JOUR 60 REVIEWER
ideas, information, signals or messages through
2nd Semester Midterm Exams
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LESSON 1: CONCEPT OF COMMUNICATION
Communication
• from the Latin word “Communicare” that
means “to share.”
• French word “Communis” meaning
“common”
• Any means by which a thought is
transferred from one person to another
(Chappel & read, 1984)
• Process by which one person/group shares
and imparts information to another so that
both clearly understands one another
(Udall, R & Udall, S. 1979)
• Process that involves the transmission of
message from a sender to receiver.
(Obilade, 1989)
Functions of Communication
1. Informative Function
- To inform others what we know – facts,
information, and knowledge.
2. Social Interaction
- Start, maintain, regulate, or sometimes
end relationships with other people.
3. Instructive Function
- To instruct people on what to do, when,
and whereto do them, why and how to do
them.
4. Persuasive Function
- To influence the opinions of others to
believe or accept your stand or claim on an
issue or problem.
5. Motivation Function
- To entice and direct people to act and
reach their objectives or goals in life.
- We use positive language to make them
realize that their actions lead them to
something beneficial for their being.
6. Aesthetic Function
- Use communication for pleasure and
enjoyment.
7. Therapeutic Function
- Talking to another person doesn’t mean
asking for help, we talk merely to vent our
feelings. After the talk, we find ourselves in
a better condition.
8. Regulation/Control
- to maintain control over people’s attitude
and behavior.
Communication is giving, receiving, or exchanging
the appropriate media, enabling individuals or
group to persuade, to seek information, to give
information or to express emotions.
Importance of Communication
• Helps in smooth working
• Establishes effective leadership
• Acts as basis for coordination and
cooperation
• Acts as basis for decision making
• Helps in motivation and morale
development.
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
➢ Communication as a process is dynamic,
recursive, on-going, continuous, and
cyclical.
➢ No recognizable beginning and end,
neither is there a rigid sequence of
interaction.
How the process begins:
1. Stimulation – sender receives the stimulus
to communicate
2. Encoding – sender encodes and constructs
the message on how will he/she present it
3. Transmission – chosen medium/channel
4. Reception – receiver gets the message
5. Decoding – message is processed,
understood, interpreted by the receiver
6. Response – feedback or reaction of the
receiver to the message received.
ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION PROCESS
➢ Stimulus – triggers the urge to
communicate
➢ Source – the producer/encoder of the
message
➢ Message
➢ Medium/Channel
Medium – oral/written
Channel – the form of medium
Example: Medium – Written; Channel –
Email/Text/Chat
➢ Receiver – person whom the message is
sent, recipient of the message
➢ Feedback – response/reaction
➢ Noise – hindrances, interruptions in the
communication process

Types of Noise
1. Physical Noise – environment
2. Psychological Noise – emotional,
mental state of an individual
3. Physiological Noise – body
4. Linguistic Noise – grammatical,
semantic, phonological
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LESSON 2: UNDERSTANDING THEORIES
What is a Theory?
• Any attempt to explain or represent
something
• Someone’s conceptualization of an
observed set of events
• A scholar’s construction of what an
experience is like based on observation
• Any conceptual representation or
explanation of phenomenon
• Offers an account of what something is,
how it works, what it produces or causes to
happen, and what can change how it
operates
Theories pursue 4 goals:
1. Description
- Process of using symbols to represent
phenomena
- Identify features and describe the
variations.
2. Explanation
- effort to clarify how and why something
works
3. Prediction or Understanding
- projecting what will happen to a
phenomenon under specified conditions or
when exposed to particular stimuli
- insight into a particular situation, process
or phenomenon.
4. Reform
• Active pursuit of positive social change
COMPONENTS OF A THEORY
Concepts – a symbolic representation of an actual
thing -tree, chair, table, etc.
Construct – concepts with no physical referent –
democracy, learning, freedom, etc. Language
enables conceptualization.
Principle – expresses the relationship between
two or more concepts or constructs
Concepts & Principles serves two important
functions:
1. They help us understand or explain what is
going on around us.
2. They help us predict future events.
IMPORTANCE OF A THEORY memorize/familiarize
• Organizes & summarizes knowledge
• Focuses attention on important variables
and relationships
• Clarifies what is observed
• Offers an observational aid
• Predicts outcomes and effects in the data
• Provides an open forum for discussion,
debate, and criticism
FUNCTIONS OF A THEORY
1. Heuristic Function
Aids in discovery. A good theory generates
research.
2. Control Function
Theories seek to establish norms of
performance.
3. Generative Function
Using theory to challenge existing cultural
life and to generate new ways of living.
DEVELOPMENT OF THEORIES
Theory is constantly revised as new knowledge
which is discovered through research.
3 Stages of Theory Development
1. Speculative – attempts to explain what is
happening.
2. Descriptive – gathers descriptive data to
describe what is really happening.
3. Constructive – revises old theories and
develops new ones based on continuing
research.
Theory Development Process
• Theory-practice-theory take exiting theory
in education, apply to distance learning,
develop new theory.
• Practice-research-theory see what is
happening in distance learning, submit to
research, develop theory from results.
 • Theory-theory-research/practice build on
an initial theory to develop a second theory,
then apply and test it.
EVALUATING THEORIES memorize po!
COMMUNICATION THEORY
• can be a systematic summary about the
nature of communication process
• provide a way to predict or understand one
or more concepts.
• The definition of communication is a
concept, but how that definition is used to
explain the communication process is a
theory.
• “Model” is a term that is confused with
theory.
Three types of Theory
1. Commonsense Theory or Theory-in-use
- Created by an individual’s own personal
experiences
- Developed from helpful hints passed on
from family members, friends, or
colleagues.
- Useful since they are often the basis for
our decisions about how to communicate.
- EXAMPLE: Never date someone you work
with – it will always end badly.
2. Working Theory
- Generalizations made in particular
profession about the best techniques for
doing something.
- More systematic than commonsense
theories
- Represent agreed-on ways of doing a
particular profession
- Closely represent guidelines of behavior
rather than systematic representations.
- EXAMPLE: To get the press release
published, it should be newsworthy and
written in journalistic style.
3. Scholarly Theory
- The theory undergone systematic
research.
- Provides more thorough, accurate, and
abstract explanations for communication
than do commonsense and working
theories.
- Downside, more complex and difficult to
understand.
- EXAMPLE: Effects of violations of
expectations depend on reward value of
the violator (Expectancy violations theory)
- EXAMPLE: The media do not tell us what
to think but what to think about (Agenda-
setting theory)
1. Accuracy
• The best theories correctly summarize
the way communication actually
works.
• systematic research supports the
explanations provided by the theory.
• Look at research studies used in the
theory whether the research supports
or fails to support it.
2. Practicality
• Theory can be used to address real
world communication problems.
• “There is nothing so practical as a
good theory.” (Lewin, 1951)
• Look not only for how the theory has
been used in research literature but
also whether it has made the leap to
professional practice.
3. Succinctness
• Refers to whether or not a theory’s
explanation or description is
sufficiently concise
• Theory is formulated using a few
steps as possible
• Includes no more or no less than
necessary to understand a
phenomenon thoroughly
• To compare how much of the
communication situation is explained
by the theory in proportion to how
many concepts are being used to
explain it.
4. Consistency
• Having both internal and external
consistency
• Internal Consistency – ideas are
logically built on one another
• External Consistency – theory’s
coherence with other widely held
theories.
• The notion of consistency is
concerned with the logic of the theory.
• Most useful theories have a strong
logical structure.
5. Acuity
• Ability of a theory to provide insight
into an otherwise intricate issue.
• “wow” factor
 • Theories that explain difficult problem. Triad of Meaning by Charles Sauders
Peirce
Area of
What to Look for
Evaluation SEMIOSIS – relationship among:

Accuracy
Has research supported that the ➢ Object (referent)
theory works the way it says it does? ➢ Person (Interpreter)
➢ Sign (meaning)
Have real-world applications been
Practicality Semiotic Tradition has Three Areas of Study:
found in the theory?

Has the theory been formulated with a. Semantics – addresses to what signs
Succinctness appropriate number of concepts or stand for
steps? b. Syntactics – study of relationships among
Does the theory demonstrate signs
Consistency coherence within its own premises c. Pragmatics – practical use of symbols
and with other theories?
To what extent does the theory Example for Semiotic Tradition:
Acuity make clear an otherwise complex
experience? - Not to drink a bottle with the skull symbol
on it (Poison)
- Not to cross the street when the light is red
LESSON 3: SEVEN TRADITIONS OF since it means “Stop”
COMMUNICATION THEORY
3. PHENOMENOLOGICAL TRADITION
• Written by Robert T. Craig - Communication as the experience of self
• Different theories are different ways of and others through dialogue.
“talking about” communication, each form - Concentrates on personal experience
having its own powers and limits - Emphasizes the interpretation of one’s
own subjective experiences
1. RHETORICAL TRADITION - Implies that two individuals cannot have
- Communication as a practical art of the exact experience
discourse
- Communicator is governed by art and Three General Schools of Thought
method ➢ Classical Phenomenology (Edmund
- central to this is the five canons of rhetoric Husserl)

Five Canons of Rhetoric - Instead of seeing things through our

a. Invention – conceptualization own psyches, we should take
b. Arrangement – process of ourselves away from our biases and
organizing symbols see things objectively in order to
c. Style – considerations involve in interpret the actual experience.
presenting symbols
d. Memory – how to retain and ➢ Phenomenology of Perception
process information/mastery (Maurice Merleau-Ponty)
e. Delivery – embodiment of symbols
in physical form - Concerned with providing a direct
description of human experience.
2. SEMIOTIC TRADITION - Perception is the background of
- Communication is mediation by signs. experience which guides every
- Sign is a stimulus designating some other conscious action.
conditions. - The world is a field of perception and
- Symbol designates a complex sign with human consciousness assigns
many meanings. meaning to the world.
- Through our own perception, we interpret - We cannot separate ourselves from
meanings for objects that hold a symbolic our perceptions of the world.
presence rather than it being just an object
of reality.
- Need for a common language.
 ➢ Hermeneutic Phenomenology
(Martin Heidegger)
- concerned with the life world or
human experience as it’s lived.
- a person’s history/background
includes what a culture gives a person
from birth and is handed down,
presenting ways of understanding the
world.
4. CYBERNETIC TRADITION
- Communication is a system of parts that
influence one another to achieve balance
and change.
- Explains how physical, biological, social,
behavioral processes work
Example: The classroom system. The
relationships between students and teacher,
students and each other, subject matter,
environment of the classroom, cultural
diversity of students, and homework all come
together to form a cycle of networks and
connections.
5. SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL TRADITION
- Communication is the interaction of
individuals
- PERSONALITY is important.
- Judgments are biased by beliefs and
feelings.
- People have influence over one another.
Three Branches
➢ Behavioral – how people actually
behave in communication situations
➢ Cognitive – what people do in
communication situation based on
mental operations
➢ Biological – people’s ways of thinking
are based on inborn neurobiological
influences
6. SOCIO-CULTURAL TRADTION
- Communication is the GLUE to society
- Communication is the production and
reproduction of SOCIAL ORDER.
Madami - People’s understandings, meanings,
included in norms, roles, and rules are worked out
this tradition, interactively in communication.
so read - Researchers aims to understand ways in
which people collectively create the
realities of their social groups, orgs, and
cultures.
- Symbolic Interactionism has been highly
influential in this tradition
- Social Construction is the second line of
work in this tradition. It investigates how
human knowledge is constructed.
- Sociolinguistics, the third influence, the
study of language and culture. The people
use language differently in different social
and cultural groups.
- As people talk, they reproduce culture.
- A red sign in this country might mean
differently in another country.
7. CRITICAL TRADITION
- Communication is a process in which all
assumptions can be challenged.
- Critical theorists are interested in
uncovering oppressive social conditions
and power arrangements in order to
promote a more fulfilling society.
Three Features
➢ Seeks to understand systems, power
structures and beliefs that dominate
society.
➢ Uncovering oppressive social
conditions for freer society
➢ Conscious attempt to fuse theory and
action
Main Disciplines of Critical Tradition
Marxism – study on economy and production in
alliance to society
Postmodernism – the emergence of the
information age and powers of media
Feminist Studies – the critique and study on
gender roles, race and sexuality
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LESSON 4: EARLY COMMUNICATION THEORY
General Semantics
• Deals with how one perceives and
conceives reality with the ways in which
language, words, symbols, and linguistic
habits influence people and human events.
• A way of analyzing language operations
and improving communication.
• Study of human responses to symbols,
symbol systems, sign systems, and sign
situations
• Deals with our reactions to words, symbols,
and to whatever happens around us
• Study of total meaning as it resides in and
is a function of the symbol and response,
 the person and the purpose, the time and
place and culture.
• The goal is improving everyday
communication by discovering ways in
which the words distort, obscure, and
complicate understanding between people.
Special Character of Symbols
Symbols are arbitrary
- Symbols are different from signals.
Symbols are conventions that members of
a culture agree to use to represent other
things.
- Have no direct relationship to the objects
or ideas they represent.
- We generally consider communication
successful when we reach agreement on
the meanings of symbols (Duck, 1994).
- EXAMPLE: The word “cat” represents or
stands for a real cat and our idea of a cat.
Symbols are abstract
- Symbols are not concrete or tangible.
- Symbols are imperfect, partial ways of
designating the raw reality of experience.
- A certain level of abstraction is inherent in
the fact that symbols can only represent
objects and ideas.
Symbols are ambiguous
- Meanings are unclear and variable, not
absolute or fixed
- They have several possible meanings.
- EXAMPLE: Your friend tells you she has
an apple on her desk. Is she referring to a
piece of fruit or her computer?
- The meanings of symbols changeover
time due to changes in social norms,
values, and advances in technology.
- These three qualities account for the
mystery, majesty, and power of the
language. At the same time, these explain
the potential for misunderstanding when
we use words to communicate.
Meanings are contextual
- Meanings are in people, not in words.
- The key to understanding (and
misunderstanding) is context
- Meaning changes as symbols move from
one context to another (Richards, 1939)
- CONTEXT is the entire field of experience
that is related to communication.
- The map is not the territory
- Emphasizes the difference between
concrete referents (the territory) and the
symbols that represent them (the map)
Explanation: “The map is not the territory.” Is the
idea that the way we see the world isn’t reality
itself. We don’t respond to reality; we respond to
our internalized map of reality. How we represent
things are our interpretations. Understand and
reflect this part po
Interpretations may or may not be accurate. Our
language reveals the map and model we use to
guide our behavior. Communication is how we
explain the world to others and to ourselves.
➢ INTENTIONAL ORIENTATIONS - Based
on internal factors or what is inside of us –
our own definitions, associations, fields of
experience are related to words we speak,
hear, and read.
➢ EXTENSIONAL ORIENTATIONS – Based
on observation and attention to objective
particulars that distinguish the phenomena
from one another.
REMEDIES FOR MISUNDERSTANDING
• Etc.
- Symbols are abstract, they do not capture
all the referent they attempt to represent.
- To remind ourselves of the
incompleteness of symbols, use the term
etc. continuously.
• Indexing
- To remedy the fixity of symbols, index
terms to specific dates or situations
- To remind ourselves that meanings vary
and change across time and
circumstances.
- Example: Karl in 2000 was irresponsible
with studies, but Karl in 2020 was
responsible about learning.
• Feedforward
- Process of anticipating the effects of
communication and adapting it in advance
of actually communicating with others
(anticipatory feedback)
- To remind ourselves to be more thoughtful
in planning communication to have fewer
misunderstanding that requires repairing.
CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF GENERAL
SEMANTICS
▪ Too simplistic
▪ Misrepresents the character of symbols
and language
▪ Lacks applied value