Understanding Communication Theory

A Beginner's Guide

Stephen M. Croucher

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317751366
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Categoria: Kommunikationswissenschaften

This book offers students a comprehensive, theoretical, and practical guide to communication theory. Croucher defines the various perspectives on communication theory—the social scientific, interpretive, and critical approaches—and then takes on the theories themselves, with topics including interpersonal communication, organizational communication, intercultural communication, persuasion, critical and rhetorical theory and other key concepts. Each theory chapter includes a sample undergraduate-written paper that applies the described theory, along with edits and commentary by Croucher, giving students an insider's glimpse of the way communication theory can be written about and applied in the classroom and in real life. Featuring exercises, case studies and keywords that illustrate and fully explain the various communication theories, Understanding Communication Theory gives students all the tools they need to understand and apply prominent communication theories.

Part I Introduction and Approaches to Theory

1 Introduction to Communication Theory

DOI: 10.4324/9781315796710-1

Chapter Outline

• History of Communication
• What is Communication?
• Why Study Communication?
• The Communication Discipline
• The Structure of this Textbook

From the cave paintings of Tassili n'ajjer, Algeria to social media today, how we communicate has dramatically evolved over the past 130,000 plus years. What has remained constant is the ever-present role and importance of communication in our lives. In this book we will treat communication as an essential part of the human experience. In doing so, we will explore the various ways in which communication has been, and is, studied. It is impossible to examine all of the ways that communication is understood from a theoretical and/or practical way; however, this book attempts to explore some of these many ways.

History of Communication

In its earliest forms, communication has taken place since Homo sapiens have been on the Earth, in the form of unorganized, and/or organized signs. It was not until about 130,000 bce that humans began to develop cave paintings/drawings. The exact purpose of these paintings is not known; theories abound. Some theorists claim that some paintings were made to show other humans which animals and foods were safe and not safe to eat. It is believed that humans started to “speak” roughly 90,000 to 100,000 years ago (Corballis, 2002). It was not until 3,300 and 3,100 bce that writing was invented in Iraq and Egypt. Egypt was also the first place to have a courier service, which facilitated the delivery of messages (2,000 bce). A standard alphabet was soon established in 1,600 bce in Israel and Lebanon. After the development of an alphabet the first “postal system” was established in Ancient Persia (modern day Iran and Iraq) in 500 bce, which had a profound impact on the spread of communication across the Persian Empire.

While the Chinese invented paper in 200 bce, this knowledge was not used for mass communication (news, etc.) for many years to come. It was not until 131 bce that the first public notices were published in Rome, Acta Diurna or “Daily Acts.” The Acta (in 59 ce) were initially just for government affairs and legal issues, but then became more public and open, though often censored. The Acta were published on stone slabs. The next major step in printing for the masses was by the Chinese in the sixth century ce, when the Chinese invented printing with blocks. The first known printed book was the Diamond Sutra in 686. This technology slowly spread to Europe. In fact, for the next 800 years handwritten books, or manuscripts, were the norm throughout the world. In fact, the word manuscript comes from the Latin term “libri manu scripti,” which means, “book written by hand.” Most of the manuscripts were of a religious nature and few people could read the manuscripts, as most people were not literate. However, in the thirteenth century non-religious (secular) books were produced for the first time as a result of the development of universities. These texts (communication) brought increased knowledge and education to the masses. As the demand for religious and secular manuscripts increased, one printer invented a way to speed up the printing process: Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg's press was invented in 1450, and it revolutionized the printing world. With this press, manuscripts (now books) could be mass-produced at a cheaper price for the masses. Shortly after Gutenberg's press the first newspapers appeared in Belgium, France, and Germany (in the 1600s). In 1702 the first daily newspaper began, London's Daily Courant. In 1833, the New York Sun began printing the first mass-circulated penny press newspaper.

In 1837 the first telegraph message was sent. This was a breakthrough in communication, as the message was sent over a wire, and not through print. Then in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call; how we were communicating was growing at a rapid rate. Soon film was developed (1884), motion pictures made their debut (1894), and the first radio message was sent (1895). In the twentieth century, broadcast media has dramatically evolved into more advanced formats: cassette tapes to CDs, VHS to DVD, network TV to cable to digital television, etc. An additional way in which our communication has developed is through the Internet. The first email message was sent in 1971. Today it would be very difficult to imagine a world of communication without email. In 1992 the first text message was sent; imagine life without texting, particularly since more than 8,000,000,000,000 texts were sent in the United States in 2011. In 2014 communication is ever connected with the Internet. Americans spend on average 40 minutes a day on Facebook communicating with others in some way (Constine, 2014), and we send on average 500 million tweets a day (internetlivestats, 2014).

What Do You Think 1.1

Thinking back to the development of communication, how do you think communication would be different today without the Internet?

What is Communication?

Clearly, communication in one form or another has been all around us for thousands of years. But, what is communication? There is not one definition of communication that researchers and practitioners all agree on as the definition. Littlejohn (1999) said, “communication is difficult to define. The word is abstract and, like most terms, possesses numerous meanings” (p. 6). To better define communication see Figure 1.1, which offers some various definitions of communication.

Each of these definitions—and there are many more out there—offer differing views of “communication,” with some sharing and some overlapping elements. A few of the definitions take a very broad or a very narrow approach to communication, which is not suitable for this textbook. For example, Hoben's (1954) definition of communication only considers the verbal exchange of thoughts and/or ideas. As you will find in the following chapters, communication involves much more than verbal messages. Barnlund's (1964) definition of communication is that communication is the reduction of uncertainty. Once again, you will find in the following chapters that yes, communication does do this, but also much more. Similarly, Ruesch's (1957) definition, focusing on linking discontinuous parts of the world, is just one of the many things that communication can do. The American College Dictionary (1964) offered more of a description of means of mass communication, which is discussed more in Chapter 10. Miller's (1966) assertion that communication has a conscious intent is something we will talk more about in a moment. However, for now know that intent to communicate has been a key issue of debate for communication researchers. Weaver's (1949) definition, unlike the others just discussed, is a bit too broad. Following this approach, if I think I want some coffee and someone else is in the room with me and I get up to get coffee, I could possibly have communicated to them my intent to get coffee without ever speaking or gesturing toward coffee. My thoughts about coffee and moving could communicate my desires. Most researchers today do not follow this approach to defining communication. Most researchers would follow a combination of Andersen, Berelson and Steiner, and Croucher and Cronn-Mills. There are various elements of each of these definitions that we will discuss to understand the similarities and differences in how we conceptualize communication.

Figure 1.1 Definitions of Communication

Similarities in Communication Definitions

The first area of similarity for many researchers and across many definitions of communication is that communication is symbolic. Communication comprises sharing symbols via signs. A sign is essentially an object (e.g., word, letter, phrase, action, event, etc.) that represents something else. To understand the word sign it is essential to define two linked terms: signifier and signified using the example of a mobile phone. The signifier is the word “mobile phone.” The signified is the physical object that is the “mobile phone,” the metal and electronic parts that physically make up the “mobile phone.” The relationship between the signifier and the signified is the sign. This relationship is often clearly understood, but not always. In most cases people have their own mental concepts of what an object is, this is called the referent. Ogden and Richards (1927) took this one step further and explained how we associate meanings from symbols with the semantic triangle. When we see a symbol (“dog”) we associate it with a referent (a four-legged creature with a tail … I imagine my miniature dachshund), and at the other point of the triangle we have thoughts to describe the symbol, such as barking. Thus, the process of communication for Ogden and Richards was a process of meaning generation and understanding of symbols. Different theories throughout this book, such as those in Chapter 11 and 12, will delve deeper into the significance of meaning building in communication.

Key Terms 1.1 and 1.2

Sign – an object (e.g., word, letter, phrase, action, event, etc.) that represents something else.

Referent – a mental concept of what a sign is.

For example, let's think more about the word “dog,” the word is the signifier. A dog is typically a four-legged animal with hair and a tail, which comes in many varieties and sizes—the signified. However, the mental concept (referent) we all have for “dog” differs. Many of us consider a dog to be man's best friend, or a nice pet to have. Others consider a dog to be food. I knew a person who was attacked by a dog when they were young, so “dog” to them meant a scary creature who attacks. The mental concept we have in our minds to explain the signified (the physical object of the four-legged creature with fur and a tail) is the referent. A key to communication is that when we communicate signs to others we hope the other individual(s) shares the same meanings as we do. While some degree of shared similarity exists in the same language families, for most signs expressed through verbal language, misunderstandings over meaning may still occur. In this text we talk about ways in which to reduce uncertainties in communication and promote shared meanings in communication.

The second area of similarity is that communication is viewed as a process. Essentially, communication is ongoing, ever-changing, and all of the components are connected to one another. Consider the following example. A married couple is having an argument over household chores. If communication is viewed as a process, we realize this interaction is rather complex. The interaction is affected by past interactions and behaviors of the individuals (e.g., Does one partner habitually not do one chore? Does one partner “nag” the other? Does o...