Learning objective:

Overview of Communication
Theory
LESSON 2
The Discipline of
FRAMING OUT Communication

PAST AND
PRESENT
A Brief History: The National Communication Association

Present-day communication courses such

as public speaking were taught in English
departments in the early 1900s.

In 1913, during the National Council of

Teachers of English annual meeting, a
motion was passed to establish an
organization for file study of public
speaking: the National Association of
Academic Teachers of Public Speaking
(NAATPS).
National Communication Association office in Washington, D.C.
The Inter/Multidisciplinary Interest in Communication

Those affiliated with NCA come from a

variety of scholarly backgrounds.
Research and theory in communication
has been informed by other fields of study,
such as anthropology, psychology,
sociology, linguistics, etc.

Multi-disciplinary approaches help

researchers better understand the
phenomena studied in communication.
The theories used in communication
reveal multidisciplinary interests.
Establishing Communication Theory: the Founders
Harold Lasswell (Linear model,
1948/9)

He argued that propaganda is a daily

occurrence in modern society. Because
propaganda is inescapable, democracies
must learn how to handle its effects.
Establishing Communication Theory: the Founders
Paul Lazarsfeld

He was instrumental in studying voting and

the effects the media have on voters'
preferences and behavior.
Establishing Communication Theory: the Founders
Kurt Lewin

He examined the function of small groups

and argued that a small group's lifespace
or a group member's psychological
environment influences the behavior of the
group.
Establishing Communication Theory: the Founders
Carl Hovland

He examined attitude change and

investigated the extent to which long- and
short-term recall influence an individual's
attitudes and beliefs.
Establishing Communication Theory: the Founders
Wilbur Schramm (Interactional
model, 1954/5)

He was instrumental in establishing a

communication program and in graduating
doctoral students who would later make
significant contributions to the study of
communication.

Schramm is also credited with bringing

research funds to the study of communication
and, in the process, with bringing credibility to
the discipline and its research.
Context of Communication

1. Intrapersonal Communication
Communication with oneself

• It is usually more repetitive than other

communication.
• It includes the time you spend imagining,
perceiving, daydreaming, and solving
problems in your head.
• It also includes the attributions you make
about another's and yourself behavior.
• Research in intrapersonal communication
focuses on cognitions, symbols, and intentions
of individuals.
Context of Communication
2. Interpersonal Communication
Face to face communication with
people

• The study of the origins, maintenance and

dissolution of relationships.
• It may take place in family relationships,
friendships, marital relationships, and
physician-patient relationships.
• It across a wide variety of channels such as
visual, auditory, tactile (touch) and olfactory
(smell).
• Researchers study a variety of issues such
as competence, self-disclosure, power,
gossip, liking, attraction, and emotions.
Context of Communication
3. Group Communication
Three or more people come together and
work to achieve some common purpose.

• Focuses on small group research focuses on task

groups as opposed to friendship and family groups.
• The researchers have yet to agree the number of
people involved
• People can be influenced by the presence of others.
• Networking and role behavior are two important
components of small group behavior.
• Researchers study a variety of issues including
power, juries, gossip, conflict, creativity, and cultural
diversity.
Context of Communication
4. Organizational Communication
Communication within among large,
extended communication

• It includes interpersonal encounters, public speaking

opportunities, small groups situations, and mediated
communication.
• Hawthorne experiments (conducted in the mid-1920s to
early 1930s), indicated that environmental conditions and
interpersonal relationships among employees and
supervisors influence employee productivity.
• Human relations approaches to studying organizations
has received much attention, but other orientations exist
as well, such as cultural systems and scientific
management.
 
Context of Communication
5. Public/ Rhetorical
Communication
Dissemination of information from
one person to a large group
•The three goals of public speaking are to inform,
entertain, or persuade.
•Rhetoric is defined by Aristotle as a speaker's
available means of persuading his/her audience.
It includes variables such as speaker credibility,
audience analysis, organization of message, and
delivery of message.
•Communication apprehension (CA), or the fear of
public speaking, has received much attention.
Context of Communication
6. Mass Communication
communication to large audience via
channels

• The mass communication context

encompasses the channel and the
audience.
• “old media,” vs. “new media”
• Compared to other communication
contexts, mass communication is often
more constrained and restricted.
Context of Communication
7. Intercultural Communication
Communication between individuals
whose cultural background differ

• It can be viewed as a “community of meaning

and a shared body of local knowledge.”
• Co-cultures are groups of individuals who are
part of the same larger culture but who —
through unity and individual identification
around such attributes as race, ethnicity,
sexual orientation, and religion — create
opportunities of their own.
• It is a relatively new concept in the academic
world, dating back only to the 1950s.
RECAP OF LESSON 2
•How communication field started?
•Who are the key founders and in
connection to the models of Ready for the
communication?
next lesson?
•Different contexts of
communication and areas of
research