3
Weighing the Words
A First Look at
Communication Theory
8th edition
Em Griffin
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 2
Weighing the Words
 What Makes an Objective Theory Good?
 What Makes an Interpretive Theory Good?
 Contested Turf and Common
Ground Among Theorists
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 3
Weighing the Words
The work of social scientists and
interpreters is so different that it is
natural they often have trouble
understanding and valuing their
counterparts’ scholarship
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 4
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Twin objectives of scientific knowledge
Explains past and present
Predicts the future
Four additional criteria for theories:
Relative simplicity
Testability
Practical utility
Quantifiable research
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 5
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Scientific Standard 1:
Explanation of the Data
Objective theory draws order out of chaos
• Describes process, focuses attention
on what’s crucial, helps us ignore
that which makes little difference
• The reason something happens becomes
as important as the fact that it does
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 6
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Scientific Standard 2:
Prediction of Future Events
Objective theory predicts what will happen
• Only possible when dealing with
things we can see, hear, touch,
smell, and taste over and over again
• In social sciences, a certain humility
on the part of the theorist is advisable
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 7
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Scientific Standard 3:
Relative Simplicity
Objective theory should
be as simple as possible
• Rule of parsimony (Occam’s Razor) –
Given two plausible explanations for the same
event, we should accept the simpler version
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 8
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Scientific Standard 4:
Hypotheses That Can Be Tested
Objective theory is testable
• Falsifiability – requirement that
scientific theory must be stated in a way that
it can be tested and disproved if it is wrong
• Some theories are so loosely stated that
it’s impossible to imagine empirical
results that could disprove their hypotheses
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 9
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Scientific Standard 5:
Practical Utility
Good objective theory is useful
• Lewin: There is nothing
as practical as a good theory
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 10
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Scientific Standard 6:
Quantitative Research
Most scientific research depends
on a comparison of differences
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 11
What Makes an Objective
Theory Good?
Scientific Standard 6: (continued)
• Experiment – research method
that manipulates a variable in a tightly
controlled situation in order to find
out if it has the predicted effect
• Survey – research method that uses
questionnaires and structured interviews to
collect self-reported data that reflects what
respondents think, feel, or intend to do
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 12
What Makes an
Interpretive Theory Good?
No universally approved
model for interpretive theories
Create understanding
Identify values
Inspire aesthetic appreciation
Stimulate agreement
Reform society
Conduct qualitative research
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 13
What Makes an
Interpretive Theory Good?
Interpretive Standard 1:
New Understanding of People:
Interpretive theory offers fresh
insight into human condition
• Typically examines a one-of-a-kind speech
community that exhibits specific language style
• Self-referential imperative – include yourself
as a constituent of your own construction
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 14
What Makes an
Interpretive Theory Good?
Interpretive Standard 2:
Clarification of Values
Interpretive theory brings
people’s values into the open
• Theorists should reveal ethical commitments
• Ethical imperative – grant others that occur
in a construction the same autonomy
that one practices in constructing it
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 15
What Makes an
Interpretive Theory Good?
Interpretive Standard 3:
Aesthetic Appeal
Interpretive theory can
capture readers’ imaginations
Critic’s job to spark appreciation
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 16
What Makes an
Interpretive Theory Good?
Interpretive Standard 4:
Community of Agreement
Interpretive theory must be
supported by other scholars
Must become the subject
of widespread analysis
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 17
What Makes an Interpretive
Theory Good?
Interpretive Standard 5:
Reform of Society
 Interpretive theory often generates change
Critical interpreters are reformers
who can have an impact on society
• Critical theorists – scholars who use theory to
reveal unjust communication practices that
create or perpetuate an imbalance of power
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 18
What Makes an
Interpretive Theory Good?
Interpretive Standard 6:
Qualitative Research
 Interpretive scholars use
words to support their theories
• Textual analysis – research
method that describes and
interprets characteristics of any text
• Ethnography – method of participant
observation designed to help a researcher
experience a culture’s complex web of meaning
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 19
Contested Turf and Common
Ground Among Theorists
Points of contact
1. Explanation creates understanding
2. Prediction and value
clarification look to the future
3. Simplicity has aesthetic appeal
4. Achieves a community of agreement
5. Theory that reforms
unjust practices is practical
6. Commitment to learn more
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 20
Figure 3-1: Summary of Criteria for
Evaluating Communication Theory
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.