Andro Batinic
L. Jay Williams
Elements of Human Comm
2/27/15
Tech-Check: Communication Privacy Management (CPM)
I choose to do my tech-check paper on the theory that I presented CPM or
Communication Privacy Management because I feel like I have an adequate understanding of the
theory and there has been a decent amount of progress made on this theory. CPM has progressed
in that the rules dictating what private information people want to share and not share. Previously
it was believed that people would make these rules based upon their consideration for others and
the benefits that they would get for themselves. After reading through numerous academic
journals, magazines, newspapers and parts of our class textbook I've found out that CPM has
many more rules and applications.
I found out through an academic journal written by John Arzano that people will disclose
private information falsely in order to achieve a goal. Arzano says people are more likely to
believe something somebody else tells them if it's something that is considered private
information. An example would be a homeless person or panhandler lying about something
private to reach an objective. Their objective would be to make money off of people and then
they would probably never see them again. For example if a homeless man is holding up a sign
that says "Wife divorced me, trying to get money for food." Compared to a homeless man
holding up a sign that says "wife died 3 months ago, I think I'm giving up on life." Both of these
examples are disclosing private information. The second example has a different boundary than
the first. The second example is more likely to get people's sympathy, thus more likely to reach
the goal. This person might not even be telling the truth, he could be a panhandler, but with the
right choice of a sign he could drastically increase his possibility of reaching his desired income.
Humans have incentive to disclosing private information, otherwise they wouldn't disclose
private information. John Arzano states that people also have incentive to disclose private
information that isn’t true.
Bethany Frampton writes on her internet web page about how CPM correlates to
people’s privacy on social networks, specifically Facebook. She says that people will often time
share private information on Facebook and that new discoveries in CPM can help explain why
people will post what they post. The rules people set for what they disclose and don’t disclose
can be very different on the internet and in real life. Frampton says that people often times share
private information on Facebook to a vast amount of people. A person is making private
information very public when they post on Facebook. They disclose this private information
even if they don’t associate with the people who are on their friends list. I was on Facebook the
other day and somebody posted this “Wow I screwed up a lot of my friend ships last night I'm
sorry if I was so weird won't happen again I promess I'm sorry for being a creeper......... I'm sorry
I'm sorry I'm sorry I can't tell it enoff hope you don't hate me know or see me in a diffrent way I
truely apologize for being like I was to all of you” This is an exact quote I took from one of my
Facebook friends. I now know that this person can be weird, a creeper because he admitted it on
Facebook, if I ever see him again I will probably look at him differently. Frampton says the rules
people set for posting on Facebook are much looser than those in real life. She says this can
possibly be attributed to the feeling of being a little more anonymous. People will think that
because they rarely see the majority of the Facebook friends that they can share more intimately.
In conclusion CPM has identified how often and why people disclose private
information. This theory can apply in the workplace and in real life applications. It can help
companies understand why their employees disclose or don’t disclose things. Those decisions
can make an impact on the relationships people have and it can cause strain if they disclose too
much private information or too little. People should always double think what they post on
Facebook, even if they are rage posting they should always consider the benefits and
consequences of what they post.
Citations:
Orzano, A. John, et al. "A Knowledge Management Model: Implications For Enhancing Quality
In Health Care." Journal Of The American Society For Information Science & Technology 59.3
(2008): 489-505. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321300157X
West, Richard & Turner, Lynn H. Introducing communication theory: Analysis and Application
Bucher, Eliane, Christian Fieseler, and Anne Suphan. "The Stress Potential Of Social Media In
The Workplace." Information, Communication & Society 16.10 (2013): 1639-1667. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2015.
http://family.jrank.org/pages/1474/Self-Disclosure.html