SUMMARY: ICS 1
TOPIC
THEORY
Explanation theory
Concept/term
INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS COMM. SCIENCE AND HOW IS IT STUDIED?
Theory = A set of systematic informed hunches about the way things work
Three features of theories
- A set of hunches: This is an construction of the theory (ideas = hunches)
- Informed hunches:Hunches need to be informed. Theorists need to be aware of alternative
explanations or interpretations of the types of phenomenons they are studying.
- Hunches that are systematic: “An integrated system”. A theory consists of layered multiple
ideas and specifications about the relationships among these ideas. So, that a clearly drawn
pattern emerges.
Metaphors of theories:
- Theories as nets: To grasp and predict and to understand the world better with theories and
ideas
- Theories as lenses: The way we perceive and see the world. Theories can be looked at and
interpreted in different ways.
- Theories as maps: As a guidance and to understand unfamiliar aspects
Communication = A relational process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a response
-> Five features of communication
- Messages: “Communication as crossroads disciplines”. (A text = a record of a message that
can be analyzed by others. e.g. book/film/photograph etc.)
- Creation of messages: The content and form of a text is usually constructed, invented, planned,
crafted, constituted, selected or adopted by the sender. Only when we become mindful of the
nature and impact of our messages we have the ability to alter them
- Interpretation of the messages: “Words don’t mean things, people mean things”. Words are
open to multiple interpretations (= polysemic). Based on experiences and meanings given to
those people involved, words get meanings.
- A relational process: “One cannot step into the same river twice”. So, the flow of
communication is a process, referred to what went before and what’s yet to come. Also, there
becomes a relationship between those involving the messages.
- Messages that elicit a response: The effect of the message on the receivers. Messages try to
elicit a response, if a message fails to stimulate any cognitive, emotional, or behavioral reaction
it is pointless and not seen as real communication. However, the receiver could also “turn a
blind eye” to the message. This doesn’t mean that there is no communication when someone
doesn’t respond, because the receiver could still be affected by the message which is enough
to be seen as communication.
,SUMMARY: ICS 2
MAPPING THE THEORY
Different perspectives/approaches on theories:
- Objective approach
> The assumption that truth is singular and is accessible through unbiased sensory
observation; committed to uncovering cause-and-effect relationships
> Explain and predict relationships
> Behavioral scientist = A scholar who applies the scientific method to describe to
describe, predict, and explain recurring forms of human behavior.
> Scientific method = A method research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are
gathered, a hypothesis is formulated and the hypothesis is empirically tested.
> Resonance is created between message content and a person’s thoughts/feelings
(principle of communication)
> Not the argument persuades but the memories
> Element in commercial —> positive attitude —> increase likelihood to buying product
> “Good theories are considered to be representatives of the world” - scientists
> Effectiveness = Successfully communicating information, ideas, and meaning to others,
also persuasion
> Four additional criteria (when needed to be objective and scientific):
- Relative simplicity
- Testability
- Practical utility
- Quantifiable research
—> What makes an objective theory good?
1. Prediction of future events
- Possible when you can repeatedly see/hear/smell/taste the same things, which
is an invariable pattern or universal law
- Theory should speak about groups of people, not individuals
- Forecast of mutual self-disclosure (= prediction that triggers a particular
response) and other theories predict that different types of communication will be
used upon a pre-existing factor
- Social Learning Theory - Albert Bandura —> Bobo-doll experience
- There is a claim/hypothesis
2. Explanation of the data
- Draws order out of chaos —>clarifies
- Describing the process
- Focusing on what’s crucial
- Containing explanatory power
- Theory provides us with informed hunches
- test this by gathering data for all the people in our study, by being as precise as
possible
- Goal is to see patterns or relations that fit with our hunches
3. Relative simplicity
- As simple as possible
- Rule of parsimony = Given two explanations of an event, we should accept the
simpelst version, however simple doesn’t mean easy to understand
4. Hypotheses that can be tested
- The hypotheses can be tested and falsified
- Being as precise as possible while being parsimonious while formulating
hypotheses
5. Practical utility
- A good objective theory is useful/able to put into practice
6. Quantitive research
- Use numbers and measurements
- Most objective research depends on a comparison of two groups by conducting
an experiment or survey
, SUMMARY: ICS 3
- Interpretive approach
> The linguistic work of assigning meaning or value to communicative texts, assumes that
multiple meanings or truths are possible
~ Symbolic truth —> like an archetypal mythic pattern of “birth-death-rebirth”
~ Collective unconscious —> (un)consciously being drawn and influenced by the
story
> Critically interpreting what we see in the “text”
> Rhetorican = A scholar who studies the ways in which symbolic forms can be used to
identify with people, or to persuade them toward a certain point of view
> Rhetorical critics can do interpretive analyses, BUT interpretive analyses are never
rhetorical
> Humanistic scholarship = Study of what it’s like to be another person in a different time
and place while assuming there are a few panhuman (affecting the whole humanity)
similarities
> Epistemology, the theory of knowledge and discovering the truth
> “Language creates social realities that can have different meanings” = interpretive
scholars
> Participation = Increasing te possibility that all points of view will affect collective
decisions and individuals being open to new ideas, also encourages difference,
opposition, and independence
—> What makes an interpretive theory good?
1. Clarification of values
- Brings people’s values into the open
- Theorist actively seeks to unmask, identify, and aknowledge why the message is
made or build in such a way
- Ethical imperative = Grant others that occur in your construction the dame
autonomy you practice constructing them
2. New understanding of people
- Fresh insights into human conditions
- Trying to understand subgroups/individuals/unique people and their behaviors
- Explain peoples behaviors which is different from scientists, because of a desire
of subjective understanding and the theorists are both the cause and consequence
of what we observe
- Self-referential imperative = Include yourself as a constituent of your own
construction
3. Aesthetic appeal
- Trigger the imagination of the reader; both content and style matter
- Aesthetic requirement is to be clear and artistry
- So, they are more in the form of books and less the same as other texts for
example; it’s more as a story that takes you into their narrative whereas the
objective ones are more “boring” like an instruction
4. Community of agreement
- To be reasonable and reliable there must be others in the field that either verify or
reject the idea
- Yet, rhetorical validity is established only when it also trigger debates otherwise it
loses it values
5. Reform society
- The idea should learn us something and be a clarification o a certain domain/
group
- Has an impact on society
- Generates change
- Exposes/resists ideologies and try to raise questions regarding contemporary
social life
- Critical theorists = Scholars who use theory to reveal unjust communication
practices that create or perpetuate an imbalance of power
- Stimulates to rethink, respond, and react to the free-market process
TOPIC
THEORY
Explanation theory
Concept/term
INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS COMM. SCIENCE AND HOW IS IT STUDIED?
Theory = A set of systematic informed hunches about the way things work
Three features of theories
- A set of hunches: This is an construction of the theory (ideas = hunches)
- Informed hunches:Hunches need to be informed. Theorists need to be aware of alternative
explanations or interpretations of the types of phenomenons they are studying.
- Hunches that are systematic: “An integrated system”. A theory consists of layered multiple
ideas and specifications about the relationships among these ideas. So, that a clearly drawn
pattern emerges.
Metaphors of theories:
- Theories as nets: To grasp and predict and to understand the world better with theories and
ideas
- Theories as lenses: The way we perceive and see the world. Theories can be looked at and
interpreted in different ways.
- Theories as maps: As a guidance and to understand unfamiliar aspects
Communication = A relational process of creating and interpreting messages that elicit a response
-> Five features of communication
- Messages: “Communication as crossroads disciplines”. (A text = a record of a message that
can be analyzed by others. e.g. book/film/photograph etc.)
- Creation of messages: The content and form of a text is usually constructed, invented, planned,
crafted, constituted, selected or adopted by the sender. Only when we become mindful of the
nature and impact of our messages we have the ability to alter them
- Interpretation of the messages: “Words don’t mean things, people mean things”. Words are
open to multiple interpretations (= polysemic). Based on experiences and meanings given to
those people involved, words get meanings.
- A relational process: “One cannot step into the same river twice”. So, the flow of
communication is a process, referred to what went before and what’s yet to come. Also, there
becomes a relationship between those involving the messages.
- Messages that elicit a response: The effect of the message on the receivers. Messages try to
elicit a response, if a message fails to stimulate any cognitive, emotional, or behavioral reaction
it is pointless and not seen as real communication. However, the receiver could also “turn a
blind eye” to the message. This doesn’t mean that there is no communication when someone
doesn’t respond, because the receiver could still be affected by the message which is enough
to be seen as communication.
,SUMMARY: ICS 2
MAPPING THE THEORY
Different perspectives/approaches on theories:
- Objective approach
> The assumption that truth is singular and is accessible through unbiased sensory
observation; committed to uncovering cause-and-effect relationships
> Explain and predict relationships
> Behavioral scientist = A scholar who applies the scientific method to describe to
describe, predict, and explain recurring forms of human behavior.
> Scientific method = A method research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are
gathered, a hypothesis is formulated and the hypothesis is empirically tested.
> Resonance is created between message content and a person’s thoughts/feelings
(principle of communication)
> Not the argument persuades but the memories
> Element in commercial —> positive attitude —> increase likelihood to buying product
> “Good theories are considered to be representatives of the world” - scientists
> Effectiveness = Successfully communicating information, ideas, and meaning to others,
also persuasion
> Four additional criteria (when needed to be objective and scientific):
- Relative simplicity
- Testability
- Practical utility
- Quantifiable research
—> What makes an objective theory good?
1. Prediction of future events
- Possible when you can repeatedly see/hear/smell/taste the same things, which
is an invariable pattern or universal law
- Theory should speak about groups of people, not individuals
- Forecast of mutual self-disclosure (= prediction that triggers a particular
response) and other theories predict that different types of communication will be
used upon a pre-existing factor
- Social Learning Theory - Albert Bandura —> Bobo-doll experience
- There is a claim/hypothesis
2. Explanation of the data
- Draws order out of chaos —>clarifies
- Describing the process
- Focusing on what’s crucial
- Containing explanatory power
- Theory provides us with informed hunches
- test this by gathering data for all the people in our study, by being as precise as
possible
- Goal is to see patterns or relations that fit with our hunches
3. Relative simplicity
- As simple as possible
- Rule of parsimony = Given two explanations of an event, we should accept the
simpelst version, however simple doesn’t mean easy to understand
4. Hypotheses that can be tested
- The hypotheses can be tested and falsified
- Being as precise as possible while being parsimonious while formulating
hypotheses
5. Practical utility
- A good objective theory is useful/able to put into practice
6. Quantitive research
- Use numbers and measurements
- Most objective research depends on a comparison of two groups by conducting
an experiment or survey
, SUMMARY: ICS 3
- Interpretive approach
> The linguistic work of assigning meaning or value to communicative texts, assumes that
multiple meanings or truths are possible
~ Symbolic truth —> like an archetypal mythic pattern of “birth-death-rebirth”
~ Collective unconscious —> (un)consciously being drawn and influenced by the
story
> Critically interpreting what we see in the “text”
> Rhetorican = A scholar who studies the ways in which symbolic forms can be used to
identify with people, or to persuade them toward a certain point of view
> Rhetorical critics can do interpretive analyses, BUT interpretive analyses are never
rhetorical
> Humanistic scholarship = Study of what it’s like to be another person in a different time
and place while assuming there are a few panhuman (affecting the whole humanity)
similarities
> Epistemology, the theory of knowledge and discovering the truth
> “Language creates social realities that can have different meanings” = interpretive
scholars
> Participation = Increasing te possibility that all points of view will affect collective
decisions and individuals being open to new ideas, also encourages difference,
opposition, and independence
—> What makes an interpretive theory good?
1. Clarification of values
- Brings people’s values into the open
- Theorist actively seeks to unmask, identify, and aknowledge why the message is
made or build in such a way
- Ethical imperative = Grant others that occur in your construction the dame
autonomy you practice constructing them
2. New understanding of people
- Fresh insights into human conditions
- Trying to understand subgroups/individuals/unique people and their behaviors
- Explain peoples behaviors which is different from scientists, because of a desire
of subjective understanding and the theorists are both the cause and consequence
of what we observe
- Self-referential imperative = Include yourself as a constituent of your own
construction
3. Aesthetic appeal
- Trigger the imagination of the reader; both content and style matter
- Aesthetic requirement is to be clear and artistry
- So, they are more in the form of books and less the same as other texts for
example; it’s more as a story that takes you into their narrative whereas the
objective ones are more “boring” like an instruction
4. Community of agreement
- To be reasonable and reliable there must be others in the field that either verify or
reject the idea
- Yet, rhetorical validity is established only when it also trigger debates otherwise it
loses it values
5. Reform society
- The idea should learn us something and be a clarification o a certain domain/
group
- Has an impact on society
- Generates change
- Exposes/resists ideologies and try to raise questions regarding contemporary
social life
- Critical theorists = Scholars who use theory to reveal unjust communication
practices that create or perpetuate an imbalance of power
- Stimulates to rethink, respond, and react to the free-market process
