Lesson 1: FOUR THEORETICAL TRADITIONS IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

• RHETORIC
• HERMENEUTICS
• PHENOMENOLOGY
• SEMIOTICS
A. RHETORIC
• OLDEST SET OF IDEAS
• AT PRESENT, IT IS SIGNIFICANT BASED ON THREE CONCEPTS
1. FIVE STAGES IN PREPARING A SPEECH
a) INVENTIO (subject matter)
b) DISPOSITIO (structuring the speech)
c) ELOCUTIO (its articulation in language)
d) MEMORIA (form and content)
e) ACTIO (performance)
2. MEANS OF PERSUASION
o ETHOS
o LOGOS
o PATHOS

3. TOPOS
o means “place” or common places in a known or imagined terrain which speaker share with their audience

o rhetoric is complementary to logic

B. HERMENEUTICS
• The Practice Of Reading And Understanding Written Texts
• Purpose is to clarify the nature and preconditions of interpretation
• Texts at issue were religion and law
• Text was the source of scientific evidence and aesthetic contemplation
• Hermeneutics of Suspicion to discover hidden principles behind what other people say or do
HERMENEUTICS’ INFLUENCE ON COMMUNICATION
• IT BRINGS HOME THE GENERAL POINT THAT HUMAN COMMUNICATION IS A
COMPLEX PROCESS WHICH CALLS FOR INTERPRETATION AND SOMETIMES FOR
SUSPICION
• HERMENEUTICS HAS BEEN A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION IN THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORKS RELATED TO RECEPTION OF MEDIA AND METHODOLOGICAL
APPROACHES TO HISTORICAL SOURCES
 • IT SERVES AS A CONSTANT REMINDER THAT RESEARCH IS ALSO A HERMENEUTIC
ACTIVITY – INTERPRETING THE INTERPRETATIONS OF OTHERS AS TO HOW AND
WHY THEY COMMUNICATE.
C. PHENOMENOLOGY
• methodological orientation to collecting and interpreting evidence
• insisted on the unique qualities and insights of ordinary human experience
• horizon - to explain how human subjects relate to objects in reality (Edmund Husserl)

CHARLES SANDERS
PEIRCE
american philosopher
EXAMPLE OF SEMIOSIS
FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE
SWISS LINGUIST

TWO SEPARATE TURNS BY WITTGENSTEIN

The earlier philosopher held that all knowledge must be founded on elementary propositions about minimal features of
reality.
The later Wittgenstein rejected his former view and came to define language as a complex set of discursive activities
inseparable from the life forms or practices they serve to constitute.
• A shift of focus has been noticeable from language as a medium for representing objects toward language as a
medium of interaction between subjects in the context of culture and society.
• “Cultural turn” reemphasized the communicative dimensions of both everyday life and diverse institutional practices

Lesson 2: Doing Research

Comparison (Berger, 2016)
The Human Mind
• ”The world is divided into two groups of people: those who divide the world into two groups of people and those
who dont.” (Robert Benchley, 1920)
• A group of people and then a negation
• De Saussure (1966) argued that people make sense of the world by forming binary oppositions.
• “Oppositions establish relationships in various areas and it is through relationships that we find meaning”. (de
Saussure, 1915)
QUALITY
• “qualitas” – Latin word “of what quality”
• Text involves matters such as text’s properties, degree of excellence and distinguishing characteristics
• Element of evaluation, judgement and taste connected to the term
• “quantitas” – latin word for ”how great” or “how much” or “how many”
• In communication, we think of numbers, magnitude and measurement.
Some Foundations of Contemporary Research
A. QUANTITATIVE vs QUALITATIVE
• Both study individuals
• Quantitative is in generalizing to more than just the individual
• Qualitative has no intention of going beyond – just deeper into – the individual
QUANTITATIVE COMMUNICATION RESEARCH QUALITATIVE
COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

Concerned with the recurrence of data Concerned with the occurrence of the
communication event regardless whether it
happens only once or is regularly repeated

Focuses on counting and its observations on

data that can be translated or reduced to
numbers Focus is on describing the phenomenon and
identifying the elements and the process
Assumes an objective reality that can be involved.
measured or observed with appropriate
instruments and methods

Methods such as structured surveys and

manifest content analysis are classified as Use emic or internal approach (reality is
understood within the cultural context)
etic, external or objective methodologies.

Major Points of Difference

B. Theoretical vs Empirical
• Research is empirical means it is based on date observations and measurement of the world around us.
• Research is also theoretical which means it is concerned with the testing of theories and ideas about our perceptions
of reality.
C. Variables and Their Measures
• Variables connote change, hence, defined as an entity that can take on different values.
• Examples: age, TV program preferences or categories
• Variable indicators, also known as measures, attributes or values, may be numeric or non-numeric.
Example of Variable
Strongly Like -5 Like – 4 Neither Like nor Dislike- 3 Dislike -2 Strongly Dislike – 1
D. The Issue of Causality
• In experimental and evaluation studies, when there is a linear cause-effect relationship, it is necessary to distinguish a
variable as independent or dependent.
• Independent variable or the cause is the manipulated variable – the treatment or program assumed to create a
change.
• Dependent variable is the effect, outcome or result ensuing from the introduction of the treatment variable.
• Ex: multimedia program vs the pupils’ scores or grades as measure of achievement
E. Reliability and Validity
• Reliability pertains to consistency. No matter who and how many times a question is asked or a particular method is
used, the responses or observations are consistent.
• Internal validity pertains to whether the independent or treatment variable make a difference.
Question Format of Internal Validity
• Did X cause Y?
• Were there other causes, or alternative and unanticipated Xs, for Y?
E. Reliability and Validity
• External Validity – concerned with generalizability of the research findings, as expressed by the following question:
to what populations and settings can this communication effect be generalized?
F. Types of Research
1. Exploratory – What is the phenomenon all about?
2. Descriptive – intends to reveal what is going on or what exists. Questions are: how did the phenomenon happen,
where or in what situations did the phenomenon occur, what are the characteristics or elements of this phenomenon,
who or what are involved and how many are involved?
3. 3. Explanatory – Why did the phenomenon happen and do (and to what extent do) specific factors or variables
cause the phenomenon?
4. 4. Evaluation – aim to answer issues of whether an intervention has achieved its objectives and what combination of
factors or variables is most effective in achieving desired outcomes.
Lesson 2: Traditions in Communication Theories Mapping the Territory of Communication
DR. ROBERT CRAIG
Communication Theory and Philosophy Discourse Analysis and Argumentation Craig, Robert . (1999) Communication
Theory as a Field. Internation Communication Association Journal on Communication Theory, pp119-161
TRANSMISSION MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
- communication is a process of sending and receiving messages or transferring information from one mind to another.
CONSTITUTIVE MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
-A process that produces and reproduces shared meaning.
-Constitute a common reality like group and personal identities, factual truth, moral norms.
Why Constitutive?

 Ideas about communication have evolved historically and are best understood in a broader context of cultural and
intellectual history.
 Communication theories are reflexive.
Craig (1999) would like to consider these traditions as INTRUMENTAL CONSTRUCTIONS rather then essential
categories.
1. RHETORICAL TRADITION
• Communication as a Practical Art of Discourse
• Problems of communication in this tradition are conceived as social exigencies (urgent need or demand) that can be
resolved through the artful use of discourse to persuade audiences (Bitzer, 1968)
• The stress on the power and beauty of the language capable of moving emotions and pushing into actions. Rhetoric is
rather an art than science.

2. SEMIOTIC TRADITION
• Communication as Intersubjective Mediation by Signs
• Problems of communication in the semiotic tradition are primarily problems of (re)presentation and transmission of
meaning, of gaps between subjectivities that can be bridged, if only imperfectly, by the use of share system of signs.
• Words are arbitrary symbols which mean nothing on their own. Words have no precise definitions. The meanings are
found in people’s intention (I.A. Richards, 2004).
3. THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL TRADITION
• Communication as the experience of Otherness
• Explains the interplay of identity and difference in authentic human relationships and cultivates communication practices
that enable and sustain authentic relationships.
• It is about analyzing everyday life from the viewpoint of its participants. It emphasizes the interpretation of one’s own
subjective experiences
4. THE CYBERNETIC TRADITION
• Communication as Information Processing
• Explains how all kinds of complex systems, whether living or non-living, macro or micro, are able to function and why
they often malfunction.
• Epitomizing the transmission model, Communication problems are breakdowns in the flow of information resulting from
noise, information overload or mismatch between structure and function and as resources for solving communication
problems and therapeutic intervention.
5. THE SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL TRADITION
• Communication as Expression, Interaction and Influence
• As communication theorists, we also need to understand when, how and why interaction alters sender behavior
patterns and receiver judgement.
• Communication theorized in this way explains the causes and effects of social behavior and cultivates practices that
attempt to exert intentional control over those behavioral causes and effects.
• Communication problems in this tradition are thus thought of as situations that call for the effective manipulation of
the causes of behavior in order to produce objectively defined and measured outcomes
6. THE SOCIOCULTURAL TRADITION
• Communication as the (re) production of Social Order
• Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed (Carey,
1989) C
• ommunication problems in the sociocultural tradition are thought of as gaps across space (sociocultural diversity and
relativity) and across time (sociocultural change) that disable interaction by depleting the stock of shared patterns in
which interaction depends.
• Conflicts, misunderstandings and difficulties in coordination increase when social conditions afford a scarcity of
shared rituals, rules and expectations among members.
• Graffin (2000, p. 41) says that “the socio-cultural tradition is based on the premise that, as people talk, they reproduce
culture. Most of us assume that words reflect what actually exist. However, theorist in this tradition suggests that the process
often works the other way round. Our view of reality is strongly shaped by the language we have used already since we were
infants”.
7. THE CRITICAL TRADITION
• Communication as a Discourse Reflection
• When we see the constraints that limit our choices, we are aware of power relations; when we see only choices we live in
and reproduce power (Lannamann, 1991)
• Communication conceived in this way explains how social injustice is perpetuated by ideological distortions and how
justice can potentially be restored through communicative practices that enable critical reflection or consciousness-raising in
order to unmask those distortions and thereby enable political action to liberate the participants from them.