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Mapping the Territory
Chapter 4 (7thed.) (ch 2, 6th ed.)
Em Griffin
(4th edition)
CLICKER QUESTION
• IS A TRADITION A THEORY?
– A. TRUE
– B. FALSE
The Socio-Psychological Tradition:Communication
as Interpersonal Influence
• Scientific (objective) perspective
• Truths to be discovered by careful, systematic observation
(experiments)
• The central question of this tradition is: What can I do to
get them to change?
• E.g., the Yale attitude studies investigated 3 causes of
persuasive messages:
– Who says it (expertise, trustworthiness)
– What is said (fear appeals, order of arguments)
– Whom is it said to (personality, susceptibiity to
influence)
Yale Studies
• Measured opinion change
– Pre-test
– Message
– Post-test
• For instance, a message from a high
credibiltiy source produced a larger shift of
opinion than a message from a low
credibility source
The Cybernetic Tradition: Communication as
Informaton Processing
• Communication as feedback
– Feedback was adjusting future behavior by
taking into account past performance
• The Mathematical Theory of
Communication falls into this tradition
(little interest in meaning, but rather hifidelity sound transmission)
Note that this is a linear model
Information
source
Transmitter
Message
Receiver
Signal
Received
Signal
Noise
Source
Shannon and Weaver’s Model of Communication
Destination
Message
The Rhetorical Tradition:Communication as Artful
Public Address
• Conviction that speech distinguishes humans from
other animals
• Confidence in solving problems by public address
in a democratic forum
• Public speaking-one speaker tries to persuade an
audience
• Oratorical training as the cornerstone of a leader’s
education
• Rhetoric as art: to move people emotionally
The Semiotic Tradition: Communication as the Process of
Creating Meaning Through Signs
• Semiotics is the study of signs: anything
that can stand for something else
– high body temperature stands for infection (is a
sign of . . .)
– birds fly south is a sign of coming winter
– an expensive car signifies wealth
– an arrow designates which direction to go
More on the Semiotic Tradition:
WORDS
• Words are a special kind of sign, they are:
•
How do symbols differ from signs?
Let’s look back at the examples of signs given
earlier and compare to how words work
•
Semantic Triangle
• I.A. Richards on how words work:
•Scholars in this tradition are interested in the way signs
and symbols (words or pictures) mediate meaning
The Socio-Cultural Tradition:
Communication as the Creation& Enactment of
Social Reality
• Based on the premise that as people talk they
produce and reproduce culture
• Instead of words always reflecting what exists,
this tradition says that words shape our view of
reality
• The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis falls within this
tradition (p.43)
– language directs our attention to aspects of the
world and structures our perception
The Critical Tradition:
Communication as a reflective challenge of unjust
discourse
• Convinced that “all previous history has
been characterized by an unjust distribution
of suffering”
• The ‘haves’ continue to exploit the “have
nots”
Critical Theory
• Critical theorists challenge (among others) 3
features of modern society (p.44):
– The control of language to perpetuate power
imbalances
– The role of mass media in dulling sensitivity to
repression (the average citizen is numbed by
the mass media)
– Blind reliance on the scientific method and
uncritical acceptance of empirical findings
The Phenomenological Tradition:
Communication as the experience of self and
others through dialogue
• The intentional analysis of everyday life
from the standpoint of the person who is
living it
• People’s interpretation of their own
subjective experience
– an individual’s story is more important than any
research hypothesis or communication axiom
Phenomenology
• Talk which furthers understanding what it is
like to be the person
• According to Carl Rogers, 3 things enhance
this process (p. 45)
– congruence
– unconditional positive regard
– empathic understanding
Congruence
• The match between an individual’s inner
feelings and outer display
–
–
–
–
–
genuine
real
integrated
whole
transparent
Unconditional Positive Regard
• An attitude of acceptance that isn’t
contingent on performance
–
–
–
–
–
warmth
caring
liking
interest
respect
Empathic Understanding
• The caring skill of temporarily laying aside
our views and values and of entering into
another’s world without prejudice
– An active process of hearing the other’s
thoughts, feelings, tones and meanings as if
they were our own
Griffin’s Map of Traditions
• The map of traditions represents the 7
traditions of theory in relation to their
Objective vs. Interpretive character
– cybernetic and socio-psychological on the left
are most objective
– phenomenology, critical theory, and sociocultural on the right are most interpretive
• What does that mean to you?