Download INCO 101 Fundamentals of Human Communication

Communication/Discourse
•
“Discourse can be described as a pattern of words,
figures of speech, concepts, values, and symbols. A
discourse is a coherent way of describing and
categorizing the social and physical worlds.
Discourses gather around an object, person, social
group or event of interest, providing a means of
“making sense” of that object, person…all discourses
are textual, or expressed in texts, inter-textual,
drawing upon other texts and their discourses to
achieve meaning, and contextual, embedded in
historical, political, and cultural settings” (Lupton, 1994,
p. 20)
Social construction of Reality
• To consider people’s experiences, we
must address their subjective meanings
and interpretive practices as well as how
particular social realities emerge and are
perpetuated
• Social reality: the world view that people
take on as their own including beliefs,
attitudes, norms, and rules that govern
behavior
• The conception of social reality is not to be
understood as diminishing the importance
of material or corporeal reality; rather it
calls attention to a different layer of
interpretation that contextualizes
experience and enables coordination of
activity
Ogden and Richards’
Triangle of Meaning
Thought
(Reference)
Word
(Symbol)
Semantic
Triangle
Thing
(Referent)
American Cancer Society
John Ray Appalachian Initiative
• Meaning construction is not a neutral
process; rather, meanings are symbolic
forms of power that can enable and
constrain human potential
• Cx is contested terrain
• Individuals can transcend their existing
social arrangements through an
awareness of their condition and through
changes in their choices