Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is “Communication”?
- Organizing element of human Life
- Refers to sending and receiving messages
- Itself is the primary, constitutive social process that explains all these other factors
Conceptualizations of Communication
(a roadmap) remember DEPCIS
- Connection
- Dialogue
- Expression
- Information
- Persuasion
- Symbolic Interaction
What is connection?
Develop personal relationships
Dialogue
Speaking AND listening to others
Expression
Communicating with your emotions
Information in communication
How communication is produced, transmitted, processed, and managed
Persuasion
Comm. with efforts to change beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors
Symbolic Interaction
The fundamental process of being human
What are theories?
Organized sets of concepts, explanations, and principles that depicts some aspect of human experience.
What are theories?
Organized sets of concepts, explanations, and principles that depicts some aspect of human experience.
What do the theories do?
- Focus on patterns, relationships, and variables
- A snapshot in time
4 dimensions of theory
Think PEPC
- Philosophical Assumptions
- Concepts
- Explanations
- Principles
Philosophical Assumptions
- Epistemology
- Empiricism
- Constructivism
- Ontology
- Axiology
Epistemology
- Deals with questions of knowledge
- How people claim they know what they know
- “To what extent can knowledge be known”
Empiricism
Knowledge by observation and derived from sensory experience
Constructivism
People create knowledge in order to function pragmatically in the world.
Ontology
Deals with the nature of being
Axiology
-The study of values and how those values can inform the research process in a theory
Concepts
- Terms and definitions
- Building blocks of a theory
Explanations
Identifies a “logical force” among examples of phenomena
Principles
A precept of guideline that enables someone to interpret, make a judgment, and decide how to act
The parts of a principle
- Identifies a situation or event of importance
- Identifies a set of norms or values
- Asserts a connection between a range of actions and possible and connections
A good theory is..
- Elegant
- Produces “aha” response
- Intriguing-they do not let go
- Functions as “equipment for living”
Reasons to increase academic study of comm. after WWI
- advances in tech.
- Higher levels of literacy
Reasons to increase academic study of comm. after WWI
- advances in tech.
- Higher levels of literacy
Evaluating a Theory
- Theoretical Scope:A theory’s explanation must be sufficiently general
- Logical Consistency: Is the logic consistent in all parts of the theory
- Heuristic Value:Will it generate new discoveries and questions
- Parsimony: Is it simple
- Utility: Is it practical
- Testability: Can it be tested
- Test of time: Stay in power over time
