Robert Cocchiola

Professor Kristen Berkos

9/11/17

DP 1

Summary

In Chapter 1, the reader is generally introduced to Communication Theory.

Communication scholars view communication much differently than an everyday person. They

recognize the communication to be something far more than just a flow of information, like

many business people see it as.

Frank Dance, a communications scholar, reported that in 1976 there were already 126

published definitions of the term communication. Dance acknowledged there are three variations

of the definition. The first variation being the level of observation. Simply, are there limitations

in the definition given? Key words can make or break someones definition of communication. A

second variation is intentionality. Was the message being delivered intentional or not? If so, is

unintentional communication still communication? Dance proposes this as a variation because

many communication scholars have debated this exact proposition for years. The third and final

way that Dance believes that definitions of communication vary is normative judgment. This

idea focuses on whether the communication needs to be successful or accurate.

Even though its difficult to agree on one definition of communication, there are certain

contexts of communication that almost all scholars identify with. These contexts of

communication are: cognitive, individual and social, interpersonal, intercultural, persuasive,

group, organizational, mediated, and mass communication. Many theories fall under these

contexts. Most notably, some of these theories include expectancy violations theory under the
cognitive context, the social exchange theory under the interpersonal context, groupthink under

the group context, and the agenda setting and social cognitive theories under the mass

communications context.

Communication competence is the idea of successfully balancing effectiveness and

appropriateness. In this case, effectiveness is the extent to which you achieve your goals in an

interaction, and appropriateness refers to fulfilling social expectations for a particular situation. It

is a major key that when one is faced with communicative decisions, he or she considers how to

be both effective and appropriate.

Theories provide an abstract understanding of something, or in this case, the

communication process. The book used the example of looking at theories like they are a pair of

glasses. When looking through framed glasses, whats in front of you is very clear, but your

vision in your peripherals is blurred. A theory can illuminate an aspect of your communication so

you understand the process much more clearly. However, it can also hide things from your

understanding or distort the relative importance of things.

Theories are not the same things as concepts and models. A concept is an agreed-upon

aspect of reality. Concepts represent an effort to define or classify something, but they do not

provide insights into how or why we experience them in a particular way. A model can be seen

as a synonym to the term theory, as a precursor to a theory, or as a physical representation of a

theory, or as a specific application of predication.

There are three different types of theory. The first being the commonsense theory, or

theory-in-use. Commonsense theories are useful because they are often the base for how we

communicate. The working theory is about what the best techniques are in a certain profession.

Working theories are more systematic than commonsense theories because they represent
agreed-on ways of doing things for a particular profession. Working theories represent guidelines

for behavior rather than systematic representations. The third theory, or the scholarly theory, is a

theory that has undergone systematic research. Scholarly theories provide more thorough,

accurate, and abstract explanations for communication than do commonsense or working

theories.

Real Life Application

Recently, a coworker and I came up with a theory. It was quite an outlandish theory, but a

theory nonetheless. It was a commonsense theory. We noticed weird stuff started happening

around the time of the solar eclipse.

Courtney, my coworker, and I were talking about how our phones started to die far more

quickly than usual. This was strange because my phone battery usually lasted all day. Not more

than three days later, many peoples car batteries began to die. Friends, family members, and

other coworkers all noted that their phones were dying quickly too.

What was causing this energy drain? We could not think of anything else other than the

solar eclipse because once it was over our phone batteries were back to normal.

What does this have to do with communications you ask? Well in this case, this can be

seen as a commonsense theory. We took our individual experiences and stories from our own

lives, to create a theory together.

Discussion Provoking Questions

1. Do you believe in commonsense?

2. What is the craziest theory you have come up with on your own?

3. What is your favorite side of communication? (Interpersonal, mass, cognitive, etc.?)