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Introduction to Human Communication
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New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Introduction to Human Communication
PERCEPTION, MEANING, AND IDENTITY
Susan R. Beauchamp Bryant University
Stanley J. Baran Bryant University
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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.
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Published by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 http://www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beauchamp, Susan R., author. Introduction to human communication : perception, meaning, and identity / Susan R. Beauchamp, Bryant University; Stanley J. Baran, Bryant University. pages cm ISBN 978-0-19-026961-6 1. Communication. 2. Interpersonal communication. I. Baran, Stanley J., author. II. Title. P90.B3385 2017 153.6—dc23 2015028104
Printing number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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Mom, every chapter of this book is, in so many ways,
influenced by your unwavering dedication to family.
We love you beyond measure.
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Preface xix
PART 1 FOUNDATIONS OF COMMUNICATION
1 The Communication Process: Perception, Meaning, and Identity 3
2 Communication Research and Inquiry 27
3 Verbal Communication 49
4 Nonverbal Communication 71
5 Listening 93
PART 2 COMMUNICATION CONTEXTS
6 Relational and Conflict Communication 115
7 Communicating in Small Groups 143
8 Organizational Communication 165
9 Intercultural Communication 187
10 Mass Communication 209
11 Media Literacy 235
12 Social Media and Communication Technologies 259
13 Persuasion and Social Influence 285
14 Health Communication 311
15 Public Speaking: An Overview 339
Glossary G-1 References R-1 Credits C-1 Index I-1
Brief Contents
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Preface xix
PART 1 FOUNDATIONS OF COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER 1 The Communication Process: Perception, Meaning, and Identity 3
The Process of Creating Meaning 4 The Evolution of Communication Models 5 Transmissional, Constitutive, and Ritual Views of Communication 7
The Power of Culture 9
Communication and Perception 11
Signs and Symbols 14
Communication and Identity 17 Symbolic Interaction and the Looking Glass 18 Frame Analysis 19
What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do? 22
Review of Learning Objectives 24
Key Terms 25
Questions for Review 25
Questions for Discussion 25
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Communicating Well to Land the Job 10
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION 13
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION 17
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION 22
CHAPTER 2 Communication Research and Inquiry 27
Theory and Scientific Inquiry 28 Defining Theory 28 Scientific Inquiry 31
Contents
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Three Philosophical Questions that Shape Scientific Inquiry 33
Traditions of Communication Inquiry 35 Postpositivist Theory and Research 35 Interpretive Theory and Research 37 Critical Theory and Research 37
Tools of Observation: Research Methods 39 Experiments 40 Surveys 41 Textual Analysis 43 Mixing Methods and Traditions 43
Review of Learning Objectives 46
Key Terms 47
Questions for Review 47
Questions for Discussion 47
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: The Benefits of Critical Thinking 32
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Solving Not-So-Well-Posed Problems 35
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Communication Inquiry Needs to Be Bigger! 39
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Where Do You Draw the Line? 45
CHAPTER 3 Verbal Communication 49
The Structure of Language 50
Language and Thought 52 Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis 53 Metaphor 54 The Ladder of Abstraction 56
The Functions of Language 58
Language and Meaning Making 62 Situational, Social, and Cultural Meaning 62 Syntactic Ambiguity 64 Euphemisms 65
Language and Protecting Self-Identity: Politeness Theory 66
Review of Learning Objectives 68
Key Terms 69
Questions for Review 69
Questions for Discussion 69
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SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: War! What Is It Good For? 57
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Speaking Well to Do Well 59
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Lying 60
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Speaking Inclusively 67
CHAPTER 4 Nonverbal Communication 71
What Is Nonverbal Communication? 72 Similarities to Verbal Communication 73 Differences from Verbal Communication 74
Theory of Nonverbal Coding Systems 75
Types of Nonverbal Coding Systems 76 Proxemics 76 Haptics 78 Chronemics 81 Kinesics 82 Vocalics 84 Oculesics 84 Facial Expressions 85 Physical Appearance 86 Artifacts 86 Environmental Factors 88 Silence 89
The Role of Nonverbal Communication in Creating Meaning and Identity 89
Review of Learning Objectives 90
Key Terms 91
Questions for Review 91
Questions for Discussion 91
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Touching in the Workplace 79
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: On-the-Job Nonverbal Communication 81
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: How We Spend Our Time 83
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Freedom of Expression versus Professional Appearance 87
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CHAPTER 5 Listening 93
What is Listening? 94
Misconceptions About Listening 96
The Components of Effective Listening 100
Barriers to Effective Listening 101 Physical Noise 102 Psychological Noise 102 Physiological Noise 104 Semantic Noise 104 External Distractions 104 Counterproductive Listening Styles 105
Types of Listening 106
Becoming an Effective Listener 109
Review of Learning Objectives 112
Key Terms 113
Questions for Review 113
Questions for Discussion 113
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: The 80/20 Rule 96
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Being an Active Listener 102
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: The Ethics of Listening 107
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Questioning Our Cultural Speakers 108
PART 2 COMMUNICATION CONTEXTS
CHAPTER 6 Relational and Conflict Communication 115
The Value of Relationships 116
The Role of Interpersonal Communication 118
Developing and Maintaining Relationships 120 Uncertainty Reduction Theory 121 Social Penetration Theory 122 Social Exchange Theory 126 Relational Dialectics Theory 127
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Interpersonal Communication and Conflict 129 Types of Conflict 131 Stages of Interpersonal Conflict 132 Conflict Management Styles 133
Resolving Conflict: What to Do and What Not to Do 135 What to Do 135 What Not to Do 137
Review of Learning Objectives 139
Key Terms 140
Questions for Review 141
Questions for Discussion 141
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Mastering the Soft Skills 117
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: It Takes Two to Tango, but Someone Has to Lead 119
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Beauty Is Only Screen Deep 123
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Sugar-Coated Hostility 138
CHAPTER 7 Communicating in Small Groups 143
Types of Groups 144
Dynamics of Group Structure 145 Informal and Formal Communication in Groups 148 Structuration Theory 148 The Five Stages of Group Development 149 Group Cohesion and Breakdown 152 Systems Theory 153
Leadership and Power 154 Styles of Leadership 155 Forms of Power 156
Improving Your Group Communication Skills 159
Review of Learning Objectives 161
Key Terms 163
Questions for Review 163
Questions for Discussion 163
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Forming a Group 146
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: You Make the Rules 150
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Our Responsibility to the Group 155
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: 12 Cs for Successful Teamwork 160
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CHAPTER 8 Organizational Communication 165
Defining Organizational Communication 166
Types and Movement of Organizational Messages 167 Upward Messages 168 Downward Messages 170 Horizontal Messages 170
The Organization as a System 173
Positive and Negative Organizational Communication Traits 175
Organizational Climate and Culture 177 Strong Organizational Cultures 181 Dealing with Diversity in an Organizational Culture 182
Review of Learning Objectives 184
Key Terms 185
Questions for Review 185
Questions for Discussion 185
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Could You Blow the Whistle? 169
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Status Update: I’ve Just Been Fired 172
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Dealing with On-the-Job Conflict 178
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Doing Well by Doing Good 180
CHAPTER 9 Intercultural Communication 187
What Is Intercultural Communication? 188
Obstacles to Intercultural Communication 189
The “Naturalness” of Prejudice: Two Theories of Culture and Identity 192 Social Identity Theory 192 Identity Negotiation Theory 193
Accelerators of Intercultural Communication 194
How Cultural Values Shape Communication 197
Attitudes Toward Diversity and the Problem with Tolerance 202
Review of Learning Objectives 206
Key Terms 207
Questions for Review 207
Questions for Discussion 207
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SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Stereotyping versus Generalizing 190
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Cultural Participation 196
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: What Would You Say? 197
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Improving On-the-Job Intercultural Communication 199
CHAPTER 10 Mass Communication 209
What Is Mass Communication? 210 Why Study Mass Communication? 211 Interpersonal Communication versus Mass Communication 212
Culture, Communication, and Mass Media 215
Characteristics of Media Consumers 219
Characteristics of Media Industries 221
Theories of Mass Communication 226
Review of Learning Objectives 231
Key Terms 232
Questions for Review 232
Questions for Discussion 232
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: The Third-Person Effect 217
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: The Role of the Photojournalist 222
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Finding a Career in the Media 226
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Media Conduct 229
CHAPTER 11 Media Literacy 235
What Is Media Literacy? 236 Media Literacy Scholarship 238 Some Core Concepts of Media Literacy 242
Media Literacy Questions 244
What Does It Mean to Be Media Literate? 246 Characteristics of Media-Literate People 246 The Skill of Being Media Literate 251
Media Literacy and Meaning Making 253 Media Literacy and Identity 253 Media Literacy and Democracy 255
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Review of Learning Objectives 255
Key Terms 256
Questions for Review 256
Questions for Discussion 257
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Careers in Media Literacy 237
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Advertising to Children 240
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Being a Proactive Media Consumer 252
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Countering the Kinderculture 254
CHAPTER 12 Social Media and Communication Technologies 259
The Promise and Peril of New Communication Technologies 260
A Connected World 263
The Dark Side of New Communication Technologies 266 Addiction 267 Depression 269 Distraction 269
How Computer-Mediated Communication Affects Identity and Relationships 271
Social Network Sites and Identity Construction and Maintenance 271 The Internet and Interpersonal Communication 275 Social Isolation 279 Shy and Popular Users 280 Facebook Envy and Our Sense of Well-Being 281 Self-Disclosure and Relational Development 281
Review of Learning Objectives 282
Key Terms 283
Questions for Review 283
Questions for Discussion 283
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Social Media, Social Connection, and Social Power 262
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Who Owns the Social Networking You? 265
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: E-mail versus Social Networking Sites 266
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Internet Addiction Self-Diagnosis 268
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CHAPTER 13 Persuasion and Social Influence 285
What Is Persuasion? 286
Values, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors 289 Balance Theory 291 Dissonance Theory 292
The Selective Processes 293
What Factors Infuence Persuasion? 294 Source Characteristics 295 Message Characteristics 299 Receiver Characteristics 300
The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion 302
Processes of Attitude Change 305
Review of Learning Objectives 308
Key Terms 309
Questions for Review 309
Questions for Discussion 309
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Four Dos and Four Don’ts of Workplace Persuasion 288
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Would the Razor Switch Hands Today? 295
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: The Federal Trade Commission and Advertiser Credibility 297
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: The TARES Test 307
CHAPTER 14 Health Communication 311
Communication and a Long and Healthy Life 312
Health Communication in Provider-Client Settings 315
Health Communication Contexts 323 Friends and Family 323 Support Groups 325 Hospital Culture 325 Entertainment Mass Media 327
Health Communication and the Internet 330
Health Communication Campaigns 332
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Review of Learning Objectives 335
Key Terms 336
Questions for Review 336
Questions for Discussion 337
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Speak Up 321
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising 329
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: The Health Belief Model 334
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: Getting Health Messages to Employees 335
CHAPTER 15 Public Speaking: An Overview 339
The Importance of Public Speaking 340
Types of Speeches 344
A Crash Course in Public Speaking 346
Identifying the Steps of Speech Preparation 352
Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety 355
Review of Learning Objectives 359
Key Terms 360
Questions for Review 360
Questions for Discussion 361
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE: On-the-Job Public Speaking 342
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Political Satire in Contemporary Culture 343
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION: Public Speaking Self-Assessment 352
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION: Plagiarism and Public Speaking 354
Glossary G-1 References R-1 Credits C-1 Index I-1
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One of the great advantages of teaching Introduction to Communication is that it allows instructors and their students to talk about everything because every aspect of life—personal, social, political, cultural, relational, familial— involves communication. But the nature of the course also presents some challenges:
1. What gets covered and what gets left out? In other words, how does the class cover all the important material in one semester?
2. Given everything the course is designed to cover, how does the material connect with students’ everyday lives? Where is the balance between the theoretical and what’s relevant to students?
3. What’s the best way to ensure that the course’s learning objectives are met?
We have carefully designed this text in answer to these questions, drawing on scores of surveys and reviews, along with our collective 60 years of university teaching experience. Introduction to Communication: Perception, Meaning, and Identity offers a comprehensive, readable, and balanced survey of the disci- pline. Using vivid and contemporary examples, we cover the basics of commu- nication theory and research and provide tools to help students become more competent, confident, and ethical communicators. We show students the relevance of communication in their daily lives so that they can apply their newfound knowledge of the communication process in a variety of contexts.
The Philosophy of This Text Communication is about mutual, transactional meaning making, working with others to craft common understanding. It is also about how we perceive our world and how we create our identity; we know ourselves and our world through interaction with others. Helping students gain more effective control over perception, meaning making, and identity is the story of this book.
How do we begin to understand this complex world and our place in it? Through communication. The value of this course is in showing students how to think criti- cally about themselves and the worlds they inhabit, negotiate, create, and recre- ate—face-to-face and in front of screens—through communication. We do this, in
Preface
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part, by emphasizing the interdisciplinary and overlapping nature of communica- tion studies, encouraging students to make more connections, to expand the breadth and depth of their knowledge, and to apply that knowledge in their lives.
Pedagogical Features The pedagogical features we developed for this text reflect our philosophy and emphasize applications, asking students to challenge assumptions about themselves and their world.
• Ethical Communication boxes present ethical dilemmas that commu- nicators face, on topics such as lying (Chapter 3), whistleblowing (Chap- ter 8), and advertising to children (Chapter 11). These features prompt students to examine complex situations and weigh their own choices.
• Personally Responsible Communication boxes remind students that they are what they communicate, asking them to consider their responsi- bility in personal communication situations. Topics include speaking in- clusively (Chapter 3), practicing active listening (Chapter 5), and self-diagnosing Internet addiction (Chapter 12).
• Socially Responsible Communication boxes ask students to consider how much responsibility they have to the larger culture, encouraging more thoughtful communication. Topics include stereotyping (Chapter 9), media conduct (Chapter 10), and the Speak Up program for patient safety (Chapter 14).
• Communication in the Workplace boxes present direct, hands-on advice for career success. Topics include dealing with on-the-job conflict (Chapter 6), tips for successful teamwork (Chapter 7), and the dos and don’ts of workplace persuasion (Chapter 13).
• Thumbnail Theory features appear in the margins to summarize the core theories presented in the text. Our aim is to make theory accessible and highlight why it matters in real life.
Intercultural communication
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Business
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Public speaking
Organizational communicationGrapevine
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Interpersonal communication
Social media
Health communication
Pharma ads
Mass communication
Ad ve
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Persuasion and social influence
Intersections of Communication Subfields
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In addition, several other features help students get the most from the book:
• Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter
• A Review of Learning Objectives at the end of each chapter, highlighting key points
• A Running Glossary and a list of Key Terms
• Questions for Review
• Questions for Discussion.
Organization In designing a survey text that is comprehensive yet concise, we had to make some difficult decisions about what to include. We worked to offer the broad- est, most contemporary overview of the discipline available, one tied to stu- dents’ everyday realities and their career aspirations, regardless of major.
The text is organized into 15 chapters (to fit the typical semester) and di- vided into two parts, Foundations of Communication and Communication Con- texts, offering balanced coverage of the entire field of communication. Part I includes a chapter on communication research and inquiry (Chapter 2) and covers verbal communication (Chapter 3), nonverbal communication (Chapter 4), and listening (Chapter 5). Part II builds on this foundation to examine communication in a wide variety of contexts. These chapters include rela- tional and conflict communication (Chapter 6), communicating in small groups (Chapter 7), organizational communication (Chapter 8), and intercul- tural communication (Chapter 9), as well as mass communication (Chapter 10), media literacy (Chapter 11), social media and communication technolo- gies (Chapter 12), persuasion and social influence (Chapter 13), and health communication (Chapter 14). An optional crash-course on public speaking (Chapter 15) gives students the basic skills and confidence to communicate publicly.
Ancillary Package A comprehensive set of ancillary materials for instructors and students ac- companies Introduction to Human Communication.
Online Learning • Dashboard delivers high-quality content, tools, and assessments to
track student progress in an intuitive, Web-based learning environment.
• Dashboard gives instructors the ability to manage digital content from Introduction to Human Communication and its supplements in order to create assignments, administer tests, and track student prog- ress. Assessments are designed to accompany this text and are
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automatically graded so that instructors can check students’ progress as they complete their assignments. The color-coded gradebook illus- trates at a glance where students are succeeding and where they can improve.
• With Dashboard, students have access to a variety of interactive study tools designed to enhance their learning experience, including videos and exercises, critical thinking activities and questions, and multiple-choice pre- and post-tests to accompany each chapter.
• Dashboard is engineered to be simple, informative, and mobile. All Dashboard content is engineered to work on mobile devices, including iOS platforms.
• Course cartridges for a variety of Learning Management Systems, in- cluding Blackboard Learn, Canvas, Moodle, D2L, and Angel, allow in- structors to create their own course websites, integrating student and instructor resources available on the Ancillary Resource Center and Companion Website. Contact your Oxford University Press representa- tive for access or for more information about these supplements or cus- tomized options.
For Instructors • Ancillary Resource Center (ARC) at www.oup-arc.com. This conve-
nient, instructor-focused website provides access to all of the up-to-date teaching resources for this text—at any time—while guaranteeing the security of grade-significant resources. In addition, it allows OUP to keep instructors informed when new content becomes available. The following items are available on the ARC:
• The Instructor’s Manual includes syllabus preparation tools, a sample syllabus, chapter-based assignment ideas, and suggestions for audiovisual materials.
• The comprehensive Computerized Test Bank offers over 900 exam questions in multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay formats, with each item classified according to Bloom’s taxonomy and tagged to page and section references in the text.
• PowerPoint-based lecture slides highlight key concepts, terms, and examples, and incorporate images from each chapter. With stream- lined text, a focus on visual support, and lecture tips in the notes sec- tion, these presentations are ready to use and fully editable to make preparing for class faster and easier than ever.
• Now Playing, Instructor’s Edition, includes an introduction on how to incorporate film and television clips in class, as well as even more film examples, viewing guides and assignments, a complete set of sample responses to the discussion questions in the student edi- tion, a full list of references, and an index by subject for ease of use. Now Playing also has an accompanying companion website at
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www.oup.com/us/nowplaying, which features descriptions of films from previous editions and selected film clips.
• Two optional chapters for download: Public Speaking: Research, Writing, and Delivery; and Persuasive, Informative, and Other Types of Speaking.
• A downloadable guide to Interviewing.
For Students
• Now Playing (print), available free in a package with a new copy of the book, looks at contemporary films and television shows through the lens of commu- nication principles. Updated yearly, it illustrates how communication concepts play out in a variety of situations, using mass media that are interactive, fa- miliar, and easily accessible to students.
• The Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/beauchamp offers a wealth of study and review resources, including learning objectives, summaries, chap- ter quizzes, flashcards, activities, and links to a variety of media-related websites.
Acknowledgments We were fortunate to have had the assistance of many people in the writing of this book. Most important, we have drawn on the research and thinking of a century’s worth of communication thinkers and researchers, not to mention their colleagues in the other social sciences and humanities. Their research and writing have in- spired and guided the field’s contemporary thinking. It’s an exciting time to study communication, and the work that has come before has made this book—and the discipline itself—possible.
We relied, too, on the sharp eye and teaching experience of our reviewers, who improved and enriched our work. In particular, we thank the following reviewers commissioned by Oxford University Press:
Jerry L. Allen University of New Haven
Carla Harrell Old Dominion University
Andrew F. Herrmann East Tennessee State University
Karen Isaacs University of New Haven
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Dan Kozlowski Saint Louis University
Jennifer A. Marshall California State University, Northridge
Kelly Odenweller West Virginia University
William Price Georgia Perimeter College
Greg Rickert Bluegrass Community & Technical College
Jill Schiefelbein Arizona State University
Bruce Wickelgren Suffolk University
Thanks also to the team at Oxford University Press. Their professional- ism, encouragement, and advice sustained us. This is an organization that trusts its authors. For that we are especially grateful.
Our colleagues, students, friends, and extended family deserve our appre- ciation as well. Not only did they let us bore them with our tales of writing woe, but a few appear in photos in these pages. Finally, we are grateful to one colleague in particular. Dr. Wendy Samter was our Chair and is now our Dean. Several years ago, she gave us the task of evaluating all the Introduction to Communication texts available for adoption. We took that job to heart, and although not completely dissatisfied with the available options, we did dis- cover that these books lacked sufficient attention to (1) the discipline as a social science and (2) newer mediated forms of communication. As such, Wendy initiated the journey that produced this book and encouraged and sup- ported us at every step along the way.
We must also thank our immediate families. Our children, Jordan and Matt, were the inspiration for many of our examples. Jordan is a recent grad- uate who majored in Communication and is now in the midst of a burgeoning career, and Matt is still in school and preparing to make his mark. They are great kids; we are exceedingly proud of them.
We thank you for taking the time to read our thoughts on the course and how we believe it should be taught. And we commend you for committing yourself to this important and exciting discipline.
SRB & SJB
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Introduction to Human Communication
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Chapter Outline
The Process of Creating Meaning 4
The Power of Culture 10
Communication and Perception 11
Signs and Symbols 14
Communication and Identity 17
What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do? 22
The Communication Process
1
This is the job you want, no question. It’s one anyone would want—
working at a hospital in a great up-and-coming community, having
significant responsibilities, getting paid a real salary.
You’ve done your research. You know that employers consider
good communication skills the most important factor not only
in job performance, but in career advancement (Sternberg, 2013).
Another piece of research you discovered showed that communica-
tion competencies were the most-often mentioned keys to success
in management (Whetton and Cameron, 2005).
So you now know how to build your case. You go over your notes
one last time. This is what the interviewers will hear from you:
“I will have to interact with all kinds of staff and clients, and I bring
solid verbal and nonverbal communication skills to the job. On
teams where there are inevitable tensions, my conflict and group
communication studies will be an asset. I know, too, that I will be
working with people from many different backgrounds, and my in-
tercultural communication coursework has prepared me well. Just
as important, I have classroom experience in health communica-
tion, especially in using the media to promote healthy behaviors.
In fact, in this position I can combine my media literacy with my
interpersonal communication and persuasion skills.”
You’re ready. With this background, how could you fail?
Perception, Meaning, and Identity
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Communicating—mutually creating meaning—is part of what makes us human.
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The skills and strengths mentioned in this anecdote represent different chap- ters in this book. Of course the vignette is fictional, but the research it men- tions is real. Communication is indispensable not only to professional success but to success as a person. Good communication skills can make you a better friend, parent, colleague, and citizen. Competent communication and media literacy can make interacting with people more satisfying, consuming media more fun, and experiencing life more meaningful.
The Process of Creating Meaning We communicate to create, recreate, and understand our realities. Communi- cation allows us to control our environments. It is how we know ourselves and how we let others know us. Communication, the process of mutual creation of meaning, is breathtakingly simple and often maddeningly complex. As cog- nitive scientist Benjamin Bergen explains,
communication The process of mutual creation of meaning.
1.1 Illustrate how models of communication evolved from linear to transactional.
1.2 Demonstrate how communication is an ongoing and dynamic process of creating meaning.
1.3 Contrast the transmissional, constitutive, and ritual views of communication.
1.4 explain the power of culture as the backdrop for creating meaning.
1.5 Describe the relationships between perception, communication, and identity.
1.6 explain when and how communication grants power.
Learning Objectives
Constantly, tirelessly, automatically, we make meaning. What’s perhaps most remarkable about it is that we hardly notice we’re doing anything at all. There are deep, rapid, complex operations afoot under the surface of the skull, and yet all we experience is seamless understand- ing. Meaning is not only constant; it’s also critical. With language, we can com- municate what we think and who we are. Without language, we would be isolated. We would have no fiction, no history, and no science. To understand how meaning works, then, is to understand part of what it is to be human. And not just human, but uniquely human. (2012)
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The Evolution of Communication Models In the first half of the last century, the field of communication studies was newly established. Scholars saw communication as a process that followed a linear model; that is, messages travel in a more or less straight line from a source, through a medium, to a receiver. The most famous expression of this idea is political scientist Harold Lasswell’s (1948):
Who? Says What? Through which channel? To whom? With what effect?
The source has a goal in mind, creates a message, and selects a means (or medium) to deliver it; the receiver receives it and does or does not do what the source wants. Think of public relations and health professionals using online public service announcements to convince teens to avoid binge drink- ing. If the message does not have the desired effect, the source should modify the message or change the medium. In its simplest form, the linear model of communication looks like this:
linear model a representa- tion of communication as a linear process, with messages traveling from a source, through a medium, to a receiver.
source In a linear communication model, the originator of a message.
medium In a linear commu- nication model, the carrier of a message.
receiver In a linear communi- cation model, the recipient of a message.
But maybe the message did not have the desired effect because of noise somewhere along the line. Noise is anything that interferes with the process of communication, and it exists in a variety of forms:
• Physical noise—something outside the communication effort itself; your roommate plays a loud video game while you’re trying to talk on the phone.
• Semantic noise—a problem in the construction of the message; your pro- fessor uses completely unfamiliar technical jargon.
• Psychological noise—predispositions, biases, or prejudices that shape how you construct and interpret messages; consider what different politicians mean when they talk about “freedom” and what voters of different politi- cal leanings take away when they hear that word.
• Physiological noise—sometimes you are simply not operating at full com- munication capacity because you are tired or hungry or sick.
How do sources know if their communication efforts are successful? They look for feedback, a response to their message. Now the linear model is a little less linear and it looks like this:
noise anything that interferes with the process of communication.
feedback response to a message.
FIGURE 1.2 The Linear Model of Communication, Including Feedback
Source Message
Feedback
Receiver
FIGURE 1.1 Simplified Linear Model of Communication
Source Message Receiver
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Encoder
Encoder
Interpreter Interpreter
Decoder
Decoder
Message
Message
FIGURE 1.3 Osgood and Schramm’s Model of Communication
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This, however, is still a source-dominated model of communication; that is, it still views the success of the communication effort as primarily within the source’s control. But isn’t feedback a message? Hasn’t the receiver now become the source, sending a message back to the original source, who is now the receiver?
The limits of the source-dominated view of communication become obvi- ous as soon as we understand communication as a reciprocal, ongoing process, with all parties engaged in creating shared meaning. Communication researcher Wilbur Schramm (1954) used this idea, originally offered by psychologist Charles E. Osgood, to create a more accurate model of communication, one having no source, no receiver, and no feedback. Stressing communication as in- teraction, it represents the participants in the communication process as inter- preters, working together to create meaning by encoding and decoding messages. Encoding is transforming a message into an understandable sign and symbol system—for example, speaking in English or shooting a video using familiar visual storytelling conventions. Decoding is interpreting those signs and symbols—for example, listening to the speaker or watching the video and drawing meaning from them. Figure 1.3 shows this model of communication.
Schramm made another important point: all that encoding and decoding takes place against the backdrop of communicators’ fields of experience. That means that
• Communicators create and interpret messages in terms of what they already know and have experienced. “Communication involves the total personal- ity,” wrote communication theorist Dean Barnlund. Encoding and decod- ing can never be separated because “meanings [are] generated by the whole organism” (1962, p. 199). For example, when you live at home, you and your parents no doubt have somewhat different ideas of what “cleaning your room” means.
• There can be no communication unless interpreters share a common set of ex- periences. Vielleicht sprichst Du Deutsch? Unless you speak German, that message has no meaning. If German is not part of your experience, you and a German speaker cannot communicate very well. Messages are sent; meaning is made.
source-dominated model a representation of communi- cation efforts as primarily within a source’s control.
encoding Transforming a message into an understand- able sign and symbol system.
decoding Interpreting signs and symbols.
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• No two communicators share exactly the same set of experiences, so there is always some negotiation of meaning. You and your friend both have experienced “dog,” but that small, fluffy, squeaking thing he brings with him everywhere he goes is not what you mean by “dog.”
Communication, then, is the process of mutual creation of meaning. It is social—it involves people in interaction; it is a process—its parts operate interdependently and continuously; and it is dynamic—it is always changing. This last characteristic defines modern notions of communication as transactional—communication changes the communicators. Each new message, decoded into meaning by an interpreter, changes that interpreter. He or she is no longer the same person, simply by virtue of having added new meanings to his or her set of experiences. In fact, the transactional view assumes that com- munication has not occurred unless change occurs in the participants (Pearce, Figgins, and Golen, 1984). In a sense, then, communicators enter into a deal, a transaction: the more they work at their negotiation of meaning to better align their fields of experience, the better they can make meaning (in other words, the better they can communicate). Figure 1.4 illustrates the transactional model.
Transmissional, Constitutive, and Ritual Views of Communication The linear model of communication falls under the transmissional view, which sees communication as the process of sending and receiving— transmitting or transferring—information from one person to another. By con- trast, the transactional model falls under the constitutive view, which sees communication as creating (constituting) something that did not exist before.
In this second view, communication does not simply represent some ob- jective world that preceded it; it produces and then reproduces a new reality— shared meaning—and as a result, new experiences for the communicators, who are now themselves changed (Craig, 1999). For example, say a classmate invites you to her home for Thanksgiving break. She may say, “I know you live
transactional model a repre- sentation of the elements of communication as interde- pendent and the process of communication as ongoing and dynamic.
constitutive view The per- spective that communication creates something that did not previously exist.
transmissional view The perspective that communica- tion is the process of sending and receiving information from one communicator to another.
You and a friend might have different ideas about the meaning of “dog.”
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FIGURE 1.4 The Transactional Model
Culture
Im me
dia te c
onte xt
Fie ld of experienceFie
ld of experience
Noise
NoiseNoise
Noise
Encodes
Encodes
Verbal message
Verbal message
Nonverbal message
Nonverbal message
Decodes
Communicator A Communicator B
Decodes
Noise Cha
nne l
Cha nne
l
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pretty far away, so how would you like to come home with me for the holiday?” The transmitted message is clear: “Do you want to come to my house for Thanksgiving, yes or no?” But what new “thing” has been constituted (pro- duced) by those few words? In you, a new reality—a new understanding of what kind of person she is and the knowledge that, possibly, she wants to be your friend. When you say “Yes,” she realizes that you welcome her friendship. Together, you have constituted a new understanding of the nature of your relationship. More important, you have made a new friend.
To emphasize the extraordinary impact of this mutual creation of mean- ing, sociologist and communication scholar James Carey offered a third view of how communication works. For Carey (1989), the ritual view links com- munication to
“sharing,” “participation,” “association,” “fellowship,” and “the possession of a common faith.” It has the same root as the words “commonness,” “communion,” “community” . . . A ritual view of communication is directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting informa- tion but the representation of shared beliefs. (pp. 18–19)
In other words, communication constitutes culture. Revisit the example of the Thanksgiving invitation. We’ve seen that the
simple message transmitted from your classmate to you was, “Want to come to my house, yes or no?” But the invitation was special because it was for Thanksgiving. The holiday is imbued with all kinds of rituals that bind fami- lies in meaning: who gets invited, where people sit, who is relegated to the kids’ table, what is on the menu, who falls asleep on the sofa. Thanksgiving is also part of a larger ritual that binds together the millions of people who cele- brate it, from the 30-pound turkey to the big parades and even bigger football
ritual view The perspective that communication is di- rected not toward the exten- sion of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time and the repre- sentation of shared beliefs.
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It wouldn’t take a visitor long to identify your family’s Thanksgiving rituals, such as your uncle Carl falling asleep on the sofa. These specific rituals are part of the broader holiday tradition.
games. One set of rituals helps define a family’s culture; another set helps define American culture. Both are representations of shared beliefs. You will quickly learn how to act at your new friend’s Thanksgiving celebration in ac- cordance with her family’s traditions, which are within the context of the na- tional tradition.
The Power of Culture No two people ever share precisely the same culture. Your culture is defined not only by your country but also by your gender, for example, and your spe- cific set of geographic and ethnic experiences. Think of the words you use. Depending on where you live, you may enjoy an occasional sub sandwich or maybe a grinder or possibly a hoagie, perhaps a po’ boy, hero, torpedo, or zeppelin. And again, depending on where you call home, you may sell your excess stuff at a garage sale (Midwestern United States and the West Coast), a yard sale (most of the East Coast and the Mountain States), or a tag sale (Western Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut). You may or may not be a part of campus Greek life. If you are a baseball fan, you may be part of Red Sox Nation; if you are a football fan, you may well be a Cheese Head (a Green Bay Packers fan), dwell in the Dog Pound (a Cleveland Browns fans), or hang out with the Hogs (Wash- ington Redskins fans). Or you may be troubled by the fact that a sports fran- chise in our nation’s capital uses a racial slur as its nickname (Enten, 2014).
When we communicate with others, we find what is common to our experiences—language is an obvious example—and then we mutually negoti- ate new meanings, creating even more shared experiences. This is the true power of culture. Culture is the background, the set of experiences and expec- tations that we each carry around with us wherever we go. Culture allows us to interact with people who are different from us, while in the process we become more alike. With every successful communication effort, big or small, culture is in transaction, in constant change. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall called culture “the medium evolved by humans to survive. Nothing is free from
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cultural influences. It is the keystone in civilization’s arch and is the medium through which all of life’s events must flow. We are culture” (1976, p. 14). As you might imagine, then, something as big and important as culture will have many different definitions. This text employs a definition that speaks specifi- cally to the role of communication in culture’s influence on meaning making:
Culture is the world made meaningful; it is socially constructed and maintained through communication. It limits as well as liberates us; it differentiates as well as unites us. It defines our realities and thereby shapes the ways we think, feel, and act. (Baran, 2014, p. 14)
Our discussion so far should make it clear that culture is learned, negoti- ated, transacted, constructed, and maintained through communication. But how does culture limit and liberate, differentiate and unite? Cultural
culture The world made meaningful, socially con- structed and maintained through communication.
Communicating Well to Land the Job
employers consider good communication skills to be the most important factor in job performance and career advancement. But what communication skills are important in getting that job or internship? research by the consulting firm right Management (2008) identified five factors that make the difference:
1. Conciseness of Answers—Don’t give long, mean- dering answers. They tell an interviewer that you are nervous, or didn’t understand the question, or worse, that you are trying to substitute quantity for quality.
2. Structure of Answers —a well-conceived, concise answer to a question shows that your thinking is or- ganized, that you know your subject matter, and that you can communicate it. Try to anticipate questions before the interview and consider possible avenues of response.
3. Logical Flow of Information—logical responses show that you reason critically, connect ideas, and can be a skilled persuader.
4. Eye Contact—eye contact creates rapport, engage- ment, and trust. It tells your interviewer that you are interested in your interaction.
5. Clarity of Speech—Don’t mumble. Speaking clearly tells your interviewer that you are giving your words conscious thought.
employment writer Kate Wilson (2012) offered her take on the top five communication “skills [that] are es- pecially helpful for recent grads who may not know ex- actly what to expect”:
1. Think of the interview as a conversation, not an interrogation—You’re less likely to be nervous in a con- versation than you would be in an interrogation, and the interviewer will have a better time talking with you.
2. Ask questions when you are giving answers—Just as in conversation with friends, interact by both an- swering and asking questions.
3. Connect with the interviewer on a personal level—If you discover a personal connection, a fa- vorite sports team, a hobby, the same college, or travel to an interesting place, for example, elaborate. Making that connection could help you stand out.
4. Use the interviewer’s name—Doing this signals that you are paying attention and that you care enough to be personal.
5. Directly answer questions, but don’t be afraid to digress—expand on your answers as needed to show imagination and critical thought.
The guide at www.oup-arc.com offers a much more detailed look at communicating successfully in interviews.
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE
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http://www.oup-arc.com
These women may be part of their campus’s Greek culture, but they also are part of the larger american culture.
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assumptions can indeed limit people’s ability to express themselves. A male boss who speaks forcefully and dominates his workplace is per- ceived as a natural leader, a man among men. A female boss is less likely to employ force and dominance in her management style because doing so may subject her to a much different evaluation by her colleagues (Sandberg and Grant, 2015). But culture also liberates us, as it offers us a wealth of information in all our inter- actions, making communication easier and more effective and efficient. We know quite a bit about the people and settings in which we find our- selves because of our cultural experiences and the assumptions we make from them. They free us to make meaning more deeply, more quickly, more mutually. Of course, as you’ll see in Chapter 9, when these efficiencies become prejudices, they are noise, interfering with communication.
Culture differentiates because it defines. You communicate within your country’s dominant culture (sometimes referred to as the mainstream culture): the collective cultural experience held and shared by the large ma- jority of people. But you simultaneously belong to several bounded cultures (sometimes called co-cultures): these are your cultural identities existing within (bounded by) the larger culture. Maybe you identify with and take pride in your Latino/a or African-American heritage. Or being a country boy or a city girl sets you apart from the group. Or you stand out because you are a Star Trek fan or a member of a sorority.
Americans pride themselves in their ability to move between different bounded cultures (sorority member and Trekkie) and also between bounded cultures and the dominant culture (all Americans rooting for the United States in the Olympics). As different as individual Americans may be, they are still united (in this example) by their national culture. If you’re American and have traveled overseas, you probably had little problem identifying other Americans around you.
Communication and Perception But how did those other travelers communicate to you that they were indeed American? Most likely they weren’t shouting “USA . . . USA” as they went about their sightseeing. Nonetheless, they communicated their American-ness. This is the question of intentionality, expressed as, “Is it possible to not communi- cate?” The answer, which is no, rests on perception, being aware of and creat- ing meaning from the world around us.
One way to understand the connection between intentionality and per- ception is to look at the work of researchers who came to be known as the Palo
dominant culture (main- stream culture) The collec- tive cultural experience held and shared by the large majority of people.
bounded culture (co-culture) Cultural identities existing within the larger culture.
perception Being aware of and making meaning from the world around us.
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What is each of these instructors communicating to you? Which one is teaching Business 101? Twentieth-Century lit?
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Alto Group. In the 1960s, they offered an early challenge to the source- dominated view of communication ( Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson, 1967). Communication does not happen when a source sends a mes- sage, they argued (as we’ve already seen in this chapter); it happens when a receiver draws meaning from inter- action with the source. For example, on the first day of class you may meet two new professors, one of whom wears a suit while the other wears old jeans. Without a word being uttered, quite a bit of communication has oc- curred. The Palo Alto scholars empha- size that because every human behavior is potentially communica-
tive (culture shapes the ways we think, feel, and act), it is impossible to not com- municate. You’ve drawn meaning from those instructors’ style choices, just as you can easily draw meaning from your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s refusal to “communicate” with you. Unanswered texts accompanied by the silent treat- ment when in person may be the absence of talk, but they most certainly aren’t the absence of communication.
Perception involves selection, organization, and interpretation as we inter- act with our environments. Back to our traveling Americans: they did not in- tentionally communicate their American-ness to you; you perceived it. But what was it about them that said “American”—that you noticed (or selected)? Was it that they were speaking English; that they seemed a bit loud and ener- getic; that they were wearing Nikes, jeans, and L.L. Bean backpacks? There were many other things—some new, some familiar, some exciting, some routine—going on around you, but you selected a relatively small number and then organized them into a collection that you interpreted as American.
We’re incapable of processing the enormous tide of sensory stimuli that washes over us at all times. It’s not that we’re too lazy or not smart enough; there’s just no advantage to doing so. In fact, if we ever attempted it, we’d be immobilized by information overload; we’d accomplish nothing. What’s the temperature in the room where you’re reading these words? Unless it inter- feres with what you’re doing, there is no need to pay attention (to select) it for perception. But if the room does indeed become too hot or too cold to the point that you cannot focus on the immediate task of reading, that might change. In fact, it’s quite likely that you were unaware of the temperature until we asked the question.
As you traveled abroad, the presence of people similar to and different from you was relevant to where you were and what you were doing. Therefore, what was distinctive about the Americans stood out; you paid attention to
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those differences. If you were an American traveling in the States, however, American-ness would not necessarily be relevant or interesting to you. In that case, you’d be more likely to pay attention to pieces of data you perceived as Hawaiian, Californian, or Southern, for example.
Individual bits of data tell us relatively little, so we have to organize them in some useful way in order to interpret them meaningfully. We accomplish this by developing schemas, mental structures built from past experiences that we use to process new information and organize new experiences; they are “active organization[s] of past reactions, or of past experiences” (Bartlett, 1932, p. 201). What makes up your American schema? Your Hawaiian, Califor- nian, or Southern schemas? Where did those schema come from? They come from your experiences—your interactions, in the media and in the physical world—with American, Hawaiian, Californian, or Southern in the past.
An obvious and sometimes troubling form of schema is a stereotype, a generalization about people, places, or things. Stereotypes may or may not be accurate; as you’ll read in Chapter 9’s discussion of intercultural communica- tion, they may mask as many truths about people, places, and things as they
schema a mental structure built from past experiences that we use to process new information and organize new experiences.
stereotype a generalization about people, places, or things.
effective communication grants power, letting you shape your own realities and those of the people around you. But like all power, it can be used for good or bad.
ethics are rules of behavior or moral principles that guide human actions. There are metaethics, fundamen- tal cultural values like justice, and there are normative ethics, generalized rules or principles of moral behavior such as “don’t steal.” how we apply both the big rules and the general guidelines to our everyday interactions is called applied ethics.
Your ethics are constituted by the moral choices you make. Keep in mind, though, that applying ethics is rarely the choice between equally good options, or even be- tween good and bad ones. There’s no moral dilemma in those instances. applying ethics is quite often choosing between equally bad options. Communication ethicist Patrick Plaisance calls this “the art of uneasy compro- mise” (2014, p. 11). Do you stretch the truth on a resume to get a job? lying is a bad option, but failing to get the job is also a bad option. Do you advertise sugared cereals to little kids? Targeting small children with commercials for unhealthy foods is a bad option, but so is getting fired for refusing your client’s demand. What do you do?
Throughout this book, “ethical Communication” boxes present ethical dilemmas that communicators
regularly face. examine these situations and weigh your choices. Because there is rarely a “right” choice, your task is not to pick one option over another; rather, it is to be able to explain why and how you would make a choice. as ethicist Plaisance counsels, “ethics is about our thinking process . . . The focus is on the quality of the deliberative process and not on the outcome” (2014, p. 10; italics in the original). he continues, “ethics is about getting good at asking the right questions, which, in turn, clarify the problem and enable us to ex- plore more effectively possible solutions or acceptable compromises” (p. 37).
There are several ways to apply ethics. Do you prac- tice the Golden Rule, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? Do you look for the Golden Mean, or middle ground? are you an absolutist, apply- ing the Categorical Imperative so that your moral deci- sion makes no exceptions? Or might you apply utilitarianism toward the goal of making the most people happy (or bringing unhappiness to the fewest people)? Do you don the Veil of Ignorance, blocking out any thought of what most benefits you as a path toward finding what is moral? Consider these questions as you read the “ethical Communication” boxes in each chapter.
ETHICAL COMMUNICATION
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illuminate. Yes, they may be useful in helping us quickly make meaning, but they may also produce ill-conceived or simply incorrect meanings. Yes, Americans traveling overseas often speak English, carry themselves with vigor, and wear Nikes, jeans, and L.L. Bean backpacks, but not all do.
Signs and Symbols Meaning making is based on our perception and interpretation of signs and symbols. Recall your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s refusal to talk to you. The dis- tance you feel surely means something, most likely something not good. But is it a sign or a symbol?
Communication scholars differentiate between signs and symbols, some- times in contradictory ways. For now, though, we’ll take the more traditional route, defining a sign as something that signals the presence of something specific, more or less an objective substitute for that thing. A stop sign means stop. You may not want to stop; you may not stop when you encounter this sign at an intersection; however, you objectively know what it means. Like- wise, the changing color of leaves signifies the coming of autumn and the let- ters d-o-g signify a canine mammal (at least in English).
But the word “dog” can be a symbol as well, just as your friend’s silent treatment is more symbol than sign. A symbol, then, is a much more arbitrary indicator of something else. While the meanings attached to both signs and symbols are arbitrary (there is nothing inherently meaning “stop” in a hexag- onal piece of red sheet metal; English speakers may have decided that d-o-g signifies a canine, but Spanish speakers prefer p-e-r-r-o), the meanings at- tached to symbols are more open to negotiation and more dependent on the context in which they are used. When you and your boyfriend or girlfriend sit silently while driving long-distance at night, that silence symbolizes some- thing much different from the silence of unanswered texts. When your team- mates tell you to stop dogging it, “dog” is a symbol for laziness, but when your
sign Something that signals the presence of something specific; relatively objective.
symbol arbitrary indicator of something else; relatively subjective and abstract.
What do these signs signify?
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FIGURE 1.5 Ogden and Richards’s Triangle of Meaning
Reference Homegrown courage
Symbol Referent Original
13 colonies
Stands for
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bosses commend you for working like a dog, “dog” is a symbol for hard work. As philosopher Susanne Langer wrote, symbols “are not proxy of their objects, but are vehicles for the conception of objects” (1942, p. 61). In other words, symbols are not simply substitutes for other things; they are the means by which the meaning of those things is carried, negotiated, and maintained.
In 1923, linguist C. K. Ogden and literary critic I. A. Richards offered their triangle of meaning, a way of understanding the relationship between an object, our sign or symbol for it, and the meaning we give it (see Figure 1.5). Although there have been many variations in the way it’s represented, we still use it today. Meaning comes from the relationship between
• the referent (the object itself)
• its sign or symbol (designed to “stand in” for the referent), and
• the reference (the thoughts generated by the sign or symbol; in other words, meaning).
Keep in mind, though, that not only are signs and symbols arbitrarily as- signed to their referents, but the subsequent references (meanings) are con- structed and negotiated, and they vary given the context. So the triangle of meaning may show the linkage between referent, sign/symbol, and reference as pretty straightforward, but there is a great deal of individual and cultural experience that goes into forging those connections. American history offers a famous example. When the Founders determined that the Great Seal of the United States would feature the bald eagle as its centerpiece, they wanted to link the United States (referent), the eagle (symbol), and majestic bravery (ref- erence). But Ben Franklin, in a letter to his daughter, confessed that he could
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not make the same connections. “The turkey is in comparison,” he wrote, “a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a bird of courage” (“The Eagle,” 2012). Franklin connected the United States (referent), the turkey (symbol), and ref- erence (home-grown courage) in a much different and personally meaningful way than did his Colonial colleagues. Nonetheless, American culture seems to have decided that it prefers the eagle to the turkey as the national symbol.
Franklin was arguing that the turkey would better symbolize (be a better stand-in for) his new nation, so he presented his version of the “facts” to his daughter. And this is one of the most important lessons of the triangle of meaning. Although communication can be representational—describing or conveying some objective fact or information—it is almost always presentational—someone’s version of the facts or information. In other words, someone connects referent and symbol in a specific way to produce meaning. Television news offers an obvious example. There may be some ob- servable, objective event that journalists cover, but how is the reality of that event represented? It is represented by the reporters’ images and words chosen for presentation. Where do reporters place their cameras? Whom do they choose to interview; which interviews make it on air; and what parts of those interviews are included or edited out? These choices will produce specific meanings. This is not the work of lazy or biased reporters; this is simply the operation of the meaning triangle writ large: the connection between referent (the event), symbol (material chosen for inclusion), and reference (resulting thoughts) is different for different reporters covering the same event.
The same thing happens when you are communicating face-to-face. For example, when a classmate asks you how you did on an exam, how do you re- spond? You present your version of your performance to suggest a specific re- ality. Yes, you could respond representationally, for example, offering the grade itself with little inflection in your voice, “Got an 89.” But more than likely you would say (present) that score somewhat shyly, concerned that your
representational communication Describing or conveying some fact or information.
presentational communication an individual person’s version of facts or information.
What does each of these presentations say about attendance at this protest? Both are from the same demonstration, but the reality has been presented differently through the choices (camera angles) made by the photographer.
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colleague might not have done as well as you. Or, delighted by your unex- pected success, you might boldly present the 89, as in “Yeah, I nailed it.” If you are indeed concerned about your classmate’s feelings, you might do what stu- dents typically do: you matter-of-factly present your performance as, “I did O.K.” The words and actions (symbol) standing in for your grade (referent) are designed to produce a specific meaning for your friend (reference). In fact, just as there are scholars who argue that there has been no communication unless there is change in the participants, many communication experts also believe that communication is always presentational, always designed to effect new thought, to produce that change, even if the goal is as benign as getting your conversational partner to be more comfortable in your presence or to like you more (Hauser, 1986).
Communication and Identity But why do you care what your classmate thinks about your performance on the test? Just as important, you did great, so why should you worry about pro- tecting her feelings? You care because your identity—who you are—is trans- acted through communication. Regardless of who you might think you are, if you boast about your grade with little concern for your classmate’s feelings, she will perceive you as not very nice, as will those who witness your behavior. Then it really doesn’t matter who you think you are; to the world you are not nice. Like it or not, intentional or not, you are what you communicate. Just as import- ant, you are always, simultaneously, all of your many identities. Sometimes one or more of these identities are more visible to you and those around you.
There are several different ways to examine the relationship between communication and identity, each highlighting a different aspect of that con- nection. We’ll look at two, each of which adds something a little different to our understanding of that relationship: symbolic interaction and frame analysis.
What do you do with your skill as a communicator? Do you try to make the people around you comfortable when talking with them? how do you make meaning for and of yourself when you engage others and the larger culture? Do you use your role as others’ looking glass to help them see a better self? how well do you interact with people who are unlike you? Do you gravitate to people who look a certain way? how would you respond to some friends’ racist description of that new sopho- more in the front row? What you do and say will tell them not only who you think they are, but who you are.
In the “Personally responsible Communication” boxes throughout this book, you will be asked to con- sider just how much responsibility you carry when you communicate. Because communication is so natural and seemingly routine, it is easy to be a lazy or careless communicator. It’s easy to not pay attention to the meaning we make and that others make from us. But if you truly understand this book’s philosophy, you know that while communication can often be complex and its responsible use sometimes difficult, you are what you communicate.
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION
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You don’t read a book on how to be a good teammate or an ever-reliable relief pitcher; you learn from playing the game.
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Symbolic Interaction and the Looking Glass Sociologist George Herbert Mead offered what has become known as symbolic interaction as a way to understand how people’s sense of self develops from their ongoing, interlinked conversations in and with a culture. His book Mind, Self, and Society (1934) explains that meaning (mind) and identity (self) arise in the context of culture (society). “Through a social process,” wrote philoso- pher Charles Morris as he explained Mead’s thinking, “the biologic individual of proper organic stuff gets a mind and a self. Through society the impulsive animal becomes a rational animal, a man [sic] . . . [Through] the social process of communication, the individual gains the mechanism of reflective thought . . . acquires the ability to make himself an object to himself and . . . becomes a moral individual” (1959, pp. xxv–xxvi).
Mead suggested that we look at how people learn to play baseball or other team sports. We don’t go online to learn how to field a grounder deep in the hole or get a good break on a sharp line drive to right field. What actually happens is that we learn to play from other players as we play the game, that is, through interaction with one another and with the game itself. But be- cause we don’t all play the same position, we each learn our specific role within the larger team and game. We do this by observing and interacting with our team members. We accept their comments, encouragement, and criticism; and if the team plays well, we enjoy our newly negotiated role as a productive teammate. Now that this role provides us with the ability to con- trol our behavior (play better; be a better teammate) and garner the support and affection of those around us, we internalize it and our identity becomes bound up in it. We come to value ourselves to the extent that this role is re- spected by others.
Of course, in real life we play on many teams, that is, we have many differ- ent roles across the many different situations in which we find ourselves. You may be a ballplayer, but you may also be a marketing major, a liberal, a boy- friend, and an atheist. In each of those different situations you take the role of
others with whom you interact, trying to judge how
THUMBNAIL THEORY
Symbolic Interaction
We develop our sense of self
through interaction. We look
to significant others to see
how they behave in various
roles, and then we use these
social cues to guide our own
behavior. How successful we
are is determined by how
well others see us doing.
The Looking Glass Self is
expressed as “I am what
I think that you think I am.”
they perceive you. Mead identified two import- ant others:
• the significant other—influential people in the different situations in which you find yourself
• the generalized other—your sense of how others see you.
What kind of friend are you? Everyone knows what friend means; it is a word or symbol possess- ing a strong cultural meaning. But you have known people who have shown themselves to be real friends, especially your older sister (signifi- cant other), so you may try to act as she does (role
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THUMBNAIL THEORY
Frame Analysis
We present ourselves in
various situations based on
our experiences of those
situations, both real-world
and mass mediated. The ex-
pectations we have about
them and about the actors in
them are called frames. We
frame situations in an at-
tempt to adopt an appropri-
ate role and enact it properly.
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taking), and for this your pals often commend you on your worth as a friend (generalized other). This process of creation and maintenance of identity is known as the Looking Glass Self; the self is accomplished by seeing our- selves as others see us. There is a well-known quote sometimes attributed to Mead, sometimes to another early sociologist, Charles Cooley (1902), from whom Mead took the term, that neatly encompasses the spirit of the Looking Glass Self: “I am not what I think I am and I am not what you think I am; I am what I think that you think I am.” This quote also suggests how complex (and complicated) communication, even a simple conversation between two friends, can be. It tells us that there are not simply two people communicating (Cooley, 1902). There are actually six “selves” involved in all interactions:
• You
• The Other
• What You think of the Other
• What the Other thinks of You
• What You think the Other thinks of You
• What the Other thinks You think of Him or Her.
Imagine buying a new car. You’re in the salesroom with the salesperson. You size her up as she sizes you up. You try to figure out what she thinks about you in order to present your best case for a better price; all the while, she is wondering what you’re thinking about her and her sales pitch in order to get you to pay as much as possible for the car. You can easily identify the operation of the six selves in any interaction. Try it out using the situation of asking someone out for a date or getting your parents to pay for your spring break trip with your friends.
Mead borrowed Cooley’s mirror analogy in order to make his central point: we can only experience ourselves in relation to others, and we do that through communication. We communicate, Mead explained, through the mutual work we undertake in assigning meaning not only to ourselves, but to the symbols (including ourselves) that surround us. He called these symbols social objects, that is, any objects to which we can refer to make meaning. In this way Mead makes the final significant point of symbolic interaction: iden- tity, as the most basic social object that makes communication possible, is not only created, defined, and maintained through interaction with the social world, it is performed in that world for others to see. Have you ever dressed up, danced, or practiced a speech in front of a mirror? If so, you were perform- ing your identity to determine how others would make meaning of it. As Wil- liam Shakespeare noted, we are all performers: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
Frame Analysis Sociologist Erving Goffman uses that same theater analogy to make a similar, but subtly different point. Where Mead wanted us to know that we constitute
Looking Glass Self In symbolic interaction, the idea that the self is accomplished by seeing ourselves as others see us.
social objects In symbolic interaction, any objects to which people can refer.
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We see ourselves in the looking glass created by our interactions with others.
What is this place? What role do you play in it? What cues do you see that can help you answer these questions?
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our identities through interaction with others, Goffman stresses that in our everyday lives we readily and routinely learn to perform those iden- tities as presentations of our different selves (Goffman, 1959). To combine an idea we have al- ready discussed with Goffman’s ideas, we use communication, which is presentational, to pres- ent ourselves. “What talkers undertake to do is not to provide information to a recipient,” he wrote, “but to present dramas to an audience. Indeed, it seems that we spend most of our time not engaged in giving information but in giving shows” (1974, p. 508).
To Goffman, the various situations or set- tings we find ourselves in are different scenes in a
play and we, life’s actors, carry on different performances to let our audiences know who we are. But how do we know which role (identity) is appropriate at a given time and situation? Just as in a play, we look for cues. Goffman calls his theory frame analysis because those cues alerting us to the proper role we should play are embedded in what he calls frames—a specific set of expec- tations we use to make sense of the specific social situation we may find our- selves in at the time. As a close reader, you can see that frames and schemas share many similarities. No one has to tell you as you enter a classroom for the first time in a new semester to don your student identity. No one has to give you your lines or tell you what your motivation is. You enter the room, see the rows of chairs and desks, and notice an individual standing at the front. Your classroom frame directs you to raise your hand to ask a question and not to interrupt when the professor is speaking. You know why you’re there and what your professor expects of you. In fact, country boy or city girl, Trekkie or so-
rority member, your identity is that of student as long as you maintain that frame.
But what happens when your professor begins addressing you and your classmates infor- mally, telling a lot of jokes? You use that cue to make meaning of the changing situation, adjust- ing your character, presenting a variation on your student role that might be more in line with how you see yourself. You upshift, you frame the situation as less serious, more open to personal expression. But one of your classmates goes a bit too far, referring to the professor by an unflatter- ing nickname. Your instructor becomes stern. You downshift, framing the changing situation as more serious, less open to expressions of your personal identity.
frames In frame analysis, specific sets of expectations that people use to make sense of specific social situations.
upshift In frame analysis, framing a situation as less serious, more open to personal expression.
downshift In frame analysis, framing a situation as more serious, less open to expres- sions of personal identity.
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Our classroom frames are built in part from media’s hyper-ritualized representations. What did you come to understand about school from Glee?
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We easily upshift and downshift because we are skilled at reading social cues in interactions, allowing us to fine-tune our presentations of self. How do we learn to interpret or make meaning from those cues? Mead would respond, “Through communication with the various others with whom we interact.” But Goffman returns to the stage analogy to investigate the question raised by that answer: If we are actors upon a stage, in- teracting with many different people, identifying many different significant others, each of us framing different situations and reading social cues in individual, personally meaningful ways, why does there seem to be order to our daily lives? How can we coordinate our identities and actions with others to apparently so easily mutu- ally make meaning? We are able to do this be- cause we share a common set of experiences with those performing with us on the stage; we share their perceptions. We’ve built those perceptions growing up at home, with friends, in church or temple or mosque, in the schoolyard and when traveling, reading, listening to music, texting and friending online, and watching movies and television. Yes, we may each have our individual identities, but we read from much the same script as do the other actors shar- ing our bounded and dominant cultures.
We personally encounter all kinds of people and situations in our every- day lives, and the people involved in those interactions choose to present specific, certainly not all, aspects of their identities. We decode—make meaning—of those cues and they become part of our frame of the situation where that encounter took place. But we also encounter all kinds of people and situations in mass media portrayals of those people and situations. Because of the way those portrayals are constructed (no media portrayal can show every single aspect and nuance of a phenomenon, so Goffman calls them hyper- ritualized representations of social actions), our attention is directed to a specific, narrow set of cues. We decode those cues and they, too, become part of our frame of that situation. Return to our classroom example. Yes, your classroom frame has quite a bit of everyday, “real world” experience in its make-up, but it is also composed of a lot of mass media experience as well. Think of the hundreds of television shows, movies, and books you’ve read that present people much like yourself in school. What might Pretty Little Liars, 90210, Community, Glee, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Old School, Animal House, and the American Pie movies have added to your classroom frame (or schema)? Figure 1.6 shows how our experiences with the world, both in human interac- tion and mass-mediated, combine to constitute the frames we use to choose which identities (and which characteristics of those identities) to perform in different situations.
social cue In frame analysis, information in an interaction, allowing the fine-tuning of presentations of self.
hyper-ritualized representations In frame analysis, media portrayals that cannot represent all the nuances of a phenomenon.
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FIGURE 1.6 Frame Theory Model
Everyday encounters Exposure to mass media representation
of everyday communication
Attention directed toward cues used by media
professionals in media representation
Attention directed toward cues presented
by self and others in everyday situations
Frames developed to interpret and
plan real-life identities
Decoding of media representations of everyday communications
Decoding of everyday communication
You interact not only with your friends and family, but with layer upon layer of ever larger groups and institu- tions. You have different roles in each and every one. You may be a friend and a son or daughter, but you may also be an employee, a boss, a patient, a customer or client, a student, a club member, a juror, an official, a cit- izen, and a voter. In each of these situations you are not simply you. In fact, if there are six selves involved in any face-to-face encounter, imagine how many there are in larger settings, when the expectations placed on you multiply exponentially.
When you work in a group, what identity do you assume? are you the devil’s advocate or the tension re- leaser? as a boss, how do you manage cultural differ- ences that put your employees in conflict? as a citizen,
how do you make an informed vote? how do you engage in the kind of responsible talk that builds and maintains a culture benefitting everyone?
In the chapters ahead, “Socially responsible Com- munication” boxes will ask you to consider just how much responsibility you have to the larger culture around you. In a world as big and complex as ours, it’s easy to hide, to take the path of least resistance. But if communication is power, why would you want to cede control to others? Why would you decline the chance to make the world your world? The world you inhabit is the world you create. If you work responsibly to make mean- ing in and of your world, if you are a thoughtful and gen- erous communicator, you will live in a more thoughtful and generous world.
SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION
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What Does Communication Give You the Power to Do? Communication is power—the power to control the making of meaning and, therefore, our own identities and realities. Even when we are talking with friends, we want to control the meaning they take from our words. Sometimes we may choose to be vague and ambiguous, but that is still our choice—we want the meaning to be unclear.
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W h aT D O e S CO M M u n I C aT I O n G I v e YO u T h e P O W e r T O D O?
We use communication to meet many goals other than developing and maintaining our sense of self. We also communicate to accomplish the following:
• Be human—We are all social animals, as dependent on the sight and sound of others as we are on food and water. Communication is our primary means of interaction.
• Exchange information—We are all naïve scientists, always exploring new people, places, and things. Communication is our primary tool of discovery.
• Build and maintain relationships—None of us is an island; we are part of a sea of friends, family, and important others. Communication binds those ties as it defines them.
• Have influence—we are always persuading. From vital topics—“This is my version of me”—to those less important—“Let’s go out to eat tonight”—communication is the vehicle for expressing and securing the things we want.
In all these instances we have something in mind; we want to be success- ful. We know that as people make meaning with us, they are making meaning of us. We want to control others’ perceptions. We all want to be liked, and in line with this chapter’s discussion of identity, others are the looking glass through which we come to see ourselves. Why wouldn’t we want to shape what is reflected?
We’ve also learned in this chapter that the creation of meaning occurs against the backdrop of culture. And although we communicate in and with culture, much of culture’s influence in shaping our meanings comes from the mass media. For example, how does a culture define attractiveness? Even if you do not accept your culture’s view of attractiveness, if those around you do, it affects how you see yourself.
For these reasons, this text devotes space to a variety of communication skills and literacies, both face-to-face and mediated. The world contains other humans. You often have conflict with these people, many of whom come from different cultural backgrounds, making conflict resolution even more diffi- cult. Many people want to persuade you to their point of view, just as you hope to move them to yours. While you are working to make meaning of the world, producers of mass media content encourage you to accept their meanings. Social scientist Michael Crotty wrote that “meanings are constructed by human beings as they engage with the world they are interpreting. Before there were consciousnesses on earth capable of interpreting the world, the world held no meaning at all” (1998, p. 43). Becoming a better communicator gives you greater power as you engage with your world; it allows you to create a personally meaningful reality; it grants you control over the meanings that will come to define you.
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1.1 Illustrate how models of communication evolved from linear to transactional. Communication was initially seen as the sending of messages from a source to a receiver. Feedback was then added to the model, as were interaction and mutual influence, resulting in the transac- tional perspective—communication changes communicators as they communicate.
1.2 Demonstrate how communication is an ongoing and dynamic process of creating meaning. Communication is social—it involves people in interaction; it is a process—its parts operate interdependently and continuously; and it is dynamic—it is always changing.
1.3 Contrast the transmissional, constitutive, and ritual views of communication. The transmissional view sees communication as the mere sending of signals from sources to re- ceivers. The constitutive view sees communica- tion as creating something that did not exist before. The ritual view sees communication as central to the maintenance of society and the representation of shared beliefs.
1.4 explain the power of culture as the backdrop for creating meaning. Communication can occur only when partici- pants share some common experiences. Culture
is the set of experiences and expectations we each carry with us wherever we go. Culture shapes the ways we think, feel, and act. As a result, culture forms the backdrop for mutually negotiating new meanings, thus creating even more shared experiences.
1.5 Describe the relationships between perception, communication, and identity. Perception involves selection, organization, and interpretation as we interact in and with our en- vironments. Because we cannot possibly make meaning of the flood of stimuli that surrounds us, we selectively perceive pieces of data that are personally and situationally relevant. We orga- nize these into schemas that shape our percep- tions and identities. Symbolic interaction and frame analysis demonstrate the idea that the self is constituted through interaction with others (the Looking Glass Self). We readily and routinely learn to perform our identities as presentations of our different selves by building frames for dif- ferent situations.
1.6 explain when and how communication grants power. Communication is power—the power to control meaning making and, therefore, our own identi- ties and realities. We communicate to be human, to exchange information, to build and maintain relationships, and to have influence.
Review of Learning Objectives
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Key Terms communication 4 linear model 5 source 5 medium 5 receiver 5 noise 5 feedback 5 source-dominated model of communication 6 encoding 6 decoding 6 transactional model of communication 7 transmissional view of communication 7 constitutive view of communication 7 ritual view of communication 8 culture 9 dominant culture (mainstream culture) 11 bounded culture (co-culture) 11 perception 11 schema 13 stereotype 13 sign 14 symbol 14 representational communication 16 presentational communication 16 symbolic interaction 18 Looking Glass Self 19 social objects 19 frame analysis 20 frames 20 upshift 20 downshift 20 social cues 21 hyper-ritualized representations 21
Questions for Review 1. What distinguishes the linear and transac-
tional models of communication? What are the elements of each?
2. What are the four types of noise? Give an ex- ample of each.
3. What differentiates the transmissional view of communication from the constitutive and ritual views?
4. How do you define culture? How does it limit and liberate, differentiate and unite, and define our realities? What are dominant and bounded cultures?
5. What are the elements involved in perception?
6. Is it possible to not communicate? Explain.
7. What are the elements of the meaning triangle? How do they interact to produce meaning?
8. Is communication primarily representational or presentational? Explain your answer.
9. What are symbolic interaction and the Looking Glass Self? How do they relate?
10. What are the elements of frame analysis, and how do they operate to shape our understand- ings of ourselves?
Questions for Discussion 1. Do you ever reflect on the question “Who am I?”
Most people don’t when all is well. But in times of crisis or confusion, most of us do ponder our identities. Has this ever happened to you? What were the circumstances? How did you arrive at an answer to that essential question?
2. Can you test your own experience on a sports team or club against Mead’s baseball analogy? How did you learn your identity among your colleagues? How did you come to define your specific role? Who were the significant others? Why were they important to you? What did you learn from them about membership in the team or club? About yourself?
3. Have you ever committed a framing error, fail- ing to properly read the cues? What were the circumstances? How did you salvage the situa- tion, if you did?
r e v I e W O f l e a r n I n G O B J e C T I v e S
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Chapter Outline
Theory and Scientific Inquiry 28
Three Philosophical Questions That Shape Scientific Inquiry 33
Traditions of Communication Inquiry 35
Tools of Observation: Research Methods 39
For the first time, you are taking advantage of your communication
professor’s office hours. You hope she can answer what seems to be
a simple question.
After reading the first chapter of the text, you tell her, you no-
ticed that most of the important ideas did not seem to come from
the discipline of communication. Instead, they were related to
sociology, philosophy, political science, psychology, anthropology,
linguistics, and literary criticism. Yes, Wilbur Schramm seemed to
be a communication scholar, and James Carey, according to the
text, studied communication as well as sociology, but still, many of
the big concepts came from other fields. “Am I right about this?”
you ask her. “Aren’t I supposed to be getting an introduction to
communication?” You prepare yourself for a condescending smile.
But your instructor surprises you. “Nice observation,” she replies.
“You caught something that most students miss.” She explains that
all social sciences borrow ideas, theories, and research methods
from one another. Equally important, when you sit in an introduc-
tory communication class, you are actually getting an introduction
to the social sciences, because all social sciences have the same
questions at their core: How do we know our world and how it
works? How do we know who we are and how to make our place in
that world? How do we best use what we learn about that world and
ourselves to make things better for ourselves and others? The
answer to those questions, she says, is through communication.
Communication Research and Inquiry
2
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Because communication borrows ideas, theories, and research methods from all the social sciences, there is a multitude of them. What’s more, they are always evolving—some live, some die, some gain influence, others lose it. In this chapter, we will investigate the values, philosophies, and research methods that enrich not only the discipline of communication, but all the social sciences.
Theory and Scientific Inquiry In 2012, the Kentucky Legislature challenged the inclusion of “a thorough knowledge of evolution” as part of the standardized biology testing program for the state’s high school students. One critic, Senator David Givens, said, “We don’t want what is a theory to be taught as a fact.” But another Kentuck- ian, Vincent Cassone, chair of the University of Kentucky’s biology depart- ment, argued for its inclusion: “The theory of evolution is the fundamental backbone of all biological research. There is more evidence for evolution than there is for the theory of gravity, than the idea that things are made up of atoms, or Einstein’s theory of relativity. It is the finest scientific theory ever devised” (both in Blackford, 2012).
Defining Theory Part of the disagreement between these two men rests on what they mean when they talk about theory. Senator Givens said evolution is a theory, not a fact. He is absolutely correct—a theory is not a fact. But it’s also not a guess, although most of us use the word in this way in everyday conversation: “Why did the football team lose by three touchdowns?” “I’m guessing it was the refs, but that’s just a theory.” Dr. Cassone, who also would agree that a theory is not a fact—no legitimate scientist would ever make that claim—was applying a more formal, more widely accepted definition of theory—a unified, coherent, and organized set of explanations, concepts, and principles describing some aspect of the world. For social scientists, that aspect of the world is human social life.
theory a unified, coherent, and organized set of explana- tions, concepts, and principles describing some aspect of the world.
2.1 define theory using analogies.
2.2 explain the relationship between the three steps of social-scientific inquiry.
2.3 describe the different ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies providing philosophical support to scientific inquiry in communication.
2.4 differentiate between traditions of communication inquiry.
2.5 describe the benefits and drawbacks of the most common research methods employed in communication inquiry.
Learning Objectives
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Theories provide explanations; they are the best available descriptions—a “grand synthesis”—of the sum of our knowledge of specific phenomena (Moore, 1984). Not only is a theory not a fact, good science is dedicated to demonstrating that the “best available description” is always inadequate and in need of updating. “Science,” wrote renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan, “is a self-correcting process” (in Zimmer, 2011, p. SR12). In science, every answer should produce new questions—an idea known as the specification of ignorance (Merton, 1967). Neuroscientist Stuart Firestein (2013) quotes Nobel laureate physicist David Gross, who argues that “the most important product of science is ignorance,” and then adds that science’s ability to find “truth” is “a challenge on par with finding a black cat in a dark room that may contain no cats whatsoever.” Another Nobel laureate physicist, Albert Einstein, chose to liken the knowledge generated by scientific inquiry to a spotlight (see Figure 2.1). As the spotlight’s circle of light increases (illuminat- ing what we know), so does the circumference of the darkness around it (the number of things we still don’t know).
But if a theory is not fact, how do we know it’s a good theory? We con- sider its usefulness. How useful is the theory in explaining as accurately and thoroughly as possible what it is that needs explaining? “Questioning a theory’s usefulness is wiser than questioning its truthfulness,” write com- munication theorists Stephen Littlejohn and Karen Foss. “In matters of human life, no single theory will ever reveal the whole ‘truth’ or be able to address the subject of investigation totally. Theories function as guidebooks that help us understand, explain, interpret, judge, and participate in the communication happening around us” (2011, pp. 19–20). As we saw in Chapter 1, George Herbert Mead wanted an explanation for how people de- veloped their identities in interaction with others, and Erving Goffman wondered how individuals could so seamlessly coordinate their behaviors
specification of ignorance The idea that in science, every answer produces new questions.
FIGURE 2.1 Every Answer Produces New Questions
What we don’t know
What we know
What we don’t know
What we know
What we don’t know
What we know
What we don’t know
What we know
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and interactions in different and constantly changing settings. Both social scientists developed theories.
Another communication theorist, Em Griffin (2009, pp. 5–6), offers a valuable way of thinking about a theory’s usefulness. He suggests that we think metaphorically. Think of theory as
• A net—Griffin quoted philosopher of science Karl Popper: “Theories are nets cast to catch what we call the ‘world’ . . . We endeavor to make the mesh even finer and finer” (1959, p. 59). Much as a fisherman uses a net, theory is one of communication researchers’ most vital tools. They cast about the world, working to apprehend the reality that is human experience.
• Lenses—Theories are not mirrors; they do not reflect the world. They are camera lenses or eye glasses that shape researchers’ “perception by focusing attention on some feature of communication . . . Two theorists could analyze the same communication event . . . and depending on the lenses each uses” come to different conclusions.
• A map—“Communication theories are maps of the way communication works . . . We need theory to guide us through unfamiliar territory.” Theories, like maps, lay out the roads others have traveled, show us where we are, and offer directions about where we want to go.
Whether we imagine theories as nets, lenses, or maps, we need to keep sev- eral things in mind. Theories are human constructions—they are developed by people who have biases, interests, skills, and values. Theories always present someone’s take on the issue at hand. People interested in intercultural commu- nication, for example, will inevitably approach their work from a specific set
of cultural assumptions. People who study conflict in families will develop a different kind of theory than will those who look at conflict in the work- place. Theories are dynamic—they are always changing. As the world changes, so, too, must our understanding of it. Theories shaping our understanding of communication between the genders are much different today than they were in the 1950s. Media violence theories from the days of black-and- white movies will certainly differ from those developed in the era of 3-D, single-shooter video games. Theories are abstractions. They reduce the issue at hand to categories, variables, propo- sitions, and assumptions. They inevi- tably leave something out, which leads to the specification of ignorance and
Media violence theories from the days of black-and-white movies will certainly differ from those developed today.
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the requirement that researchers use different nets of varying mesh sizes, different or sharper lenses, or more up-to-date or more detailed maps.
Scientific Inquiry Because theories are dynamic and abstract human constructions, scholars are constantly at work refining them, making them better, or sometimes even discarding them. They do this through scientific inquiry: the active, system- atic process of discovery, leading scholars from observation to knowledge and, eventually, to theory. That’s why our “theory” of why the football team lost by three touchdowns is just a guess; it’s not a theory because it is not the product of scientific inquiry. Because there are many different theories of interest to people who study communication, there are many different ways to conduct scientific inquiry (that is, many different ways to do research). But all scien- tific inquiry includes three steps:
• Ask scientifically testable questions. “How come my family keeps giving me lousy birthday presents?” is not testable. In the social sciences, testable questions are typically “How,” “Why,” “What if,” and “Does” inqui- ries. “How do people know when it’s their turn to talk when in conversa- tion with others?” “Why do we tend to believe some people more than others?” “What if little kids were specifically taught to distinguish between the commercials and the television shows they watch?” “Does scaring teens about the dangers of texting while driving produce more responsible behavior than appealing to them with statistics?” These questions revolve around people, events, relationships, and other interesting phenomena in the social world. They have to do with scientific concepts, not opinions, feelings, or beliefs. They are open to investigation, using some form of sys- tematic observation. Scientifically testable questions produce evidence and data that can be used to explain how the social world works.
• Engage in systematic observation. The answers to researchers’ questions reside in the evidence they observe. Social scientists look for patterns, relationships, and consisten- cies in the social world. They engage in observation to learn why a particular phe- nomenon happens the way it does, or to ex- plain something in the social world that seems new or different, or sometimes even to challenge or test the prevailing under- standing that others, particularly other re- searchers, have of the social world. The nature of those observations—the research methods—vary dramatically for different scholars coming from different research tra- ditions who are looking at different research questions; nonetheless, their observation is planned and systematic.
scientific inquiry The active, systematic process of discov- ery that leads scientists from observation to knowledge and, eventually, theory.
“how come my parents keep giving me bad gifts?” is not a scientifically testable question.
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• Develop answers. Researchers then have to explain what they ob- served. This always involves definitions and descriptions based on evi- dence. This doesn’t mean that scientists do not bring interpretation and judgment to bear on what they have observed. But it does mean that the answers they construct from their observations must be evidence-based. This is what makes science different from opinion.
Thinking logically, looking for connections, and marshaling and evaluating evidence are the hallmarks of scholarly inquiry, but they are also the products of a college education, signs of an educated critical thinker, and keys to success on the job, as you can read in the box “The Benefits of Critical Thinking.”
The Benefits of Critical Thinking
“By far,” explains career expert andrea Kay, “aside from particular technical skills, what employers want most are people who can think clearly and critically, who know themselves, who have the ability to listen to others and interact respectfully” (2012). But what con- stitutes thinking clearly and critically on the job? employment writer George Root (2015) says that critical thinking takes place when “employees and managers look at a situation and weigh all possible solutions before coming up with a final answer.” It can be “a long process that requires input from different people within the organization,” he writes, but its benefits include the following:
1. Bringing in new ideas—Critical thinkers reject easy assumptions, resist the temptation to see new situa- tions as mere replays of things that have happened in the past, and rarely accept the conventional wisdom.
2. Fostering teamwork—Critical thinkers actively seek the knowledge, wisdom, and experience of others. as a result, more people develop a stake in a problem’s solution or the efficient operation of some plan.
3. Promoting options—The workplace as a whole bene- fits from the development of a wider range of solu- tions or practices because critical thinkers seek and accept input from others. Critical thinking boosts innovation.
4. Uncovering spinoffs—Critical thinkers, because they look at problems or issues from a variety of perspectives, generate more comprehensive solutions or ideas that can be applied across a greater variety of situations.
Management consultant Chris Jones, who describes on-the-job critical thinking as “the ability to seek a deep, rigorous understanding of our challenges,” argues that it tends to escape people when they need it most, so he offers seven steps for keeping it on hand (2011):
1. Use data to drive decisions—Replace guesswork with facts and data; challenge decisions unsupported by meaningful data.
2. Do your homework and share it—Citing sources for your evidence makes a stronger case and helps you explain and defend your decision.
3. Vet your conclusions—Talk to others because a diver- sity of perspectives usually ensures a better solution.
4. Know your social media experts—all workplaces have in-house experts as well as links to outside experts. find them, get to know them, and engage them on social media.
5. Reject “face value”—Reject easy assumptions; do not accept the conventional wisdom; think outside the box.
6. Build your skills—Read, write, and engage others with in-depth conversations on important, complex topics.
7. Prioritize “think time”—Time pressure is the enemy of critical thinking. Make time for deep thought.
COMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE
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Three Philosophical Questions that Shape Scientific Inquiry Social scientists approach their inquiry from many different perspectives; of course, this shapes the kind of questions they ask, the observations they un- dertake, and the answers they produce. These approaches differ in large part because they grow out of distinct philosophical questions about the world and how to best study it. These are questions of
• Ontology—What is the nature of reality; what is knowable? • Epistemology—How is knowledge best created and expanded? • Axiology—What is the proper role of values in research and theory
building?
The ontology of chemistry and physics is simple. If something can be measured, it’s real. But as we’ve already seen, things aren’t this simple for researchers studying communication. How do they measure affection, fear, patriotism, or beauty? Communication scholars, then, consider three per- spectives on the nature of reality. The realist position says the world is real, tangible, and measurable. It exists apart from anyone’s effort to study it. If you think a tree falling in the woods makes a noise even if no one’s there to hear it, you’re a realist. But does the effective flow of information up and down a large corporation exist if no one is there to measure it? The nominalist posi- tion says that reality exists only to the extent that we humans are able to ex- perience it through the names and labels we give to the things we find in it. For a nominalist, there is no such thing as “love”; it is not a real, tangible thing. It exists only because we’ve given it a name. There is a middle position, however, the social construction posi- tion, which says that reality is a com- bination of the real world “out there” and our experiences with and of it. There can be no doubt that there is something that happens between a father and his child and between two young people about to wed. We choose to call it “love,” and we may even give it various names to better make mean- ing of it—for example, “paternal love” or “romantic love.” This is where most scientific inquiry in communication operates; after all, communication is about meaning making, so it’s only logical that communication research- ers would be interested in how people make meaning of the world out there.
The social-constructionist ontology sees a father’s love for his children as real and measurable.
axiology Questions of the proper role of values in re- search and theory building.
epistemology Questions of how to best create and expand knowledge.
ontology Questions of the nature of reality and what is knowable.
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The epistemology of chemistry and physics is simple. Knowledge is best created and expanded when a lot of different scientists, all operating in- dependently, ask similar questions, employ simi- lar methods, and produce similar results. This community of scholars relies on the scientific method: they propose explanations of the phe- nomena of interest (hypotheses) and conduct experimental studies to test these hypotheses. Their research must be replicable; that is, re- searchers must provide enough information on how they did their work so they, or anyone else, can repeat the study. And again, things aren’t that simple for communication researchers. Dis- tilled water always boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea level. No matter where the scientists may be,
the water will boil at 100 degrees if they reduce the atmospheric pressure to that of sea level. But no two people are ever alike, nor are they likely to make precisely the same meaning from a communication experience. In fact, no one individual is the same from one moment to the next. So communication re- searchers consider two perspectives on the best way to generate and spread knowledge. The scientific method-based approach we just described is the objec- tivist position. But there is also the subjectivist position, which argues that the best way to generate and expand knowledge is through closing the gap between knower and known; that is, true understanding can only come from getting close to the topic of interest, from studying communication from the point of view of those who are communicating. Different communication scholars fall at different points along the continuum from objectivist to subjectivist.
The axiology of chemistry and physics is simple. Keep values out of in- quiry. Many social scientists accept this standard. “Scientists, like all men and women, are opinionated, dogmatic, ideological,” wrote behavioral researcher Fred Kerlinger. “That is the very reason for insisting on procedural objectivity; to get the whole business outside of ourselves” (1979, p. 264). There is a second position, however, one that realizes that it is impossible to completely keep values out of any human activity. As a result, researchers, after admitting this reality, either do their best to limit the influence of those values on their in- quiry (they “bracket” them), or they embrace them as part of the work itself. It’s not likely, for example, that a feminist scholar would expect us to believe that her research on the portrayal of working women on prime-time televi- sion is value-free. And there is a third axiological position, one which puts values front and center, arguing that values should drive research, which, like all good science, is intended to create change. As with epistemology, different communication scholars fall at different points along the values continuum represented by these three positions.
Sociologist Kenneth Bailey wrote, “To this day you will find within social science both those who think of themselves as scientists in the strictest sense of
If you think a tree falling in the woods makes a noise even if no one’s there to hear it, you subscribe to the realist ontology.
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the word and those with a more subjective approach to the study of society, who see themselves more as humanists than as scientists” (1982, p. 5). Ultimately, scholars’ ontological, epistemological, and axiological positions will be deter- mined by the questions they want to answer, the nature of the observations they want to make, and the kinds of evidence they require to build the theory they think will be most useful. And still, communication researchers, like all social scientists, must confront the “messiness” of human behavior, as you can read in the box “Solving Not-So-Well-Posed Problems.”
Traditions of Communication Inquiry All communication research and the theories it produces are the products of three broad traditions of inquiry that differ in their ontology, epistemology, and axiology. They are the postpositivist, interpretive, and critical traditions.
Postpositivist Theory and Research In the early days of communication research, social scientists wanted to be “scientific,” so they looked to the traditional natural sciences for models of
Solving Not-So-Well-Posed Problems
MIT physicist alan lightman wrote, “years ago, when I was a graduate student in physics, I was introduced to the concept of the ‘well-posed problem’: a question that can be stated with enough clarity and precision that it is guar- anteed an answer. Scientists are always working on well- posed problems . . . We scientists are taught from an early stage of our apprenticeship not to waste time on ques- tions that do not have clear and definite answers” (2011).
But rarely do questions about communication—about human social life—lend themselves to these clear and definite answers. Professor lightman recognizes this:
We cannot clearly show why the ending of a particular novel haunts us. We cannot prove under what condi- tions we would sacrifice our own life in order to save the life of our child. We cannot prove whether it is right or wrong to steal in order to feed our family, or even agree on a definition of “right” and “wrong.” We cannot prove the meaning of our life, or whether life has any meaning at all. For these questions, we can gather evidence and
debate, but, in the end, we cannot arrive at any system of analysis akin to the way in which a physicist decides how many seconds it will take a one-foot-long pendu- lum to make a complete swing.
although he was talking about the value of the arts and humanities, Professor lightman could not have better expressed the challenge (or the excitement) in- herent in trying to solve the not-so-well-posed prob- lems that interest communication researchers. It may be much more difficult to measure a parent’s love or to determine how a culture negotiates what is “right” and “wrong” than it is to compute the time it takes a pendu- lum to complete a swing. But that’s no reason not to do it, and communication researchers make it their respon- sibility to seek knowledge in the messy world of the social sciences. What about you? What issues of human social interaction interest you? do you ever ask yourself questions about how we create meaning? If you do, how clear and definite are the answers?
PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION
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how to do research and develop theory. They saw that people studying in fields such as physics and chemistry based their work on positivism. Posi- tivists believed that only quantifiable, observ- able, measurable phenomena were the legitimate building blocks of knowledge and theory. But there was a problem for social scientists. A gram of sulphur is always a gram of sulphur, and a hy- drogen molecule always contains two atoms. But what is a gram of friendship? How many parts to a family?
So, social scientists who are committed to de- veloping theory using quantifiable, observable, measurable phenomena practice postpositivism. It’s as close as possible to what natural scientists do, but it recognizes that humans living in a social world are not as constant or predictable as are the measurable elements of the physical world.
“Humans are not like billiard balls propelled solely by forces external to them,” explains cognitive psychologist Albert Bandura. “Billiard balls cannot change the shape of the table, the size of the pockets, or intervene in the paths they take, or even decide whether to play the game at all. In contrast, humans not only think, but, individually and collectively, shape the form those external forces take and even determine whether or not they come into play. Murray Gell-Mann, the physicist Nobelist, underscored the influential role of the per- sonal determinants when he remarked, ‘Imagine how hard physics would be if particles could think’” (2008, pp. 95–96).
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