Introduction to communication theories

2. Definition of symbols
Definition of the theories of the symbolic
organisation

3. What Is A Schema
Theory ?
What is a schema
What is a shema theory
What is a schema theory of the cognitive
miser

4. Social schemata theory
The “what” of schema theory
Need of schemas in our sense making process
Provides ways of organizing information
Provides guides for understanding and interaction
Variety of frameworks can be drawn.

5. Fiske and Taylor(1984) framework for social schemas:

6. Schemas are not independant
Schemas are imbedded with more abstract schemas
Memory organisation packets(MOPs) : oraganise
sequences of interactions.

7. The “How” of Schema Theory
A schema begins whenever a person comes in
contact with a new situation or idea.
Ex: Your first party at college.
Dynamic change and development

8. Three models of how new information might change
existing schemas:
The bookkeeping model: Changes are gradually made
to schemas to account for discrepant information and
encounters.
The conversion model: A meaningful encounter with
discrepant information can totally change a schema.
The subtyping model: Subcategories of the overall
schema are formed to deal with new and discrepant
information .

9. Attribution Theory
Definition:
Attribution theory is a social psychological theory that
relates to the way in which people explain their own
behavior and that of others. According to this theory,
people tend to explain psychological or external causes as
the determining factor in behavior.

10. Attribution theory
attempts to explain causes of behavior
Developed by Fritz Heider (1988)

11. Purpose:
The purpose behind making attribution is to
achieve COGNITIVE CONTROL over one’s
environment by explaining and understanding
the causes behind and environment
occurrences. Making attribution give order
and predictability to our lives and help us to
cope.

12. Process of attribution theory
Perception: observe the behavior.
Judgment: believe that the behavior was intentionally
performed.
Attribute: determined to believe that the behavior
was forced to be performed. Was it internal or
external?

13. Example:
For example, if someone acts mean to you
one day, would you attribute the behavior to
the person being an idiot or a jerk (Internal
attribution) Or to the person having a bad
day (External attribution)?
Attribution theory examines the ways in
which people make these attributions.
people make these attributions.

14. Methods used to categorize
attribution theory
Psychology, Criminal Law
Human Resources Management
Education
Marketing Communication. Advertising

15. Narrative theory
affect our ways of thinking and our perception
begun in 1928 with the Russian Formalist named
Vladimir Propp
Walter fisher(1984,1985,1987) states that story telling
is the most basic and universal activity of an human
being

16. they base their decision making and also act on that
storytelling concept.

17. Narrative rationality
the author’s story is judge
how it affects decision making and our behavior
4 key elements present for the audience to judge
1. The plotline should be consistent,
2. There should be enough details to understand the story
3. Characters in the story should behave in a realistic
manner
4. There should be no unrealistic surprises or other
plausible interruption left out by the narrator.

18. narrative and culture
Narratives generate evidence and facilitate the broader
impact of narrative subject matter, which then finds its
way into cultural memory. Fictionalization as a narrative
option sanctions the working through of problems as a
“thought experiment” or wish-fantasy—though fact and
fiction influence and mutually constitute one another. At
the same time, narratives create meaning by organizing
narrative material in plot structures that enable affective
participation and mobilize social energies. And finally, the
ambiguity of narratives makes it possible to produce
diverging and at times controversial links to the world
being narrated on the basis of differing starting
assumptions.

19. The human element in narrative is important. We can say
here that narrative must have a human (or human-like)
agent who must do something, or something must be
done to him or her. Even stories involving animals or
inanimate objects have characters which act like, or have
features of, human beings. The human factor can be
regarded as a paradigmatic core feature of narrative.
narrative and the human element

20. Dramatism
Is an interpretive communication studies
theory, was developed by Kenneth Burke as a
meta-method for analyzing human
relationships. This theory compares life to a
drama and provides the most direct route to
human motives and human relations.

21. Burke

22. Dramatism answers the empirical question of
how persons explain their actions.
In this theory, Burke discusses two important
ideas – that life is drama, and the ultimate
motive of rhetoric is the purging of guilt.
There are three key concepts associated with
dramatism – identification, the
dramatistic pentad, and guilt-
redemption.

23. A Metaphor of Drama
We take dramaturgy to be a metaphor, perspective, and
strategy for viewing life, not as life itself. But why is drama a
useful metaphor of life? Three reasons can be represented
here.
(1) Drama implicates unlimited range of human
activities. Dramatism makes substantive contributions to
understanding of human relationships. It is a method that is
applicable by anyone trained in its usage.
(2) Drama has recognizable genres. Burke believes that
humans use language in patterned discourses, and texts
move us with recurring patterns underlying those texts.
(3) Drama has certain audiences, which means rhetoric
plays a crucial role when humans deal with experiences.
Language strategies are central to Burke's dramatistic
approach.

24. Assumptions
Because of the complexity and extension of Burke's
thinking, it is difficult to label the ontology behind
his theory. However, some basic assumptions can still be
extracted to support the understanding of dramatism.
(1) Some of what we do is motivated by animality and
some of it by symbolicity. Burke's position is that both
animal nature and symbols motivate us. For him, of all
the symbols, language is the most important.
(2) When we use language, we are used by it as well.
Burke held a concept of linguistic relativity similar to
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Words set our concepts and
opinions, which means people cannot see beyond what
their words lead them to believe. This assumption
suggests that language exerts a determining influence
over people.
(3) We are choice makers. Agency is another key point
of dramatism. "The essence of agency is choice. Social

25. Identification
Identification is the basic function of sociality, using both
positive and negative associations. When there is
overlap between two people in terms of their substance,
they have identification. According to Burke it is an
inevitable, thus both beneficial and detrimental
characteristic of language in human relations.
Identification has the following features:

26. •The chief notion of a "new rhetoric"
Examining Aristotle’s principles of rhetoric, Burke points out
that the definition of the “old rhetoric” is, in essence,
persuasion. Correspondently, Burke proposes a new
rhetoric, which discusses several issues, but mainly focuses
on the notion of identification. In comparison with “old”
rhetoric, which stresses on deliberate design, “new” rhetoric
may include partially “unconscious” factors in its appeal.
•Generated when two people ‘s substances overlap
Burke asserts that all things have substance, which he
defines as the general nature of something. Identification is
a recognized common ground between two people’s
substances, regarding physical characteristics, talents,
occupation, experiences, personality, beliefs, and attitudes.
The more substance two people share, the greater the
identification. It is used to overcome human division.

27. •Can be falsified to result in homophily
Sometimes the speaker tries to falsely identify with the audience,
which results in homophily for the audience. Homophily is the
perceived similarity between speaker and listener. The so-called
“I” is merely a unique combination of potentially conflicting
corporate “we’s.” “For example the use of the people rather than
the worker would more clearly tap into the lower middle-class
values of the audience the movement was trying to reach.
•Reflects ambiguities of substance
Burke recognizes that identification rests on both unity and
division, since no one's substance can completely overlap with
others. Individuals are "both joined and separated". Humans can
unite on certain aspects of substance but at the same time remain
unique, which is labeled as "ambiguities". Identification can be
increased by the process of consubstantiation, which refers to
bridging divisions between two people. Rhetoric is needed in this
process to build unity.

28. Dramatistic Pentad
The Dramatistic Pentad is an instrument used as a set of
relational or functional principles that could help us
understand what he calls the ‘cycle cluster of terms’ people
use to attribute motive. This pentad is a dissolution to
drama. It is parallel with Aristotle’s four causes and has a
similar correlation to journalists catechism: who, what,
when, where, why, and how. This is done through the five
key elements of human drama – act, scene, agent, agency,
and purpose.

29. •Act: What was done
•Scene: Where it was done
•Agent: Who did it
•Agency: How the speaker did it; methods or techniques
•Purpose: Why it happened

30. Guilt Redemption
According to Burke, Guilt Redemption is considered the
plot of all human drama, or the root of all rhetoric. In this
perspective, Burke concluded that the ultimate motivation
of man is to purge oneself of one's sense of guilt through
public speaking. The term guilt covers tension, anxiety,
shame, disgust, embarrassment, and other similar
feelings. Guilt serves as a motivating factor that drives the
human drama.
Burke's cycle refers to the process of feeling guilt and
attempting to reduce it, which follows a predictable
pattern: order(or hierarchy), the negative, victimage
(scapegoat or mortification), and redemption.

31. •Order or Hierarchy
Society is a dramatic process in which hierarchy forms
structure through power relationships. The structure of social
hierarchy considered in terms of the communication of
superiority, inferiority and equality. The hierarchy is created
through language using, which enables us to create
categories. We feel guilt as a result of our place in the
hierarchy.
•The Negative
The negative comes into play when people see their place in
the social order and seek to reject it. Saying no to the existing
order is both a function of our language abilities and evidence
of humans as choice makers. Burke coined the phrase "rotten
with perfection", which means that because our symbols
allow us to imagine perfection, we always feel guilty about the
difference between the reality and the perfection.

32. Victimage
Victimage is the process of scapegoating. Here, the speaker
blames an external source for his ills. According to Burke,
there are two different types of
scapegoating, universal and factional.
In universal scapegoating, the speaker blames everyone for
the problem, so the audience associates and even feels sorry
for the victim, because it includes themselves.
In fractional scapegoating, the speaker blames a specific
group or a specific person for their problems. This creates a
division within the audience. The victim, whoever it may be,
is vilified, or made up to violate the ideals of social order, like
normalcy or decency. As a result, by people who take action
against the villains become heroized because they are
confronting evil.

33. Redemption
This is a confession of guilt by the speaker and a request
for forgiveness. Normally, these people are sentenced to a
certain punishment so they can reflect and realize their
sins. This punishment is specifically a kind of “death,”
literal or figuratively.
Many speakers experience a combination of these two
guilt-purging options. The ongoing cycle starts with order.
The order is the status quo, where everything is right with
the world. Then pollution disrupts the order. The pollution
is the guilt or sin. Then casuistic stretching allows the guilt
to be accepted into the world. Next, is the guilt, which is
the effect of the pollution. After that, is victimage or
mortification which purges the guilt. Finally comes
transcendence which is new order, the now status quo.

34. conclusion
symbolic organization theories have a major role
to play in communication
helps individuals to process a wide variety of
information about the social world in an efficient
way, establishes a good perception between the
participant as they already have a well organized
set of ideas and information to share through the
application of the schema theory.