Overview: Chapters 1 to 4 of "A First Look at Communication Theory," 9th Edition by Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks

1. Overview
Chapters 1 to 4
A First Look at
Communication Theory
9th Edition
Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks
Intro to Communication Theory
Aitza M. Haddad Nunez, J.D., LL.M.

2. Chapter 1: Launching your Study of Communication Theory
Chapter 2: Talk About Theory
Chapter 3: Weighting the Words
Chapter 4: Mapping the Territory
Quiz #1
Overview

3. Chapter 1:
Launching your
Study of
Communication
Theory
Pages 1 – 12

4. What is a Theory and What does it Do?
“Umbrella term for all
careful, systematic, and
self-consciousness
discussion and analysis of
communication
phenomena” (p.2).
 “Set of systematic, informed,
hunches about the way things
work” (p.3).

5.  Not enough to think carefully about an idea…
 Theorists have a responsibility to cast light on the subject of study by:
 Reading, Talking, Observing, and Experimenting
 Having a degree of familiarity with alternative explanations and interpretations
 Integrated system of concepts…
 Specific and clear links among the informed hunches.
 Ideas tied together into a unified whole – No one-shot claims
Set of systematic, informed, hunches…

6.  The three metaphors used to help visual learners:
 Theories as Nets
 To catch the world
 Theories as Lenses
 Opposed to a mirror that reflects the world
 Theories as Maps
 Of the way communications works
Images of Theory

7. Not one definition – Concept is seriously overburderned.
 Essential feautures:
“Relational process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a response”
1. Messages – Texts
2. Creation of Messages – Conscious choice of text form and substance
3. Interpretation of Messages – Words don’t mean things, people means things
4. A Relational Process – One cannot step into the same river twice
5. Messages that Elicit a Response – Communication must provoke a response
And What is Communication?

8. Activity 1: So What is a Theory?

9. Activity 2: A Failure to Communicate

11. Chapter 2:
Talk About
Theory
Pages 13 – 23

12. An Objective Approach
 Social Scientists – Why an event produced a specific sentiment and
whether it resulted in action.
 After observation, a theory is identified or constructed to offer insights about
what it was observed.
 Resonance Principle of Communication
 Persuasion – arguments v. memories
 Theory Validation
 “Objective test to identify if a theory is faulty” (p.14)
 Theory + Research

13. An Interpretative Approach
Archetypal Myths
Draw upon universal
experiences
 Carl Jung – “collective
unconscious”
 Michael Osborn –
Archetypes touches off
“depth responses” that
emotionally resonate at
the core of our being (p.15)

14. Objective v. Interpretative
 Approaches to communication study differ in:
 Starting point, Method and Conclusion
 Assumptions about ways of arriving to knowledge
 The core of human nature, questions of value, and the purpose of having
theory
 Objective → Scientist → Objective Scholar
 Interpretative
 “[A]ll rhetorical critics do interpretative analysis, not all interpretative scholars are
rhetoricians” (p.16).
 Interpretative Scholars
 Rhetoricians, humanists, postmodernists, or critical scholars

15. Truth v. Multiple Realities
 Epistemology
 “[W]e all inevitably make assumptions about the nature of knowledge” (p.16).
 Scientists
 Good Theory = Faithful representations of the way the world really is.
 Science seeks to be bias-free – evidence should speak for itself.
 No one person can know it all → Pool of findings to build a collective body of knowledge
about how the world works.
 “[O]nce a principle is discovered and validated, it will continue to hold true as long as
conditions remain relatively the same” (p.16)
 Interpreters
 Truth is socially constructed through communication
 “Text may have multiple meanings” (p.17).

16. Determinism v. Free Will
 Question of Human Choice
 Hard-line determinists – every move we make is the result of heredity and
environment.
 Scientists – Stress the forces that shape human behavior
 Free will purists – every human act is ultimately voluntary (p.17)
 Interpretative Scholars
 Focus on conscious choices made by individuals
 Language
 Reflects theorists views of human nature
 “I had to” v. “I decided to” / “In order to” and “So that”
 “[A]s individual freedom goes up, predictability of behavior goes down” (p.18)

17. Activity 3: Determinism or Free Will?

18. Now listen…

19. Objective v. Emancipation
 “Significant decisions are value laden”
 Value – priorities and issues of relative worth.
 “Traffic light that guide what we think, feel, and do” (p.18)
 Behavioral Scientists → Empirical Evidence
 Critical Interpreters → “[K]nowledge is never neutral” (p.19)
 Seeks to emancipate = liberate people from oppression of any sort
 Stan Deetz
 General Communication Theories have two priorities:
1. Effectiveness – successful communication / persuasion
2. Participation – increase point of views / difference, opposition and independence

20. Universal Laws v. Interpretative Guides
 Behavioral Scientists
 “Pin down universal laws of human behavior that cover a variety of
situations” (p.19)
 Theory Testing
 Hunch of ideas about how the world works → Hypothesis → Test after Test
 Rhetorical Critic
 Strive “to interpret a particular communication text in a specific context”
(p.19)
 “[E]xplores the web of meaning that constitutes human existence” (p.20)
 No Theory Testing
 Theory tells “what to look for,” “what to make of it,” and “whether to consider it significant”
*Next: Classification of Communication Theories According to Objective /Interpretive Worldview (p.22)

22. Chapter 3:
Weighting
the Words
Pages 24 – 36

23. What is a Scientific Theory?

24. Making a Good Objective Theory
 A good objective theory:
1. Predicts what will happen
 We are dealing with things we can see, hear, touch, smell and taste over and over again
 Probability and tendencies → Not absolute certainty
 A specific type of communication triggers a particular response
 People will use certain types of communication depending upon pre-existing factor
2. Explains an event or human behavior to draw order to an existing chaos
 Abraham Kaplan
 “[T]heory is a way of making sense out if a disturbing situation”

25. Making a Good Objective Theory
 Social scientists add four more criteria:
1. Relative simplicity – Occam’s Razor or Rule of parsimony
2. Testability through Hypothesis (es) – Falsifiability
3. Practical utility – Useful
4. Quantifiable research – Experiments and Surveys

26. Making a Good Interpretive Theory
 Although there is no six-point set of criteria, interpretive theories
should accomplish some or all of these functions:
 Identification and clarification of values – Power relations and structures
 Create new understanding of people – Self –referential imperative
 Inspire aesthetic appreciation – Organized creativity
 Stimulate agreement – Widespread debate and analysis
 Reform society – Challenge to the Status Quo
 Conduct qualitative research – Textual Analysis and Ethnography

27. Activity #4a

28. Activity #4b

29. Contested Turf & Common Ground
 Mutual respect for each other’s curiosity about the communication and
recognition of the value of each other’s work and contributions.
 And understanding of the need for a balance in rigor and imagination.
 Recognition and understanding of the similarities of their standards and criteria:
p.35

30. Chapter 4:
Mapping
the
TerritoryPages 37 – 50

31. Seven Traditions of Communication Theory
 Professor Robert Craig from University of Colorado
 “Communication theory is the systematic and thoughtful response of
communication scholars to questions posed as humans interact with one
another” (p.37).
 These already stablished traditions offer “distinct, alternative
vocabularies” that describe different “ways of conceptualizing
communication problems and practices” (p.38).
 Some share common grounds
 Some are fenced off each other by conflicting goals and assumptions

32. The Socio-Psychological Tradition
 Believe in the existence of communication truths that can be
discovered by careful, systematic observation.
 “Cause-and-effect relationships that will predict the results when people
communicate” (p.38)
 How can I get others to change?
 Researchers look for what it is instead of what ought to be
 “Harold Kelley’s interactional theory […] suggests that close relationships are
characterized by “strength, frequency, diversity, and duration” (p.39)
 This type of research design would allow to predict which pairs were likely to be friends
forever.

33. The Cybernetic Tradition
 Cybernetics = Artificial intelligence
 “Friendships don’t exit in a vacuum; they are embedded in a network that
processes social information” (p.40)
 Social network experiment
 Amount of communication
 Closeness of relationship
 Commitment to see it continue

34. Activity 5: Cyber-Friendship Redefined

35. The Rhetorical Tradition
 How to best present a case
 Characterized by:
 A conviction that speech distinguishes humans from animals
 A confidence that public address delivered in a democratic forum is the best
way to solve political problems
 An appropriate setting for audience adaptation
 Oratorical training as the cornerstone of a leader’s education
 An idea that rhetoric is more art than science
 A history of male dominance and a female struggle for a right to speak in
public

36. Activity #6: Effective Rhetoric

37. The Semiotic Tradition
Study of signs
“Anything that can stand for something else” (p.41)
 Words → Signs → Symbols
 “Arbitrary symbols that have no inherent meaning, no natural
connection with the things they describe” (p.41)

38. Activity #7: Signs and symbols everywhere

39. The Socio-Cultural Tradition
 As people talk, they produce and reproduce culture
 Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity – “the structure of culture’s
language shapes what people think and do” (p.43)
 Contemporary socio-cultural theorists – it is through the process of
communication that “reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and
transformed” (p.43)
 Conversation gives an opportunity to bridge the culture gap between “us” and “then”

40. The Critical Tradition
 Frankfurt School of Thought – Tests the ideas of Karl Marx
 Rejects the economic determinism yet carries the tradition of critiquing
society.
 Consistently challenge three features of contemporary society:
1. Control of language to perpetuate power imbalances
 Emancipation
2. The role of mass media in dulling sensitivity to repression
 Reproduction of the dominant ideology to distract people from recognizing injustices
3. Blind reliance on the scientific method and uncritical acceptance of empirical findings
 “Science is not the value-free pursuit of knowledge that it claims to be” (p.44)

41. Activity #8: Be Critical…

42. The Phenomenological Tradition
 “Intentional analysis of every day life from the standpoint of the
person who is living it” (p.45)
 Emphasis on people’s perception and their interpretation of their own
experience.
 Not two people have the same life story

43. Fencing the Field of Communication Theory
 The location of each tradition in the map is not random;
 Hybrids are possible across traditions;
 The seven charted traditions might not cover every approach;
p.47

44. Ethical v. Effective Communication

45. The Ethical Tradition
 Ethical responsibility or Ethical Relativism?
 Ethical v. Effective
 NCA Credo for Ethical Communication
 What is ethical?
 Honesty v. Lying
 Truthfulness, accuracy, honesty and reason
 Responsibility for the short and long term consequences
 Understand and respect before evaluating and responding
 Many ethical theorists come out of the interpretive traditions

46. Activity #9: Applying Communication Traditions

47. Activity #10: Friendship Algorithm

49. QUESTIONS