Understanding invisible aspects of communication
essay requirements
-fully answer the selected prompt
-three pages maximum double spaced, 12 pt, times new roman
-theory/research from one of the communication concepts of the course
-2 scholarly sources from outside the course(journal/books with references)
-proper fromating and citations style
Option 1-love as a choice or emotion
Discuss the different perspectives on whether love is choice or an emotion and make a case as to which of the two arguments is valid and why. In your analysis, you should use a communication-oriented perspective using the theories, course content and related materials to support your viewpoint.
the most important thing is have to use the theories based on the course content and related materials
——————-below is what I have learned——————
What is communication? – Class answers:
o How you tell/express information through thoughts, messages, body language, etc o How to express your own thoughts and also how you receive and listen to the
information and messages around you
o Process where you give and take information
o The ability to understand and react to a message
o Verbal and nonverbal communication
o Visually you can take in information
o Tech can play a huge role in how we communication
– Professor’s answers:
o A two-way (at least) process of interchanging information, thoughts, opinions, ideas… o Unidirectional/Bidirectional/Multidirectional
Unidirectional: One-way (not one party). One party is running the communication and relays the information
Mass media
Bidirectional: Two-way. You send and receive messages
Having a conversation with a friend
Multidirectional: Several parties involved in the communication and
conversation
The video: The meeting was multidirectional because there were
multiple parties and everyone has a chance to participate and say
something
Every person is a party but we say party and not people because there
can be parties that are people..Ex: animals
o Verbal/Nonverbal
o Context: interpersonal, small groups, mass o Medium: Face-to-face, mediated
In this course, we will explore communication as a phenomenon that has a crucial role in our lives. Communication is everywhere:
– In our close relationships (Family/Friends)
o Ex: how our conversation and the way we communicate will effect a relationship
– At school (Talking and interacting in class, writing papers) o Ex: Conveying our thoughts in class
– At the workplace (interacting with our boss, co-workers, providing and receiving memos, information)
o Ex: relationships with co-workers
– At home (the internet, videogames, TV, newspapers, journals)
1.24.13
What is Communication
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– An exchange of messages and information with verbal and nonverbal communication across multiple medias and mediums
o Nonverbal can also include things like pitch tone etc
– A two-way (at least) process of interchanging information, thoughts. Opinions, ideas…
– Unidirectional/Bidirectional/Multidirectional
– Verbal/nonverbal
– Context: interpersonal, mass
o Interpersonal: Relationship
o Mass: TV
– Medium: Face-to-face, mediated
o Face-to-face: in person
o Mediated: cell phone, online chat
So communication is everywhere; communication is complex (dynamic and unpredictable, manifested differently across levels, situations, contexts).
How do we know Communication? – Theories
o Cognitive frameworks that guide us to understand phenomena around us
Cognitive: Mental processes and anything that is going on in our head.
Cognitive framework: how we think about the things around us and the world. The way we perceive the world around us.
o A theory is a way to describe, explain, predict, and control something (e.g., objects, people, relationships, events)
– Personal (native) theories
o Based on our own life experiences
You date someone and it doesn’t work out and then you date another person and the same thing happens and it doesn’t work out, so based on these experiences you will create your own theories about relationships
o Taken for granted
Assume it’s correct
o Stable
Hard to change and always automatic
o Private
– Scholarly theories
o Scientific (systematic; empirical)
Systematic: planned and tested/Empirical: based on data and experiments
o Questioned (thus, subject to modification) Not taken for granted
To see if they come up with the same information and in hopes to improve the theory
And communication is always changing
o Public: Mass media, scholarly journals, conferences, etc
So, what is Communication?
Communication – some definitions:
– Communication refers to the processes by which verbal and nonverbal messages are used to
create and share messages (Frey, Botan, & 2000)
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– Communication is a social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment (West & Turner, 2009)
o Focuses on the social component
– Human communication is the process through which individuals in relationships, groups,
organizations, and societies create and use information to relate to the environment and one another (Ruben & Stewart, 2006, p.17)
Why Study Communication, then?
– Communication is everywhere
– Understanding communication processes will help you to understand your life better, and even
to manage situations in your life in a better way (Read The Benefits of Communication Skills handout to learn more!)
What is Communication?
Communication – some definitions:
– Communication refers to the processes by which verbal and nonverbal messages are used to
create and share messages (Frey, Botan, & 2000)
– Communication is a social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret
meaning in their environment (West & Turner, 2009)
o Focuses on the social component
– Human communication is the process through which individuals in relationships, groups, organizations, and societies create and use information to relate to the environment and one another (Ruben & Stewart, 2006, p.17)
Communication is a very interdisciplinary kind of research
– Cross discipline
– Over laps with other disciplines such as psych, sociology, etc
Handout: The Benefits of Communication Skills
Joshua Uebergang
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– In what
o o o
o o
o
aspects of life does communication matter?
In all aspects
Self, well-being, and satisfaction
How does communicating better help to improve yourself?
People will understand you
Hence make better opportunities for you (interview into job)
Confidence
You can articulate interests, ideas, goals, etc better
Both to other people and to yourself Relationships
Why and how?
Helps in conflict resolution
Reduces conflict and distance Encourages closeness/intimacy Helps in the workplace
Speaking with people
Interpreting work info and documents Receiving and providing information (environment)
Understanding the language of the environment Reading signs etc
Five Levels of Communication
– Intrapersonal
o Communication with self (within one’s self) o Talking to yourself in your head (conscious)
Considerations
Debating
o Some people think intrapersonal communication should be studied not in comm but
sociology.
o Other people think this concept bridges the two studies
– Interpersonal
o Communication with another person o Two/Dyad
– Group
o Communication with a group of people o Three up to usually around 10,12,20
Depends on the presence of affective feedback
If everyone can participant and give immediate feedback
– Public
o Around 30-50
o Speeches
o Class presentations
o Audience present
o You can see everyone and potentially interact with everyone there
Some facial feedback
– Mass
o To large masses of people
o One source of information and it is mostly a one sided conversation o Sometimes the audience isn’t even there
o Usually through technology
o Mass Media/Mass Communication
New, TV, Radio, Internet, Newspapers A unique channel of communication
– Mediated
o When a medium is involved
o Intrapersonal: Blog, journal (doesn’t need to be technological) o Interpersonal: cell phone, social network, video chat, computer o Group: email, group text
o Public: classes with a video streamed lecture
o Mass: TV, newspaper
2/5/13
Five Levels of Communication
– Intrapersonal
o Communication with self (within one’s self)
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o Talking to yourself in your head (conscious) Considerations
Debating
o Some people think intrapersonal communication should be studied not in comm but
sociology.
o Other people think this concept bridges the two studies
– Interpersonal
o Communication with another person o Two/Dyad
– Group
o Communication with a group of people o Three up to usually around 10,12,20
Depends on the presence of affective feedback
If everyone can participant and give immediate feedback
– Public
o Around 30-50
o Speeches
o Class presentations
o Audience present
o You can see everyone and potentially interact with everyone there
Some facial feedback
– Mass
o To large masses of people
o One source of information and it is mostly a one sided conversation o Sometimes the audience isn’t even there
o Usually through technology
o Mass Media/Mass Communication
New, TV, Radio, Internet, Newspapers A unique channel of communication
– Mediated
o When a medium is involved
o Intrapersonal: Blog, journal (doesn’t need to be technological) o Interpersonal: cell phone, social network, video chat, computer o Group: email, group text
o Public: classes with a video streamed lecture
o Mass: TV, newspaper
Interdisciplinary field
– Communication is a very interdisciplinary kind of research
o Cross discipline
o Over laps with other disciplines such as psych, sociology, etc
It All Started
– With the rhetorical tradition (Ancient Greece)
– Citizens hired Sophists to understand principles of persuasion
o Because they to defect themselves (self attorney) they had to be good at public speaking
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o Sophists are teachers that taught about public speaking/communication
– Sophists created public speaking handbooks
– Aristotle criticized the Sophists’ handbooks and created the three books of the Rhetoric
o Speaker
o Speech itself (Language and tricks you can incorporate into speech) o Audience
– Rhetoric (public communication) = the available means of persuasion
Development of speech and Journalism
– Early twentieth century: Speech emerged as a discipline
– 1920’s – 1940’s: As new technologies emerged (Radio, then TV), journalism’s popularity increase
o WWII
o Media played a significant role in persuading people to behave in a certain way
– 1950’s: Communication had expanded beyond speech and rhetoric to include physiology of
speech and speech pathology, debate, theater, linguistics o Media studies continue to develop
– 1960’s: Communication is integrated to become and independent discipline
Popularity Grows…
– Communication vs. Communications
o Communication: process of sending and receiving messages (i.e. through face-to-face)
and to the discipline as a whole
o Communications: Media or messages sent through the media (technology)
The Information Age
– Started in the late 1980’s but we’re still in it
– Information being bought and sold (a commodity)
– The internet increases in popularity worldwide
– Hybrid Media
o Converging media: when you see different functions that use to be provided separately come together into one. Media and technology is converging and sharing functions.
Ex: cell phone: originally was meant for calls but now you can take pictures, surf the internet, use the GPS, play games, etc
Communication Today
– Continues as the center of a strong discipline in its own right o Recall the five levels of communication
– Links scholars and practitioners from many other fields (interdisciplinary) Communication 101 Spring 2013
Theoretical Models in Communication
2.5.13
Linear Models
Aristotle (4th Century B.C.)
– Saw communication as the means through which citizens participate in democracy
– A verbal activity done by one-to-many
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o “One-way communication”
o Emphasis on persuasion
– Speaker Argument Speech Listeners
– Also referred to as S-M-R (Sender – Message – Receiver)
o Linear:
Sender Receiver
Lasswell
“Who says what to whom in what channel and with what effect”
– Who: a speaker/a source of information
– What: a message
– To Whom: an audience
– Channel: a medium
– Effect: the possible impact, influence
– Media have unlimited power (“The magic bullet”)
o The idea that the audience could not resist the media and the information that was coming from the media
o Media had the power to influence in three different levels
Cognitively: How they think and perceive the world around them
Ex: Stereotypes
Emotionally: How they feel about the information they are receiving
Ex: Scary movies Behaviorally: How we act
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– A linear model
Shannon and Weaver
Ex: Can change how we vote by propaganda
– Expansion of communication
– Introduces “Noise”
o Anything outside the message itself
o Unintended by the sender
o May distort, change, or prevent it from being received o Anything that can interfere with the message reception
– Source of Noise: (4)
o Semantic Noise (Language, words)
Not understanding slang, professional language
Foreign language
o Physical Noise (From the environment, background)
Loud noises that get in the way of hearing from the environment
Usually external from the conversation o Psychological Noise (Cognitive)
Culture can have an affect
You have stereotypes of a certain kind of people and this may influence
how your receive their messages Have a lot on your mind
Not focused on the message o Physiological Noise (Biology)
Sick
Hungry
Tired – A linear model
Critique of the Linear Model
– Regards listeners as passive (no feedback)
– Assumes there is only one message in the communication process
o Verbal message, nonverbal message (already two)
o Some message are sent intentionally and others are unintentionally – Assumes communication has a beginning and an ending
Critiques of the Linear Model
– Linear
o Sender-message-receiver; who says what to whom in what channel and with what effect
– Critiques:
o Regards listeners as passive (no feedback)
o Assumes there is only one message in communication process o Assumes communication has a beginning and an ending
– Lets watch the video again (questions are now not that simple)
– Who is the sender?
o Brian was the sender when he initiated the conversation and then Stewie became the sender when he started beating Brian…but the Brian became the sender when he tried to negotiate with Stewie
– Who is the receiver?
Interactional Models
Schramm
– Also viewed communication as a process where a source is sending messages to a receiver, but
starts to imply a more complex process
– Adds in
o Feedback: Receivers send feedback or respond as soon as they receive the message and Senders are waiting for a response about how well their message was received
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o
– What is
o o o o o
– What is
o
– What is
o
o
Both
the message?
That Stewie wanted money
That Brian was in pain
The whole clip sent an idea or lesson that violent is a way to get what you want That Stewie had power over Brian
Etc.
the channel?
Face-to-face verbally and nonverbally
the effect?
Brian promised to give Stewie money
Behaviorally affect Brian was afraid of Stewie Emotionally affect
o Fields of experience
Field of experience
Field of experience
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Katz & Lazarsfeld
Sender Encode Signal Decode Receiver
– Two-Step Flow of communication
– Introduces “Opinion Leaders”
o People who are experts in a certain field and people are influenced by them
– Links mass and interpersonal communication
– Mass Media – Opinion Leader – Public
Mass Media Opinion Leader Public
Critiques of the Interactional Model
– Assumes a sender and a receiver
– Assumes feedback to be a reaction to a message after it has been sent
So…Transactional Models
Dance
– Communication is a process based on events that occur
o Saying that communication does refer to the right here right now but also with the history and the relationship between the two people
– Each communicative act builds on the previous communication experiences of all parties involved
– Adds in
o Dimension of time
o Both parties act as senders/receivers Equal parties
– A Helical Model of Communication o Dance, 1967
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Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson
– A process involving give-and-take between individuals
– “one cannot NOT communicate”
– Unintentional communication
The Transactional Model
– Captures the complex nature of communication
– Underscores simultaneous sending and receiving of messages
– Sender and receiver are both responsible for the creation and effect of communication
– This approach – or paradigm – dominates the communication field today
o Paradigm: a world view of a phenomena and a scholarly perspective and shapes the theories and methods and analysis. Changes over time.
Theoretical Models in Communication
– Linear
o Sender-message-receiver; who says what to whom in what channel and with what effect
– Interactional
o Feedback; interpersonal communication
– Transactional
o Both parties are simultaneously senders and receivers; co-constructing of meaning
To sum, then
Theoretical models about communication have change:
– From source/message centered to receiver/meaning centered
– From linear to interactional to transactional
– From event to process oriented
– From public speaking to a variety of contexts
o Art, same groups, relationships, etc
2.12.13
How Communication Fits with the Rest of the World
– Biological and social worlds are INTERdependent, arrayed on a HIERARCHY from low to high
complexity:
Atoms cells tissues organs individuals relationships families groups
organizations societies – General Systems Theory
o A system is a set of elements that have interrelations among themselves and with the environment
o All humans and animals are open systems We are all systems
Open systems: We are not alone and we operate as a system and interact with other systems (people, components)
General Systems Theory
– Environment: anything and everything around us that is outside the system o Physical surroundings and influences
o Separated from systems by boundaries (limits)
o Physical
o Psychological
o Emotional
– The role of communication (input/output)
o Input: information received from the environment
o Output: information sent to the environment – For example, a family as a system
o Elements: the members of the family
o Goals: learn from each other, socialize, take care of each other
o Boundaries: the home they live in, the beliefs they have as a family (inner/invisible
boundary), commitment to each other
o Environment: Work, school, neighborhood, media, other place that the family members
go to and interact with
What’s Between GST and Communication?
– Communication enables systems to operate as system o Share, maintain, communicate information
o Also how they achieve goals
– Communication is the essential life process through which animals and human systems create, acquire, transform, and use information to carry out the activities of their lives
– Aspects of communication that allow this to happen:
o Visual messages
o Tactile messages
o Olfactory messages o Gustatory messages o Auditory messages
Communication Modes
– Different ways to process information
– Visual Message: Sight
o Wave of a hand
o Traffic light (colors) – Tactile Message: Touch
o Vibration
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– Olfactory Message: Smell o Pheromones
– Gustatory Message: Taste
o Bitter coffee
– Auditory Message: Hearing o Vocalization
Pheromones – Olfactory Messages
– Pheriure: an oil that will attract women to men o Studies found an increase in eye contact o Smiles
o Conversations
o Approached
o Dates/intercourse
– Some may think that after they put on the oil they felt more confident and carried themselves
better and then women were attracted to that confidence not necessarily the oil
– But this just supports the idea of Olfactory messages
Functions of Communication
– Courtship and Mating
o Identification and Attraction
o What communication modes does the bird use in the video to attract a mate?
Visual message: with colors and the puffy tail
Auditory message: with tweeting
o Relationship Development and Deterioration
Being affectionate and physical intimacy communicates development Self disclosure communicates intimacy and development
Distance and less talking communicates deterioration
– Reproduction
o Biological communication process
o The brain video: how all the different parts of the body must interact and work with
each other to go on a date and hopefully have successful intercourse – Parent-Offspring Relations and Socialization
o Survival is dependent on relations with parents o Extended contact
o Socialization rules
– Navigation
o Movement through space
o Goal-directed movement
A late student saw an open seat and moved to that seat and received
information from his environment to tell him where he could and couldn’t walk
– Self-Defense
o Stress response
Smelling fire and avoiding or leaving the house
o Fight or flight: a biological reaction to danger and whether the person wants to fight or
run away – Territoriality
o “Home”
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o How do we define, create our home Physical: fences
o Personal space
Intimate space: 0-18in
Personal space: 18in-4ft Social space: 4-12ft
Public space: 12ft+
– Adaptation: how people and animals use communication/process information to adapt to their daily environment
– According to the Systems Theory, communication is the process through which humans and animals process messages so that they can adapt to and cope with the demands and challenges presented to them by creating appropriate messages.
2.14.13
Remember??
– According to the Systems Theory, communication is the process through which humans and animals process messages so that they can adapt to and cope with the demands and challenges presented to them by creating appropriate messages
Communication is like an iceberg
– What is observable is relatively small in comparison to what isn’t
Communication Iceberg
– What is observable is relatively small o People, symbols, technology
– Many things are not observable or are hidden
o Meaning, learning, subjectivity, negotiation, culture, interaction levels and context, self-
reference, self-reflexivity, ethics, inevitability
Visible aspects of Communication
– People
o Speakers, listeners, readers, observers, etc
– Symbols
o Characters, letters, numbers, words, objects, people, or actions that stand for or
represents something
<3: represents a heart but isn’t a heart
Tree: represents a tree but isn’t actually a tree
Our society and culture teaches us that this word represents the object but the word is actual arbitrary
o We learn to interpret these symbols
Each letter represents a sound and those letter come together to make
a word
o Symbols are very powerful and seem real
o Words are symbols and the meaning of the symbols lies in people We assign and attach meaning to the symbol
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– Technology
o Permanence (=time) and portability (=space)
Invisible aspects of Communication
– Meaning
o The sense or interpretation we attach to symbols or to that which we intend symbols to
represent
o But how does meaning get made
Symbols and referents are arbitrarily paired
Arbitrarily: random, or for no reason at all
Meanings are negotiated
Meanings become intersubjective
Symbols have shared meaning over time as people in a culture use them
– Learning
o Communication and symbol interpretation are learned and acquired o First-order information processing event
Experiencing things first hand
o Second-order information processing event
Other people teach you and guide you Learning through socialization
E.g. cultural norms, conventions
– Subjectivity
o Individual/unique understandings of thing
o Meaning is different for every person
o Related to experience
o Implies that no two people attach precisely the same meaning to the messages around
us
– Negotiation
o How is meaning arrived at?
o How do we establish shared meaning with another person?
o Done through the ongoing process of negotiation and communication
o A subtle, seldom visible process of adjusting and readjusting messages and
interpretations of meaning with those whom we interact – Culture
o Meanings get “intersubjectified” (shared, standardized between people) through communication with others
o Shared set of beliefs, values, language, etc
o Shared meanings, views of reality = Culture
o Common culture is maintained through communication
– Interacting Contexts and Levels
o You can communicate in a certain situation in a certain way by determining what’s
appropriate in what situation
o There are different expectations in different situations, environments, and context o The different ways you communicate in different situations influence one another
because you are still the same person Mutually influence each other
– Self-Reference
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o The process of attaching the meaning we learn to the symbols we use, and the symbols others use reflect our own experiences
– Self-Reflexivity
o Allows us to view ourselves as a part of, and apart from our environment
Seeing ourselves from the outside in the environment
Reflecting on ourselves and our actions to understand o Woody Allen video: Reflecting on what when wrong in his life
Refers to the intrapersonal communication level
– Ethics
o Choices about what to say and how to say it, about when to speak and when to be silent,
and whether to be forthright or evasive
o Our beliefs on how to act and interact properly in a social situation o We don’t consciously think about it but it guides us all the time
– Inevitability
o “We cannot not communicate”
Communication Breakdown?
– Invisible aspects of communication may explain why different people’s interpretations of a
communicative event may be different
– Understanding invisible aspects of communication allows us to replace a personal (native)
theory explanation (Communication Breakdown) with scholarly theory (Invisible Aspects of the Communication Iceberg)
Interpersonal Communication–rational for relationship, relation characteristics
cost benefit theory, Knapp&Vangelisti Relationship Development Model, the onion model, the importance of reciprocity, Power in Relationship, definition of conflict, constructive and destructive conflict.
The Triangle of Love–R.Sternberg: passion, commitment, intimacy
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