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IHC: Summary exam
What is communication?
 “the exchange of messages”
 sender – message – receiver
 sender – message – noise (=distraction) – receiver
too general: does not discriminate
 Sender: encodes message
 Receiver: decodes message
 Message: a translated idea sent from sender to receiver
 Channel: a medium or transmission through which the message is sent
 Media-psychology: How mediated messages are processed
Definition of Communication:
 Communication is a process whereby people assign meanings to stimuli in order to
make sense of the world (Trenholm, 2008:20)
- “People”: senders/receivers
- “Assign meanings”: intentional
- “Stimuli”: symbolic & non-verbal
- All channels implied: interpersonal & media (can be used for all channels)
Communication and Rhetoric:
 Rhetoric in Ancient Greece:
- the study of communication started with classical rhetoric
 The art of speaking or writing effectively, using the principles and rules
of composition drawn from classical traditions, typically tied to the art
of persuasion.
 Aristotle was a rhetorician: founder of the Lyceum and teacher of Alex the Great.
 Plato: Aristotle’s teacher: founder of the Academy in Athens
 Rhetoric (and Trenholm’s) 4 questions:
1. Small scope: politics and science
2. Intentional: persuasion
3. Sender focused
4. Symbolic: the spoken word
 Contemporary rhetorics (Aristotle’s heritage):
- Logos: Persuading an audience through the wording and logic of the message
- Ethos Persuading an audience through personal character
- Pathos: Persuading an audience through arousing emotions
 Emotions are complex in rhetoric:
- For example: pathos in politics (e.g. crying during a speech)
- Aristotle wants us to use ‘pathos’, but there is a limit as to how much emotion
is acceptable
 Is pathos related to ethos? Authenticity, credibility?
 What are the consequences of using pathos for communicating a message?
The Five Canons of Rhetoric (Cicero):
 Invention: the speaker must begin by discovering what can be said about a given topic
and by finding arguments that will allow others to understand it.
 Style: the speaker must select and arrange the wording of the message carefully. A
speech can either instruct, please or persuade.
 Arrangement: the speaker must arrange ideas for maximum impact. A speech must
be divided into introduction, body and conclusion.
 Memory: the speaker must find a way to keep the message firmly in the mind. Several
mnemonic devices (memory aids) could help orators memorise speeches.
 Delivery: the speaker must present the speech in a natural, varied and appropriate
way. Voice should convey interest and emotion, and gestures should match the major
ideas.
Sophists: a group of professional speech teachers who’s main concern was to teach the
‘tricks’ of persuasive speaking for use in the law courts or assemblies.
Why bother studying communication?
 Human conflict is often the result of miscommunication
 A fundamental argument is “Thinking through communication”(title): we think due
and through communication.
Communication through signs:
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According to Augustine, people communicate through signs.
Sign: causes something else to come into the mind as a consequence of itself
Natural signs: created by God (e.g. smoke to indicate fire)
Conventional signs: created by humans – interpretation is more difficult (e.g. spoken
or written word)
Empiricism:
 Scientific method that all arguments should be empirically grounded (=based on
observation)
 Pose the epistemological question: What provides the basis of our knowledge
 Francis Bacon: analysed of perceptual bias – identified four ‘idols’, that get in the
way of clear thinking (only true protection is to be as scientific as possible):
1. Idols of the Tribe: fallacies in thinking due to human nature
2. Idols of the Cave: individual prejudices we carry due to our
background/personalities
3. Idols of the Market Place: centre on imprecise use of language
4. Idols of the Theatre: fallacies when we accept ideas uncritically
 John Locke: mistrusted normal uses of rhetoric/argued that truth could be obtained
only through discourse that was solidly ground in an understanding of human
rationality
Scientific method: a belief in controlled laboratory experimentation and careful, objective
measurement.
Source credibility: the extent to which a communicator is considered believable and
competent
Chapter 2
Definitions:
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Are tools – in science as much as in daily life: operational definition (e.g. IQ test)
Are constructions of reality – generally shared (always shared in science)
Are contested/tested (e.g. by scientists)
In addition to defining a subject, a historical analysis deepens our understanding of it
For example:
- What are the roots?
- How was the subject put in practice earlier in history?
- What has been universal over the years?
- What is relative to a particular period?
Perspectives:
 A coherent set of assumptions about the way a process operates.
Understanding human nature
Perspectives
through…
Concepts
-
Psychological
the mind
-
Opposites
Social Constructionist
Operation (cycle)
Uninterested cultural/social actions
interactions of human behavior
-
Cultural Studies
Objective
Multiple answers possible
cultural contexts of social practice
-
Pragmatic
Objective
Set the norm
Favour ‘underdog’
Against (powerful)
institutions/majority
power and politics
-
Question underlying ideas and dynamics
(who, why, what effect?)
individuals; sender; receiver;
message; channel; encode;
decode; mental model; causal
social; context; representations
of reality; cultural traditions;
roles and rules; symbolic codes;
mediated experiences
systems; behavior; patterned;
action; interaction;
interdependence; players;
power; politics; discourses;
meaning making; "texts";
subjectivity;
-
Power: top vs.
bottom
Psychological perspective:
 Communication as an instance of human information processing (cognitive system)
 Focusses on individual’s mental set
- true: the unfolding of the psychological process
 Mechanistic
- true: laws approach – tries to build model in mathematic terms
 Short on differentiality: people need to share a mental set
- but people still can communicate if they have different mental sets
(Trenholm)
 Uses laws approach: describes cause-and-effect laws that connect communication
variables by asking questions related to research methods.
Social Constructionist perspective:
 Focused on group rather than individual
- difficult because we use our own views to analyse situations
 Reality is built by groups – groups create collective representations of reality
 Groups borrow cultural groups from the culture they live in
- Symbolic codes (language)
- Cognitive customs -how to process information + what we consider
true/false
- Cultural traditions
- Roles and rules
 Groups also lend their culture by using the tools
 Creates culture-group dialectic : ideas based on groups and people communicating
- Consequence: social reality is constructed through communication
 Acknowledges the constructed nature of social reality, but there is a danger of
relativism: makes it impossible to discuss with the groups to change/modify their
beliefs/reality
 Concentrates on groups and cultures (macro andmeso level), but neglects (creative)
individual (micro level) – including individual communicative acts that can change the
reality of groups
 Uses rules approach: To accomplish their goals, people choose certain lines of action
and follow certain rules laid down by their culture
Pragmatic perspective:
 Communication = playing game
 Rule based: turn-taking and acts
 Elements of pragmatic model:
- Acts: individual moves in communication with a partner
- Interact: a pattern of a two-act sequence in communication with a partner
- Payoff: a result or reward due to the repetition of acts.
 Matter to take in account: gender
 Rather counter-intuitive/emotional (like soc. constr.) – only focused on actions/acts
 Its radical empiricism neglects sender’s/receiver’s intention/emotions
 Enables objective account of communication
Cultural studies perspective:
 Dialectic between communication and culture (one influences the other – cycle)
 Culture is a shared system of meaning – like a network
 The network is embedded in the power structures of society – society always includes
power relations
 Focuses on media and popular culture
 Focuses on oppressed minority in society
 Frankfurter Schule: claims that entertainment media reproduced the power structure in
society and wants people to accept the current political structure (e.g. propaganda)
 Stuart Hall: cultural theorist – believes that language use in a framework of power
society
 Hall’s theory: reception theory including encoding and decoding – audiences can
have three different reactions to a media text (dominant, opposition and negotiated
reading)
Lev Vygotsky’s psychological theory of cognitive development:
 Humans develop the ‘thinking apparatus’ (cognitive system) they are equipped wit at
birth through communicative interactions with other (competent) humans.
 This is through speaking and being spoken to by others
 Also due to interacting and non-verbal communication (it needs to be stimulated
through communication)
Model: an abstract representation of a process, a description of its structure or function
Symbols: random and conventionalized representations that convey meaning
Symbolic codes:
 Language
 the ways we’ve been taught to process information
 Cognitive customs: the beliefs, attitudes and values that make up our cultural
traditions
 the sets of codes and rules that guide our actions
Speech acts: individual purposeful acts of communication
Discursive acts/texts: acts of communication
Subject position: a role or stance to take when responding to the text
ICA: International Communication Association
ECREA: European Communication Research and Education Association
Chapter 3
Listening:
 The process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or
non-verbal messages
 Multistep process of listening
1. Attending to the sensory stimuli that make up a message
2. Making the stimuli meaningful by using our own experiences for
interpretation
3. Critically evaluating our interpretations
4. Responding to the message
5. Storing the message for future use
 Hearing, on the other hand, is a process that occurs when soundwaves are translated
into electrical impulses and then processed by the central nervous system
 Listening, is a social cognitive process
Attention:
 The process of selectively focussing on certain events in the environment
 Voluntary attention: occurs when we willingly focus on a stimulus, guided by
personal plans and goals
 Involuntary attention: occurs when the intrinsic properties of a stimulus make that
stimulus stand out, this type of attention lies outside our control (e.g. car driving past)
(Cognitive) Schemata :
 Mental guidelines derived from social understandings, past experiences and our
knowledge about the world
 Person prototypes: idealised representations of a certain kind of person, used to
identify or classify a person (e.g. nerd, politician, teacher etc.) – ignore personal
details and often lead to stereotypes
 Personal Constructs: the characteristics we inhabitually notice in others, to make our
perception easier and more efficient – also can be inaccurate and unfair.
 Scripts: representations of sequences of actions, which tell us what to do next in a
situation during communication. They give us the confidence in conversations, but
they can also create repetitive routines and mindlessness
 Cognitive complexity: occurs when an individual has a large, rich and varied set of
personal constructs – makes the individual be willing to combine seemingly
contradictory characteristics in creative ways, realising that people are not all good or
all bad.
Mindful processing: when a person is in a state of alert and lively awareness about the world,
creating new understandings rather than relying on the old (like in mindless/automatic
processing)
Loaded language:
 Emotionally charged language
 God terms: terms that are so positive that they go unchallenged
 Devil terms: terms that express negative values and repels the listener
Description: an actual observation of a state of affairs made with a minimum of distortion/bias
Inference: (opposite of description) a personal interpretation of the meaning behind the
behaviour being described.
Evaluation: goes further than inference, namely adding a positive or negative judgement.
Interpretation: a mental representation of the meaning or significance of something
Storage and retrieval:
 Storing messages in memory and then retrieving them at an appropriate time.
 False memory: information that is painful or unpleasant is pushed aside, while things
that never happened can be remembered as though they were true (factor that
interferes with storage and retrieve)
Human Information Processing (HIP):
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The process that embraces more than (selective) attention
Executed by the cognitive system.\
Multi-Store Model: dominant model in process
Forward processing: taking in information
Backward processing: using earlier information (e.g. experiences, memories)
Sensory memory: environmental stimuli, unlimited capacity and short duration
Short-term memory/ Working memory: limited capacity, short duration
Long-term memory: limitless capacity, endless duration
Danger of Reification: considering a concept as real rather than abstract, or a fallible
human construct
Chapter 4
Language:
 A rule-governed symbol system that allows its users to generate meaning and, in the
process, to define reality
 Sign: the vehicle for this expression. Consists of:
- Signified: the private idea located solely in the mind of a communicator
- Signifier: the form in which the idea is expressed (e.g. symbols, gestures)
 Symbol: arbitrary/inconsistent and conventional/accepted (social agreement)
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis:
 If we think and remember linguistically, then it stands to reason that the nature of our
language affects the nature of our thoughts
 Consists of two corollaries/consequences:
1. Linguistic determinism: language determines though
Constructivism=
2. Linguistic relativity: people from different language communities perceive
the world differently
Euphemisms: inoffensive words that are used instead of highly charged term. They allow us
to avoid talking about painful or offensive situations, but they can also act as blinders.
Metaphors: a linguistic usage that allows us to understand experience one thing in terms of
another, they guide our thoughts and actions.
A system of codes: the elements:
 Discourse: connected sentences that form an identifiable structure to fulfil a
communicative function
 Sentences: a construction of words that form an idea
 Morphemes: elements of words [lock-er]
 Phonemes: the significant (phonetic) sound distinctions in a given language [pin] [fin]
 forward and backward processing
Speech acts: the goal a speaker intends to accomplish through speech (to persuade, flatter,
inform, gather information, to comfort, etc.)
Conversational maxims:
 Rules within a conversation, where communicators must be willing to cooperate with
one another by speaking in socially approved ways.
 Four conversational maxims:
1. Quantity maxim: communicators must make sure that their contributions
contain enough, but not too much, information
2. Quality maxim: speakers must be truthful
3. Relevancy maxim: speakers must make sure their contributions are direct
4. Manner maxim: they should be direct and clear
Forms of language:
 Dialects: when a subgroup speak a language using a different vocabulary, grammar or
pronunciation from others who speak that language
 Pidgins: a simple language deliberately invented so that people new to an area can
communicate to those who live in that area (e.g. “long time no see”)
 Creoles: a language that occurs when a pidgin becomes permanent
 Lingua Francas: when people from different language communities choose one
language to use for trade and commerce (e.g. English in international business)
 Jargon: the special or technical words used by members of professions (e.g. doctors)
 Argot: words whose meanings have been changed so that outsiders cannot understand
them
 Taboo: words that are unacceptable in polite society
The subsystems of language:
 Phonology: the study of the sound system of a language – phonemes
 Semantics: the study of the structure of the units of meaning in a language morphemes
 Syntactics: the study of the sentence structure of a language – sentences
 Pragmatics: the study of how we use language in social contexts – discourse
Disclaimer: denial of any connection with or knowledge of (“don’t get me wrong”/“hear me
out”)
Context cultures:
 Low-context cultures: cultures that find meaning in the words rather than in the
shared context in which communication occurs. In such cultures, the speaker assumes
that the listener doesn’t know very much about the situation and must be told
everything (Europe, USA, UK)
 High-context cultures: cultures that don’t find it necessary to spell out messages
explicitly, and speakers don’t bother to say what they believe listeners already know.
They also believe that where and how something is said is as important as what is said
(China, Japan)
Chapter 5
Nonverbal communication:
 Any instance in which a stimulus other than words creates meaning in either a
sender’s or a receiver’s mind.
 Characteristics:
- May be unintentional
- Consists of multiple codes
- Is immediate, continuous and natural
- Both universal and cultural
 Nonverbal communication in comparison with (verbal) language:
- Non-verbal communication: less emphasis on the system
- Non-verbal communication: no reference to defining reality
 Is also less precise in communicating meaning
 Is less structured
 Not less important for communication – nonverbal communication is fundamental
kind of communication (more embedded in our language system)
 Conscious nonverbal communication: gestures
 Non-conscious nonverbal communication: foot tapping, etc. (often copied –
mimicry)
Nonverbal codes:
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Kinesic codes: gestures, facial display/eye behaviour, body movements
Paralinguistiscs: sounds tied to words/vocal behaviour and touch
Chronemics and proxemics: time (chronemics), territory and space (proxemics)
Physical appearance: body type(endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph) , dress and
object language
Mimicry:
 Adapting and/or imitating another human being for personal advantages
 A widespread kind of nonverbal communication
 Both conscious (the art of mime) and non-conscious (= automatic behaviour: people
mimic others without awareness, intent or conscious control)
 People tend to mimic:
- speech accents
- rates of speech
- posture
 Evolutionary explanation: reason for mimicking=
- group ties (bonding) are necessary for survival of the individual (and species)
- other in the group communicate important survival information (danger, food,
reproduction)
- it is necessary to establish high quality relations with group members (mimic)
- Survival of the fittest: the individuals who mimicked best, survived
 Mimicry is the social glue to gain social acceptance
 Mimicry causes rapport: relational meaning/high-quality relationships
Chapter 6
Dyadic communication: two-person, face-to-face interaction. It is direct, personal, immediate,
spontaneous and informal
Looking-glass self: the appraisals of others during a conversation act as a kind if mirror,
reflecting back on us.
Balancing interpersonal tensions:
 Expressive-protective dialectic: finding a balance between the need to share personal
information and the need to maintain privacy (self-disclosure: voluntary revealing of
personal information)
 Autonomy-togetherness dialectic: friends/couples decide how interdependent they
want to be
 Novelty-predictability dialectic: finding ways to balance the familiar and the new
Role relations:
 One-up role: the dominant part in a relationship
 One-down role: the submissive part in a relationship
Spiral:
 One partner’s behaviour intensifies that of the other
 Progressive spirals: the partners’ behaviour lead to increasing levels of involvement
and satisfaction
 Regressive spirals: the partners’ behaviour eventually damages the relationship
Knapp’s Relational Development Model
Duck’s Attraction Filter Model
Potential Partners
1. Sociological/Incidental cues
(frequency of interaction)
2. Preinteraction cues
(physical beauty, etc.)
3. Interaction cues
(social rewards, conversation)
4. Cognitive cues
(attitude similarity, shared values)
Friends/Romantic Partners
Chapter 7
Group:
 a special kind of entity
 a collection of individuals who, as a result of interacting with one another over time,
become interdependent, developing shared patterns of behaviour and a collective
identity.
 Characteristics of a group:
1. Interaction: act so as to have a mutual effect
2. Interdependence: separate individuals have become a functioning whole:
become interconnected and share common goals and a common fate
3. Shared behavioural standards: members experience a sense of identity
and psychological closeness
4. Collective identity: a sense of membership/being part of a whole: “we”
Triads: groups of three that are much more complex than dyads because:
-
The number of communication channels increases dramatically with three
people – members have to choose who to talk to (=six channels)
Three-person groups have to work hard to maintain cohesion (tendency to
divide into subunits)
Why communicate in groups?
 Groups can provide more input than do individuals = group synergy
 Groups provide support and commitment
 Groups can meet members’ Interpersonal needs:
- Inclusion need: the need to establish identity by associating with others
- Control need: the need to prove one’s worth and competence by making
effective decisions
- Affection need: the need to develop close, caring relationships with others
Social loafing: occurs when members ‘get lost in the crowd’ and don’t fulfil their work
potential
– often arises during additive tasks (the productivity of the group is determined by adding up
the efforts of each member)
Idiosyncrasy credit: a kind of symbolic currency earned through agreements (e.g. by meeting
group expectations)
Group dimensions:
 Task dimension: dimension which is formed to solve a problem or reach a decision
Productivity: the output of task dimension – the expectation of groups to produce
results
 Maintenance/social dimension: dimension which is formed to devote some of their
efforts to creating a positive group climate
Group cohesiveness: output of maintenance dimension – holding a group together
Hidden agenda: a personal goal of a member within a group that lies below the surface and
that can get in the way of group performance
Groupthink: when a group gets too confident and begins to make poor decisions
Zero-history groups/ LGD’s (leaderless group discussions): groups that emerge through no
interference of researchers and minimum outside pressures – everything that happens in this
group evolves naturally
Tuckman’s model: 5 step model of group decision making
Group members try to identify nature of the task and relationship
Group members feel freer to argue and contest for status
Group members settle down + find ways to work with each other
Group members focus on the task and get most work done
Group members tie up loose ends and reflect on time together
Fisher’s Four Phase Model:
 Orientation phase: group members begin the process of becoming interdependent
Primary tension: tension cause by the natural uncertainty people experience before
rules have been worked out
 Conflict phase: group members increase in strong reactions – both favourable and
unfavourable. This is also the phase where individual roles in the group begin to
emerge and stabilise.
Secondary tension: tension caused as group members disagree over the best ways to
accomplish the task and they struggle to find a suitable role in the group
 Emergence phase: members who have opposed the leading solution begin to back
down, replacing their disagreements with vague comments – the eventual task
outcome and social structure of group becomes apparent in this phase
 Reinforcement phase: members bolster their decision through the expression of
favourable comments and positive reinforcement.
Empathy: telling other group members that you understand their thoughts and feelings.
Idea generation:
 Brainstorming: a technique for overcoming the problem of rejecting potentially good
ideas by evaluating them prematurely. Members are encouraged to generate as many
ideas as they can, as quickly as possible.
 Nominal group technique: individuals generate solution ideas on their own and then
meet to clarify these ideas. After all ideas have been listed and explained, members
individually rank their five favourite ideas. The results are then averaged, and the idea
with the highest rank is chosen.
Role-playing: a way to involve audience members by placing them in small groups and giving
them a scenario which they are asked to act out. This way, members can get in touch with
their emotions and can practice new behaviours.
Self-presentation:
 Expression given off: making an impression on someone through posture, dress,
gestures, etc. – example of involuntary communication
 Expression given: people are well aware of the impact of their expressions – strategic
self-presentation – job interviews, dates, etc. – example of voluntary communication
Social Identity Theory:
 People categorise the social world in groups
 The interpersonal (group)context of communication has a profound influence on the
individual’s personal identity
 Founding theorist: Henri Tajfel (UK):
- Human beings are social animals
- Each individual is a member of multiple groups
 We always self-categorise as a group member:
- One’s own group: Ingroup
- Group that one is not part of: Outgroup(s)
Group membership:
 Some groups are permanent (ethnicity, gender)
 Some are fleeting (band fan, tv programme fan, etc.)
 Some groups are more important than others:
- Group salience/importance: depends on context
 Creates social identity: group membership is a powerful factor of determining
identity
 In-group favouritism: we maximise the differences within our own group
(individuation) and minimise the differences of the groups we don’t belong to
(deindividuation)
Chapter 8
Characteristics of organisations:
 Organisation: a system consisting of a large number of people working together in a
structured way to accomplish multiple goals
 Interdependence: all the members within an organisation are connected to one
another and share a common fate: what affects one part of the organisation affects
every other part
 Hierarchy: a system that is divided into orders and ranks – status and power are not
distributed equally
 Linkage to environment: organisations depend on their surroundings for resources
and energy
 Dependence on communication:
- Structurational approach: organisations believe that there is a mutual
relationship between organisational structures and communication
Genres: types of communication that occur only in organisations. (business letters, meetings,
interviews, etc.) – each genre is governed by rules of discourse that define how it
should/shouldn’t be conveyed
Channels of communication:
 Formal channels of communication: occurs when information flows through a
structured chain of command officially recognised by the organisation.
 Informal channels of communication: occurs when information takes a more
personal and less structured path – through the “grapevine”
Downward communication:
 e.g.: instructions, appraisals, announcements
 Serial transmission:
transmission of a message in a one-way direction from one person to the next
Effects of serial transmission:
- Leveling: details are left out as the amount of the message is reduced
- Sharpening: certain high points are given special significance/elaboration
- Assimilation: memory of the message is affected by the sender’s frame of
reference
 Message filtering: messages change as they are passed on from person to person
Upward communication:
 e.g.: progress reports, reports of job-related problems, feedback about organisational
policies
 Often neglected by organisation
 Gatekeeper: may affect upward communication – someone who is in a position to
pass on or discard information (e.g. receptionist)
 Ombudsman: improves upward communication – listens to workers at lower levels of
the organisation and passes their concerns directly to the top
Organisational rites:
 Rites of Passage: celebrate new role identities (e.g. freshman orientation), and
facilitates transformation into new role
 Rites of Degradation: strip away power/removes current employee from role,
strengthens organisational boundaries and reaffirms value of role by punishing out-ofrole behaviour
 Rites of Enhancement: rewards organisational achievement to enhance status and
value of organisation, and motivates individuals
 Rites of Renewal: improve functioning of organisation, makes members believe
something is being done to solve problems
 Rites of Conflict Reduction: reduce conflict and aggression, deflects attention away
from problems to avoid conflicts
 Rites of Integration: creates common identity and commitment to organisation to
loosen moral norms temporarily to reaffirm their moral rightness and channel
aggression.
Organisational culture: consists of collectively held logics and legends about organisational
life and the organisation’s identity.
Informal structures:
 Grapevine: informal channel which news or information is communicated through
 Network analysis: a method of mapping informal communication patterns by
identifying who is connected to whom in the organisation
Stakeholders: groups that can affect or are affected by organisations. They are as much a
part of the organisation as employees, and their values and needs must be taken into
consideration.
Coupling:
 Tight coupling: subunits within an organisation that are closely connected and highly
interdependent – are easy to control and standardise, but a problem that affects one
subunit can affect all parts
 Loose coupling: when the relationship between subunits is relatively weak – each
subunit acts in an independent fashion, therefore an event that influences on unit may
have only indirect effects on others (e.g. university faculties)
Structures in the minds of audience members:
 Beliefs: opinions about what is/isn’t the case – differ in nature and importance
- Core Beliefs: fundamental beliefs held for a long period of time
-
Peripheral Beliefs: relatively inconsequential and less resistant beliefs
about who is/isn’t an authority
 Attitudes: opinions that link an individual to a topic – influence a person to respond to
a topic in a particular way
- Cognitive dimension: what an individual knows about a topic
- Affective dimension: what an individual feels in regard to a topic
- Behavioural dimension: what an individual intends to do in regard to a
topic
 Values: general and enduring opinions about what should/shouldn’t be the case
Source characteristics that enhance Influence:
 Internalization: influence based on convincing an audience to accept an argument as
part of their belief system
Credibility: perception that the speaker can be believed – through expertness +
trustworthiness
 Identification: influence based on creating a personal and positive relationship with
audience member
Attractiveness: perception that the speaker is likeable and is someone with whom
audience members would be comfortable – through familiarity, similarity, physical
attractiveness + liking
 Compliance: influence based on persuading audience members they have something
to gain by agreeing/something to lose by disagreeing
Power: Perception that the speaker controls a resource desired by the audience or has
the ability to affect audience members’ lives directly – through legitimacy, control of
rewards + ability to act powerfully
Rhetorical situations:
 Exigence: problem, speakers decide to speak due to the fact they feel something is
wrong and hope that talking about it might help
 Audience: a group of people the speaker believes who can change the problem, either
by altering their beliefs and attitudes or by taking direct action
 Constraints: factors that control and shape the nature of communication
The structure of Argument: Toulmin model:
1. Claim: the position or claim being argued for; the conclusion of the argument.
2. Grounds: reasons or supporting evidence that bolster the claim.
3. Warrant: the principle, provision or chain of reasoning that connects the
grounds/reason to the claim.
4. Backing: support, justification, reasons to back up the warrant.
5. Rebuttal/Reservation: exceptions to the claim; description and rebuttal of counterexamples and counter-arguments.
6. Qualification: specification of limits to claim, warrant and backing. The degree of
conditionality asserted.
Authoritative argument: depends entirely on the authority of a source that are automatically
trusted (e.g. doctors, ministers, etc.)
Motivational argument: based on the emotional needs of the audience
Substantive Argument: connects data and claim through logic and reasoning
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Arguments from cause: speaker tries to establish argument why something
happened, or what might happen when something occurs – often (post hoc) fallacy
occurs
Arguments from sign: seeks to predict one condition by pointing to another condition
associated with it (e.g. smoke points to fire)
Arguments from generalisation: seek to establish a general conclusion on the basis
of data taken from a small sample of cases
Arguments from analogy: seek to establish that two situations are alike – leads to
false analogy
Structuration theory: there is a constant interaction between (individual) human actions
(agency) and structure (theory by Giddens)
Persuasive communication:
 Often used by organizations to communicate to an external audience (public
communication)
 Used for strategic means – for example, to sell products or services.
 Corporations try to change the audience’s beliefs, attitudes and values – yet values and
(core) beliefs are resistant to change
 Corporate campaigns therefore target at attitude change – changing cognitive and
affective dimension
Chapter 11
Old media: traditional one-to-many forms of mediated communication (TV, radio,
newspapers, books)
New media: digital information and telecommunication systems (networked computing,
mobile telephony)
Mass communication:
 A form of communication through which institutional sources (the media) address
large, diverse audiences whose members are physically separated from one another
 Contact is indirect; devices fir the transmission, storage and reception of information
are inserted between sources and receiver
 A powerful and persuasive mode of communication
 In modern societies, the media are important social institutions that reflect and affect
the values and behaviours of large segments of the population.
Functions of the Media:
 Surveillance: the gathering and distribution of information
 Correlation: the analysis and evaluation of information
 Cultural transmission: the education and socialisation of receivers
Prosocial learning: the media reinforces social ideals and passes on cultural
understandings from one generation to the next
Antisocial learning: the media strengthens socially destructive behaviour (violent
films)
 Entertainment: the presentation of escapist material that provides enjoyment and
gratification
Media effects:
 Powerful effects model: the idea that receivers are relatively passive; they accept
media messages at face value and unconsciously allow media sources to tell the what
to think
 Limited effects model: the idea that audience members interpret messages according
to their own pre-existing beliefs and values and use these messages in unique ways.
Audiences are active processors who are quite capable of defending themselves
against media influence
 Magic bullet/ Hypodermic needle: the media can target unsuspecting audience
members or inject them with a message. Receivers were seen as the passive victims of
the all-powerful media –focuses on how specific messages/genres directly affect
audience
 Obstinate audience: the idea that individuals are much more stubbornly resistant to
media manipulation and are far from being passive victims, who are creative
consumers who look for media messages according to their own needs and interpret
messages in their own ways.
What media messages do to receivers:
 Agenda-setting function: media gatekeepers select the issues they feel are most
worthy of coverage and give those issues wide attention (e.g.: editor, producer,
journalist)
 Hegemonic message: media messages keep powerless groups from making their ideas
known – dominant ideology
Critical theorists: argue that the media reflect and reproduce only those ideas, meaning
and values that uphold the interests of the power elite and that they silence opposing
views
 Spiral of silence: people who think their ideas are popular tend to express them; those
who see themselves in the minority remain silent. As a result, only one side of any
given issue receives notice – media also refuses to legitimate their ideas
 Cultivation theory: looks at how long-term television viewing affects viewers’
beliefs about social reality – look at slow build up of TV’s influence
Mainstreaming: effect of cultivation theory: television creates widely shared
viewpoints that tend to support the status quo/current situation
Mean world hypothesis: effect of cultivation theory: the view that the world is a much
more dangerous place than it actually is (e.g. more crime on TV than in real world)
Heavy viewers: those who watch a lot of TV – therefore the ones that experience
cultivation
“The medium is the message” – Marshall McLuhan: he expresses the belief that the channel
through which a message is transmitted is as important as the message itself, and that the
channel often determines which messages will be transmitted and which will be ignored.
Cool medium: television; viewers are demanded to fill in the details
What receivers do with media messages:
 Selective exposure: people’s tendency to avoid certain messages and to seek out
others
 Selective attention: we may listen to only parts of the message
 Selective perception: the process of assigning meaning to messages in selective ways
 Selective retention: remembering only a small portion of any message
Uses and gratifications: focuses on the need that motivate media consumers – argues that
receivers are active and goal directed; they know what they need and where to get it
Polysemy: rather a message/text having only one hegemonic message, it may have multiple
meanings – media exposure is a process of negotiating between what lies in the text itself and
what lies in the social and cultural context in which the text is experienced
Characteristics of new media:
 Digitization: messages are converted into computer-readable electrical signals (or
bits) that can be quickly processed, efficiently stored, and cheaply transmitted
 Interactivity: occurs when receivers have the opportunity to engage with senders
(polls, e-mails, etc.)
Wiki: a type of website that allows users to add, remove or edit and change all content
very quickly and easily (Wikipedia)
 Demassification: the fact that rather than being part of a single mass audience, people
are now becoming members of separate, specialised audiences – may be no longer
exposed to information that could widen their knowledge, challenge their views or
create common ground with people who think differently
Some current environments for Computer-Mediated Communication:
 MUD: “Multi-user Dungeon”; interactive, text-based virtual reality environments
 Interactive video and voice: can be added to other environments, making online
conversations more like face-to-face (ftf) interactions (MSN, Skype, etc.)
Convergence: the coming together of computing, telecommunications and media in a digital
environment as well as the merging of Internet an traditional media companies (e.g.: TV
channels have an online website)
Addiction: people who are fanatic about media, in particular respect to new media (e.g.:
gamer)
Sexual media content:
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Sex as metamorphosis: e.g. Britney before and after
Sex as fantasy/fulfilment: e.g. Madonna
Sex as power: power to (accomplish goals) & power over (e.g. over women)
Social desirability: creates a causal chain: users tend to copy behaviour from media or certain
users are particularly interested in a specific content
Chapter 12
Culture:
 That part of the environment made by humans
 Includes all the material objects and possessions that a social group invents or acquires
and its customs and values
 ever changing (dynamic), yet also consistent with values and customs (static)
 works as a filter on the processing of information
Cultural universals: interconnected activities that are common to all people who live together
in social groups (e.g. athletics, calendar, family, numbers, rituals, greetings, hairstyles, etc.)
Intercultural communication: communication wherein sender and receiver come from
different cultures
How culture affects communication:
 Effort-optimism: the belief that hard work will pay off
 Individualism: the belief that the most important social unit is the person, who acts in
his or her own interest.
 Collectivism: the belief that it is right to subordinate personal goals for the good of
others – shared identity is more important than personal identity
Stereotypes: generalised beliefs that provide conceptual biases from which we make sense out
of what goes on around us, and whether they are accurate or fit the circumstances.
Prejudice: a special kind of stereotype, namely a negative social attitude held by members of
one group toward members of another group, an attitude that biases perception and provides a
rationale for discrimination.
Ethnocentrism: the belief that one’s own culture is superior too all others and the tendency to
judge all cultures by one’s own criteria.
In-group favouritism: own group is appreciated as superior
Culture shock: the anxiety that results from losing all of one’s familiar signs and symbols of
social intercourse – usually due to emigration
Cultural distance: the extent to which two cultures differ affects ease of communication
Acculturation: becoming part of a new culture
Global village: The world as a single community of interdependent inhabitants who are
interconnected by contemporary technology, such as television and the Internet
Harry Triandis & Geert Hofstede: against oppositional comparison between countries
Independent self: to be self-reliant, competitive, assertive and creative
Interdependent self: having obligations, obedient and reciprocal
Localizing: Adapting a product to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a
specific target market locale
Intercultural knowledge: knowledge/familiarity about cultures and intercultural
communication
Intercultural practice: actually experiencing intercultural communication