CHAPTER 3 WEIGHING THE WORDS

CHAPTER 4 MAPPING THE TERRITORY

CHAPTER 5 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

CHAPTER 6 COORDINATED MANAGEMENT

OF MEANING

JANUARY 31, 2023

BURKE-HAWTHORNE HALL
WHAT MAKES A GOOD OBJECTIVE THEORY?

1. Prediction of future events

2. Explanation of data
3. Relative simplicity
4. Testable hypotheses
5. Practical utility
6. Quantitative research
WHAT MAKES A GOOD INTERPRETIVE THEORY?

1. Clarification of values
2. New understanding of people
3. Aesthetic appeal
4. A community of agreement
5. Reform of society
6. Qualitative research
 OBJECTIVE INTERPRETIVE SIMILARITY
THEORY THEORY
Prediction of Future Clarification of Both look to the future
Values
Explanation of Data Understanding of An explanation can further
People understanding of motive
Relative Simplicity Aesthetic Appeal Simplicity has aesthetic appeal

Testable Hypotheses Community of Hypothesis testing is a way of

Agreement achieving community
agreement
Practical Utility Reform of Society Theories that reform are
practical
Quantitative Qualitative Both reflect a commitment to
research research learning more about
communication
CHAPTER 4 MAPPING THE TERRITORY

● Communication professor Robert Craig thinks practical

application is a great starting point for developing a
tool to help discriminate between theories.
● Communication theory is the systematic and thoughtful
response of communication scholars to questions posed
as humans interact with one another—the best thinking
within a practical discipline.
● Craig identifies seven established traditions of
communication theory.
7 TRADITIONS OF COMMUNICATION THEORY

1. The Socio-Psychological Tradition-

Communication as interaction and influence

2. The Cybernetic Tradition-

Communication as a system of information processing

3. The Rhetorical Tradition-

Communication as artful public address

4. The Semiotic Tradition-

Communication as the process of sharing meaning through signs

5. The Socio-Cultural Tradition-

Communication as the creation and enactment of social reality
6. The Critical Tradition-
Communication as a reflective challenge of unjust discourse
7. The Phenomenological Tradition-
Communication as the experience of self and others through dialogue
 1. The Socio-Psychological Tradition

● Communication as interaction and influence.

● This tradition epitomizes the scientific perspective.
● Scholars believe that communication truths can be discovered by careful,
systematic observation that predicts cause-and-effect relationships.
● Researchers focus on what is without their personal bias of what ought to
be.
● Theorists check data through surveys or controlled experiments, often
calling for longitudinal empirical studies.
● Griffin, Ledbetter, and Sparks wondered if there’s a way to predict which
college friendships would survive and thrive after graduation.
○ "What predicts friendship that lasts over time?"
○ Socio-psychological tradition approach because it’s designed to identify
cause-and-effect patterns.
 2. The Cybernetic Tradition
● Communication as a system of information processing.
○ Norbert Wiener coined the term cybernetics to describe the field of
artificial intelligence.
■ Wiener’s concept of feedback anchored the cybernetic tradition.
■ Communication is the link separating the separate parts of any
system.
○ Theorists seek to answer the questions: How does the system work?
What could change it? How can we get the bugs out?
○ University of Washington communication professor Malcolm Parks
studies personal relationships by asking both partners to describe
their social network.
■ "How are friendships shaped by other people that the friends
know?"
■ Cybernetic tradition approach because it’s designed to
understand how information flows through social networks.
 3. The Rhetorical Tradition

● Communication as artful public address.

○ Greco-Roman rhetoric was the main communication theory until the
twentieth century.
○ Six features characterize the tradition:
1. A conviction that speech distinguishes humans from other
animals.
2. A confidence in the efficacy and supremacy of public address.
3. A setting of one speaker addressing a large audience with the
intention to persuade.
4. Oratorical training as the cornerstone of a leader’s education.
5. An emphasis on the power and beauty of language to move
people emotionally and stir them to action.
6. Rhetoric was the province of males.
○ Readers of Aristotle’s The Rhetoric may be surprised to find a systematic
analysis of friendship.
○ Rochester Institute of Technology rhetorician Keith Jenkins examined
how Obama appealed to friendship in his 2008 campaign rhetoric.
■ "How did Obama persuade people by appealing to close
relationships
■ Rhetorical tradition approach because it’s designed to understand
how language changes the minds of others.
 4. The Semiotic Tradition
● Communication as the process of sharing meaning through signs.
○ Semiotics is the study of signs.
○ Words are a special kind of sign known as a symbol.
○ I. A. Richards was an early scholar of semiotics.
■ His “proper meaning superstition” identifies the mistaken belief
that words have a precise meaning.
■ Meanings are in people, not in words.
○ Communication professor Michael Monsour (Metropolitan State
University of Denver) recognized that the word intimacy used in the
context of friendship might mean different things to different people,
and the disparity could lead to confusion.
■ "What does the word intimacy mean to people in the context of
friendship?"
■ Semiotic tradition approach because it’s designed to understand
how the meanings of symbols change between people and across
time.
 5. The Socio-Cultural Tradition
● Communication as the creation and enactment of social reality.
○ Communication produces and reproduces culture.
○ Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf pioneered this tradition.
■ The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity states that the
structure of a culture’s language shapes what people think and do.
■ Their theory counters the notion that languages are neutral conduits
of meaning.
○ It is through language that reality is produced, maintained, repaired,
and transformed.
○ Patricia Sias takes a socio-cultural approach when studying friendships
that form and dissolve in organizational settings.
■ "What communication practices shape deteriorating workplace
friendships?"
■ Socio-cultural tradition approach because it’s designed to
understand how communication creates social realities.
 6. The Critical Tradition

● Communication as a reflective challenge of unjust discourse.

○ Critical theory derives from the German Frankfurt School.
○ The Frankfurt School rejected Karl Marx’s economic determinism,
but embraced the Marxist tradition of critiquing society.
○ Critical theorists challenge three features of contemporary society.
■ The control of language to perpetuate power imbalances.
■ Critical theorists are suspicious of empirical work that scientists
say is ideologically free, because science is not the value-free
pursuit of knowledge that it claims to be.
■ Critical theorists see the “culture industries” of television, film,
music, and print media as reproducing the dominant ideology of
a culture and distracting people from recognizing the unjust
distribution of power within society.
○ Southwestern University communication professor Davi Johnson
Thornton investigated the image of an interracial friendship on the
TV show Psych.
■ Her critical analysis of the show argues that its particular
portrayal of black/white friendship might actually reinforce
racism rather than work against it.
■ "What ideologies of interracial friendship are produced through
the TV show Psych?"
■ Critical tradition approach because it’s designed to critique how
language and the mass media perpetuate unjust differences in
power.
 7. The Phenomenological Tradition
● Communication as the experience of self and others through dialogue.
○ Phenomenology refers to the intentional analysis of everyday life from
the standpoint of the person who is living it.
○ The phenomenological tradition places great emphasis on people’s
perceptions and interpretations of their own subjective experiences.
○ The phenomenological tradition answers two questions: Why is it so
hard to establish and sustain authentic human relationships? How can
this problem be overcome?
○ Ohio University professor emeritus Bill Rawlins works within this
tradition as he studies friendship by taking an in-depth look at the
actual conversations between friends.
■ "How do people create mutual understanding in their
friendships?"
■ Phenomenological tradition approach because it’s designed to
probe how people develop authentic human relationships.
 7. The Ethical Tradition
● Communication as people of character interacting in just and beneficial
ways.
○ Since ancient Greece, scholars have grappled with the obligations of
the communicator.
○ The NCA adopted a “Credo for Communication Ethics,” which tackles
difficult questions about communication and ethics: Is it always our
duty to be honest? What limits, if any, should exist on freedom of
expression? When does persuasion cross the line into intimidation and
coercion?
○ Craig has responded to our proposed ethical tradition by noting that, to
define it fully, we'd have to explain how it compares to every other
tradition.
○ Concern for ethics spreads across the objective-interpretive landscape.
○ The ethical tradition encourages every other tradition to consider what
is right or wrong, what is good or bad, and who is virtuous or evil.
 CHAPTER 5 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

● Symbolic interaction refers to language and gestures a person used in

anticipation of the way others will respond.
● Mead's chief disciple, Herbert Blumer, further developed his theory.
○ Blumer coined the term symbolic interactionism and claimed that the
most human and humanizing activity in which people are engaged is
talking to each other.
○ The three core principles of symbolic interactionism are concerned with
meaning, language, and thinking.
○ These principles lead to conclusions about the formation of self and
socialization into a larger society.
 Meaning: The construction of social reality.

● First principle: Humans act toward people or things on the basis of

the meanings they assign to those people or things.
● Meaning-making isn’t an individual undertaking.
● Once people define a situation as real, it’s very real in its
consequences.
● Where a behavioral scientist would see causality as stimulus-
response, for an interactionist it would look like stimulus-
interpretation-response.
 Language: The source of meaning
● Second principle: Meaning arises out of the social interaction people have
with each other.
● Meaning is not inherent in objects.
● Meaning is negotiated through the use of language, hence the term
symbolic interactionism.
● As human beings, we have the ability to name things.
○ Symbols, including names, are arbitrary signs.
○ By talking with others, we ascribe meaning to words and develop a
universe of discourse.
● Symbolic naming is the basis for society—the extent of knowing is
dependent on the extent of naming.
● Symbolic interactionism is the way we learn to interpret the world.
○ A symbol is a stimulus that has a learned meaning and a value for
people.
○ Our words have default assumptions.
○ Significant symbols can be nonverbal as well as linguistic.
 Thinking: The process of taking the role of the other

A. Third principle: An individual's interpretation of symbols is modified by

his or her own thought process.
B. Symbolic interactionists describe thinking as an inner conversation, or
minding.
1. Minding is a reflective pause.
2. We naturally talk to ourselves in order to sort out meaning.
C. Whereas animals act instinctively and without deliberation, humans are
hardwired for thought.
1. Humans require social stimulation and exposure to abstract symbol
systems to have conceptual thought.
2. Language is the software that activates the mind.
D. Humans have the unique capacity to take the role of the other.
The self: Reflections in a looking glass.
● Self cannot be found through introspection, but instead through taking
the role of the other and imagining how we look from the other’s
perspective. This mental image is called the looking-glass self and is
socially constructed, or as the Mead-Cooley hypothesis claims,
“individuals’ self-conceptions result from assimilating the judgments of
significant others.”
● Self is a function of language.
○ One has to be a member of a community before consciousness of
self sets in.
○ The self is always in flux.
● Self is an ongoing process combining the “I” and the “me.”
○ The “I”—the subjective self—sponsors what is novel,
unpredictable, and unorganized about the self.
○ The “me”—the objective self—is the image of self seen through the
looking glass of other people's reactions.
○ Once your “I” is known, it becomes your “me.”
Society: The socializing effect of others' expectations.
● The composite mental image of others in a community, their
expectations, and possible responses is referred to as the generalized
other.
● The generalized other shapes how we think and interact with the
community.
● The “me” is formed through continual symbolic interaction.
● The “me” is the organized community within the individual.
 6 APPLICATIONS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTION
1. Creating reality
2. Meaning-ful research
3. Generalized other
4. Naming
5. Self-fulfilling prophecy
6. Symbol manipulation

Ethical reflection: Levinas’ responsive “I”.

● Levinas insists that the identity of our “I” is formed by the way we
respond to others, not how others respond to me as Mead contends.
● We all have an ethical echo of responsibility to take care of each
other that has existed since the beginning of history.
● To not recognize our human responsibility when we look at the face
of the Other is to put our identity at risk.
 CHAPTER 6 COORDINATED MANAGEMENT
OF MEANING
● A theory that looks directly at the communication process and what it’s
doing
● Pearce and Cronen believe communication is a constitutive force that
shapes all ideas, relationships and the whole social environment

4 claims about communication:

1. Our communication creates our social world
2. The stories we tell differ from the stories we live
Stories told: Making and Managing Meaning
7 types of stories:
3. Lived stories
4. Unknown stories
5. Untold stories
6. Unheard stories
7. Untellable stories
8. Story telling
9. Story told
 Stories lived: Coordinating Our Patterns of Interaction
Coordination refers to the process by which persons collaborate
in an attempt to bring their vision of what is necessary.noble, and
good, and to preclude the enactment of what they fear, hate or
despise.
3. We get what we make.
Bifurcation point-a critical point where what one says will affect
the unfolding pattern of interaction and potentially take it in a
different direction
4. Get the pattern right, create better social worlds
● Promote value of curiosity, caring, compassion, mindfulness,
gratitude, grace, and love
● Interpersonal goal: A way of being with others that makes a
space for something new to emerge
● Communicator must be mindful-the presence or awareness of
what participants are making in the midst of their own
conversation
● Dialogue involves remaining in the tension between holding our
own perspective while profoundly open to the other