Chap 8: Communication Theories and Contexts Flashcards
______ is done by organizations in the third step of strategic public relations, when the plan is being implemented.
“communication”
Define communication
a reciprocal process of exchanging signals to inform, persuade, or instruct, based on shared meanings and conditioned by the communicators’ relationship and the social context.
4 Tasks of communication
1) get the attention of target publics
2) stimulate interest in message content
3) build a desire and intention to act on the message
4) is to direct the action of those who behave consistent with the message.
what are the semantic/fidelity problems in communication?
receiver’s perception of message and meaning are not the same as those intended by the sender.
what are influence problems in public relations?
where the sender’s message did not produce the desire result on the part of the receiver
To understand the human communication process one must understand what?
how people relate to each other
Explain the process of informing. (involves four steps).
(1) attracting attention to the communication
(2) achieving acceptance of the message
(3) having it interpreted as intended
(4) getting the message stored for later use
What could be the fifth step of informing
persuasion
Define persuasion
accepting change: yielding to the wishes or point of view of the sender.
describe:interpersonal communication
involves as few as two communicators (typically in close proximity), uses many senses, and provides immediate feedback.
Generally, mass society audiences are vulnerable to messages and media and manipulated by both controls. T/F
False, the receiver is usually active
Name the four basic dimensions of all relational communication.
(1) emotional arousal, composure, and formality
(2) intimacy and similarity
(3) immediacy or liking
(4) dominance submission
what does PROXIMITY communicate
intimacy, attraction, trust, caring, dominance, persuasiveness, and aggressiveness
what does SMILING communicate
Smiling communicates emotional arousal, composure, formality, intimacy, and liking.
Successful group decision making requires accomplishing four tasks. What are they?
( 1) accurate assessment of the problem,
( 2)shared and complete understanding of the goal and the criteria for success
( 3) agreeing on the positive outcomes of decisions
( 4) agreeing on the negative outcomes of decisions
Explain Walter Lippmann’s sides in the “triangular relationship”.
“the world outside and the pictures in our heads.”
1) the scene of action
2) perceptions of that scene, and responses based on the perceptions.
3) responses that impact the original scene of action.
What is the cultivation theory?
“ cultivation theory”— the homogenizing effect of creat-ing a shared culture
What is social reality?
What the world is based on your own social perspective (Ex: those who watch a great deal of television have a different view of the world -social reality- than those who don’t.
In the agenda-settting theory, cognition refers to what?
What we know about
In the agenda-settting theory, predisposition refers to what?
our feelings about things
agenda- setting theory suggested that mass media can have a substantial and important impact on the _________ level without affecting _______
cognitive,
predisposition
What does more recent research suggest about predispositions?
more recent research shows that media affect predispositions as well.
What does the agenda-setting theory do?
Distinguishes between what we think about and what we think.
How can mass communication affect public opinion?
by raising the salience of issues and positions taken by people and groups in the news.
What two concepts in agenda-setting theory and research are especially useful in public relations?
Cognitive priming and issue salience
Issue salience
determines the prominence and penetration the issue has with the audience, or how well it resonates with each public.
Cognitive priming
describes the personal experience or connection someone has with an issue.
Media affect both cognitions and predisposi-tions. What do researchers call this phenomenon?
“second-level agenda-setting.”
Agenda-building theory tries to answer the question of who is building the agenda of ______.
the media
Who are typical builders of the media’s agenda?
politicians and elected officials, as well as the public relations practitioners who work for them
Explain the process of diffusing
mass media provide information to those who seek it and supply information needed for subsequent interpersonal communication, thereby diffusing information to others.
What are 5 conditions making ideas or innovations adopted more readily?
(1) more advantageous than the current situation
(2) compatible with previous experience
(3) simple
(4) easily tried
(5) observable with readily apparent outcomes
opinion leaders
these people tend to get their information from media sources and then become themselves the source to others in their network
Who is a key component in gaining acceptance of new ideas and practices?
opinion leaders
Name the groups in order of adopters of innovation (5)
1) innovators
2) early adopters
3 )early majority
4) late majority
5) laggards
What does the “Spiral of silence” theory suggest?
Individuals who think their opinion conflicts with the opinions of most other people tend to remain silent on an issue.
what phenomenon is commonly referred to as “the silent majority.”
the “Spiral of silence”
Public information campaigns on domestic violence, sexual harassment, and stalking, have been examples of
Media coverage’s attempt to break the spiral of silence
James Rusell Lowell - “The pressure of _____ ______ is like the atmosphere; you can’t see it- but all the same it is sixteen pounds to the square inch.”
public opinion
What more fully represents the kinds of opinions that form and are formed by public discussion among those sharing a “ sense of commonness.”?
consensus
public opinion
the social process of forming, expressing, and adjusting ideas that affect collective behavior in situations.
both researchers and public relations practitioners take “snapshots” of public opinion. What does that mean and why do they do this?
freezing the process at one point in time so as to describe it and compare it with opinion at other times.
What three important dimensions are ignored when practitioners only rely on direction and intensity of public opinion?
1) Stability
2) Informational Support
3) Social Support
Describe the dimension of INTENSITY in public opinion.
measures how strong people feel about their opinions
Describe the dimension of DIRECTION in public opinion.
indicates the evaluative quality of a predisposition, telling us the “positive-negative-neurtral,” “for-against-undecided,” or “Pro-con-it depends” evaluation of publics, effectively a “yes-no” survey answer
Describe the dimension of STABILITY in public opinion.
how long respondents have held or will hold the same direction and intensity of feelings.
Measurements of stability require how many observations?
at least two
Describe the dimension of INFORMATIONAL SUPPORT in public opinion.
refers to how much knowledge people hold about the object of their opinion.
Absence of “ ______ ______” behind an opinion on relatively nonpartisan issues may indicate that the direction and intensity are susceptible to change.
“information mass”
Describe the dimension of SOCIAL SUPPORT in public opinion.
provide evidence of the extent to which people think their opinions are shared by others in their social milieu.
explain the “third-person effects” of public opinion
“third-person effects” whereby people tend to underestimate media impact on themselves and overestimate impact on others.
Individual orientation
perceptions of issues or objects in one’s environment, as well as perceptions of significant others’ views of those same issues or objects.
State of coorientation
When two or more individuals’ orientations include the same issues or objects and each other
salience
values a person assigns to objects in their environment on the basis of both their previous history with the object and their assessment of the objects in the current context
pertinence
the relative value of an object found by making object-by-object comparisons on the basis of some attribute(s).
attitude
the cross- situational predisposition or preference with respect to an object or issue.
4 components of attitude systems
- Evaluative frames of reference ( values and interests)
- Cognition ( knowledge and beliefs)
- Affection ( feelings)
- Conation ( behavioral intentions)
opinion
the judgement or expression about an object in a particular situation or given a specific set of circumstances
________ are generally considered to be verbal, while _______ are more basic global tendencies to respond favorably or unfavorably to a general class of stimuli.
opinions,
attitudes
Opinion vs. attitude: Which is described by the word “enduring”?
attitude
Opinion vs. attitude: Which tends to be more cognitive and less affective?
opinions
Opinion vs. attitude: Which is described by the words “immediate” and “intuitive”?
attitude
Opinion vs. attitude: Which is described by the words “thought-out reasoned choice”?
opinion
Coorientational approach casts public opinion as the product of individual perceptions on an issue or the perceptions of what significant others think about the same issue?
Both
monolithic consensus
represents high levels of actual agreement accurately recognized as such by those involved.
Dissensus exists when what happens?
high levels of actual disagreement are accurately perceived as such
What creates false consensus?
when there is actual disagreement but the majority of those involved think they agree.
Pluralistic ignorance
the state of public opinion in which a majority perceive little agreement, but in fact there is widespread agreement.
