INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION THEORY

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INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION THEORY
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DIFFERENT TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

• INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
• GROUP AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
• ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
• MASS COMMUNICATION
• CULTURAL CONTEXT

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SOME BASIC FEATURES OF THEORY (1)

• maps of reality
• can have several theories of some phenomenon
  they can each be useful (Ch.1 ex. theories of
  resonance AND of redemption)
• need to be tested and retested
• often/usually associated with particular
  authors/intellectuals/academics

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SOME BASIC FEATURES OF THEORY (2)

• can be both truth-seeking and strategic
• may be objective or interpretive
• typically answer the question why?
• research methods for testing theories tend to be
  quantitative, qualitative or both.

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OBJECTIVE THEORIES (1)

• scientific in the classic sense
• prefer quantitative methodologies
• truth is singular
• focus on cause and effect
• deterministic behavior seen as influenced by
  factors or forces beyond level of awareness

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OBJECTIVE THEORIES (2)

• search for universal laws / generalizability
• search for predictability and control
• methodologies designed to keep out values, to
  be value free

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INTERPRETIVE THEORIES (1)

• sometimes called rhetorical or humanist
• are concerned with meaning
• assume the impossibility of separating the knower
  from the known
• voluntaristic assume that behavior is often the
  product of conscious choice

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INTERPRETIVE THEORIES (2)

• see significant decisions as value-laden
• interest in emancipation
• comfortable with making sense of unique events
• tend to prefer qualitative methodologies
• provide guides for interpretation of
  communication behavior

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METHODOLOGIES

• Quantitative Methodologies
• Experiments
• Surveys
• Qualitative Methodologies
• Textual analysis
• Ethnography