advance theory, communication, mass comm, lesson, ontology, axiology epistemology, traditions, human inquiry, philosophy, assumptions, traditions, theoretical

1. Lesson 1
Advance Communication Theories and Models

2. Communication
is
central
to
human
life.
It
is
pervasive,
important
and
complex.

3. The Idea of Theory
Theories are used in every day living.
Theories are also the academic foundation of every
discipline or field.
Theories allow scholars and students to transform
information to knowledge.
Theories do not just help us grow knowledge, they
also help us communicate knowledge.

4. The Idea of Theory
Theories also provide a way to challenge existing
cultural life and to generate new ways of living.
What is theory?
It is any organized set of concepts, explanations and
principles of some aspect of human experience.

5. The Idea of Theory
All theories are abstractions.
Theories are also human constructions.
“The formation of theory is not just the discovery
of a hidden fact; the theory is a way of looking at
the facts, of organizing and representing them.”
— Abraham Kaplan

6. Dimensions of Theory
• Philosophical Assumptions
• Concepts
• Explanations
• Principles

7. Philosophical Assumptions
• The first step in understanding a theory
• 3 major types of philosophical assumptions:
epistemology, ontology and axiology

8. Philosophical Assumptions
• Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that studies knowledge, or
how people know what they claim to know.
• Most common questions of epistemological concern to
communication scholars are:
• To what extent can knowledge exist before experience?
• To what extent can knowledge be certain?
• By what process does knowledge arise?
• Is knowledge best conceived in parts or wholes?
• To what extent is knowledge explicit?

9. Philosophical Assumptions
• Ontology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the
nature of being.
• Ontology goes hand in hand with epistemology
because our ideas of of knowledge depend in large
part on our ideas about who is doing the knowing.
• In the social sciences, ontology deals largely with the
nature of human existence.
• In communication, ontology centers on the nature of
human social interaction

10. Philosophical Assumptions
• 4 Issues in Ontology
• To what extent do humans make real choices?
• Is human behavior best understood in terms of
states or traits?
• Is human experience primarily individual or social?
• To what extent is communication contextual?

11. Philosophical Assumptions
• Axiology is a branch of philosophy concerned with the
study of values.
• 3 axiological issues:
• Can theory be value free?
• To what extent does the process of inquiry itself
affect what is being seen?
• Should scholarship be designed to achieve change,
or is its function simply to generate knowledge?

12. Concepts
• Concepts — terms and definitions— tell us what the theorist is
looking at and what is considered important.
• concepts are determined through observation of many variables in
human interaction and classifies and labels them according to
perceived patterns.
• What functions as a set of conceptual terms for one theory may
not be applicable to another.
• Taxonomies are theories that stop at the conceptual level. Its goal
is to provide a list of categories for something without explaining
how they relate to one another.
• Best theories are those that can provide explanations and show
how concepts are connected.

13. Explanation
• a dimension of theory where the theorist identifies
regularities or patterns in the relationships among
variables.
• answers the question Why?
• identifies a logical force among variables that
connects them in some way.
• Common type of explanation: Causal and Practical

14. Explanation
• Causal explanation — events are connected as
causal relationships with one variable seen as an
outcome or result of the other
• Practical explanation — explains actions as goal
related, with the action designed to achieve a
future state.

15. Principles
• A principle is a guideline that enables you to interpret
an event, make judgments about what is happening,
and then decide how to act in the situation.
• 3 parts of principle:
• 1. identifies a situation or event
• 2. includes a set of norms or values
• 3. asserts a connection between a range of actions
and possible consequences

16. Traditions of Communication Theory
• The Rhetorical Tradition
• See communication as practical art.
• Communicators perceive problem or challenge that needs to be dealt with through
carefully design messages.
• Logical and emotional appeals are typically featured in rhetorical theories.
• This tradition sees the work of communicator as governed by art and method.
• It relies on a sense that words are powerful, that information is useful in making judgments
and that communication can be evaluated and improved.
• Often challenge those views suggesting that words are not action, that appearance is not
reality, that style is not substance and that opinion is not truth.

17. ○ The Semiotic Tradition
● This tradition focus on signs and symbols.
● Treats communication as a bridge between the private worlds of
individuals and in which signs elicit meanings that may or may
not be shared.
● It is especially suited to address the problems of gaps,
misunderstandings and subjective responses.
● Include terms such as sign, symbol, meaning, referent, code
and understanding.
● Semiotic theories often lie in opposition to theories suggesting
that words have correct meanings, that signs stand for objects, or
that language is neutral.

18. ○ The Phenomenological Tradition
● This tradition concentrates on personal experience, including how
individuals experience one another.
● Communication is seen as a sharing of personal experience through
dialogue.
● It responds to problems related to the erosion of strong
relationships.
● Include terms such as experience, self, dialogue, genuine,
supportiveness and openness.
● It resists discourses suggesting that communication is a mere skill,
that words and things are separate or that values are separate from
facts.

19. ○ The Cybernetic Tradition
● Communication in this tradition is viewed primary as information
processing and the problem it addresses have mostly to do with
noise, overload, and malfunction.
● Include terms such as senders and receivers, information,
feedback, redundancy and systems.
● This tradition seems most plausible when issues relate to the mind
and brain, rationality and complex systems arise.
● This tradition challenges arguments that make a distinction
between machines and humans or that posit linear cause-effect
relationships.

20. ○ The Socio-psychological Tradition
● This tradition concentrates primarily on those aspects of
communication that include expression, interaction and influence.
● Address problems in which outcomes need to be manipulated.
● The discourse of this tradition accents behavior, variables,
effects, personalities and traits, perception, cognition,
attitudes, and interaction.
● Oppose to the claims that people are rational, that individual know
what they think and that perception is a clear route to seeing what
is real.

21. ○ The Socio-cultural Tradition
● Social order as its centerpiece and sees communication as the
glue to society.
● The problems it addresses include conflict, alienation and
failure to coordinate.
● Features such as elements as society, structure, rituals,
rules and culture.
● Avoid arguments in favor of individual power and responsibility,
unitary self, or separation of human interaction from social
structure.

22. ○ The Critical Tradition
● This tradition see communication as a social arrangements of
power and oppression.
● Critical theories respond to the problem of ideology, power and
domination.
● Critical discourse includes such terms as ideology, dialectic,
oppression, consciousness raising, resistance, and
emancipation.
● Appeal in situation that include the self-perpetuation of power, the
values of freedom and equality and the importance of informed
discussion.

23. • 1. To explain the effects of mass communication.
• 2. To explain the uses to which people put mass
communication.
• 3. To explain learning from the mass media. How
do people learn from the mass media?
• 4. To explain the role of the mass media in shaping
people’s values and views.

24. Next Meeting Assignment
• Reading: Communication Theory as a Field
• Report of Group No. 1