Macro-skills

1. Writing
2. Listening
3. Speaking
4. Viewing
5. Researching

Sender → Message → Channel → Receiver

❖ What is Communication?
➢ Is an act of transferring information from one place to another
➢ “Is the relational process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a
response” - Em Griffin
➢ Is just a transmission of information

❖ Five Features of Communication

➢ Messages
■ Communication involves “talking and listening, writing and reading,
performing and witnessing, or more generally, doing anything that
involves ‘messages’ in any medium or situation’
➢ Creation of Messages
■ The content and form of a text are usually constructed, invented,
planned, crafted, constituted, selected, or adopted by the
communicator
➢ Interpretation of Messages
■ Messages do not interpret themselves. A truism among
communication scholars is that words don’t mean things, people
mean things.
● Ex. Suppose you received this cryptic text message from a
close, same-sex friend: “Pat and I spent the night together.”
You immediately know that the name Pat refers to the
person with whom you have an ongoing romantic
relationship.
■ Symbolic Interactionist Herbert Blumer states:
“Humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings
they assign to those people or things.”
➢ A Relational Process
■ The Greek Philosopher Heraclites obsered that “one cannot step
into the same river twice.” — meaning everything is constantly
changing
 ➢ Messages That Elicits Response
■ For whatever reason, if the message fails to stimulate any cognitive,
emotional, or behavioral reaction, it seems pointless to refer to it as
communication

❖ Communication Theory
➢ Foss, Foss and Griffin defined theory as, “a way of framing an experience
or event— an effort to understand and account for something and the way
it functions in the world"
➢ Hoover defined theory as “a set of inter-related propositions that suggest
why events occur in the manner that they do”
➢ Theory can also be called hunches— a set of systematic hunches about the
way things operate

❖ Metaphors of Theory
➢ Theories as Nets
■ Philosopher of science Karl Popper says that “theories are nets cast
to catch what we call ‘the world’
➢ Theories as Lenses
■ Many scholars see their theoretical constructions as similar to the
lens of a camera or a pair of glasses as opposed to a mirror that
accurately reflects the world out there
➢ Theories as Maps
■ Communication theories are maps of the way communication
works

❖ 4 Areas of Communication
➢ Interpersonal Communication
■ One-on-one interaction
➢ Group and Public Communication
■ Face-to-face involvement in collective setting
➢ Mass Communication
■ Explore electronic and print media
➢ Cultural Context
■ Explores systems of shared meaning that are so all-encompassing
that we often fail to realize their impact upon us
❖ Communication Theory
➢ Symbolic Interactionism
■ George Herbert Mead— a major contributor to the theory.
■ Herbert Blumer— devised the term symbolic interactionism.
❖ Three Core Principles
➢ Meaning: The Construction of Social Reality
■ Interpretation we attach to persons or things
■ First Principle— Humans act toward people or things on the basis of
the meanings they assign to those people or things. Once people
define a situation as real, it’s very real in its consequences.
➢ Language: The Source of Meaning
■ Language, as a source of meaning, arises from our interactions we
have with others
■ Second Principle— Device for meaning-making. Meaning is
negotiated through the use of language, hence the term symbolic
interactionism. Symbolic naming is the basis for society— the
extent of knowing is dependent on the extent of naming.
➢ Thinking: The Process of Taking the Role of the Other
■ An inner dialogue we do by taking the role of the other, test
alternatives, rehearse actions
■ Third Principle— An individual’s interpretation of symbols is
modified by his or her own thought process. Inner dialogue when
we test the alternatives, rehearse actions and words and anticipate
reaction before speaking, reacting, or responding.
■ Taking the Role of the Other— Seeing yourself from the point of
view of the person you are facing.

❖ The Self: Reflections in a Looking Glass: The ‘I’ and the ‘Me’
➢ First: Self cannot be found through introspection, but instead through
taking the role of the other and imaging how we look from other’s
perspective.
➢ Second: Self is a function of language. One has to be a member of a
community before consciousness of self sets in.
➢ Third: Self is an ongoing process combining the ‘I’ and the ‘me’.

“We are not born with senses of self. Rather, selves arise in interaction
with others. I can only experience myself in relation to others; absent
interaction with others, I cannot be a self— I cannot be a self— I cannot
 emerge as someone.” — Gregory Shepherd

➢ Social Penetration Theory

■ Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor
■ This theory explains how relational closeness develops
■ Personality structure: a multilayered onion— The outer layer is the
public self. The inner core is one’s private domain.

The Onion Theory

❖ Humans Complex Multi-Layered Structures

➢ Deeper layers are more vulnerable, protected, and central to self-image,
while on the surface are a myriad of information that can be disclosed
easily to the public
❖ Self-disclosure
➢ A voluntary and mutual act of sharing personal history, preferences,
attitudes, feelings, values, secrets, etc. with another person: transparency.
1. Peripheral (farther from the center) items are exchanged more
frequently and sooner the private information
2. Self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages of
relationship development.
3. Penetration is rapid at the start but slows down quickly as
tightly-wrapped inner layers are reached.
4. De-penetration is a gradual process of layer-by-layer withdrawal.
❖ FUNCTIONS OF COMM THEORIES
➢ Help us organize and understand our communication experiences
➢ Help us broaden our understanding of human communication
➢ Help us predict and control our communication.
➢ Communication Theory Fosters Self-Awareness

❖ EXPLORE COMM THEORIES

➢ NARRATIVE PARADIGM
■ Narrative - People making sense of stories / people influenced /
changed
■ Paradigm - Conceptual Pattern
■ For Walter Fisher, storytelling epitomizes human nature.
■ All forms of human communication that seek to affect belief,
attitude or action needs to be seen fundamentally as stories.
■ Offering good reasons has more to do with telling a compelling
story than it does with piling up evidence or constructing a tight
argument.
■ Paradigm shift: From a rational-world paradigm to a narrative one.
■ Narrative rationality: Coherence and fidelity.
 ■ He expands our understanding of human nature, is specific about
the values we prefer, and supports his new paradigm with
intriguing rhetorical criticism of significant texts—a classic method
of qualitative research.

Rational Paradigm Narrative Paradigm

Humans are rational Humans are storytellers

being

Decision making is Decision making and communication are

based on arguments based on good reasons

Arguments adhere to Good reasons are determined by matters

specific criteria of of history, biography, culture, and
soundness character.

Rationality is based in Rationality is based in people’s awareness

the quality of knowledge of how internally consistent and truthful
and formal reasoning to lived experience stories appear.

APPLICATION LOG:
NARRATIVE PARADIGM THEORY
● Ryan believed in extra-terrestrial existence. He used to spend hours researching
the possibility of alien invasion and its presence. So whenever any abnormality
occurs, he reasons the event with the existence of extraterrestrial beings. But in
his friend circle, the majority rejected the idea or they didn’t listen to what Ryan’s
arguments. The few interested believed. The reason for the majority to discard
the argument is due to the vagueness and mystery in the story that he narrated.
People accept narrations following the principles of coherence and fidelity thus
making most of Ryan’s friends rejects the idea. The few who accepted the
narrative was influenced by their past experiences and other cultural
backgrounds.

➢ AGENDA SETTING THEORY

■ Taking the average of those concerns across an entire community,
state, or nation is the public agenda—the set of issues most salient
(in other words, that capture attention) across a group of people at
a given time.
 ■ The degree of importance that the news media assigns to issues at
a given moment is the media agenda.
■ The basic hypothesis of the theory is this: over time, ​the media
agenda shapes the public agenda.​
■ McCombs, Shaw, and others have amassed decades of evidence
that documents the power of the press to shape our reality.
■ They've found that agenda-setting occurs in three ways, or levels.
● Level 1: The media tells us what to think about.
● Level 2: The media tells us which attributes of issues are
most important.
● Level 3: The media tell us which issues go together
■ Framing​ is “the central organizing idea for news content that
supplies context and suggests what the issue is through the use of
selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration.”
■ Priming​ is the amount of time and space that media devote to an
issue make an audience receptive and alert to particular themes.
Likewise, audience perception of events are impacted by historical
context with which they are familiar (through experience or
through media).
APPLICATION LOG:
AGENDA SETTING THEORY
● I think the media’s agenda setting works all too well on children (at least it did on
me). Except it wasn’t news I was watching; it was the Saturday morning line-up.
After all, as a child I had a very high need for orientation. For some inexplicable
reason, anything that the TV displayed from 6 a.m. to noon on Saturday had high
relevance to me (including the color bars from 6-7). And as a child, anything
dealing with growing up, being an adult or understanding the world around me
touched a point of high uncertainty within my semi-hardened skull. As a result,
Saturday morning TV had the power to tell me what to think about. I spent my
play time acting out the characters from my favorite shows. I pleaded with my
parents to provide me with whatever the commercials were peddling—sugar
cereal, dolls with brushable hair, sports cars. I wasn’t picky. I dreamt Smurfs. I
breathed Wonder Woman. I made wedding plans revolving around George of the
Jungle. I thought about what the powers behind the television, based on their
agenda, wanted me to think about. To be perfectly honest, I’m still a huge fan of
Wonder Woman and dolls with comb-able hair.

➢ CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION

 ■ Stanley Deetz’ critical communication theory seeks to unmask what
he considers unjust and unwise communication practices within
organizations.
■ His theory advocates “stakeholder participation.” He believes that
everyone who will be significantly affected by a corporate policy
should have a meaningful voice in the decision-making process.
■ Consent: Unwitting allegiance to covert control.
■ Involvement: Free expression of ideas, but no voice.
■ Participation: Stakeholder democracy in action.
APPLICATION LOG:
CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION
● Giving a voice to all that are affected by an action/decision is a frightening idea.
So frightening in fact that Bon Apetit (our food service) doesn't do it. "'Aaah. . . '
they say. But you do have a voice as students! There is the suggestion box and a
survey each semester!" That, according to Deetz, is not a voice. I am allergic to all
milk products and I don't know the ingredients of the food. I've put my comments
in via their mode of communication with no observable results. I have
involvement in the process, but no participation. The management still holds all
the power. A real voice would be nice.

➢ CULTIVATION THEORY
■ George Gerbner argued that heavy television viewing creates an
exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world.
■ Cultivation theory is not limited to TV violence, but it can help
people theorize about how TV influences how people view social
reality.
■ Cultivation works like a magnetic or gravitational field.
■ Resonance: The TV world looks like my world, so it must be true.
APPLICATION LOG:
CULTIVATION THEORY

1. A man wearing make-up on the street may elicit unwelcome glares, questions
about his masculinity and even his sexuality. But in South Korea, ideas about how
to look good as a man are changing attitudes and influencing the world, as the
BBC's Saira Asher reports.
2. For some anime fans, watching anime comprises much of their viewing behavior.
What kind of worldview might a heavy diet of anime cultivate?

➢ SYMBOLIC CONVERGENCE
 ■ Central explanatory principle of SCT: sharing group fantasies creates
symbolic convergence.
■ Bormann and his team of colleagues observed that group members
often dramatized events happening outside the group, things that
took place at previous meetings, or what might possibly occur
among them in the future.
■ When the drama was enhanced in this way, members developed a
common group consciousness and drew closer together.
■ Symbolic convergence is the way in which two or more private
symbol worlds incline toward each other, come more closely
together, or even overlap.
■ Symbolic convergence causes group members to develop a unique
group consciousness.
■ Bormann suggested that it is important for members to
memorialize their group consciousness with a name and recorded
history that recalls moments when fantasies chained out.
■ Symbolic convergence usually, but not always, results in heightened
group cohesiveness.
■ When the group begins to share a drama that in your opinion would
contribute to a healthy culture, you should pick up the drama and
feed the chain.
■ If the fantasies are destructive, creating group paranoia or
depression, cut the chain off whenever possible.
■ Be sure to encourage the sharing of dramas depicting your group
history.
APPLICATION LOG:
SYMBOLIC CONVERGENCE
● I always wondered if the three of us were sort of sick. Whenever Jenn, Lynn and I
would get together and hang out, we would always talk about the past. I don't
know why, but all the funny things we had shared in the past always seemed so
much more exciting than anything we were doing in the present. When one of us
would start to share a common yarn, the other two would immediately pick up
the fantasy and create a chain reaction of energy. We had a million fantasy
themes that we would recreate through time. I always thought that we were
pretty weird, but Bormann declares that we are just natural symbol users and
storytellers who voice fantasies and create cohesiveness.

❖ Communication Ethics
 ➢ What is Communication Ethics?
■ Communication — the act or process of communicating; fact of
being communicated; the imparting or interchange of thoughts,
opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs
■ Ethics — a system of moral principle; deals with values dealing with
human conduct with respect to the rightness and wrongness of
certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and
ends of such actions
■ The principle governing communication, the right and wrong
aspects of it, the moral - immoral dimensions relevant to
communication.

➢ Factors of Communication Ethics

■ Maintaining the correct balance between speaking and listening
■ The legitimacy of fear and emotional appeal
■ Degree of criticism and praise
➢ Death or an overdose of either of the factors could result in unfavorable
consequences
➢ The principle of honesty on both sides should be completely applied
because any amount of insincerity from either the listener or speaker
would ​not ​be prudent.

➢ Fundamentals of Communication Ethics

■ Responsible thinking
■ Decision-making
■ Development of relationships and communities

❖ Unethical Communication
➢ Threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the
well-being of individuals and the society
➢ Examples:
■ Fake News/Hoaxes
■ Cyberbullying
■ Plagiarism
■ Scam/Fraud
■ Piracy
■ Blackmail
■ Phishing
■ Identity Theft
■ Gatekeeping
 ■ Propaganda
■ Pornography

❖ Principles of Communication Ethics

➢ Advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the
integrity of communication
■ Today, voices have questioned the relevance and importance of
honesty, truthfulness, and truth in communication. Some argue
that standards for evaluating what is a ‘fact’ or what is ‘true’, even
the idea of ‘truth’ itself, are changing.
➢ Endorsee freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and tolerance of
dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision-making
fundamental to a civil society
■ Under article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, to which the Philippines is a state-party, the freedom of
expression carries restrictions, such as respect for the rights or
reputations of others, national security, public order, public health,
and public morals.
■ Freedom of speech/expression is not absolute.
➢ Strive to understand and respect other communicators before evaluating
and responding to their messages
■ THINK BEFORE you click. You may be sharing propaganda as truth—
and thus, helping to dumb down people who access the internet
and social media
➢ Promote access to communication resources and opportunities as
necessary to fulfill human potential and contribute to the well-being of
families, communities, and society
■ Communication for development is seen as a two-way process for
sharing ideas and knowledge using a range of communication tools
and approaches that empower individuals and communities to take
actions to improve their lives.
➢ Promote communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that
respect the unique needs and characteristics of individual communicators
■ When someone says something that causes you to react negatively,
do your best to put yourself in his shoes and understand where he
is coming from instead of passing judgment
➢ Condemn communication that degrades individuals and humanity through
distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the
expression of intolerance and hatred
 ■ Cyberbullying is the use of all cell phones, instant messaging,
e-mail, chat rooms or social-networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter to harass, intimidate or threaten someone
➢ Committed to the courageous expression of personal convictions in
pursuit of fairness and justice.
■ Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create
media in a variety of forms
➢ Accept responsibility for the short and long-term consequences for our
own communication and expect the same of others
■ Generally when using social media, it is a common assumption that
all users are solely responsible for their content—including posts,
comments, likes, shares, tweets, retweets, follows, and favorites. As
a general rule, nothing on social media is private.