COMMUNICTION THEORIES
Every phenomenon needs some theories to explain its nature. Communication theories are mostly
concerned with explaining the process of sending and receiving messages, elements involved in that
process and factors that affect it.
Theories that we are going to learn in this course are derived from mass media. There are a number of
theories in mass media but we are going to learn just some of them.
List of theories:
Symbolic interaction
Expectancy Violation theory
Interpersonal Deception theory
Social Penetration theory
Uncertainty Reduction theory
Social Judgement theory
Critical theory
Cultivation theory
Agenda-Setting theory
Face Negotiation theory
Speech Codes theory
Muted Group theory
Standpoint theory
Symbolic interaction
This theory of communication is part of the family of Socio-psychological tradition theories.
The ideas that form this theory are originated from George Herbert Mead the sociologist. However he
didn’t organize his ideas in the way it is. His ideas have collected and organized by his students, the most
prominent is Herbert Plumer.
The term symbolic interaction is based on the idea that any communication arises out of the interaction
between people through symbolic meanings- the sending, the receiving, interpretation and
understanding of any communication occurs through interaction between people and when they
interact they understand each other through symbolic meaning.
According to Plumer in Griffin, there are three principles of symbolic interactionism that underlies three
premises: Language, thought and meaning.
Language:
The premise: meaning in a communication arises out of social interaction that people have with each
other. Meaning is negotiated through the use of language. The society uses symbolic meaning.
Symbolic interaction is the way we learn to interpret the world (things/objects, people, that surrounds
us through language. It is also the means for intelligent expression. Through experienced interaction we
just make meaning from situation.
Thought
Premise: An interpretation of symbols is modified by the process of inner dialogue/minding by one’s
thought process. We modify our thinking through reflection before we decide to respond to others.
Through interaction we try to check our own understanding of things and events.
We rehearse our next move, test alternatives, delay and anticipate our actions of rehearsals. However
we primarily need language that enables us to do this.
Social stimulation and exposure are important for abstract symbol systems. Without social interaction
cannot develop. Human beings have the unique capacity to take the role of the other. Thought is the
mental conversation we with others.
Symbolic interaction: the self is the function of language. Self-concept is built by other responses and
comments which in turn in the form of language.
Meaning
Premise: Human beings act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they assign to those
people or things. So people can assign meanings or interpret an event or behaviour of people in
different ways because of the meanings they assign to that event or people. So on the basis of this,
people are going to communicate to people differently.
Meaning language and thought are tightly connected
In this way the self-concept change. The self is an ongoing process combining the ‘I’ and ‘Me’. The I’ is
the subject, the doer the actor. The ‘me is an object-the image of the self-esteem in the looking glass of
other people’s reactions. The reflexive experience, the generalized other. The me-the perspectives of
other that influences your self-image, because you learn from significant others. We pick the total
experiences and determine and influence our decisions, responses, behaviour and feedback and how we
communicate taking the views of significant others, even the body language of others. Family,
playmates institutions and community form ‘me’ of the systematic symbolic interaction.
Application
Modify our communication style because of negotiation. If there is no negotiation it means that there is
no communication going on.
Modify identity, emotions, behaviour and the way we appear to others.
Study of meaning: share the lives of others by understanding the participant’s observation so as to know
and understand them.
Generalized other: getting messages from other. If they negative responses we get from others we we
understand that they are evils.
Self-fulfilling prophesy: the tendency for our expectations to evoke responses on others that confirm
that we originally anticipated .
Agenda setting theory: Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw
They stress on what to think about rather than what to think.
People tend to look to news professionals for cues on where to focus our attention. We judge what is
what is important what the media judge as important.
The media has the agenda setting setting function.
It tells its readers what to think about
People would attend only to news and views that did not threaten their established beliefs, merely
stroking pre-existent attitudes.
Although news has power to influence, individuals are still free to choose.
Media Agenda and public agenda
Correlation between media priorities and public priorities.
In education the teacher has to set the agenda in the beginning of the lesson in the form of lesson
objectives, the function and advantage of the topic, the usefulnesss, the meaningfulnesss the
application of the knowledge to be taugt. Students will pay their attention take more effort more
motivated, cooperation and creativity of the students will be improved.
It is important to harmonize the lesson objectives and learners objectives.
Some people are more resistant to their agenda so there is need to filter their thinking. Teachers need
to study them very thoroughly so as to win them.some people let the media to shape their thinking .
these people have the high need for orientation which arises from high relevance and uncertainty
The media are more effective in establishing the importance of some topics.
Concentrate and pay attention to three to five topics at a time. Addition of other news topic will drop
one of the previous topic.
Media is effective in creating public interest in political candidates
The media are not telling us what to think but what to think about
The media set the agenda for what issues events or candidates are most important (selection, emphasis,
exclusion and elaboration as media framing.
Two levels:
The transfer of salience of an attitude object in the mass media’s pictures of the world to a prominent
place among the pictures in our head.
The transfer of salience of a bundle of attributes that the media associate with an attitude object to the
specific features of the image projected on the walls of our world.
The teacher must be the setter of the agenda
Social Construtionism: W. Bernett & Vernon Cronen
Communication is a means of world building. This implies the citizen of the world who is able to interact
comfortably with others who come from diverse cultural backgrounds, hold different values, and
express different beliefs. Social events and objects are made rather than found. There are many truths
each deriving from different traditions or there is a single truth that has multiple and contradictory
faces, but all are valid. This is based on the assumption that:
on and understanding of meaning hformed derived