Perspectives on Human
Communication – 2005
Dr. Willard Uncapher
willardu@colorado.edu
Wed-Fri 9/7,9/2005 –Communication & Research Frameworks
[Please Fill out Attendance Sheet]
What is communication?
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Is communication intentional?
 Are we dealing with ‘people’ or senders who want to send
‘something’ via communication?
 Does it require a sender and receiver?
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Is communication symbolic?
 Must it involve signs, symbols, or some abstraction?
 Is communication concerned with meanings?
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Is our study of communication limited to humans?
 Can we include animals… or plants?
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Is communication limited to speech?
 What different ‘channels’ are we going to look at?
 When is ‘not doing something’ also ‘sending a message’?
Models and Definitions
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Models and theories begin with definitions.
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Definitions help establish the structure of the model.
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Show structure and function.
Models and Theories?
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Models are necessarily reductionist
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Models are abstractions (the map is not the territory).
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We have to use ‘concepts’ [remember laws of identity,
excluded middle, contradiction?]
Models are descriptive tools.
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Only some things selected
Illustrate, demonstrate, explain, and/or show relationships
among entities or concepts.
Illustrate dynamics among components of a theory.
Models may lead to predictions
Models and Perspectives
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Psychological [Transmission]: communication as
the transmission of messages
Metaphor: Radios
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Social construction: communication as collective
world-building
Metaphor: Software
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Pragmatic: communication as patterned
interactions
Metaphor: Chess game
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Cultural and Critical Studies: communication as a
revealer of social and cultural forces
Ethnography of Communication: looking at
speech communities as observed
Psychological [Transmission] View
As Transmission View
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Claude Shannon 1947 – “Information Theory” at Bell Labs (Telephone
Company)
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Created new theory [don’t memorize – just familiarize yourself]
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Asks- How can we make our telephone lines more efficient?
Asks - How much ‘noise’ can we allow on a line…. And still understand what the message is?
Worked with Warren Weaver to make a popular account
Information?
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Here seen as something ‘unexpected’
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The more ‘unexpected’ the more information
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How much ‘information’ needs to be transmitted to understand a message
Redundancy
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Because of noise and misunderstanding
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IF U CN RD THS U CN GT A JB
Noise
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Wilber Schramm includes ‘semantic noise’ – distraction, emphasizing wrong part of message,
attitudes toward sender, attitudes toward message, differences in the code
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Channel Capacity – what are the limits of communication?
Code – to be encoded and decoded
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Can include non-verbal
Norbert Weiner 1947 – “Cybernetics”
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'the science of control and communication in the animal and the machine'
adds notion of “feedback” – like thermostat
General systems become adaptive to changing environment, and more stable
Analog and Digital
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Analog as continuous
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Digital as discrete, non continuous
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Communication is ‘linked’ continuously
Eg. Phonograph record repeats amplitude and dynamic of
the signal
Analog only stores and reproduces similarity; harder to
manipulate
Digital as higher order language or code; discrete,
Code as the represented
Example of the digital: the alphabet
Binary when the code has only two values
Sampling according to some rule (heuristic)
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How often, how long, what values
Analog and Digital
Continuous Analog Original – Sampling/Encode –
Digital (Arbitrary) Discrete – Non-Continuous Code
– Manipulate Code – Decode back to Analog
As a Psychological Model
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Trenholm Focuses on this reading
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Communication originates and is received in the human mind.
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Meanings are exchanged through transmission and reception of
stimuli.
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Messages are transmitted though channels.
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Messages are encoded and decoded through filters (mental sets).
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Mental sets are based in experience, attitudes, etc. of sender and
receiver.
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Noise is anything that interferes with the transmission of the
message.
Criticisms of Transmission Psychological
Model
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Why communicate? – What about intentions?
Changes in context – the same ‘message’
might be different – a kiss in the morning
Relationships between sender and receiver
are not stressed
What about the bias of the code – what
influence does language have in how we see
things?
Social constructionist perspective
from the outside, as a social activity. Looks at:
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Collective – Communication is a process whereby
groups create collective perspectives
Stresses Importance of Filters – We never experience
the world directly, but always though cultural filters.
Knowledge – Suggests Our world is thus a sociocultural construct, held together by communication.
Ethos/Culture – Communication between people of
different “worlds” will be problematic.
Social Construction Perspective
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Erving Goffman – Communication in ‘frames’:
 Frames – are made up of: roles, rules, props, keys
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Frames – like the ‘class’ frame, the ‘restaurant’ frame, the
‘dorm hall’ frame
The same people can act differently with different ‘frames.’
Frames: bus stop, classroom
Frames have Fronts [where activity takes place] and
Backs [where activity is discussed and rehearsed.]
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Frame Confusion – when you don’t know which frame to use!
What happens when you meet a professor at… the bus stop,
the bar, the concert?
You must ‘negotiate’ or ‘key’ which frame to use!
Social Constructionist – Benefits
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Emphasizes our (social) responsibility for
the ways we talk about things and others.
Helps us understand harmful social
constructions (e.g., stereotypes) in a sociocultural context
Reveals/Focuses on: social roles.
Extremely useful in organizational/cultural
research.
Social Constructionist – Problems
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Emphasizes the social self over the individual self.
Who is responsible: society or me?
Defines “good” communication as “socially
appropriate” communication.
Makes truth elusive. Truth as simply ‘what happens.’
Easily over-generalized – what does ‘society’ mean,
eg. Do ‘Americans’ do one thing or another; do
corporations do one thing or another.
Pragmatic Perspective
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Focus on systems of behavior.
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For your thought… but not for a test:
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Systems vs Heaps – looking at how things work together rather than
examining things independently – Newton’s Science vs a science of
complexity
Systems have irreducible properties – Aristotle – properties
unpredicted by the parts.
Systems maintain themselves in a changing environment
Systems create themselves in response to challenge from
environment… or else dissolve
Systems ‘are coordinating interfaces’ in nature’s hierarchy
Assumes that interdependence will emerge among
members of the system.
Unit of analysis is the interaction--a sequence of
communication acts.
Practical applications of the pragmatic
perspective
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Helps reveal “scripted” or unhealthy patterns.
Focuses on behavior in communication systems.
Shifts focus from personalities to interactions.
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Eg. Intergenerational Psychology – look to how problems
are transmitted across generations – approaches to child
rearing, anger management, etc.
Provides a basis for effective conflict management.
Problems with pragmatic perspective
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Systems models are good at description, but weak
at prediction
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Holds personality and culture irrelevant.
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Except in so far as they are manifest in interaction.
Ignores intentions, motivations, desires, needs, etc.
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Still used in business, less so in social, cultural sciences.
Things chosen/observed as the model predicts –
Colonialists use ‘social evolutionary systems theory’ to
distinguish ‘primitive’ from ‘advanced’ society.’
Intentions are ‘created’ through interactions
The world outside “the game” is not easily
considered.
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Where does the game exist? Games within games as a
problem.
Cultural Studies & Critical Studies
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Cultural Studies - Values sub-culture and
everyday activities
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Worker culture, band/music cultures
More anthropological and literary
Critical Studies tends to look at the ‘political
economy’ of social and economic hierarchies
Both look to the issues of power in society
5 Approaches to Comm. Research
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Rhetorical criticism – a content analysis that
relates material to audience
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Content Analysis, Conversation Analysis
Ethnography – “observe” or ‘interact with people
in their ‘place’ – field research
Surveys – using an research ‘instrument’ that
articulates distinct categories to sample a
‘population.’ Open ended vs. closed ended
questions.
Experimental (laboratory) – control the
environment
Performance studies – describe the rules, roles,
props, assessment, context, etc. of a
communicative activity
Mixed Methods – Triangulation of several