written communication deals with writing not intended for others. Example: An entry in a diary or personal journal.
Levels… Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal communication is the process that we use to communicate our ideas, thoughts, and feelings to another person. Our interpersonal communication skills are learned behaviors that can be improved through knowledge, practice, feedback, and reflection. When you come face to face with someone and communicate with that person it is called interpersonal communication. This happens in our daily life.
Levels… • Interpersonal communication is communication between persons or one to one communication. Most of us indulge in interpersonal communication every day. • Interpersonal communication being face to face generally takes place in an informal, friendly atmosphere. However, there are occasions when it is formal. For example, a police officer questioning a suspect or a lawyer examining a witness in a court.
Levels… Let us list some formal and informal situations in which interpersonal communication takes place. FORMAL • Taking part in meetings or conferences • Sales counters • Job interviews INFORMAL • Private discussions with friends or family members • Corridor discussions • Conversation in canteens or restaurants Face to face communication would also mean a lot of nonverbal communication and immediate reply to questions. Interpersonal communication is essential in business, organizations and services.
Levels… The Dynamics of Interpersonal Behavior Interpersonal behavior is influenced by several cultural factors. Although each individual has his or her own style of interacting with others, social conventions as well as traditions and values in a given group or community play an important role in how behavior and communication take place and are interpreted and perceived. All interactions comprise both verbal and nonverbal signs and symbols that contribute to the meanings of behavior and communication actions.
Levels… • Social psychologists tend to consider signs to be involuntary behaviors, such as blushing in response to feelings of embarrassment. Symbols are defined as voluntary acts, such as using verbal expressions to describe one’s feelings. • According to these definitions, saying “I am embarrassed” is a symbol, while blushing is a sign.
Levels… • Symbols are the result of social conventions and agreement. • Posture, social cues, and facial and idiomatic expressions all influence interpersonal relationships. In interpreting people’s behavior, it is important to be aware of cultural differences that may have a powerful effect on the dynamics of interpersonal behavior. Lack of understanding of these differences often undermines the impact of well-meant communication efforts.
Levels… • Age and gender also influence motives for interpersonal communications. For example, young people between eighteen and twenty- five years old often use communication as a means for having fun, relaxing, feeling part of a social group, or escaping from routine activities. Alternatively, middle-aged or older adults tend to communicate more to express appreciation or feel appreciated . There are gender differences in interpersonal communications as well: women seem to communicate more “to express emotions” or appreciation, while men’s motivation is primarily control.
Levels… o Direct interpersonal communication involves a direct face-to-face relationship between the sender and receiver of a message, who are in an interdependent relationship. Because of interpersonal communication’s immediacy (it is taking place now) and primacy (it is taking place here), it is characterized by a strong feedback component. • Communication is enhanced when the relationship exists over a long period of time. Interpersonal communication involves not only the words used but also the various elements of nonverbal communication. • The purposes of interpersonal communication are to influence, help and discover, as well as to share and play together.
Levels… Interpersonal communication can be categorized by the number of participants. • Dyadic communication involves two people. Example: Two friends talking. • Group communication involves three or more persons, though communication scholars are inconsistent as to the top end of the number scale. The smaller the number in the group, the more closely this mode resembles interpersonal communication. Often group communication is done for the purpose of problem solving or decision making. Example: University study group.
Levels… • Public communication involves a large group with a primarily one-way monologue style generating only minimal feedback. Information sharing, entertainment and persuasion are common purposes of public communication. Example: Lecture in university class. o Another way of categorizing interpersonal communication is on the function or setting of the communication.
Levels… • It occurs when a group becomes too large for all members to contribute. One characteristic of public communication is an unequal amount of speaking. One or more people are likely to deliver their remarks to the remaining members, who act as an audience. • This leads to a second characteristic of public setting: limited verbal feedback. • The audience isn’t able to talk back in a two- way conversation the way they might in a dyadic or small group setting.
Levels… • Organizational communication deals with communication within large organizations such as businesses. This is sometimes considered part of group communication, but communication scholars have built up a body of knowledge focused primarily on organizations. Example: Work focused discussion between employer and employee. • Family communication focuses on communication patterns within nuclear, extended and blended families.
Levels… • Like organizational communication, this too is sometimes seen as part of the general category of group communication, but much research has been focused specifically on communication within a family relationship. • Family communication can be enhanced by the long-standing and close relationships among participants as well as the likelihood that families have shared heritage, similar values, and social rituals. • Patterns differ in communication between spouses, between parent and child, among siblings, and within the wider family context.
Levels… Mass Communication It consists of messages that are transmitted to large, widespread audiences via electronic and print media: newspapers, magazines, television, radio and so on. Mass communication section differs from the interpersonal, small group, and public varieties in several ways. • First, mass messages are aimed at a large audience without any personal contact between sender and receivers.
Levels… • Second, most of the messages sent via mass communication channels are developed, or at least financed by large organizations. • Finally, mass communication is almost always controlled by many gatekeepers who determine what messages will be delivered to consumers, how they will be constructed, and when they will be delivered. Sponsors (whether corporate or governmental), editors, producers, reporters, and executives all have the power to influence mass messages in ways that don’t affect most other types.
Components of communication Source: the source is the initiator of the communication process who has an idea, which is intended to be transmitted to another individual, group, or mass audience. Source can be a single individual or groups & the source may or may not have the knowledge about the receiver. Encoding: The source translates the ideas & thoughts into a code so that they can be understood by the receiver in the process. The source has an idea or thought. This idea or thought cannot merely be transmitted to the receiver unless it is changed to a form in which the receiver can perceive.
Components… • This process is called encoding. For example, suppose you want to buy new jeans. You are trying to describe the jeans to your friend who is going to help you buy the jeans you want. You might be visualizing the model, color, number of the jeans & how it will look when you wear it. Putting your vision into words, you tell your friend you are interested in a jeans that is “skinny, blue & Ethiopian made.” You encode your perceptions of particular jeans into words that can be understood by your friend.  Or when your teacher tells you about elements of communication; he is encoding his ideas and thoughts.
Components… Message: it is the product of the encoding process. It is verbal or nonverbal form of the idea, thought, feeling that the person (the source) wishes to communicate to another person or group of people. • The message is the content of the interaction. It includes the symbols (words & phrases), you use to communicate your ideas & thoughts, as well as your facial expressions, body movements, gestures, touch, tone of voice, & other nonverbal codes. • The message may be relatively brief & easy to understand or long & complex.
Components… Channel  A message moves from the source to the receiver of the message by the means.  A message moves from one place to another, by travelling through a medium or channel. Airwaves, sound waves, twisted copper wires, glass fibers, and cable are all communication channels. Airwaves & cable are two of the various channels through which you receive television messages.  Radio messages move through sound waves.  Computer images travel through light waves.  In person-to-person, face-to-face communication, you send your messages through a channel of sound waves and light waves that enable receivers to see and hear you.
Components… Alternatively, we can classify channel into two major types. • Sensory channel: our sense organs can be considered as channel. • Institutionalized: are books, magazines, newspapers, and electronic media. Some messages use more channels to travel to the receiver. Radio signals travel to each radio set in the form of electromagnetic radiation, then transform into sound wave so that they can travel to our ears.
Components… Decoding • Is the receiver’s activity of assigning meaning for the code sent by a source or it is an activity of translating the message into meaningful idea or thought. In the above example (in the encoding part), your friend decodes the message-your words-upon hearing & develops his/her own picture. • On the other hand, when you listen to your course instructor, you are decoding the message he is transmitting into ideas and thoughts.
Components… • Receiver: The receiver is a person who receives the message, which has been sent by the source. The receiver is the intended target of the message. • Feedback: Feedback is the receiver’s verbal & nonverbal response to the source’s message. It is part of any communication situation. Feedback can alter & shape the subsequent messages of the source. It may be delayed or immediate.
Components… Noise: any interference in a communication process that reduces the clarity of a message is called noise. It can be anything that interferes with receiving, interpreting, or providing feedback about a message. It can be • Semantic noise- this occurs when people have different meanings for the same words or phrases. For instance, in a Gojjam Amharic dialect, the word ª(wa) means  ”È (endie) but in Shoa dialect it is a sign of warning. So if a person who speaks in a Gojjam dialect uses the word while communicating with a person who speaks in Shoa dialect, there will be misunderstanding because the person who speaks the Shoan dialect may think that he is being warned. These kinds of misunderstandings are created by semantic noise.
Components… • Mechanical noise: Is a problem with a machine that is used to assist communication. If you are using a mobile phone to communicate with your friend & a problem happens with the networking, it makes communication difficult. This kind of problem happens because of mechanical noise. • Environmental noise: It is external source of noise, which barges in the communication process. Distracting sights, nearby loud voices etc are environmental noises.
Components… • Psychological noise: this happens inside the minds of receivers or sources. Daydreams about a loved one, worry about things, pain & uncertainty make up psychological or mental noise. If you, for example, are thinking about something else while the lecturer is giving lecture, it is a mental noise inside your head that is creating a problem. • As noise increases, message fidelity decreases. • Feedback is important in reducing the effect of noise; the greater the potential for communication feedback, the greater the chance to reduce noise.
Components… • the source initiates the process by having a thought or an idea that he/she wishes to transmit to some other entity. Naturally, sources differ in their communication skills. The source may or may not have knowledge about the receiver and sources can be single individuals, groups, or even organizations. • Then the source translates the ideas and thoughts into a form that is may be perceived by senses.
Components… • When you have something to say, your brain and your tongue work together to form words and spoken sentences. When you write a letter, your brain and your fingers cooperate to produce what you write that can be seen on paper. What you speak and write are messages, which are the actual physical products of the encoding process. • When we talk, our speech is the message. When you write a text & send it via your mobile phones, it is a message. What you watch on TV is a message. What you read on newspapers is message. What your instructor tells you about the course is a message.
Components… • Messages can be directed at one specific individual or at masses based on the context of communication. In dyadic communication, the target of the message is one individual; in mass communication, the message is directed to millions & billions of individuals. They can be cheap to produce like spoken words or very expensive like a book. Some messages are under the control of the receivers than others.
Components… • It is easy to turn off the TV when we watch a commercial than hung up the phone when we are in a telephone conversation with a friend and it is very difficult to break off a communication when it is a face-to-face communication than a telephone conversation. • These messages travel through channels to reach receivers. Channels are the ways messages move to receivers. Sound waves carry spoken words; light waves carry visual messages. Air currents can serve as olfactory channels, carrying messages to our noses-messages that are subtle but nonetheless significant. Touch is also a channel.
Components… • Then, through channels, receivers get the message of the source. Receivers are the target of the message-the ultimate goal. Nevertheless, receivers must interpret these physical messages in a form that has eventual meaning to them. • This process is decoding which is the opposite of encoding. When you read this module, you are decoding.
Components… • When you watch television, you are decoding. When you are listening to your communication theories course instructor, you are decoding. Like encoding, a single communication event can involve many stages of decoding. • If you are listening to one of Ali Bira’s songs while reading this note, you are encoding two messages at the same time-the music as well as the lines from the note or you are assigning meaning to these messages.
Components… • After the receiver decodes the message, which was sent by the source, she/he has a chance to respond. The responses of the receiver that shape and alter the subsequent messages of the source are called feedback. As you can see from figure one, feedback represents a reversal flow of communication. The original source becomes the receiver; the original receiver becomes the source.
Components… • It changes the roles of the original source and receiver. Since the source becomes receiver, his /her role change from encoder to decoder and since the receiver becomes the source, his/her role changes from decoder to encoder of message in the communication process. Feedback is useful to both the receiver and the source. It lets the source evaluate her/himself- whether she/he is doing a good job in transmitting the appropriate message or not.
Components… It allows the receiver to attempt to change some elements in the communication process. Feedback can be either positive or negative. Positive feedback from the receiver usually encourages the communication behavior in progress. For instance, if your friend invites you to dinner in one of the most beautiful restaurants in town and you say ‘yes”, it is a positive feedback because it keeps the progress of communication between you and your friend. Negative feedback, on the other hand, usually attempts to change the communication or even to terminate it.
Components… • If you say ‘no’ to your friend’s request, it is a negative feedback. Feedback can also be immediate or delayed. Immediate feedback is a response of receivers immediately after they receive the source’s message. • This kind of feedback is very common in face-to- face conversation. Delayed feedback, as the name indicates, is a delayed response from the receiver. Mostly, in mass communication, setting this kind of feedback occurs.
What is theory?  A theory is a related set of ideas that explains how or why something happens. • More formally, a theory is a set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and prepositions that present a systematic view of phenomena. • It specifies the relationship among the concepts with the objective of explaining and predicting the phenomena being studied.
…theory • Theories are integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed behavior. • They sum up numerous factual observations by capturing underlying principles. Therefore, if an enormous body of facts can be condensed to a much shorter list of theoretical principles which predict most of the observed facts then we will have a more powerful and memorable theory than a long list of disconnected facts.
…theory  Theories are maps of reality; the truth they depict may be objective facts “out there” or subjective meanings in our heads. Either way we need to have theories to guide us through unfamiliar territory.  Theories in communication are bodies of related concepts and prepositions about the exchange of information between individuals, groups, and mass audience.
Communication theory • Communication theory is an umbrella term for all careful systematic & self-conscious discussion and analysis of communication phenomena. • In other words, communication theory is a set of interrelated concepts about people’s communication behavior that enables a communicator -a sender or receiver of the message- how to communicate with particular individuals in a given situation. • They can help us understand our own communication behavior as well as the communication behaviors of others. • In interpersonal communication, for instance, whenever we communicate with others, we always anticipate the costs and benefits of that particular communication.
…Contd Social exchange theory of communication tells us why we calculate those costs and benefits of our communication, how we foresee these expenses and positives of our relationship and it also predicts what will happen if the cost or benefit of our communication is greater than the other which helps us decide to continue the communication or not.  Generally, Communication theory is a systematic and thoughtful response of communication scholars to questions posed as humans interact with each other.
Nature and functions of theories Theories are man’s attempt to travel on the journey to facts. The purpose of theory is perhaps a basic human need to turn sensory data into some sort of interpretation of reality.  It must have evolved with our conscious minds to satisfy our natural curiosity, in its most primitive form a curiosity naturally selected as being beneficial to our survival.
Nature and functions… With ever greater sophistication, theory has evolved as a means to justify everything our insatiable curiosity desires to explore, and to explain, by sharing ideas with evidence, which may generally be accepted as truths by a wider audience, or not. Theories explain phenomenon; why it happens; how it happens. They also predict what will happen if something is done or not done. As a result, they help us understand or make sense of the world around us.
History of theory development in communication o Communication has existed since the beginning of human beings. o Communication Theory has one universal law posited by S. F. Scudder. o The Universal Communication Law states that, "All living entities, beings, and creatures communicate." o All of the living communicates through movements, sounds, reactions, physical changes, gestures, languages, breath, etc. o Communication is a means of survival.
History of theory… • Examples - the cry of a child (communication that it is hungry, hurt, cold, etc.); the browning of a leaf (communication that it is dehydrated, thirsty per se, dying); the cry of an animal (communicating that it is injured, hungry, angry, etc). • Everything living communicates in its quest for survival.”
History of theory… o Though not in detail, the study of communication goes back to the 4th century BC when one of the earliest definitions of communication came from the Greek philosopher-teacher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) in the name of Rhetoric. “Rhetoric”, according to Aristotle, is “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”. o He had three fold cases in which speakers use their means of persuasion differently. These classifications are courtroom (forensic), political (deliberative) and ceremonial (epideictic).
History of theory… • The concept of communication developed by the French philosopher ClaudeHenri de Saint Simon (1970-1825) used the analogy of living organism. • Development of a system of communication routes such as roads, canals & railways and banks was vital for an industrialized society and he states that the circulation of money, for example, was equivalent to that of blood for the human heart. I.e. communication routes= Vascular system. • The metaphor of the organism developed by Simon was also fundamental for British philosopher Herbert Spenser (1980-1903), who argued
History of theory… …Like the vascular system, the physical network of roads, canals and railways ensured the distribution of nutrition, while ‘’channels of information’’ (the press, telegraph and postal service) functioned as the equivalent of the nervous system, making it possible for the center to propagate its influence to its most outer parts. Dispatches are compared to nervous discharges that communicate movement from an inhabitant of the city to that of the other.
History of theory… • However, it was throughout the 20th century, during and after WWI, that people began to study the process of communication in detail. • As communication technologies developed, there were series of studies of communication. • When World War I ended, the interest in studying communication intensified.
History of theory… • The social-science study was fully recognized as a legitimate discipline after World War II by combining many aspects of diverse social science disciplines. • Communication studies focus on communication as central to the human experience, which involves understanding how people behave in creating, exchanging, and interpreting messages.
Traditions in the field of communication • Every day, we have images, symbols, signs, and impressions flashing before our eyes. Messages upon messages collide with our own sense of individuality and create the reality in which we perceive our existence. • How do we process the enormity of information and comprehend the symbols of what each import or export of the message means? • There are many theories that try to understand the broad nature of communication and how it applies to the individual or society.
Traditions… • The presences of such many theories & many scholars from other social sciences who try to define communication make the field of communication theories a very complex, hard to define discipline. • University of Colorado communication professor Robert Craig agrees that the terrain is confusing; if we insist on looking for some kind of grand theoretical overview that brings all communication study into focus-a top-down, satellite picture of the communication landscape.
Traditions… • He suggests, however, that communication theory is a coherent field when we understand communication is a practical discipline. • He explains that all communication theories are relevant to a common practical life world in which communication is already a richly meaningful term. • Craig thinks that it is reasonable to talk about a field of communication theory if we take a collective look at the actual approaches that researchers have used to study communication problems and practices.
Traditions… • He developed a model that labeled and separated the field of communication into seven traditions of communication theory that include most, if not all, of what theorists have done. • These already established traditions offer distinct, alternative vocabularies that describe different ways of conceptualizing communication problems and practices. • Each tradition focuses on a different aspect or specialized area of communication and knowing each one gives new and sometimes-conflicting viewpoints on why we relate and comprehend the information we absorb on a daily basis.
Traditions… • Despite the differences among these traditions, communication research does cohere around similar interests and looks at communication as a fundamental perspective rather than one among many topics. • The seven/eight traditions offered by Robert Craig are the following & sentences written below the titles are expressions of how each tradition views communication.
Traditions… 1. The Socio-psychological tradition Communication as interpersonal influence 2. The cybernetic tradition Communication as information processing 3. The rhetorical tradition Communication as artful public address What kind of individual do you consider as orator? 4. The semiotic tradition Communication as the process of sharing meaning through signs
Traditions… 5. The socio-cultural tradition Communication as the Creation and Enactment of social reality 6. The critical tradition Communication as the reflective challenge of unjust discourse 7. The phenomenological tradition Communication as the experience of the self and others through dialogue 8. The ethical tradition Communication as people of character interacting in just & beneficial ways
Criteria for good theory Explanation of data: good objective theory explains an event or human behavior. A good objective theory brings clarity to an otherwise jumbled situation. It draws order out of chaos. A good objective theory synthesizes the data at hand; it explains what is happening. It also explains why something is happening. Prediction of future events; a good objective theory predicts what will happen.
Criteria… Relative simplicity; a good objective theory is as simple as possible as; no more complex than it has to be. Simplicity should be a virtue of a theory. Testable hypothesis; a good objective theory is testable. If a prediction is wrong, there ought to be a way to demonstrate the error. Practical utility; a good objective theory is useful. As Kurt Lewin puts it clearly & nicely, “there is nothing as practical as a good theory.”
Criteria…  Unlike scientists, interpretive scholars do not have an agreed-on five-point set of criteria for evaluating their theories. • However, even though there is no universally approved model for interpretive theories, humanists & other interpreters repeatedly urge that theories should accomplish some or all of the following interpretive standards.
Criteria… i. New understanding of people, an interpretive theory is good when it offers fresh insight into the human condition. ii. Clarification of values; a good interpretive theory brings people’s values into the open. iii. Aesthetic appeal; good interpretive theory does not just consider issues of artistry and aesthetic-it embodies them. Art looks at an old material in a new way. The form of a communication theory can capture the imagination of a reader as much as the content does.
Criteria… iv. A community of agreement; we can identify a good interpretive by the amount of support it generates within a community of like-minded scholars. • Interpretation of meaning is subjective, but whether the interpreter’s case is reasonable is decided ultimately by others in the field. • Their acceptance or rejection is an objective fact that helps verify or vilify theorists ideas. v. Reform of society; a good interpretive theory often generates change. A critical interpreter is reformer who can have impact on society.
2. Behaviorism and media effects Lasswell’s chain of communication and propaganda technique • Harold Lasswell was a prominent scholar in the area of propaganda research. He focused on conducting both quantitative and qualitative analyses of propaganda, understanding the content of propaganda, and discovering the effect of propaganda on the mass audience (Rogers, 1994). • Lasswell is credited with creating the mass communication procedure of content analysis (Rogers, 1994).
Lasswell’s chain… • Content analysis can be defined as, "...the investigation of communication messages by categorizing message content into classifications in order to measure certain variables" (Rogers, 1994). • Lasswell explains that a content analysis should take into account the frequency with which certain symbols appear in a message, the direction in which the symbols try to persuade the audience’s opinion, and the intensity of the symbols used.
Lasswell’s chain… • By understanding the content of the message, Lasswell aims to achieve the goal of understanding the "stream of influence that runs from control to content and from content to audience" • This method of content analysis is tied strongly to Lasswell's (1953) early definition of communication which stated, "Who says what in which channel to whom and with what effects".
Lasswell’s chain… • Content analysis was essentially the 'says what' part of this definition, and Lasswell went on to do a lot of work within this area during the remainder of his career. • Lasswell's most well-known content analyses were an examination of the propaganda content during World War One and Two. • In Propaganda Technique in the World War, Lasswell (1938) examined propaganda techniques through a content analysis, and came to some striking conclusions.
Lasswell’s chain… • Lasswell (1938) was similar to Ellul, in that he showed that the content of war propaganda had to be pervasive in all aspects of the citizen’s life in order to be effective. • Furthermore, Lasswell (1938) showed that as more people were reached by this propaganda, the war effort would become more effective. "...[The active propagandist is certain to have willing help from everybody, with an axe to grind in transforming the War into a march toward whatever sort of promised land happens to appeal to the group concerned. • The more of these sub-groups he can fire for the War, the more powerful will be the united devotion of the people to the cause of the country, and to the humiliation of the enemy" (Lasswell 1938).
Lasswell’s chain… • Aside from understanding the content of propaganda, Lasswell was also interested in how propaganda could shape public opinion. This dealt primarily with understanding the effects of the media. • Lasswell was particularly interested in examining the effects of the media in creating public opinion within a democratic system. • In Democracy Through Public Opinion, Lasswell (1941) examines the effects of propaganda on public opinion, and the effects of public opinion on democracy.
Lasswell’s chain… • Lasswell (1941) claims, “Democratic government acts upon public opinion and public opinion acts openly upon government”. • Affecting this relationship is the existence of propaganda. Due to this propaganda, “General suspiciousness is directed against all sources of information. • Citizens may convince themselves that it is hopeless to get the truth about public affairs”. In this way, Lasswell has created a cycle, whereby the public is limited in the information that is presented to them, and also apprehensive to accept it.
Hypodermic needle theory This theory is also called Magic Bullet Theory. Metaphorically called the magic bullet theory or the hypodermic needle theory. This paradigm asserted that the media acted strongly and predictably on audiences in much the way a bullet or hypodermic needle would. The presumption was that media messages cause people to think and act in certain predictable ways. It also presumes that people in a mass audience are affected similarly and that communication produces identical results that can be pinpointed and direct.
Hypodermic… The examples pointed to were the use of commercial advertising and military propaganda, both of which were thought to be strong influencers over public opinion, though researchers were unable to explain how the influence occurred. The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate, and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.
Hypodermic… Two leading scholars were associated with this paradigm. Walter Lippmann observed that people see a world shaped primarily by the media. Harold Lasswell defined the classic linear explanation that communication involves who says what, in which channel, to whom and with what effect.
Hypodermic… Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including: The fast rise and popularization of radio and television The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda The Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WW II to unify the German public behind the Nazi party
Hypodermic… Core Assumptions and Statements • The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. • Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver.
Hypodermic… • The bullet theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". • With similarly emotive imagery, the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience, which is immediately influenced by the message.
Hypodermic… • There is no escape from the effect of the message in these models. The population is seen as a sitting duck. • People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot media material "shot" at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information. • They express the view that the media are dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message.
Hypodermic… Limited-Effects Paradigm • Further research dispelled the fears or hopes associated with the previous model and instead presented a minimalist model. • Newer research had shown that the media are not very powerful, and that studies of topics such as voting behavior showed little direct or immediate power by the media. • Instead, the media operated in secondary ways. One of the major theories associated with limited effects paradigm is two-step flow -communication theory.
Two-step flow theory o Interpersonal communication between the audience and the opinion leader has strong effect than the mass communication between the media and audience because they have indirect relationship. History and Orientation o The two-step flow of communication hypothesis was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet in The People's Choice, a 1944 study focused on the process of decision-making during a Presidential election campaign.
Two-step… o These researchers expected to find empirical support for the direct influence of media messages on voting intentions. o They were surprised to discover, however, that informal, personal contacts were mentioned far more frequently than exposure to radio or newspaper as sources of influence on voting behavior. o Armed with this data, Katz and Lazarsfeld developed the two-step flow theory of mass communication.
Two-step… Core Assumptions and Statements • This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. • First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. • Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. • The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message.
Two-step… Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviors and are quite similar to those they influence. The two-step flow theory has improved our understanding of how the mass media influence decision-making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behavior, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes and behavior. The two-step flow theory gave way to the multi-step flow theory of mass communication or diffusion of innovation theory.
Multi-Step-Flow Theory • This was based on the idea that there are a number of relays in the communication flow from a source to a large audience.
Hierarchy of needs • Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, propounds the fact that people choose what they wants to see or read and the different media compete to satisfy each individual’s needs. • In the hierarchy of needs, there are five levels in the form of a pyramid with the basic needs such as food and clothing at the base and the higher order needs climbing up the pyramid. The fulfillment of each lower level need leads to the individual looking to satisfy the next level of need and so on till he reaches the superior-most need of self- actualization.
Hierarchy… • What motivates behavior? According to humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow, our actions are motivated in order to achieve certain needs. • Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" and his subsequent book Motivation and Personality. • This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs.
Hierarchy… • As a humanist, Maslow believed that people have an inborn desire to be self-actualized, to be all they can be. In order to achieve these ultimate goals, however, a number of more basic needs must be met first such as the need for food, safety, love, and self-esteem. From Basic to More Complex Needs • This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid.
Hierarchy… • Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, water, sleep, and warmth. • Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and security. • As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Soon, the need for love, friendship, and intimacy become important. Further up the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of accomplishment take priority. • Like Carl Rogers, Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as a person in order to achieve individual potential.
Hierarchy… Types of Needs  Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior. Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency needs (D-needs), meaning that these needs arise due to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences. • Maslow termed the highest-level of the pyramid as growth needs (being needs or B-needs).  Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person.
Hierarchy… Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs Physiological Needs These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food, and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met.
Hierarchy… Security Needs These include needs for safety and security. Security needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. Examples of security needs include a desire for steady employment, health care, safe neighborhoods, and shelter from the environment.
Hierarchy… Social Needs These include needs for belonging, love, and affection. Maslow described these needs as less basic than physiological and security needs.  Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments, and families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community, or religious groups.
Hierarchy… Esteem Needs After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition, and accomplishment. Self-actualizing Needs This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others, and interested fulfilling their potential.
Uses and gratifications approach • In the mass communication process, uses and gratifications approach puts the function of linking need gratifications and media choice clearly on the side of audience members. • It suggests that people’s needs influence what media they would choose, how they use certain media, and what gratifications the media give them. • This approach differs from other theoretical perspectives in that it regards audiences as active media users as opposed to passive receivers of information.
Uses… • In contrast to traditional media effects, theories, which focus on “what media do to people” and assume audiences are homogeneous, uses and gratifications approach is more concerned with “what people do with media” (Katz, 1959). • It allows audiences personal needs to use media and responds to the media, which determined by their social and psychological background. • Uses and gratifications approach also postulates that the media compete with other information sources for audience’s need satisfaction (Katz et al., 1974a).
Uses… History and Orientation • The theory was originated in the 1970s, as a reaction to traditional mass communication research, which emphasized the sender, and the message, uses gratification theory stresses the active audience and user. • Psychological orientation taking needs motives and gratifications of media users as the main point of departure.
Uses… Core Assumptions and Statements Five basic assumptions were stated in a study of Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch in 1974 as follows. They provide a framework for understanding the correlation between media and audiences: The audience is conceived as active, i.e., an important part of mass media use is assumed to be goal oriented … patterns of media use are shaped by more or less definite expectations of what certain kinds of content have to offer the audience member.
Uses… In the mass communication process much initiative in liking need gratification and media choice lies with the audience member… individual and public opinions have power vis- à-vis the seemingly all-powerful media. The media compete with other sources of need satisfaction. The needs served by mass communication constitute but a segment of the wider range of human needs, and the degree to which they can be adequately met through mass media consumption certainly varies.
Uses…  Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves- i.e., people are sufficiently self-aware to be able to report their interests and motives in particular cases, or at least to recognize them when confronted with them in an intelligible and familiar verbal formulation.  Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience orientations are explored on their own terms. Core: Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups, and society in general.
Uses… There are three objectives in developing uses and gratifications theory: 1) to explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs. “What do people do with the media”? 2) to discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use. 3) to identify the positive and the negative consequences of individual media use. • At the core of uses and gratifications theory lays the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs. Statement: A medium will be used more when the existing motives to use the medium leads to more satisfaction.
Cultivation Theory • Gerbner’s cultivation theory says that television has become the main source of storytelling in today's society. Those who watch four or more hours a day are labeled heavy television viewers and those who view less than four hours per day, according to Gerbner are light viewers. • Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore are affected by the Mean World Syndrome, an idea that the world is worse than it actually is. • According to Gerbner, the overuse of television is creating a homogeneous and fearful populace.
Cultivation… • George Gerbner began the 'Cultural Indicators' research project in the mid-1960s, to study whether and how watching television may influence viewers' ideas of what the everyday world is like. • Cultivation theorists argue that television has long- term effects that are small, gradual, indirect but cumulative and significant. Core Assumptions and Statements • Cultivation theory in its most basic form, suggests that television is responsible for shaping, or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality.
Cultivation… • The combined effect of massive television exposure by viewers over time subtly shapes the perception of social reality for individuals and, ultimately, for our culture as a whole. • Gerbner argues that the mass media cultivate attitudes and values, which are already present in a culture: the media maintain and propagate these values amongst members of a culture, thus binding it together. • There is also a distinction between two groups of television viewers: the heavy viewers and the light viewers. The focus is on ‘heavy viewers’.
Cultivation… • People who watch a lot of television are likely to be more influenced by the ways in which the world is framed by television programs than are individuals who watch less, especially regarding topics of which the viewer has little first-hand experience. • Light viewers may have more sources of information than heavy viewers may. ‘Resonance’ describes the intensified effect on the audience when what people see on television is what they have experienced in life. This double dose of the televised message tends to amplify the cultivation effect.
Agenda Setting Theory The original agenda: Not what to think, But what to think about. • Journalist professors Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw regard ‘Watergate’ as a perfect example of the agenda setting function of the mass media. McCombs and Shaw believe that the “mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of items on their news agenda to the public agenda.”
Agenda… • They are not suggesting that broadcast and print personnel make a deliberate attempt to influence listener, viewer, and reader opinion on the issue. • Reporters in the free world have a deserved reputation for independence and fairness. But McCombs and Shaw say that we look to news professionals for cues on where to focus our attention. “We judge as important what the media judge as important.” • Pulitzer Prize-winning author Walter Lippmann claimed that the media act as a mediator between “the world outside and the pictures in our heads.”
Agenda… • McCombs and Shaw also quote University of Wisconsin political scientist Bernard Cohen’s observation concerning the specific function the media serve. “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” • Agenda setting theory boasted two attractive features: it reaffirms the power of the press while still maintain that individuals were free to choose.
3. Interpersonal Communication Theories Symbolic Interaction • The theory consists of three core principles: meaning, language, and thought. These core principles lead to conclusions about the creation of a person’s self and socialization into a larger community (Griffin, 1997). • Meaning states that humans act toward people and things according to the meanings that give to those people or things. • This theory suggests that people are motivated to act based on the meanings they assign to people, things, and events. • Further, meaning is created in the language that people use both with others and in private thought. • Language allows people to develop a sense of self and to interact with others in community.
Symbolic… Meaning: the Construction of Social Reality • Blumer’s starts with the premise that humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they assign to those people or things. Language: The Source of Meaning • Blumer‘s second premise that meaning arises out of the social interaction that people have with each other. In other words, meaning is not inherent in objects; it’s not pre-existent in a state of nature. • Meaning is negotiated through the use of language- hence the term symbolic interactionism.
Symbolic… • As human beings, we have the ability to name things. We can designate a specific object (person), identify an action (screen), or refer to an abstract idea (crazy). • Mead believed that symbolic meaning is the basis for human society. • The book of Genesis in the Bible states that Adam’s first task was to name the animals-the dawn of civilization. • Interactionalists claim that the extent of knowing is dependent on the extent of naming
Symbolic… • Blumer’ third premise is that an individual’s interpretation of symbols is modified by his/her own thought processes. Symbolic interactionists describe thinking as an inner conversation. Mead called this inner dialogue minding. • Minding is the pause that’s reflective. It’s the two- second delay while we mentally rehearse our next move, test alternatives, anticipate others’ reactions. • Mead says we do not need any encouragement to take before we leap. We naturally talk to ourselves in order to sort out the meaning of a difficult situation. But first, we need language. Before we can think, we must be able to interact symbolically.
Expectancy Violation Theory Expectancy violation theory sees communication as the exchange of information which is high in relations content and can be used to violate the expectations of another which will be perceived as either positively or negatively depending on the liking between the two people. • When our expectations are violated, we will respond in specific ways. • If an act is unexpected and is assigned favourable interpretation, and it is evaluated positively, it will produce more favourable out comes than an expected act with the same interpretation and evaluation.
Expectancy… • This theory assumes that humans have a certain amount of free will. • This is because it assumes that humans can survey and interpret the relationship and liking between themselves and their conversational partner and then make a decision whether or not to violate the expectation of the other person depending on what outcome they would like to achieve. • The expectancy violations theory is very practical and useful theory because it assumes that there are universal norms and reactions to violations to those norms. It also seeks to predict what the reactions to each violation of norms will be.
Expectancy… EVT has three core concepts. These are expectancy, violation valence, and communicator reward valence. Expectancy o …“prefer to reserve the term ‘expectancy’ for what is predicted to occur rather than what desired. Violation valence o The term violation valence refers to the positive or negative value we place on a specific unexpected behaviour, regardless of who does it.
Expectancy… Communication reward valence • Expectancy violation theory is not the only theory that describes the human tendency to size up other people in terms of the potential rewards they have to offer. • The reward balance of a communicator is the sum of the positive and negative attributes that the person brings to the encounter put the potential he or she has to reward or punish in the future.
Coordinated Management of Meaning • CMM is a practical theory that sees communication as doing things fully as much as talking about them, “Talking the communication perspective” consists of looking at communication and seeing it as a two sided process of coordinating actions with others and making or managing meanings. • The fundamental building blocks of CMM theory focus specially on the flow of communication between people. The three different processes experienced either consciously or unconsciously are coherence, coordination and mystery.
CMM… Coherence • Coherence describes how meaning is achieved in conversation. It is the “process by which we tell ourselves (and others) stories in order to interpret the world around us and our place in it”. Coordination • The concept of coordination has to do with the fact that our actions do not stand alone with regard to communication. • The words or actions that we use during a conversation come together to produce patterns.
CMM… • Pearce and Cronen are quick to point out that coordination does not imply a commitment to coordinate “smoothly” but rather the concept is meant to provide the basis for being mindful of the other side of the story. Mystery • The final concept has to do with the concept that not everything within communication can be explained. Mystery also known as stories unexpressed is the recognition that “the world and our experience of it is more than any of the particular stories that make it coherent or any of the activities in which we engage.
Social penetration theory The theory proposed that closeness occurs through a gradual process of self-disclosure, and closeness develops if the participants proceed in a gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both immediate and forecast outcomes. Social penetration theory was formulated by psychology professors Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor in attempt to describe the dynamics of relational closeness.
Social… • Self-disclosure is the act of revealing more about ourselves, on both a conscious and an unconscious level. • Altman and Taylor believe that only through opening one's self to the main route to social penetration - self-disclosure - by becoming vulnerable to another person can a close relationship develop. • Vulnerability can be expressed in a variety of ways, including the giving of anything, which is considered a personal possession, such as a dresser drawer given to a partner.
Social… • Social penetration is perhaps best known for its onion analogy. Self-disclosure is referred to in terms of breadth and depth, the latter of which is described in units of layers. • This analogy is used to describe the multilayered nature of personality. When one peels the outer skin from an onion, another skin is uncovered. • When the second layer is removed, a third is exposed, and so forth. • The outer layer of personality contains the public self, which is accessible to anyone who wants to look. The public self layer has a myriad of details which help to describe who one is, such as height, weight, gender, and other public information which takes little questioning to discover.
Social… • Below the surface layer, however, the personality holds more private information like beliefs, faith, prejudices, and general relationship information. Held within the inner core are values, self- concept, and deep emotions. • The inner core is the unique private domain of individuals, which, although invisible to the rest of the world, has a profound impact on the areas of life, which lie closer to the surface. • The amount revealed can vary according to culture.
Social… Key points of self-disclosure • Peripheral items are exchanged more frequently and sooner than private information .Let us go back to the idea that you are a new student in the university, so the information you share with your new roommate starts with those of at the upper level such as your name , your friends in high school, which are not as such personal . • Self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages of relationship development. In the process of exposing one’s personal values, it is highly dependent on the give and take sprit since for you to tell your new friend your deep secrets he/ she shall do the same (scratch my back and I will scratch yours).
Social… • Penetration is rapid at the start but slows down quickly as the tightly wrapped inner layers are reached. It is an advice we get in all our interactions to take it easy in exposing our thoughts. There are societal norms against telling too much too fast as a result we tend to share observable features as soon as possible and think over a way to share core values we have. • De-penetration is a gradual process of layer-by-layer withdrawal. This is to mean that once you became open to your friend in telling what goes in your life and start to hide up some things; this will create a negative impact on your relationship building and leads to termination of it.
Uncertainty Reduction theory Ability to predict outcome of communication • Central to this theory is the assumption that when strangers meet, their primary concern is one of uncertainty reduction or increasing predictability about the behavior of both themselves and others in the interaction. Therefore, the following discussion will revolve and get into core ideas concerning this process.
Uncertainty… • Since the mid-twentieth century, the concept of information has been a strong foundation for communication research and the development communication theory. • Information exchange is a basic human function in which individuals request, provide, and exchange information with the goal of reducing uncertainty. • URT accredited to Charles R. Berger and Richard J. Calabrese (1975), recognized that reducing uncertainty was a central motive of communication.
Uncertainty… • Health and Bryant (2000) state: “One of the motivations underpinning interpersonal communication is the acquisition of information with which to reduce uncertainty” . The study of information is basic to all fields of communication. • URT places the role of communication into the central focus, which was a key step in the development of the field of interpersonal communication.
Uncertainty… • The research underlying the theory and efforts made by other contemporaries marked the emergence of interpersonal communication research; with the development of URT, communication researchers began to look to communication for theories of greater understanding rather than theoretical approaches founded in other social sciences. • Shannon and Weaver (1949) proposed that uncertainty existed in a given situation when there was a high amount of possible alternatives and the probability of their event was relatively equal.
Uncertainty… • Shannon and Weaver related this view of uncertainty to the transmission of messages, but their work also contributed to the development of URT. • Berger and Calabrese (1975) expanded the concept of uncertainty to fit interpersonal communication by defining uncertainty as the “number of alternative ways in which each interactant might behave”. The greater the level of uncertainty that exists in a situation, the smaller the chance individuals will be able to predict behaviors and occurrences.
Uncertainty… • During interactions, individuals are not only faced with problems of predicting present and past behaviors, but also explaining why partners behave or believe in the way that they do. • Berger and Bradac’s (1982) definition of uncertainty highlighted the complexity of this process when they stated: “Uncertainty, then, can stem from the large number of alternative things that a stranger can believe or potentially say”.
Uncertainty… • Uncertainty plays a significant role when examining relationships. High levels of uncertainty can severely inhibit relational development. • Uncertainty can cause stress and anxiety that can lead to low able to develop relationships or may be too anxious to engage in initial interactions. • West and Turner (2000) note that lower levels of uncertainty caused increased verbal and nonverbal behavior, increased levels of intimacy, and increased liking.
Uncertainty… • In interactions , individuals are expected to increase predictability with the goal that this will lead to the ability to predict and explain what will occur in future interactions. • When high uncertainty exists, it is often difficult to reach this goal. Although individuals seek to reduce uncertainty, high levels of certainty and predictability can also inhibit a relationship. • Heath and Bryant (2000) state: “Too much certainty and predictability can deaden a relationship; too much uncertainty raises its costs to an unacceptable level. Relationship building is dialectic stability, change, certainty, and uncertainty” .
Uncertainty… Axioms of Uncertainty Reduction Theory Verbal communication: Given the high level of uncertainty present at the onset of the entry phase, as the amount of verbal communication between strangers increases, the level of uncertainty for each interactant in the relationship will decrease. As uncertainty is further reduced, the amount of verbal communication will increase. Nonverbal warmth: As nonverbal affinitive expressiveness increases, uncertainty levels will decrease in an initial interaction situation. In addition, decreases in uncertainty level will cause increases in nonverbal affinitive expressiveness.
Uncertainty… Information seeking: High levels of uncertainty cause increases in information seeking behavior. As uncertainty levels decline, information seeking behavior decreases. Self -disclosure: High levels of uncertainty in a relationship cause decreases in the intimacy level of communication content. Low levels of uncertainty produce high levels of intimacy. Reciprocity: High levels of uncertainty produce high rates of reciprocity. Low levels of uncertainty produce low reciprocity rates. Similarity: Similarities between persons reduce uncertainty, while dissimilarities produce increases in uncertainty.
Uncertainty… Liking: Increases in uncertainty level produce decreases in liking; decreases in uncertainty level produce increases in liking. Shared networks: shared communication networks reduce uncertainty, while lack of shared networks increases uncertainty. Strategies to cope with uncertainty After a serious of investigations, the pioneer scholar in this theory, Berger, concluded that most social interaction is goal- driven; we have reasons for saying what we say. He labeled his work “a plan based theory of strategic communication” because he was convinced that we continually construct cognitive plans to guide our social action.
Uncertainty… Seeking information and new perspectives: is a way in which people in the interaction try to gather information about each other so that they can determine and anticipate the outcome. The process of finding new perspective also helps to reduce uncertainty. When you could not find your first choice, you go for similar alternative this way you could cope with your uncertainty. Hedging: is the process by which participants of communication give up some unclear assumptions they have about the participant before the interaction and tries to create positive interactional link. It works both ways since they come closer through the hedging process.
Social information processing theory • SIP is an interpersonal communication theory and media studies theory developed in 1992 by Joseph Walther. • Social information processing theory explains online interpersonal communication without nonverbal cues and how people develop and manage relationships in a computer-mediated environment. Walther argued that online interpersonal relationships may demonstrate the same or even greater relational dimensions and qualities (intimacy) as traditional FtF relationships.
Social info… • However, due to the limited channel and information, it may take longer to achieve than FtF relationships. • These online relationships may help facilitate interactions that would not have occurred face- to-face due to factors such as geography and intergroup anxiety. • The term Social Information Processing Theory was originally titled by Salancik and Pfeffer in 1978.
Social info… • They stated that individual perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors are shaped by information cues, such as values, work requirements, and expectations from the social environment, beyond the influence of individual dispositions and traits. Later, they renamed Social Influence model. The SIP theory we talk here was conducted by Walther in 1992.
Social info…  At the start of the 1990s, after the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, interest grew in studying how the Internet impacted the ways people communicate with each other. Joseph Walther, a communication and media theorist, said that computer-mediated communication (CMC) users can adapt to this restricted medium and use it effectively to develop close relationships.  Walther understood that to describe the new nature of online communication required a new theory. Social information processing theory focuses on the social processes that occur when two or more people are engaged in communication.
Social info… Assumptions • Social information processing researchers like Joseph Walther are intrigued by how identities are managed online and how relationships are able to move from one of superficiality to one of intimacy. Three assumptions related to the SIP theory are listed below: Computer-mediated communication provides unique opportunities to connect with people. • The first assumption rests on the premise that computer-mediated communication is a unique opportunity to build interpersonal relationships with others.
Social info… • The CMC systems are vast and almost always text based. It has been identified as "an organic setting" and it can be both synchronous and asynchronous. • CMC is clearly different than face-to-face communication, but it offers an unparalleled opportunity to meet someone whom you would never meet FtF. Moreover, relationships established via CMC systems also prompt emotions and feelings we find in all relationships. • Finally, since CMC systems are available around the globe, the uniqueness of being able to cultivate online relationships with someone who is very far away cannot be ignored.
Social info… Online communicators are motivated to form (favorable) impressions of themselves to others. • The second assumption indicates that impression management is essential in online relationships and participants undertake efforts to ensure particular impressions. Researchers have found that social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook are filled with people who wish to provide a number of different self-presentations to others. • Since the more Facebook friends one has, the more attractive the individual is viewed to be, managing one's online impression remains important on various SNS and on numerous CMC system platforms.
Social info… Online interpersonal relationships require extended time and more accumulated messages to develop equivalent levels of intimacy seen in FtF interpersonal relationships. • The third assumption of SIP states that different rates of information exchange and information accrual affect relationship development. • Social information processing theory is suggesting that although the messages are verbal, communicators "adapt" to the restrictions of online medium, look for cues in the messages from others, and modify their language to the extent that the words compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues.
Social info… • This third assumption reflects Walther's contention that given sufficient time and accrual of messages, online relationships have the same capacity to become intimate as those that are established face to face. • In addition, online comments are usually delivered rather quickly and efficiently. • Further, these messages "build up" over time and provide online participants sufficient information from which to begin and develop interpersonal relationships.
Interactional view theory • Relationships within a family system are interconnected and highly resistant to change. • Communication among members has both a content and relationship component. • The system can be transformed only when members receive outside help to reframe the relational punctuation. • The Interactional View is also known as the theory of pragmatics because of the dependence on the particular situation at hand. • Miscommunication occurs because people are not "speaking the same language." These languages contrast because people have different points of view from which they are speaking.
Constructivism • Constructivism is a communication theory that seeks to explain individual differences in people’s ability to communicate skillfully in social situations. • You probably do not need to be convinced that some people are better at understanding, attracting, persuading, informing, comforting, or entertaining others with whom they talk.
Constructivism… • In fact, you may take communication courses so that you can become more adept at reaching these communication goals. • Also some might suspect that communication success is simply a matter of becoming more assertive or outgoing, Jesse Delia believes that there is a crucial behind-the-eyes- difference in people who are interpersonally effective.
Constructivism… • His theory of constructivism offers a cognitive explanation for communication competence. • The core assumption of constructivism is that “persons make sense of the world through systems of personal constructs.” Constructs are the cognition templates, or stencils, we fit over “reality” to bring order to our perceptions.
Social Judgment Theory • We hear a message and immediately judge where it should be placed on the attitude scale in our minds. • According to Muzafer Sherif, this subconscious sorting out of ideas occurs at the instance of perception. We weigh every new idea by comparing it with our present point of view. • This is called social judgment theory. Sheriff by his two studies found that people’s perceptions are altered dramatically by group membership.
Social Judgment… • Social judgment theory extended his concern with perception to the field of persuasion. He saw an attitude as an amalgam of three zones. The first zone is called the latitude of acceptance. It’s made up of the item you underlined and any others you circled as acceptance.  A second zone is the latitude of rejection. It consists of the opinion you crossed out as objectionable.
Social Judgment… The left over statements, if any, define the latitude of non-commitment. • These were the items that you found neither objectionable nor acceptable. They are akin to marking undecided or no opinion on a traditional altitude survey. • Sheriff said we need to know the location and width of each of these interrelated latitudes in order to describe a person’s attitude structure.
Cognitive dissonance theory • Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. • The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. • They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying.
Cognitive dissonance… • Experience can clash with expectations, as, for example, with buyer's remorse following the purchase of an expensive item. • In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment. People are biased to think of their choices as correct, despite any contrary evidence. • This bias gives dissonance theory its predictive power, shedding light on otherwise puzzling irrational and destructive behavior.
Cognitive dissonance… • Smoking is often postulated as an example of cognitive dissonance because it is widely accepted that cigarettes can cause lung cancer, yet virtually everyone wants to live a long and healthy life. • In terms of the theory, the desire to live a long life is dissonant with the activity of doing something that will most likely shorten one's life. • The tension produced by these contradictory ideas can be reduced by quitting smoking, denying the evidence of lung cancer, or justifying one is smoking.
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Communication Theories presentation1-1.pptx

  • 1. Communication Theories Ambo University College of Social Sciences and Humanities Department of Journalism and Communication Communication Theories English 2nd year By: Bedada Yadeta May , 2022 Ambo, Ethiopia
  • 2. Introduction The Nature and Definition of Communication • The word communication originates from the word "communis”, which means common. • Communication, therefore, is an act by which a person shares knowledge, feelings, ideas and information, in ways such that each gains a common understanding of the meaning, intent and use of the message.
  • 3. Contd…  Sociologists, educationists and psychologists have defined communication according to the disciplines to which they belong. • “It is a process by which two or more people exchange ideas, facts, feelings or impressions in ways that each gains a common understanding of the message. In essence, it is the act of getting a sender and a receiver tuned together for a particular message or series of message” (Leagans)
  • 4. Contd… • “Communication is the force by which an individual communicator transmits stimuli to modify the behaviour of other individuals”. (Howland) • “It is a process by which information, decisions and directions pass through a social system, and the ways in which knowledge, opinions and attitudes are formed or modified” (Loomis and Beegle).
  • 5. Definition WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? o So far we have seen how we use communication. Now let’s try and define communication. But defining communication is not very easy. o It means many things to many people. Unlike definitions of a theory or some scientific term ‘communication’ has no definition accepted by all experts. o We know that when we convey something by words, we may call it a message. o If you are used to a mobile phone you would know the term ‘SMS’. This SMS is the short form for ‘Short Message Service’. Here the messages are short sentences or just a word or a phrase or a sentence like “I am in a meeting’’.
  • 6. Contd… “Please call me at 4:00 P.M” or “congratulations” or “see you at home”. • These are all messages. They are short and when someone receives them they ‘understand’ it.  Communication can be defined in many ways. In simple terms communication is: • Information transmitted • A verbal or nonverbal message • A process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior
  • 7. Contd… Communication is the process of exchanging information. Information is conveyed as words, tone of voice, and body language. Studies have shown that words account for 75 percent of the information communicated. Vocal tone accounts for 55 percent and body language accounts for 38 percent. To be effective communicators, team members must be aware of these forms, how to use them effectively, and barriers to the communications process.
  • 8. Contd… Communication is a slippery concept, and while we may casually use the word with some frequency, it is difficult to arrive at a precise definition that is agreeable to most of those who consider themselves communication scholars. Communication is so deeply rooted in human behaviors and the structures of society that it is difficult to think of social or behavioral events that are absent communication.
  • 9. The Need for Effective Communication o The following actions have been observed in teams with effective communications skills. • Acknowledge (“Roger”) communications. • Provide information in accordance. • Provide information when asked. • Repeat, as necessary, to ensure communication is accurately received. • Use standard terminology when communicating information. • Request and provide clarification when needed.
  • 10. The Need… • Ensure statements are direct and unambiguous. • Inform the appropriate individuals when the mission or plans change. • Communicate all information needed by those individuals or teams external to the team. • Use nonverbal communication appropriately. • Use proper order when communicating information.
  • 11. The Importance of Effective Communication • People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communications. • Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intragroup, organizational, or external levels.
  • 12. Barriers to Effective Communication Language The choice of words or language in which a sender encodes a message will influence the quality of communication.  Because language is a symbolic representation of a phenomenon, room for interpretation and distortion of the meaning exists.  Note that the same words will be interpreted differently by each different person. Meaning has to be given to words and many factors affect how an individual will attribute meaning to particular words. It is important to note that no two people will attribute the exact same meaning to the same words.
  • 13. Barriers… misreading of body language, tone and other non- verbal forms of communication  noisy transmission (unreliable messages, inconsistency)  receiver distortion: selective hearing, ignoring non-verbal cues  assumptions–e.g., assuming others see situation same as you, has same feelings as you distrusted source, erroneous (not correct) translation, value judgment, state of mind of two people
  • 14. Barriers… Perceptual Biases  People attend to stimuli in the environment in very different ways. Stereotyping is one of the most common. This is when we assume that the other person has certain characteristics based on the group to which they belong without validating that they in fact have these characteristics.
  • 15. Barriers… Interpersonal Relationships  How we perceive communication is affected by the past experience with the individual. Perception is also affected by the organizational relationship two people have. For example, communication from a superior may be perceived differently than that from a subordinate or peer
  • 16. Barriers… Cultural Differences Effective communication requires deciphering the basic values, motives, aspirations, and assumptions that operate across geographical lines. Given some dramatic differences across cultures in approaches to such areas as time, space, and privacy, the opportunities for miscommunication while we are in cross cultural situations are plentiful.
  • 17. Seven Steps to Effective Messages Know your target audience – who are they, what do they need, how can you reach them?  Set clear objectives – what do you expect from the message, how will you measure it, when will it happen? Work for approval – your audience should chose your message over the others that are also coming its way  Be strategic – use words, images and sounds that are acceptable to your audience because your main purpose is to make them listen.
  • 18. Seven Steps… Work for acceptance – is your message credible, do people believe your message and the communicator, who and what will people believe? Work for recall – the message should remain with the audience, make it catchy, make it funny, repeat if necessary, use different types of media Review and re-plan – are you reaching the intended audience, are you achieving the objectives, do you need to change, do you need a new message?
  • 19. Historical Development of Communication • Denis McQuail (“Towards a Sociology of Mass Communication, 1975) sees ‘human communication’ as the sending of meaningful messages from one person to another. • These messages could be oral or written, visual of olfactory. He also includes laws, practices, customs, and ways of dressing, gestures, military parades and flags as methods of communication. • Human communication went through different stages of development that include the age of signs and signals, the age of speech and language, the age of writing, the age of printing, the mass communication age, and the age of information revolution.
  • 20. Historical Development… The age of signs and signals Prehistoric humans were physically unable to talk. Communication was limited and determined by instincts. It was the age o signs and signals- drum messages, smoke signals, music, dance, etc. The age of speech and language Man’s first achievement was speech and language. It gave him an eminent position over others. Growth of different languages gave birth to different expressions that denoted distinctions within communities.
  • 21. Historical Development… The age of writing About 5000 years ago, hieroglyphic writing was developed by the Mayans and the Chinese. They used pictures with a standardized meaning. The Sumerians developed a different form of writing that represented sounds by symbols. This allowed information to be stored and for traditions to be passed on in writing. Clay, stone and later papyrus was developed and used as portable media. Writing gave permanence to the spoken language.
  • 22. Historical Development… The age of print In the 1st century, AD, China invented paper. In the 8 century the Arab world began to manufacture paper.  In the 15th century, the Gutenberg press was invented and printing began in Europe. As a consequence, information could be copied much faster and with far fewer mistakes than before. Availability of information was no longer restricted to the Roman church and to nobility, but open to a wider section of European societies. Books were followed by the development of pamphlets and the newspapers in the 17th century.
  • 23. Historical Development… The mass communication age In the 19th century, communication was determined by several media forms. Print media, especially newspapers, were supplemented by telegraph and telephone. The introduction of radio, film and television in the 20th century saw the emergence of the mass communication era.
  • 24. Historical Development… The age of information revolution At present, we are living amidst an information revolution. Integrated multimedia applications are now possible due to networks established from the development of digital communication technology. Hypertext structures form the basis for communication and navigation within the system.
  • 25. Purposes of Communication • Most of us are surrounded by others, trying to understand them and hopping that they understand us: family, friends, coworkers, teachers, and strangers. • There’s a good reason why we speak, listen, read, and write so much. Communication satisfies most of our needs. Physical Needs Communication is so important that it is necessary for physical health. In fact, evidence suggests that an absence of satisfying communication can even jeopardize life itself.
  • 26. Purposes… Medical researchers have identified a wide range of hazards that result from a lack of close relationships. For instance: People who lack strong relationships have two to three times that risk of early death, regardless of whether they smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, or exercise regularly. Divorced, separated, and widowed people are five to ten times more likely to need hospitalization for mental problems than their married counterparts etc.
  • 27. Purposes… • Studies indicate that social isolation is a major risk factor contributing to coronary disease, comparable to physiological factors such as diet, cigarette smoking, obesity, and lack of physical activity. Identity Needs  Communication does more than enable us to survive.  It is the way-indeed, the only way- we learn who we are. Our sense of identity comes from the way we interact with other people.  Are we smart or stupid, attractive or ugly, skillful or inept? The answers to these questions do not come from looking in the mirror. We decide who we are based on how others react to us.
  • 28. Purposes… We gain an idea of who we are from the ways others defines us. The messages we receive in early childhood are the strongest, but the influence of others continues throughout life. Some scholars have argued that we are most attached to people who confirm our identity. This confirmation can come in different forms, depending on the self-image of the communicator.
  • 29. Purposes… • People with relatively high self-esteem seek out others who confirm their value and, as much as possible, avoid those who treat them poorly. • Conversely, people who regard themselves as unworthy may look for relationships in which others treat them badly. This principle offers one explanation for why some people maintain damaging or unsuccessful relationships.
  • 30. Purposes… • If you review yourself as a loser, you may associate with others who will confirm that self- perception. Of course, relationships can change a communicator’s identity as well as confirm it. • The role communication in shaping identity works in a second way. Besides other’s messages shaping who we think we are, the messages we create often are attempts to get others to view us the way we want to be seen. For example, the choices we make about how to dress and otherwise shape our appearance are always attempts to manage our identity.
  • 31. Purposes… Social Needs  Besides helping to define who we are, communication provides a vital link with others.  Researchers and theorists have identified a range of social needs we satisfy by communicating: pleasure (e.g. “because it is fun” to have a good time); affection (e.g. to help others, to let others know I care); inclusion (e.g. because I need someone to talk to or be with, because it makes me less lonely) etc.  As you look at this list of social needs for communicating, imagine how empty your life would be if these needs weren’t satisfied. Then, notice that if would be impossible to fulfill them without communicating with others.
  • 32. Purposes… Practical Needs We should not overlook the everyday, important functions that communication serves. Communication is the tool that lets us tell the hair stylist to take just a little off the sides, direct the doctor to where it hurts. Beyond these obvious needs, a wealth of research demonstrates that communication is an important key to effectiveness in a variety of everyday settings.
  • 33. Purposes… For example, a survey of over four hundred employers identified “communication skills” as the top characteristic that employers seek in job candidates. It was rated as more important than technical competence, work experience, or academic background. In another survey, over 90 percent of the personnel officials at five hundred US businesses stated that increased communication skills are needed for success in the twenty first century.
  • 34. Purposes… Communication is just as important outside of work. College roommates who are both willing and able to communicate effectively report higher satisfaction with one another than do those who lack these characteristics. Married couples who were identified as effective communicators reported happier relationships than did less skillful husbands and wives. In school, the grades point averages of college students were related positively to their communication competence.
  • 35. Levels of Communication Scholars categorize different levels and types of communication; it is helpful to consider various factors. The distinguishing characteristics include the following: o Number of communicators o Physical proximity of the communication in relation to each other(close or distant), o Immediacy of the exchange, whether it is taking place either(1) live or in apparently real time or (2) on a delayed basis o Number of sensory channels (including visual, auditory, tactile and so on) o The context of the communication( whether face to face or mediate)
  • 36. Levels… Intrapersonal Communication Intrapersonal communication means communicating with oneself. You can tune in to one way that each of us communicates internally by listening to the little voice that lives in your mind. Intrapersonal communication takes place within a single person, often for the purpose of clarifying ideas or analyzing a situation. Other times, intrapersonal communication is undertaken in order to reflect upon or appreciate something. Three aspects of intrapersonal communication are self concept, perception and expectation.
  • 37. Levels…  Self-concept is the basis for intrapersonal communication, because it determines how a person sees him/herself and is oriented toward others. • Self-concept (also called self-awareness) involves three factors: beliefs, values and attitudes.  Beliefs are basic personal orientation toward what is true or false, good or bad; beliefs can be descriptive or prescriptive.  Values are deep-seated orientations and ideals, generally based on and consistent with beliefs, about right and wrong ideas and actions.  Attitudes are learned predisposition toward or against a topic, ideals that stem from and generally are consistent with values. Attitudes often are global, typically emotional.
  • 38. Levels… Beliefs, values and attitudes all influence behavior, which can be either spoken opinion or physical action. • Some psychologists include body image as an aspect of intrapersonal communication, in that body image is a way of perceiving ourselves, positively or negatively, according to the social standards of our culture. • Other things that can affect self-concept are personal attributes, talents, social role, even birth order.
  • 39. Levels… • Whereas self-concept focuses internally, perception looks outward. Perception of the outside world also is rooted in beliefs, values and attitudes. It is so closely intertwined with self-concept that one feeds off the other, creating a harmonious understanding of both oneself and one’s world. • Meanwhile, expectations are future-oriented messages dealing with long-term roles, sometimes called life scripts. These sometimes are projections of learned relationships within the family or society.
  • 40. Levels… Intrapersonal communication may involve different levels of communication activity: internal discourse, solo vocal communication, and solo written communication. • internal discourse involves thinking, concentration and analysis. Psychologists include both daydreaming and nocturnal dreaming in this category. • Prayer, contemplation and meditation also are part of this category, though from a theological point of view the argument may be made that this is not solely internal to one person. • In Sufi tradition, this is similar to the concept of nafs, negotiating with the inner self. Example: Consciously appreciating the beauty of a sunset.
  • 41. Levels…  Solo vocal communication includes speaking aloud to oneself. This may be done to clarify thinking, to rehearse a message intended for others, or simply to let off steam. Example: Talking to yourself as you complain about your boss.  Solo written communication deals with writing not intended for others. Example: An entry in a diary or personal journal.
  • 42. Levels… Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal communication is the process that we use to communicate our ideas, thoughts, and feelings to another person. Our interpersonal communication skills are learned behaviors that can be improved through knowledge, practice, feedback, and reflection. When you come face to face with someone and communicate with that person it is called interpersonal communication. This happens in our daily life.
  • 43. Levels… • Interpersonal communication is communication between persons or one to one communication. Most of us indulge in interpersonal communication every day. • Interpersonal communication being face to face generally takes place in an informal, friendly atmosphere. However, there are occasions when it is formal. For example, a police officer questioning a suspect or a lawyer examining a witness in a court.
  • 44. Levels… Let us list some formal and informal situations in which interpersonal communication takes place. FORMAL • Taking part in meetings or conferences • Sales counters • Job interviews INFORMAL • Private discussions with friends or family members • Corridor discussions • Conversation in canteens or restaurants Face to face communication would also mean a lot of nonverbal communication and immediate reply to questions. Interpersonal communication is essential in business, organizations and services.
  • 45. Levels… The Dynamics of Interpersonal Behavior Interpersonal behavior is influenced by several cultural factors. Although each individual has his or her own style of interacting with others, social conventions as well as traditions and values in a given group or community play an important role in how behavior and communication take place and are interpreted and perceived. All interactions comprise both verbal and nonverbal signs and symbols that contribute to the meanings of behavior and communication actions.
  • 46. Levels… • Social psychologists tend to consider signs to be involuntary behaviors, such as blushing in response to feelings of embarrassment. Symbols are defined as voluntary acts, such as using verbal expressions to describe one’s feelings. • According to these definitions, saying “I am embarrassed” is a symbol, while blushing is a sign.
  • 47. Levels… • Symbols are the result of social conventions and agreement. • Posture, social cues, and facial and idiomatic expressions all influence interpersonal relationships. In interpreting people’s behavior, it is important to be aware of cultural differences that may have a powerful effect on the dynamics of interpersonal behavior. Lack of understanding of these differences often undermines the impact of well-meant communication efforts.
  • 48. Levels… • Age and gender also influence motives for interpersonal communications. For example, young people between eighteen and twenty- five years old often use communication as a means for having fun, relaxing, feeling part of a social group, or escaping from routine activities. Alternatively, middle-aged or older adults tend to communicate more to express appreciation or feel appreciated . There are gender differences in interpersonal communications as well: women seem to communicate more “to express emotions” or appreciation, while men’s motivation is primarily control.
  • 49. Levels… o Direct interpersonal communication involves a direct face-to-face relationship between the sender and receiver of a message, who are in an interdependent relationship. Because of interpersonal communication’s immediacy (it is taking place now) and primacy (it is taking place here), it is characterized by a strong feedback component. • Communication is enhanced when the relationship exists over a long period of time. Interpersonal communication involves not only the words used but also the various elements of nonverbal communication. • The purposes of interpersonal communication are to influence, help and discover, as well as to share and play together.
  • 50. Levels… Interpersonal communication can be categorized by the number of participants. • Dyadic communication involves two people. Example: Two friends talking. • Group communication involves three or more persons, though communication scholars are inconsistent as to the top end of the number scale. The smaller the number in the group, the more closely this mode resembles interpersonal communication. Often group communication is done for the purpose of problem solving or decision making. Example: University study group.
  • 51. Levels… • Public communication involves a large group with a primarily one-way monologue style generating only minimal feedback. Information sharing, entertainment and persuasion are common purposes of public communication. Example: Lecture in university class. o Another way of categorizing interpersonal communication is on the function or setting of the communication.
  • 52. Levels… • It occurs when a group becomes too large for all members to contribute. One characteristic of public communication is an unequal amount of speaking. One or more people are likely to deliver their remarks to the remaining members, who act as an audience. • This leads to a second characteristic of public setting: limited verbal feedback. • The audience isn’t able to talk back in a two- way conversation the way they might in a dyadic or small group setting.
  • 53. Levels… • Organizational communication deals with communication within large organizations such as businesses. This is sometimes considered part of group communication, but communication scholars have built up a body of knowledge focused primarily on organizations. Example: Work focused discussion between employer and employee. • Family communication focuses on communication patterns within nuclear, extended and blended families.
  • 54. Levels… • Like organizational communication, this too is sometimes seen as part of the general category of group communication, but much research has been focused specifically on communication within a family relationship. • Family communication can be enhanced by the long-standing and close relationships among participants as well as the likelihood that families have shared heritage, similar values, and social rituals. • Patterns differ in communication between spouses, between parent and child, among siblings, and within the wider family context.
  • 55. Levels… Mass Communication It consists of messages that are transmitted to large, widespread audiences via electronic and print media: newspapers, magazines, television, radio and so on. Mass communication section differs from the interpersonal, small group, and public varieties in several ways. • First, mass messages are aimed at a large audience without any personal contact between sender and receivers.
  • 56. Levels… • Second, most of the messages sent via mass communication channels are developed, or at least financed by large organizations. • Finally, mass communication is almost always controlled by many gatekeepers who determine what messages will be delivered to consumers, how they will be constructed, and when they will be delivered. Sponsors (whether corporate or governmental), editors, producers, reporters, and executives all have the power to influence mass messages in ways that don’t affect most other types.
  • 57. Components of communication Source: the source is the initiator of the communication process who has an idea, which is intended to be transmitted to another individual, group, or mass audience. Source can be a single individual or groups & the source may or may not have the knowledge about the receiver. Encoding: The source translates the ideas & thoughts into a code so that they can be understood by the receiver in the process. The source has an idea or thought. This idea or thought cannot merely be transmitted to the receiver unless it is changed to a form in which the receiver can perceive.
  • 58. Components… • This process is called encoding. For example, suppose you want to buy new jeans. You are trying to describe the jeans to your friend who is going to help you buy the jeans you want. You might be visualizing the model, color, number of the jeans & how it will look when you wear it. Putting your vision into words, you tell your friend you are interested in a jeans that is “skinny, blue & Ethiopian made.” You encode your perceptions of particular jeans into words that can be understood by your friend.  Or when your teacher tells you about elements of communication; he is encoding his ideas and thoughts.
  • 59. Components… Message: it is the product of the encoding process. It is verbal or nonverbal form of the idea, thought, feeling that the person (the source) wishes to communicate to another person or group of people. • The message is the content of the interaction. It includes the symbols (words & phrases), you use to communicate your ideas & thoughts, as well as your facial expressions, body movements, gestures, touch, tone of voice, & other nonverbal codes. • The message may be relatively brief & easy to understand or long & complex.
  • 60. Components… Channel  A message moves from the source to the receiver of the message by the means.  A message moves from one place to another, by travelling through a medium or channel. Airwaves, sound waves, twisted copper wires, glass fibers, and cable are all communication channels. Airwaves & cable are two of the various channels through which you receive television messages.  Radio messages move through sound waves.  Computer images travel through light waves.  In person-to-person, face-to-face communication, you send your messages through a channel of sound waves and light waves that enable receivers to see and hear you.
  • 61. Components… Alternatively, we can classify channel into two major types. • Sensory channel: our sense organs can be considered as channel. • Institutionalized: are books, magazines, newspapers, and electronic media. Some messages use more channels to travel to the receiver. Radio signals travel to each radio set in the form of electromagnetic radiation, then transform into sound wave so that they can travel to our ears.
  • 62. Components… Decoding • Is the receiver’s activity of assigning meaning for the code sent by a source or it is an activity of translating the message into meaningful idea or thought. In the above example (in the encoding part), your friend decodes the message-your words-upon hearing & develops his/her own picture. • On the other hand, when you listen to your course instructor, you are decoding the message he is transmitting into ideas and thoughts.
  • 63. Components… • Receiver: The receiver is a person who receives the message, which has been sent by the source. The receiver is the intended target of the message. • Feedback: Feedback is the receiver’s verbal & nonverbal response to the source’s message. It is part of any communication situation. Feedback can alter & shape the subsequent messages of the source. It may be delayed or immediate.
  • 64. Components… Noise: any interference in a communication process that reduces the clarity of a message is called noise. It can be anything that interferes with receiving, interpreting, or providing feedback about a message. It can be • Semantic noise- this occurs when people have different meanings for the same words or phrases. For instance, in a Gojjam Amharic dialect, the word ª(wa) means  ”È (endie) but in Shoa dialect it is a sign of warning. So if a person who speaks in a Gojjam dialect uses the word while communicating with a person who speaks in Shoa dialect, there will be misunderstanding because the person who speaks the Shoan dialect may think that he is being warned. These kinds of misunderstandings are created by semantic noise.
  • 65. Components… • Mechanical noise: Is a problem with a machine that is used to assist communication. If you are using a mobile phone to communicate with your friend & a problem happens with the networking, it makes communication difficult. This kind of problem happens because of mechanical noise. • Environmental noise: It is external source of noise, which barges in the communication process. Distracting sights, nearby loud voices etc are environmental noises.
  • 66. Components… • Psychological noise: this happens inside the minds of receivers or sources. Daydreams about a loved one, worry about things, pain & uncertainty make up psychological or mental noise. If you, for example, are thinking about something else while the lecturer is giving lecture, it is a mental noise inside your head that is creating a problem. • As noise increases, message fidelity decreases. • Feedback is important in reducing the effect of noise; the greater the potential for communication feedback, the greater the chance to reduce noise.
  • 67. Components… • the source initiates the process by having a thought or an idea that he/she wishes to transmit to some other entity. Naturally, sources differ in their communication skills. The source may or may not have knowledge about the receiver and sources can be single individuals, groups, or even organizations. • Then the source translates the ideas and thoughts into a form that is may be perceived by senses.
  • 68. Components… • When you have something to say, your brain and your tongue work together to form words and spoken sentences. When you write a letter, your brain and your fingers cooperate to produce what you write that can be seen on paper. What you speak and write are messages, which are the actual physical products of the encoding process. • When we talk, our speech is the message. When you write a text & send it via your mobile phones, it is a message. What you watch on TV is a message. What you read on newspapers is message. What your instructor tells you about the course is a message.
  • 69. Components… • Messages can be directed at one specific individual or at masses based on the context of communication. In dyadic communication, the target of the message is one individual; in mass communication, the message is directed to millions & billions of individuals. They can be cheap to produce like spoken words or very expensive like a book. Some messages are under the control of the receivers than others.
  • 70. Components… • It is easy to turn off the TV when we watch a commercial than hung up the phone when we are in a telephone conversation with a friend and it is very difficult to break off a communication when it is a face-to-face communication than a telephone conversation. • These messages travel through channels to reach receivers. Channels are the ways messages move to receivers. Sound waves carry spoken words; light waves carry visual messages. Air currents can serve as olfactory channels, carrying messages to our noses-messages that are subtle but nonetheless significant. Touch is also a channel.
  • 71. Components… • Then, through channels, receivers get the message of the source. Receivers are the target of the message-the ultimate goal. Nevertheless, receivers must interpret these physical messages in a form that has eventual meaning to them. • This process is decoding which is the opposite of encoding. When you read this module, you are decoding.
  • 72. Components… • When you watch television, you are decoding. When you are listening to your communication theories course instructor, you are decoding. Like encoding, a single communication event can involve many stages of decoding. • If you are listening to one of Ali Bira’s songs while reading this note, you are encoding two messages at the same time-the music as well as the lines from the note or you are assigning meaning to these messages.
  • 73. Components… • After the receiver decodes the message, which was sent by the source, she/he has a chance to respond. The responses of the receiver that shape and alter the subsequent messages of the source are called feedback. As you can see from figure one, feedback represents a reversal flow of communication. The original source becomes the receiver; the original receiver becomes the source.
  • 74. Components… • It changes the roles of the original source and receiver. Since the source becomes receiver, his /her role change from encoder to decoder and since the receiver becomes the source, his/her role changes from decoder to encoder of message in the communication process. Feedback is useful to both the receiver and the source. It lets the source evaluate her/himself- whether she/he is doing a good job in transmitting the appropriate message or not.
  • 75. Components… It allows the receiver to attempt to change some elements in the communication process. Feedback can be either positive or negative. Positive feedback from the receiver usually encourages the communication behavior in progress. For instance, if your friend invites you to dinner in one of the most beautiful restaurants in town and you say ‘yes”, it is a positive feedback because it keeps the progress of communication between you and your friend. Negative feedback, on the other hand, usually attempts to change the communication or even to terminate it.
  • 76. Components… • If you say ‘no’ to your friend’s request, it is a negative feedback. Feedback can also be immediate or delayed. Immediate feedback is a response of receivers immediately after they receive the source’s message. • This kind of feedback is very common in face-to- face conversation. Delayed feedback, as the name indicates, is a delayed response from the receiver. Mostly, in mass communication, setting this kind of feedback occurs.
  • 77. What is theory?  A theory is a related set of ideas that explains how or why something happens. • More formally, a theory is a set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and prepositions that present a systematic view of phenomena. • It specifies the relationship among the concepts with the objective of explaining and predicting the phenomena being studied.
  • 78. …theory • Theories are integrated set of principles that explain and predict observed behavior. • They sum up numerous factual observations by capturing underlying principles. Therefore, if an enormous body of facts can be condensed to a much shorter list of theoretical principles which predict most of the observed facts then we will have a more powerful and memorable theory than a long list of disconnected facts.
  • 79. …theory  Theories are maps of reality; the truth they depict may be objective facts “out there” or subjective meanings in our heads. Either way we need to have theories to guide us through unfamiliar territory.  Theories in communication are bodies of related concepts and prepositions about the exchange of information between individuals, groups, and mass audience.
  • 80. Communication theory • Communication theory is an umbrella term for all careful systematic & self-conscious discussion and analysis of communication phenomena. • In other words, communication theory is a set of interrelated concepts about people’s communication behavior that enables a communicator -a sender or receiver of the message- how to communicate with particular individuals in a given situation. • They can help us understand our own communication behavior as well as the communication behaviors of others. • In interpersonal communication, for instance, whenever we communicate with others, we always anticipate the costs and benefits of that particular communication.
  • 81. …Contd Social exchange theory of communication tells us why we calculate those costs and benefits of our communication, how we foresee these expenses and positives of our relationship and it also predicts what will happen if the cost or benefit of our communication is greater than the other which helps us decide to continue the communication or not.  Generally, Communication theory is a systematic and thoughtful response of communication scholars to questions posed as humans interact with each other.
  • 82. Nature and functions of theories Theories are man’s attempt to travel on the journey to facts. The purpose of theory is perhaps a basic human need to turn sensory data into some sort of interpretation of reality.  It must have evolved with our conscious minds to satisfy our natural curiosity, in its most primitive form a curiosity naturally selected as being beneficial to our survival.
  • 83. Nature and functions… With ever greater sophistication, theory has evolved as a means to justify everything our insatiable curiosity desires to explore, and to explain, by sharing ideas with evidence, which may generally be accepted as truths by a wider audience, or not. Theories explain phenomenon; why it happens; how it happens. They also predict what will happen if something is done or not done. As a result, they help us understand or make sense of the world around us.
  • 84. History of theory development in communication o Communication has existed since the beginning of human beings. o Communication Theory has one universal law posited by S. F. Scudder. o The Universal Communication Law states that, "All living entities, beings, and creatures communicate." o All of the living communicates through movements, sounds, reactions, physical changes, gestures, languages, breath, etc. o Communication is a means of survival.
  • 85. History of theory… • Examples - the cry of a child (communication that it is hungry, hurt, cold, etc.); the browning of a leaf (communication that it is dehydrated, thirsty per se, dying); the cry of an animal (communicating that it is injured, hungry, angry, etc). • Everything living communicates in its quest for survival.”
  • 86. History of theory… o Though not in detail, the study of communication goes back to the 4th century BC when one of the earliest definitions of communication came from the Greek philosopher-teacher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) in the name of Rhetoric. “Rhetoric”, according to Aristotle, is “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”. o He had three fold cases in which speakers use their means of persuasion differently. These classifications are courtroom (forensic), political (deliberative) and ceremonial (epideictic).
  • 87. History of theory… • The concept of communication developed by the French philosopher ClaudeHenri de Saint Simon (1970-1825) used the analogy of living organism. • Development of a system of communication routes such as roads, canals & railways and banks was vital for an industrialized society and he states that the circulation of money, for example, was equivalent to that of blood for the human heart. I.e. communication routes= Vascular system. • The metaphor of the organism developed by Simon was also fundamental for British philosopher Herbert Spenser (1980-1903), who argued
  • 88. History of theory… …Like the vascular system, the physical network of roads, canals and railways ensured the distribution of nutrition, while ‘’channels of information’’ (the press, telegraph and postal service) functioned as the equivalent of the nervous system, making it possible for the center to propagate its influence to its most outer parts. Dispatches are compared to nervous discharges that communicate movement from an inhabitant of the city to that of the other.
  • 89. History of theory… • However, it was throughout the 20th century, during and after WWI, that people began to study the process of communication in detail. • As communication technologies developed, there were series of studies of communication. • When World War I ended, the interest in studying communication intensified.
  • 90. History of theory… • The social-science study was fully recognized as a legitimate discipline after World War II by combining many aspects of diverse social science disciplines. • Communication studies focus on communication as central to the human experience, which involves understanding how people behave in creating, exchanging, and interpreting messages.
  • 91. Traditions in the field of communication • Every day, we have images, symbols, signs, and impressions flashing before our eyes. Messages upon messages collide with our own sense of individuality and create the reality in which we perceive our existence. • How do we process the enormity of information and comprehend the symbols of what each import or export of the message means? • There are many theories that try to understand the broad nature of communication and how it applies to the individual or society.
  • 92. Traditions… • The presences of such many theories & many scholars from other social sciences who try to define communication make the field of communication theories a very complex, hard to define discipline. • University of Colorado communication professor Robert Craig agrees that the terrain is confusing; if we insist on looking for some kind of grand theoretical overview that brings all communication study into focus-a top-down, satellite picture of the communication landscape.
  • 93. Traditions… • He suggests, however, that communication theory is a coherent field when we understand communication is a practical discipline. • He explains that all communication theories are relevant to a common practical life world in which communication is already a richly meaningful term. • Craig thinks that it is reasonable to talk about a field of communication theory if we take a collective look at the actual approaches that researchers have used to study communication problems and practices.
  • 94. Traditions… • He developed a model that labeled and separated the field of communication into seven traditions of communication theory that include most, if not all, of what theorists have done. • These already established traditions offer distinct, alternative vocabularies that describe different ways of conceptualizing communication problems and practices. • Each tradition focuses on a different aspect or specialized area of communication and knowing each one gives new and sometimes-conflicting viewpoints on why we relate and comprehend the information we absorb on a daily basis.
  • 95. Traditions… • Despite the differences among these traditions, communication research does cohere around similar interests and looks at communication as a fundamental perspective rather than one among many topics. • The seven/eight traditions offered by Robert Craig are the following & sentences written below the titles are expressions of how each tradition views communication.
  • 96. Traditions… 1. The Socio-psychological tradition Communication as interpersonal influence 2. The cybernetic tradition Communication as information processing 3. The rhetorical tradition Communication as artful public address What kind of individual do you consider as orator? 4. The semiotic tradition Communication as the process of sharing meaning through signs
  • 97. Traditions… 5. The socio-cultural tradition Communication as the Creation and Enactment of social reality 6. The critical tradition Communication as the reflective challenge of unjust discourse 7. The phenomenological tradition Communication as the experience of the self and others through dialogue 8. The ethical tradition Communication as people of character interacting in just & beneficial ways
  • 98. Criteria for good theory Explanation of data: good objective theory explains an event or human behavior. A good objective theory brings clarity to an otherwise jumbled situation. It draws order out of chaos. A good objective theory synthesizes the data at hand; it explains what is happening. It also explains why something is happening. Prediction of future events; a good objective theory predicts what will happen.
  • 99. Criteria… Relative simplicity; a good objective theory is as simple as possible as; no more complex than it has to be. Simplicity should be a virtue of a theory. Testable hypothesis; a good objective theory is testable. If a prediction is wrong, there ought to be a way to demonstrate the error. Practical utility; a good objective theory is useful. As Kurt Lewin puts it clearly & nicely, “there is nothing as practical as a good theory.”
  • 100. Criteria…  Unlike scientists, interpretive scholars do not have an agreed-on five-point set of criteria for evaluating their theories. • However, even though there is no universally approved model for interpretive theories, humanists & other interpreters repeatedly urge that theories should accomplish some or all of the following interpretive standards.
  • 101. Criteria… i. New understanding of people, an interpretive theory is good when it offers fresh insight into the human condition. ii. Clarification of values; a good interpretive theory brings people’s values into the open. iii. Aesthetic appeal; good interpretive theory does not just consider issues of artistry and aesthetic-it embodies them. Art looks at an old material in a new way. The form of a communication theory can capture the imagination of a reader as much as the content does.
  • 102. Criteria… iv. A community of agreement; we can identify a good interpretive by the amount of support it generates within a community of like-minded scholars. • Interpretation of meaning is subjective, but whether the interpreter’s case is reasonable is decided ultimately by others in the field. • Their acceptance or rejection is an objective fact that helps verify or vilify theorists ideas. v. Reform of society; a good interpretive theory often generates change. A critical interpreter is reformer who can have impact on society.
  • 103. 2. Behaviorism and media effects Lasswell’s chain of communication and propaganda technique • Harold Lasswell was a prominent scholar in the area of propaganda research. He focused on conducting both quantitative and qualitative analyses of propaganda, understanding the content of propaganda, and discovering the effect of propaganda on the mass audience (Rogers, 1994). • Lasswell is credited with creating the mass communication procedure of content analysis (Rogers, 1994).
  • 104. Lasswell’s chain… • Content analysis can be defined as, "...the investigation of communication messages by categorizing message content into classifications in order to measure certain variables" (Rogers, 1994). • Lasswell explains that a content analysis should take into account the frequency with which certain symbols appear in a message, the direction in which the symbols try to persuade the audience’s opinion, and the intensity of the symbols used.
  • 105. Lasswell’s chain… • By understanding the content of the message, Lasswell aims to achieve the goal of understanding the "stream of influence that runs from control to content and from content to audience" • This method of content analysis is tied strongly to Lasswell's (1953) early definition of communication which stated, "Who says what in which channel to whom and with what effects".
  • 106. Lasswell’s chain… • Content analysis was essentially the 'says what' part of this definition, and Lasswell went on to do a lot of work within this area during the remainder of his career. • Lasswell's most well-known content analyses were an examination of the propaganda content during World War One and Two. • In Propaganda Technique in the World War, Lasswell (1938) examined propaganda techniques through a content analysis, and came to some striking conclusions.
  • 107. Lasswell’s chain… • Lasswell (1938) was similar to Ellul, in that he showed that the content of war propaganda had to be pervasive in all aspects of the citizen’s life in order to be effective. • Furthermore, Lasswell (1938) showed that as more people were reached by this propaganda, the war effort would become more effective. "...[The active propagandist is certain to have willing help from everybody, with an axe to grind in transforming the War into a march toward whatever sort of promised land happens to appeal to the group concerned. • The more of these sub-groups he can fire for the War, the more powerful will be the united devotion of the people to the cause of the country, and to the humiliation of the enemy" (Lasswell 1938).
  • 108. Lasswell’s chain… • Aside from understanding the content of propaganda, Lasswell was also interested in how propaganda could shape public opinion. This dealt primarily with understanding the effects of the media. • Lasswell was particularly interested in examining the effects of the media in creating public opinion within a democratic system. • In Democracy Through Public Opinion, Lasswell (1941) examines the effects of propaganda on public opinion, and the effects of public opinion on democracy.
  • 109. Lasswell’s chain… • Lasswell (1941) claims, “Democratic government acts upon public opinion and public opinion acts openly upon government”. • Affecting this relationship is the existence of propaganda. Due to this propaganda, “General suspiciousness is directed against all sources of information. • Citizens may convince themselves that it is hopeless to get the truth about public affairs”. In this way, Lasswell has created a cycle, whereby the public is limited in the information that is presented to them, and also apprehensive to accept it.
  • 110. Hypodermic needle theory This theory is also called Magic Bullet Theory. Metaphorically called the magic bullet theory or the hypodermic needle theory. This paradigm asserted that the media acted strongly and predictably on audiences in much the way a bullet or hypodermic needle would. The presumption was that media messages cause people to think and act in certain predictable ways. It also presumes that people in a mass audience are affected similarly and that communication produces identical results that can be pinpointed and direct.
  • 111. Hypodermic… The examples pointed to were the use of commercial advertising and military propaganda, both of which were thought to be strong influencers over public opinion, though researchers were unable to explain how the influence occurred. The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate, and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.
  • 112. Hypodermic… Two leading scholars were associated with this paradigm. Walter Lippmann observed that people see a world shaped primarily by the media. Harold Lasswell defined the classic linear explanation that communication involves who says what, in which channel, to whom and with what effect.
  • 113. Hypodermic… Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including: The fast rise and popularization of radio and television The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda The Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WW II to unify the German public behind the Nazi party
  • 114. Hypodermic… Core Assumptions and Statements • The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. • Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver.
  • 115. Hypodermic… • The bullet theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". • With similarly emotive imagery, the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience, which is immediately influenced by the message.
  • 116. Hypodermic… • There is no escape from the effect of the message in these models. The population is seen as a sitting duck. • People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot media material "shot" at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information. • They express the view that the media are dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message.
  • 117. Hypodermic… Limited-Effects Paradigm • Further research dispelled the fears or hopes associated with the previous model and instead presented a minimalist model. • Newer research had shown that the media are not very powerful, and that studies of topics such as voting behavior showed little direct or immediate power by the media. • Instead, the media operated in secondary ways. One of the major theories associated with limited effects paradigm is two-step flow -communication theory.
  • 118. Two-step flow theory o Interpersonal communication between the audience and the opinion leader has strong effect than the mass communication between the media and audience because they have indirect relationship. History and Orientation o The two-step flow of communication hypothesis was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet in The People's Choice, a 1944 study focused on the process of decision-making during a Presidential election campaign.
  • 119. Two-step… o These researchers expected to find empirical support for the direct influence of media messages on voting intentions. o They were surprised to discover, however, that informal, personal contacts were mentioned far more frequently than exposure to radio or newspaper as sources of influence on voting behavior. o Armed with this data, Katz and Lazarsfeld developed the two-step flow theory of mass communication.
  • 120. Two-step… Core Assumptions and Statements • This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. • First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. • Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. • The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message.
  • 121. Two-step… Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviors and are quite similar to those they influence. The two-step flow theory has improved our understanding of how the mass media influence decision-making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behavior, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes and behavior. The two-step flow theory gave way to the multi-step flow theory of mass communication or diffusion of innovation theory.
  • 122. Multi-Step-Flow Theory • This was based on the idea that there are a number of relays in the communication flow from a source to a large audience.
  • 123. Hierarchy of needs • Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, propounds the fact that people choose what they wants to see or read and the different media compete to satisfy each individual’s needs. • In the hierarchy of needs, there are five levels in the form of a pyramid with the basic needs such as food and clothing at the base and the higher order needs climbing up the pyramid. The fulfillment of each lower level need leads to the individual looking to satisfy the next level of need and so on till he reaches the superior-most need of self- actualization.
  • 124. Hierarchy… • What motivates behavior? According to humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow, our actions are motivated in order to achieve certain needs. • Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" and his subsequent book Motivation and Personality. • This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs.
  • 125. Hierarchy… • As a humanist, Maslow believed that people have an inborn desire to be self-actualized, to be all they can be. In order to achieve these ultimate goals, however, a number of more basic needs must be met first such as the need for food, safety, love, and self-esteem. From Basic to More Complex Needs • This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are located at the top of the pyramid.
  • 126. Hierarchy… • Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical requirements including the need for food, water, sleep, and warmth. • Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and security. • As people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Soon, the need for love, friendship, and intimacy become important. Further up the pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of accomplishment take priority. • Like Carl Rogers, Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as a person in order to achieve individual potential.
  • 127. Hierarchy… Types of Needs  Maslow believed that these needs are similar to instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior. Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are deficiency needs (D-needs), meaning that these needs arise due to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant feelings or consequences. • Maslow termed the highest-level of the pyramid as growth needs (being needs or B-needs).  Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something, but rather from a desire to grow as a person.
  • 128. Hierarchy… Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs Physiological Needs These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food, and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met.
  • 129. Hierarchy… Security Needs These include needs for safety and security. Security needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. Examples of security needs include a desire for steady employment, health care, safe neighborhoods, and shelter from the environment.
  • 130. Hierarchy… Social Needs These include needs for belonging, love, and affection. Maslow described these needs as less basic than physiological and security needs.  Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments, and families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community, or religious groups.
  • 131. Hierarchy… Esteem Needs After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition, and accomplishment. Self-actualizing Needs This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others, and interested fulfilling their potential.
  • 132. Uses and gratifications approach • In the mass communication process, uses and gratifications approach puts the function of linking need gratifications and media choice clearly on the side of audience members. • It suggests that people’s needs influence what media they would choose, how they use certain media, and what gratifications the media give them. • This approach differs from other theoretical perspectives in that it regards audiences as active media users as opposed to passive receivers of information.
  • 133. Uses… • In contrast to traditional media effects, theories, which focus on “what media do to people” and assume audiences are homogeneous, uses and gratifications approach is more concerned with “what people do with media” (Katz, 1959). • It allows audiences personal needs to use media and responds to the media, which determined by their social and psychological background. • Uses and gratifications approach also postulates that the media compete with other information sources for audience’s need satisfaction (Katz et al., 1974a).
  • 134. Uses… History and Orientation • The theory was originated in the 1970s, as a reaction to traditional mass communication research, which emphasized the sender, and the message, uses gratification theory stresses the active audience and user. • Psychological orientation taking needs motives and gratifications of media users as the main point of departure.
  • 135. Uses… Core Assumptions and Statements Five basic assumptions were stated in a study of Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch in 1974 as follows. They provide a framework for understanding the correlation between media and audiences: The audience is conceived as active, i.e., an important part of mass media use is assumed to be goal oriented … patterns of media use are shaped by more or less definite expectations of what certain kinds of content have to offer the audience member.
  • 136. Uses… In the mass communication process much initiative in liking need gratification and media choice lies with the audience member… individual and public opinions have power vis- à-vis the seemingly all-powerful media. The media compete with other sources of need satisfaction. The needs served by mass communication constitute but a segment of the wider range of human needs, and the degree to which they can be adequately met through mass media consumption certainly varies.
  • 137. Uses…  Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass media use can be derived from data supplied by individual audience members themselves- i.e., people are sufficiently self-aware to be able to report their interests and motives in particular cases, or at least to recognize them when confronted with them in an intelligible and familiar verbal formulation.  Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass communication should be suspended while audience orientations are explored on their own terms. Core: Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups, and society in general.
  • 138. Uses… There are three objectives in developing uses and gratifications theory: 1) to explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs. “What do people do with the media”? 2) to discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use. 3) to identify the positive and the negative consequences of individual media use. • At the core of uses and gratifications theory lays the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs. Statement: A medium will be used more when the existing motives to use the medium leads to more satisfaction.
  • 139. Cultivation Theory • Gerbner’s cultivation theory says that television has become the main source of storytelling in today's society. Those who watch four or more hours a day are labeled heavy television viewers and those who view less than four hours per day, according to Gerbner are light viewers. • Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore are affected by the Mean World Syndrome, an idea that the world is worse than it actually is. • According to Gerbner, the overuse of television is creating a homogeneous and fearful populace.
  • 140. Cultivation… • George Gerbner began the 'Cultural Indicators' research project in the mid-1960s, to study whether and how watching television may influence viewers' ideas of what the everyday world is like. • Cultivation theorists argue that television has long- term effects that are small, gradual, indirect but cumulative and significant. Core Assumptions and Statements • Cultivation theory in its most basic form, suggests that television is responsible for shaping, or ‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality.
  • 141. Cultivation… • The combined effect of massive television exposure by viewers over time subtly shapes the perception of social reality for individuals and, ultimately, for our culture as a whole. • Gerbner argues that the mass media cultivate attitudes and values, which are already present in a culture: the media maintain and propagate these values amongst members of a culture, thus binding it together. • There is also a distinction between two groups of television viewers: the heavy viewers and the light viewers. The focus is on ‘heavy viewers’.
  • 142. Cultivation… • People who watch a lot of television are likely to be more influenced by the ways in which the world is framed by television programs than are individuals who watch less, especially regarding topics of which the viewer has little first-hand experience. • Light viewers may have more sources of information than heavy viewers may. ‘Resonance’ describes the intensified effect on the audience when what people see on television is what they have experienced in life. This double dose of the televised message tends to amplify the cultivation effect.
  • 143. Agenda Setting Theory The original agenda: Not what to think, But what to think about. • Journalist professors Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw regard ‘Watergate’ as a perfect example of the agenda setting function of the mass media. McCombs and Shaw believe that the “mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of items on their news agenda to the public agenda.”
  • 144. Agenda… • They are not suggesting that broadcast and print personnel make a deliberate attempt to influence listener, viewer, and reader opinion on the issue. • Reporters in the free world have a deserved reputation for independence and fairness. But McCombs and Shaw say that we look to news professionals for cues on where to focus our attention. “We judge as important what the media judge as important.” • Pulitzer Prize-winning author Walter Lippmann claimed that the media act as a mediator between “the world outside and the pictures in our heads.”
  • 145. Agenda… • McCombs and Shaw also quote University of Wisconsin political scientist Bernard Cohen’s observation concerning the specific function the media serve. “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” • Agenda setting theory boasted two attractive features: it reaffirms the power of the press while still maintain that individuals were free to choose.
  • 146. 3. Interpersonal Communication Theories Symbolic Interaction • The theory consists of three core principles: meaning, language, and thought. These core principles lead to conclusions about the creation of a person’s self and socialization into a larger community (Griffin, 1997). • Meaning states that humans act toward people and things according to the meanings that give to those people or things. • This theory suggests that people are motivated to act based on the meanings they assign to people, things, and events. • Further, meaning is created in the language that people use both with others and in private thought. • Language allows people to develop a sense of self and to interact with others in community.
  • 147. Symbolic… Meaning: the Construction of Social Reality • Blumer’s starts with the premise that humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they assign to those people or things. Language: The Source of Meaning • Blumer‘s second premise that meaning arises out of the social interaction that people have with each other. In other words, meaning is not inherent in objects; it’s not pre-existent in a state of nature. • Meaning is negotiated through the use of language- hence the term symbolic interactionism.
  • 148. Symbolic… • As human beings, we have the ability to name things. We can designate a specific object (person), identify an action (screen), or refer to an abstract idea (crazy). • Mead believed that symbolic meaning is the basis for human society. • The book of Genesis in the Bible states that Adam’s first task was to name the animals-the dawn of civilization. • Interactionalists claim that the extent of knowing is dependent on the extent of naming
  • 149. Symbolic… • Blumer’ third premise is that an individual’s interpretation of symbols is modified by his/her own thought processes. Symbolic interactionists describe thinking as an inner conversation. Mead called this inner dialogue minding. • Minding is the pause that’s reflective. It’s the two- second delay while we mentally rehearse our next move, test alternatives, anticipate others’ reactions. • Mead says we do not need any encouragement to take before we leap. We naturally talk to ourselves in order to sort out the meaning of a difficult situation. But first, we need language. Before we can think, we must be able to interact symbolically.
  • 150. Expectancy Violation Theory Expectancy violation theory sees communication as the exchange of information which is high in relations content and can be used to violate the expectations of another which will be perceived as either positively or negatively depending on the liking between the two people. • When our expectations are violated, we will respond in specific ways. • If an act is unexpected and is assigned favourable interpretation, and it is evaluated positively, it will produce more favourable out comes than an expected act with the same interpretation and evaluation.
  • 151. Expectancy… • This theory assumes that humans have a certain amount of free will. • This is because it assumes that humans can survey and interpret the relationship and liking between themselves and their conversational partner and then make a decision whether or not to violate the expectation of the other person depending on what outcome they would like to achieve. • The expectancy violations theory is very practical and useful theory because it assumes that there are universal norms and reactions to violations to those norms. It also seeks to predict what the reactions to each violation of norms will be.
  • 152. Expectancy… EVT has three core concepts. These are expectancy, violation valence, and communicator reward valence. Expectancy o …“prefer to reserve the term ‘expectancy’ for what is predicted to occur rather than what desired. Violation valence o The term violation valence refers to the positive or negative value we place on a specific unexpected behaviour, regardless of who does it.
  • 153. Expectancy… Communication reward valence • Expectancy violation theory is not the only theory that describes the human tendency to size up other people in terms of the potential rewards they have to offer. • The reward balance of a communicator is the sum of the positive and negative attributes that the person brings to the encounter put the potential he or she has to reward or punish in the future.
  • 154. Coordinated Management of Meaning • CMM is a practical theory that sees communication as doing things fully as much as talking about them, “Talking the communication perspective” consists of looking at communication and seeing it as a two sided process of coordinating actions with others and making or managing meanings. • The fundamental building blocks of CMM theory focus specially on the flow of communication between people. The three different processes experienced either consciously or unconsciously are coherence, coordination and mystery.
  • 155. CMM… Coherence • Coherence describes how meaning is achieved in conversation. It is the “process by which we tell ourselves (and others) stories in order to interpret the world around us and our place in it”. Coordination • The concept of coordination has to do with the fact that our actions do not stand alone with regard to communication. • The words or actions that we use during a conversation come together to produce patterns.
  • 156. CMM… • Pearce and Cronen are quick to point out that coordination does not imply a commitment to coordinate “smoothly” but rather the concept is meant to provide the basis for being mindful of the other side of the story. Mystery • The final concept has to do with the concept that not everything within communication can be explained. Mystery also known as stories unexpressed is the recognition that “the world and our experience of it is more than any of the particular stories that make it coherent or any of the activities in which we engage.
  • 157. Social penetration theory The theory proposed that closeness occurs through a gradual process of self-disclosure, and closeness develops if the participants proceed in a gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both immediate and forecast outcomes. Social penetration theory was formulated by psychology professors Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor in attempt to describe the dynamics of relational closeness.
  • 158. Social… • Self-disclosure is the act of revealing more about ourselves, on both a conscious and an unconscious level. • Altman and Taylor believe that only through opening one's self to the main route to social penetration - self-disclosure - by becoming vulnerable to another person can a close relationship develop. • Vulnerability can be expressed in a variety of ways, including the giving of anything, which is considered a personal possession, such as a dresser drawer given to a partner.
  • 159. Social… • Social penetration is perhaps best known for its onion analogy. Self-disclosure is referred to in terms of breadth and depth, the latter of which is described in units of layers. • This analogy is used to describe the multilayered nature of personality. When one peels the outer skin from an onion, another skin is uncovered. • When the second layer is removed, a third is exposed, and so forth. • The outer layer of personality contains the public self, which is accessible to anyone who wants to look. The public self layer has a myriad of details which help to describe who one is, such as height, weight, gender, and other public information which takes little questioning to discover.
  • 160. Social… • Below the surface layer, however, the personality holds more private information like beliefs, faith, prejudices, and general relationship information. Held within the inner core are values, self- concept, and deep emotions. • The inner core is the unique private domain of individuals, which, although invisible to the rest of the world, has a profound impact on the areas of life, which lie closer to the surface. • The amount revealed can vary according to culture.
  • 161. Social… Key points of self-disclosure • Peripheral items are exchanged more frequently and sooner than private information .Let us go back to the idea that you are a new student in the university, so the information you share with your new roommate starts with those of at the upper level such as your name , your friends in high school, which are not as such personal . • Self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages of relationship development. In the process of exposing one’s personal values, it is highly dependent on the give and take sprit since for you to tell your new friend your deep secrets he/ she shall do the same (scratch my back and I will scratch yours).
  • 162. Social… • Penetration is rapid at the start but slows down quickly as the tightly wrapped inner layers are reached. It is an advice we get in all our interactions to take it easy in exposing our thoughts. There are societal norms against telling too much too fast as a result we tend to share observable features as soon as possible and think over a way to share core values we have. • De-penetration is a gradual process of layer-by-layer withdrawal. This is to mean that once you became open to your friend in telling what goes in your life and start to hide up some things; this will create a negative impact on your relationship building and leads to termination of it.
  • 163. Uncertainty Reduction theory Ability to predict outcome of communication • Central to this theory is the assumption that when strangers meet, their primary concern is one of uncertainty reduction or increasing predictability about the behavior of both themselves and others in the interaction. Therefore, the following discussion will revolve and get into core ideas concerning this process.
  • 164. Uncertainty… • Since the mid-twentieth century, the concept of information has been a strong foundation for communication research and the development communication theory. • Information exchange is a basic human function in which individuals request, provide, and exchange information with the goal of reducing uncertainty. • URT accredited to Charles R. Berger and Richard J. Calabrese (1975), recognized that reducing uncertainty was a central motive of communication.
  • 165. Uncertainty… • Health and Bryant (2000) state: “One of the motivations underpinning interpersonal communication is the acquisition of information with which to reduce uncertainty” . The study of information is basic to all fields of communication. • URT places the role of communication into the central focus, which was a key step in the development of the field of interpersonal communication.
  • 166. Uncertainty… • The research underlying the theory and efforts made by other contemporaries marked the emergence of interpersonal communication research; with the development of URT, communication researchers began to look to communication for theories of greater understanding rather than theoretical approaches founded in other social sciences. • Shannon and Weaver (1949) proposed that uncertainty existed in a given situation when there was a high amount of possible alternatives and the probability of their event was relatively equal.
  • 167. Uncertainty… • Shannon and Weaver related this view of uncertainty to the transmission of messages, but their work also contributed to the development of URT. • Berger and Calabrese (1975) expanded the concept of uncertainty to fit interpersonal communication by defining uncertainty as the “number of alternative ways in which each interactant might behave”. The greater the level of uncertainty that exists in a situation, the smaller the chance individuals will be able to predict behaviors and occurrences.
  • 168. Uncertainty… • During interactions, individuals are not only faced with problems of predicting present and past behaviors, but also explaining why partners behave or believe in the way that they do. • Berger and Bradac’s (1982) definition of uncertainty highlighted the complexity of this process when they stated: “Uncertainty, then, can stem from the large number of alternative things that a stranger can believe or potentially say”.
  • 169. Uncertainty… • Uncertainty plays a significant role when examining relationships. High levels of uncertainty can severely inhibit relational development. • Uncertainty can cause stress and anxiety that can lead to low able to develop relationships or may be too anxious to engage in initial interactions. • West and Turner (2000) note that lower levels of uncertainty caused increased verbal and nonverbal behavior, increased levels of intimacy, and increased liking.
  • 170. Uncertainty… • In interactions , individuals are expected to increase predictability with the goal that this will lead to the ability to predict and explain what will occur in future interactions. • When high uncertainty exists, it is often difficult to reach this goal. Although individuals seek to reduce uncertainty, high levels of certainty and predictability can also inhibit a relationship. • Heath and Bryant (2000) state: “Too much certainty and predictability can deaden a relationship; too much uncertainty raises its costs to an unacceptable level. Relationship building is dialectic stability, change, certainty, and uncertainty” .
  • 171. Uncertainty… Axioms of Uncertainty Reduction Theory Verbal communication: Given the high level of uncertainty present at the onset of the entry phase, as the amount of verbal communication between strangers increases, the level of uncertainty for each interactant in the relationship will decrease. As uncertainty is further reduced, the amount of verbal communication will increase. Nonverbal warmth: As nonverbal affinitive expressiveness increases, uncertainty levels will decrease in an initial interaction situation. In addition, decreases in uncertainty level will cause increases in nonverbal affinitive expressiveness.
  • 172. Uncertainty… Information seeking: High levels of uncertainty cause increases in information seeking behavior. As uncertainty levels decline, information seeking behavior decreases. Self -disclosure: High levels of uncertainty in a relationship cause decreases in the intimacy level of communication content. Low levels of uncertainty produce high levels of intimacy. Reciprocity: High levels of uncertainty produce high rates of reciprocity. Low levels of uncertainty produce low reciprocity rates. Similarity: Similarities between persons reduce uncertainty, while dissimilarities produce increases in uncertainty.
  • 173. Uncertainty… Liking: Increases in uncertainty level produce decreases in liking; decreases in uncertainty level produce increases in liking. Shared networks: shared communication networks reduce uncertainty, while lack of shared networks increases uncertainty. Strategies to cope with uncertainty After a serious of investigations, the pioneer scholar in this theory, Berger, concluded that most social interaction is goal- driven; we have reasons for saying what we say. He labeled his work “a plan based theory of strategic communication” because he was convinced that we continually construct cognitive plans to guide our social action.
  • 174. Uncertainty… Seeking information and new perspectives: is a way in which people in the interaction try to gather information about each other so that they can determine and anticipate the outcome. The process of finding new perspective also helps to reduce uncertainty. When you could not find your first choice, you go for similar alternative this way you could cope with your uncertainty. Hedging: is the process by which participants of communication give up some unclear assumptions they have about the participant before the interaction and tries to create positive interactional link. It works both ways since they come closer through the hedging process.
  • 175. Social information processing theory • SIP is an interpersonal communication theory and media studies theory developed in 1992 by Joseph Walther. • Social information processing theory explains online interpersonal communication without nonverbal cues and how people develop and manage relationships in a computer-mediated environment. Walther argued that online interpersonal relationships may demonstrate the same or even greater relational dimensions and qualities (intimacy) as traditional FtF relationships.
  • 176. Social info… • However, due to the limited channel and information, it may take longer to achieve than FtF relationships. • These online relationships may help facilitate interactions that would not have occurred face- to-face due to factors such as geography and intergroup anxiety. • The term Social Information Processing Theory was originally titled by Salancik and Pfeffer in 1978.
  • 177. Social info… • They stated that individual perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors are shaped by information cues, such as values, work requirements, and expectations from the social environment, beyond the influence of individual dispositions and traits. Later, they renamed Social Influence model. The SIP theory we talk here was conducted by Walther in 1992.
  • 178. Social info…  At the start of the 1990s, after the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web, interest grew in studying how the Internet impacted the ways people communicate with each other. Joseph Walther, a communication and media theorist, said that computer-mediated communication (CMC) users can adapt to this restricted medium and use it effectively to develop close relationships.  Walther understood that to describe the new nature of online communication required a new theory. Social information processing theory focuses on the social processes that occur when two or more people are engaged in communication.
  • 179. Social info… Assumptions • Social information processing researchers like Joseph Walther are intrigued by how identities are managed online and how relationships are able to move from one of superficiality to one of intimacy. Three assumptions related to the SIP theory are listed below: Computer-mediated communication provides unique opportunities to connect with people. • The first assumption rests on the premise that computer-mediated communication is a unique opportunity to build interpersonal relationships with others.
  • 180. Social info… • The CMC systems are vast and almost always text based. It has been identified as "an organic setting" and it can be both synchronous and asynchronous. • CMC is clearly different than face-to-face communication, but it offers an unparalleled opportunity to meet someone whom you would never meet FtF. Moreover, relationships established via CMC systems also prompt emotions and feelings we find in all relationships. • Finally, since CMC systems are available around the globe, the uniqueness of being able to cultivate online relationships with someone who is very far away cannot be ignored.
  • 181. Social info… Online communicators are motivated to form (favorable) impressions of themselves to others. • The second assumption indicates that impression management is essential in online relationships and participants undertake efforts to ensure particular impressions. Researchers have found that social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook are filled with people who wish to provide a number of different self-presentations to others. • Since the more Facebook friends one has, the more attractive the individual is viewed to be, managing one's online impression remains important on various SNS and on numerous CMC system platforms.
  • 182. Social info… Online interpersonal relationships require extended time and more accumulated messages to develop equivalent levels of intimacy seen in FtF interpersonal relationships. • The third assumption of SIP states that different rates of information exchange and information accrual affect relationship development. • Social information processing theory is suggesting that although the messages are verbal, communicators "adapt" to the restrictions of online medium, look for cues in the messages from others, and modify their language to the extent that the words compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues.
  • 183. Social info… • This third assumption reflects Walther's contention that given sufficient time and accrual of messages, online relationships have the same capacity to become intimate as those that are established face to face. • In addition, online comments are usually delivered rather quickly and efficiently. • Further, these messages "build up" over time and provide online participants sufficient information from which to begin and develop interpersonal relationships.
  • 184. Interactional view theory • Relationships within a family system are interconnected and highly resistant to change. • Communication among members has both a content and relationship component. • The system can be transformed only when members receive outside help to reframe the relational punctuation. • The Interactional View is also known as the theory of pragmatics because of the dependence on the particular situation at hand. • Miscommunication occurs because people are not "speaking the same language." These languages contrast because people have different points of view from which they are speaking.
  • 185. Constructivism • Constructivism is a communication theory that seeks to explain individual differences in people’s ability to communicate skillfully in social situations. • You probably do not need to be convinced that some people are better at understanding, attracting, persuading, informing, comforting, or entertaining others with whom they talk.
  • 186. Constructivism… • In fact, you may take communication courses so that you can become more adept at reaching these communication goals. • Also some might suspect that communication success is simply a matter of becoming more assertive or outgoing, Jesse Delia believes that there is a crucial behind-the-eyes- difference in people who are interpersonally effective.
  • 187. Constructivism… • His theory of constructivism offers a cognitive explanation for communication competence. • The core assumption of constructivism is that “persons make sense of the world through systems of personal constructs.” Constructs are the cognition templates, or stencils, we fit over “reality” to bring order to our perceptions.
  • 188. Social Judgment Theory • We hear a message and immediately judge where it should be placed on the attitude scale in our minds. • According to Muzafer Sherif, this subconscious sorting out of ideas occurs at the instance of perception. We weigh every new idea by comparing it with our present point of view. • This is called social judgment theory. Sheriff by his two studies found that people’s perceptions are altered dramatically by group membership.
  • 189. Social Judgment… • Social judgment theory extended his concern with perception to the field of persuasion. He saw an attitude as an amalgam of three zones. The first zone is called the latitude of acceptance. It’s made up of the item you underlined and any others you circled as acceptance.  A second zone is the latitude of rejection. It consists of the opinion you crossed out as objectionable.
  • 190. Social Judgment… The left over statements, if any, define the latitude of non-commitment. • These were the items that you found neither objectionable nor acceptable. They are akin to marking undecided or no opinion on a traditional altitude survey. • Sheriff said we need to know the location and width of each of these interrelated latitudes in order to describe a person’s attitude structure.
  • 191. Cognitive dissonance theory • Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. • The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. • They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying.
  • 192. Cognitive dissonance… • Experience can clash with expectations, as, for example, with buyer's remorse following the purchase of an expensive item. • In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment. People are biased to think of their choices as correct, despite any contrary evidence. • This bias gives dissonance theory its predictive power, shedding light on otherwise puzzling irrational and destructive behavior.
  • 193. Cognitive dissonance… • Smoking is often postulated as an example of cognitive dissonance because it is widely accepted that cigarettes can cause lung cancer, yet virtually everyone wants to live a long and healthy life. • In terms of the theory, the desire to live a long life is dissonant with the activity of doing something that will most likely shorten one's life. • The tension produced by these contradictory ideas can be reduced by quitting smoking, denying the evidence of lung cancer, or justifying one is smoking.