Com 2720 Exam 1

Front 1

What is a Theory? What does it do?

Back 1

"an umbrella term for all careful systematic and self-conscious discussion and analysis of communication phenomena"

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Theory - Hunch definition

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a theory is nothing more than a set of systematic hunches about the way things operate

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Communication

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the relational process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a response

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Text

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a record of a message that can be analyzed by others; for example, a book, film, photograph, or any recording of a speech or broadcast, or a transcript

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Behavioral Scientist

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a scholar who applies the scientific method to describe, predict, and explain recurring forms of human behavior.

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Rhetorician

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a scholar who studies the ways in which symbolic forms can be used to identify with people, or to persuade them toward a certain point of view.

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Objective Approach

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the assumption that truth is singular and is accessible through unbiased sensory observation. Committed to uncovering cause and effect relationships

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Source Credibility

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Perceived competence and trustworthiness of a speaker or writer that affects how the message is received.

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Identification

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A perceived role relationship that affects self image and attitudes; based on role model attractiveness and sustained if the relationship remains salient.

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Interpretive approach

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the linguistic work of assigning, meaning or value to communicative texts; assumes that multiple meanings or truths are possible

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Burke's dramatistic Pentad

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5 pronged method of rhetorical criticism to analyze a speakers persuasive strategy - act, scene, agent, agency, purpose

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Humanistic Scholarship

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study of what it's like to be another person in a specific time and place - assumes there are few important pan human similarities.

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Epistemology

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study of the origin, nature, method, and limits of knowledge.

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Determinism

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the assumption that behavior is caused by heredity and enviornment

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Empirical evidence

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data collected through direct observation

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Emancipation

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liberation from any form of political, economic, racial, religious, or sexual oppression. empowered

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Metatheory

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theory about theory

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What makes an objective theory good?

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The theory explains the past and present, and it predicts the future.

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additional standards of an objective theory

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1 explanation of data
2 prediction of future events
3 relative simplicity
4 hypotheses that can be tested
5 practical utility
6 quantitative research

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Experiment

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a research method that manipulates a variable in a tightly controlled situation in order to find out if it has the predicted effect

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Survey

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a research method tat uses questionnaires and structured interviews to collect self-reported data that reflects what respondents think, feel, or intend to do.

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self-referential imperative

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including yourself as a constituent of your own construction

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Ethical imperative

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grant others that occur in your construction the same autonomy you practice constructing them

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What makes an interpretive theory good?

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some or all of the following functions: create understanding, identify values, inspire aesthetic appreciation, stimulate agreement, reform society and conduct qualitative research

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Interpretive Standards

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1 new understanding of people
2 clarification of values
3 Aesthetic Appeal
4 Community of agreement
5 Reform of society
6 qualitative reserarch

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Textual analysis

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a research method that describes and interprets the characteristics of any text

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Ethnography

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a method of participant observation designed to help a researcher experience a culture's complex web of meaning.

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Cybernetics

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The study of information processing, feedback, and control in communications systems

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Rhetoric

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the art of using all available means of persuasion, focusing upon lines of argument, organization of ideas, language use and delivery in public speaking

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Semiotics

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the study of verbal and nonverbal signs that can stand for something else, and how their interpretation impacts society

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symbols

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arbitrary words and non verbal signs that bear no natural connection with the things they describe; their meaning is learned within a given culture

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Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity

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the claim that the structure of a language shames what people think and do; the social construction of reality.

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Culture industries

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Entertainment businesses that reproduce the dominant ideology of a culture and distract people from recognizing unjust distribution of power with society: film, tv, music, and advertising

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Phenomenolgy

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Intentional analysis of everyday experience from the standpoint of the person who is living it; explores the possibility of understanding the experience of self and others.

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Pragmatism

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An applied approach to knowledge: the philosophy that true understanding of an idea or situation has practical implications for action.

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Marshall McLuhan

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believed that media should be understood ecologically - changes in technology alter the symbolic environment.
"The medium is the Message."
the total effect of the introduction of a new technology is greater than the specific content, and is therefore the true message of that technological innovation.

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Tribal Age

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an acoustic place in history - the senses of hearing, touch, taste and smell were more advanced than visualization

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Age of Literacy:

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A visual point of view - literacy moved people from collective tribal involvement to private detachment

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print age

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the printing press made visual dependence widespread. the development of fixed national languages produced nationalism

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electronic age

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the rise of the global village. McLuhan believed that the electronic media are re-tribalizaing humanity.

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digital age

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rewiring the global village. wholly electronic. mass age of electronic media is becoming increasingly personalized.

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Media Ecology (Neil Postman)

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the word ecology implies the study of the environments - their structure, content, and impact on people. Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affect human perception, understanding, feeling and value: and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival.

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Media ecology tries to make roles explicit

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it tires to find out what roles media force us to play, how media structure what we are seeing, why media makes us feel and act as we do.

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Faustian Bargain (Postman)

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believed that the forms of media regulate and even dictate what kind of content the form of a given medium can carry. New technology always presents us with a faustian bargain - a deal with the devil

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Postman's 3 questions

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What is the problem to which this technology is a solution?
Whose problem is it actually?
Is there a legitimate problem here to be solved, what?

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Berelson's Pessimistic Conclusion

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A behavioral scientist who focused on Communication Theory. He thought that media didn't do anything to change people's attitudes. He thought that since media isn't persuasive - communication theory would be done

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Katz Argument

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Communication theory could be saved by studying the types of media that people consume - He asked a different question - What do people do with media? He thought that since people consume many different types of media for different reasons, the effect of the media is unlikely to be the same for every consumer

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Magic Bullet / Uniform Effects / Hypodermic Needle

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it was widely accepted that audiences were passive targets and what the media put out - we accepted into our brains.

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We use media individually - for our own purposes

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Katz' argued that audiences are strong - we determine how the media will influence us, if at all.
Personal media choices fulfill different purposes at different times
we can think about choosing for ourself or being force-fed

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Uses & Grats

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media satisfies people's needs and the people choose different media based on the grats that they provide them.

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Cultivation Theory (Gerbner)

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an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world. this theory studies violence and how it cultivates fear.

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Agenda Setting Theory

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Mass media have the ability to transfer the importance of items on their news agendas to the public agenda. Cause and effect relationship between media content and voter perception, particularly a match between the medias agenda and the public's agenda later on.

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Who are the agenda setters?

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major news editors
politicians or their spin doctors
PR professionals

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Agenda Setting Theorists believe

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the media may not only tell us what to think about but also who - and even what to do about it.

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Agenda setting theory may be on the decline

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media may not have as much power to transfer the salience of issues or attributes as it does now as a result of users' expanded content choices and control over exposure.