Communication Theories Presentation1-1

Communication Theories
Ambo University
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Department of Journalism and Communication
Communication Theories English 2nd year
By: Bedada Yadeta
May , 2022
Ambo, Ethiopia
Introduction
The Nature and Definition of Communication

• The word communication originates from the
word "communis”, which means common.
• Communication, therefore, is an act by which a
person shares knowledge, feelings, ideas and
information, in ways such that each gains a
common understanding of the meaning, intent
and use of the message.
Contd…
 Sociologists, educationists and psychologists
have defined communication according to the
disciplines to which they belong.
• “It is a process by which two or more people
exchange ideas, facts, feelings or impressions in
ways that each gains a common understanding of
the message. In essence, it is the act of getting a
sender and a receiver tuned together for a
particular message or series of message”
(Leagans)
Contd…
• “Communication is the force by which an
individual communicator transmits stimuli to
modify the behaviour of other individuals”.
(Howland)
• “It is a process by which information, decisions
and directions pass through a social system, and
the ways in which knowledge, opinions and
attitudes are formed or modified” (Loomis and
Beegle).
Definition
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
o So far we have seen how we use communication. Now let’s
try and define communication. But defining communication
is not very easy.
o It means many things to many people. Unlike definitions of a
theory or some scientific term ‘communication’ has no
definition accepted by all experts.
o We know that when we convey something by words, we may
call it a message.
o If you are used to a mobile phone you would know the term
‘SMS’. This SMS is the short form for ‘Short Message Service’.
Here the messages are short sentences or just a word or a
phrase or a sentence like “I am in a meeting’’.
Contd…
“Please call me at 4:00 P.M” or “congratulations” or
“see you at home”.
• These are all messages. They are short and when
someone receives them they ‘understand’ it.
 Communication can be defined in many ways. In
simple terms communication is:
• Information transmitted
• A verbal or nonverbal message
• A process by which information is exchanged
between individuals through a common system of
symbols, signs, or behavior
Contd…
 Communication is the process of exchanging
information.
 Information is conveyed as words, tone of voice, and
body language. Studies have shown that words
account for 75 percent of the information
communicated.
 Vocal tone accounts for 55 percent and body
language accounts for 38 percent.
 To be effective communicators, team members must
be aware of these forms, how to use them effectively,
and barriers to the communications process.
Contd…
Communication is a slippery concept, and
while we may casually use the word with some
frequency, it is difficult to arrive at a precise
definition that is agreeable to most of those
who consider themselves communication
scholars.
 Communication is so deeply rooted in human
behaviors and the structures of society that it is
difficult to think of social or behavioral events
that are absent communication.
The Need for Effective Communication
o The following actions have been observed in
teams with effective communications skills.
• Acknowledge (“Roger”) communications.
• Provide information in accordance.
• Provide information when asked.
• Repeat, as necessary, to ensure communication
is accurately received.
• Use standard terminology when communicating
information.
• Request and provide clarification when needed.
The Need…
• Ensure statements are direct and unambiguous.
• Inform the appropriate individuals when the
mission or plans change.
• Communicate all information needed by those
individuals or teams external to the team.
• Use nonverbal communication appropriately.
• Use proper order when communicating
information.
The Importance of Effective Communication
• People in organizations typically spend over
75% of their time in an interpersonal situation;
thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a
large number of organizational problems is
poor communications.
• Effective communication is an essential
component of organizational success whether it
is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intragroup,
organizational, or external levels.
Barriers to Effective Communication
Language
The choice of words or language in which a sender
encodes a message will influence the quality of
communication.
 Because language is a symbolic representation of a
phenomenon, room for interpretation and distortion of
the meaning exists.
 Note that the same words will be interpreted differently
by each different person. Meaning has to be given to
words and many factors affect how an individual will
attribute meaning to particular words. It is important to
note that no two people will attribute the exact same
meaning to the same words.
Barriers…
 misreading of body language, tone and other non-

verbal forms of communication
 noisy transmission (unreliable messages,
inconsistency)
 receiver distortion: selective hearing, ignoring non-
verbal cues
 assumptions–e.g., assuming others see situation
same as you, has same feelings as you
 distrusted source, erroneous (not correct) translation,
value judgment, state of mind of two people
Barriers…
Perceptual Biases
 People attend to stimuli in the environment in
very different ways. Stereotyping is one of the
most common. This is when we assume that
the other person has certain characteristics
based on the group to which they belong
without validating that they in fact have these
characteristics.
Barriers…
Interpersonal Relationships
 How we perceive communication is affected
by the past experience with the individual.
 Perception is also affected by the
organizational relationship two people have.
For example, communication from a superior
may be perceived differently than that from a
subordinate or peer
Barriers…
Cultural Differences
 Effective communication requires deciphering
the basic values, motives, aspirations, and
assumptions that operate across geographical
lines. Given some dramatic differences across
cultures in approaches to such areas as time,
space, and privacy, the opportunities for
miscommunication while we are in cross
cultural situations are plentiful.
Seven Steps to Effective Messages
 Know your target audience – who are they, what
do they need, how can you reach them?
 Set clear objectives – what do you expect from the
message, how will you measure it, when will it
happen?
 Work for approval – your audience should chose
your message over the others that are also coming
its way
 Be strategic – use words, images and sounds that
are acceptable to your audience because your main
purpose is to make them listen.
Seven Steps…
 Work for acceptance – is your message credible,
do people believe your message and the
communicator, who and what will people believe?
 Work for recall – the message should remain with
the audience, make it catchy, make it funny,
repeat if necessary, use different types of media
 Review and re-plan – are you reaching the
intended audience, are you achieving the
objectives, do you need to change, do you need a
new message?
Historical Development of Communication
• Denis McQuail (“Towards a Sociology of Mass

Communication, 1975) sees ‘human communication’ as
the sending of meaningful messages from one person to
another.
• These messages could be oral or written, visual of
olfactory. He also includes laws, practices, customs, and
ways of dressing, gestures, military parades and flags as
methods of communication.
• Human communication went through different stages of
development that include the age of signs and signals,
the age of speech and language, the age of writing, the
age of printing, the mass communication age, and the
age of information revolution.
Historical Development…
The age of signs and signals
 Prehistoric humans were physically unable to talk.
Communication was limited and determined by
instincts. It was the age o signs and signals- drum
messages, smoke signals, music, dance, etc.
The age of speech and language
 Man’s first achievement was speech and language.
It gave him an eminent position over others.
Growth of different languages gave birth to
different expressions that denoted distinctions
within communities.
The age of writing
 About 5000 years ago, hieroglyphic writing was
developed by the Mayans and the Chinese.
 They used pictures with a standardized meaning.
The Sumerians developed a different form of writing
that represented sounds by symbols.
 This allowed information to be stored and for
traditions to be passed on in writing. Clay, stone and
later papyrus was developed and used as portable
media.
 Writing gave permanence to the spoken language.
The age of print
 In the 1st century, AD, China invented paper.
 In the 8 century the Arab world began to manufacture
paper.
 In the 15th century, the Gutenberg press was invented and
printing began in Europe.
 As a consequence, information could be copied much faster
and with far fewer mistakes than before. Availability of
information was no longer restricted to the Roman church
and to nobility, but open to a wider section of European
societies.
 Books were followed by the development of pamphlets and
the newspapers in the 17th century.
The mass communication age
 In the 19th century, communication was
determined by several media forms.
 Print media, especially newspapers, were
supplemented by telegraph and telephone.
 The introduction of radio, film and television in
the 20th century saw the emergence of the mass
communication era.
The age of information revolution
 At present, we are living amidst an information
revolution.
 Integrated multimedia applications are now
possible due to networks established from the
development of digital communication
technology.
 Hypertext structures form the basis for
communication and navigation within the
system.
Purposes of Communication
• Most of us are surrounded by others, trying to
understand them and hopping that they understand
us: family, friends, coworkers, teachers, and
strangers.
• There’s a good reason why we speak, listen, read,
and write so much. Communication satisfies most of
our needs.
 Physical Needs
Communication is so important that it is necessary for
physical health. In fact, evidence suggests that an
absence of satisfying communication can even
jeopardize life itself.
Purposes…
Medical researchers have identified a wide range
of hazards that result from a lack of close
relationships. For instance:
 People who lack strong relationships have two to
three times that risk of early death, regardless of
whether they smoke, drink alcoholic beverages,
or exercise regularly.
 Divorced, separated, and widowed people are
five to ten times more likely to need
hospitalization for mental problems than their
married counterparts etc.
Purposes…
• Studies indicate that social isolation is a major risk factor
contributing to coronary disease, comparable to
physiological factors such as diet, cigarette smoking, obesity,
and lack of physical activity.
Identity Needs
 Communication does more than enable us to survive.
 It is the way-indeed, the only way- we learn who we are.
Our sense of identity comes from the way we interact with
other people.
 Are we smart or stupid, attractive or ugly, skillful or inept?
The answers to these questions do not come from looking in
the mirror. We decide who we are based on how others
react to us.
Purposes…
 We gain an idea of who we are from the ways
others defines us. The messages we receive in
early childhood are the strongest, but the
influence of others continues throughout life.
 Some scholars have argued that we are most
attached to people who confirm our identity. This
confirmation can come in different forms,
depending on the self-image of the
communicator.
Purposes…
• People with relatively high self-esteem seek out
others who confirm their value and, as much as
possible, avoid those who treat them poorly.
• Conversely, people who regard themselves as
unworthy may look for relationships in which
others treat them badly. This principle offers one
explanation for why some people maintain
damaging or unsuccessful relationships.
Purposes…
• If you review yourself as a loser, you may
associate with others who will confirm that self-
perception. Of course, relationships can change
a communicator’s identity as well as confirm it.
• The role communication in shaping identity
works in a second way. Besides other’s messages
shaping who we think we are, the messages we
create often are attempts to get others to view
us the way we want to be seen. For example, the
choices we make about how to dress and
otherwise shape our appearance are always
attempts to manage our identity.
Purposes…
Social Needs
 Besides helping to define who we are, communication
provides a vital link with others.
 Researchers and theorists have identified a range of social
needs we satisfy by communicating: pleasure (e.g.
“because it is fun” to have a good time); affection (e.g. to
help others, to let others know I care); inclusion (e.g.
because I need someone to talk to or be with, because it
makes me less lonely) etc.
 As you look at this list of social needs for communicating,
imagine how empty your life would be if these needs
weren’t satisfied. Then, notice that if would be impossible
to fulfill them without communicating with others.
Purposes…
Practical Needs
 We should not overlook the everyday,
important functions that communication serves.
 Communication is the tool that lets us tell the
hair stylist to take just a little off the sides, direct
the doctor to where it hurts.
 Beyond these obvious needs, a wealth of
research demonstrates that communication is
an important key to effectiveness in a variety of
everyday settings.
Purposes…
 For example, a survey of over four hundred
employers identified “communication skills” as
the top characteristic that employers seek in job
candidates. It was rated as more important than
technical competence, work experience, or
academic background.
 In another survey, over 90 percent of the
personnel officials at five hundred US businesses
stated that increased communication skills are
needed for success in the twenty first century.
Purposes…
 Communication is just as important outside of
work. College roommates who are both willing
and able to communicate effectively report higher
satisfaction with one another than do those who
lack these characteristics.
 Married couples who were identified as effective
communicators reported happier relationships
than did less skillful husbands and wives. In
school, the grades point averages of college
students were related positively to their
communication competence.
Levels of Communication
Scholars categorize different levels and types of
communication; it is helpful to consider various factors. The
distinguishing characteristics include the following:
o Number of communicators
o Physical proximity of the communication in relation to each
other(close or distant),
o Immediacy of the exchange, whether it is taking place
either(1) live or in apparently real time or
(2) on a delayed basis
o Number of sensory channels (including visual, auditory,
tactile and so on)
o The context of the communication( whether face to face or
mediate)
Levels…
Intrapersonal Communication
 Intrapersonal communication means communicating
with oneself. You can tune in to one way that each of
us communicates internally by listening to the little
voice that lives in your mind.
 Intrapersonal communication takes place within a
single person, often for the purpose of clarifying ideas
or analyzing a situation.
 Other times, intrapersonal communication is
undertaken in order to reflect upon or appreciate
something. Three aspects of intrapersonal
communication are self concept, perception and
expectation.
Levels…
 Self-concept is the basis for intrapersonal communication,

because it determines how a person sees him/herself and is
oriented toward others.
• Self-concept (also called self-awareness) involves three
factors: beliefs, values and attitudes.
 Beliefs are basic personal orientation toward what is true or
false, good or bad; beliefs can be descriptive or prescriptive.
 Values are deep-seated orientations and ideals, generally
based on and consistent with beliefs, about right and wrong
ideas and actions.
 Attitudes are learned predisposition toward or against a
topic, ideals that stem from and generally are consistent
with values. Attitudes often are global, typically emotional.
Levels…
Beliefs, values and attitudes all influence

behavior, which can be either spoken opinion or
physical action.
• Some psychologists include body image as an
aspect of intrapersonal communication, in that
body image is a way of perceiving ourselves,
positively or negatively, according to the social
standards of our culture.
• Other things that can affect self-concept are
personal attributes, talents, social role, even birth
order.
Levels…
• Whereas self-concept focuses internally,

perception looks outward. Perception of the
outside world also is rooted in beliefs, values and
attitudes. It is so closely intertwined with self-
concept that one feeds off the other, creating a
harmonious understanding of both oneself and
one’s world.
• Meanwhile, expectations are future-oriented
messages dealing with long-term roles,
sometimes called life scripts. These sometimes
are projections of learned relationships within
the family or society.
Levels…
Intrapersonal communication may involve different levels

of communication activity: internal discourse, solo vocal
communication, and solo written communication.
• internal discourse involves thinking, concentration and
analysis. Psychologists include both daydreaming and
nocturnal dreaming in this category.
• Prayer, contemplation and meditation also are part of this
category, though from a theological point of view the
argument may be made that this is not solely internal to
one person.
• In Sufi tradition, this is similar to the concept of nafs,
negotiating with the inner self. Example: Consciously
appreciating the beauty of a sunset.
Levels…
 Solo vocal communication includes speaking

aloud to oneself. This may be done to clarify
thinking, to rehearse a message intended for
others, or simply to let off steam. Example: Talking
to yourself as you complain about your boss.
 Solo written communication deals with writing
not intended for others. Example: An entry in a
diary or personal journal.
Levels…
Interpersonal Communication
 Interpersonal communication is the process that
we use to communicate our ideas, thoughts, and
feelings to another person. Our interpersonal
communication skills are learned behaviors that
can be improved through knowledge, practice,
feedback, and reflection.
 When you come face to face with someone and
communicate with that person it is called
interpersonal communication. This happens in
our daily life.
Levels…
• Interpersonal communication is communication

between persons or one to one communication.
Most of us indulge in interpersonal
communication every day.
• Interpersonal communication being face to face
generally takes place in an informal, friendly
atmosphere. However, there are occasions when
it is formal.
For example, a police officer questioning a suspect
or a lawyer examining a witness in a court.
Levels…
 Let us list some formal and informal situations in which
interpersonal communication takes place.
FORMAL
• Taking part in meetings or conferences
• Sales counters
• Job interviews
INFORMAL
• Private discussions with friends or family members
• Corridor discussions
• Conversation in canteens or restaurants
Face to face communication would also mean a lot of nonverbal
communication and immediate reply to questions. Interpersonal
communication is essential in business, organizations and
services.
Levels…
The Dynamics of Interpersonal Behavior
Interpersonal behavior is influenced by several
cultural factors. Although each individual has his or
her own style of interacting with others, social
conventions as well as traditions and values in a
given group or community play an important role
in how behavior and communication take place
and are interpreted and perceived.
All interactions comprise both verbal and
nonverbal signs and symbols that contribute to the
meanings of behavior and communication actions.
Levels…
• Social psychologists tend to consider signs to
be involuntary behaviors, such as blushing in
response to feelings of embarrassment.
Symbols are defined as voluntary acts, such as
using verbal expressions to describe one’s
feelings.
• According to these definitions, saying “I am
embarrassed” is a symbol, while blushing is a
sign.
Levels…
• Symbols are the result of social conventions
and agreement.
• Posture, social cues, and facial and idiomatic
expressions all influence interpersonal
relationships. In interpreting people’s behavior,
it is important to be aware of cultural
differences that may have a powerful effect on
the dynamics of interpersonal behavior. Lack of
understanding of these differences often
undermines the impact of well-meant
communication efforts.
Levels…
• Age and gender also influence motives for interpersonal
communications.
For example, young people between eighteen and twenty-five
years old often use communication as a means for having fun,
relaxing, feeling part of a social group, or escaping from
routine activities.
Alternatively, middle-aged or older adults tend to
communicate more to express appreciation or feel
appreciated .
There are gender differences in interpersonal
communications as well: women seem to communicate more
“to express emotions” or appreciation, while men’s
motivation is primarily control.
Levels…
o Direct interpersonal communication involves a direct
face-to-face relationship between the sender and receiver
of a message, who are in an interdependent relationship.
Because of interpersonal communication’s immediacy (it
is taking place now) and primacy (it is taking place here),
it is characterized by a strong feedback component.
• Communication is enhanced when the relationship exists
over a long period of time. Interpersonal communication
involves not only the words used but also the various
elements of nonverbal communication.
• The purposes of interpersonal communication are to
influence, help and discover, as well as to share and play
together.
Levels…
Interpersonal communication can be categorized by the
number of participants.
• Dyadic communication involves two people. Example:
Two friends talking.
• Group communication involves three or more
persons, though communication scholars are
inconsistent as to the top end of the number scale.
The smaller the number in the group, the more closely
this mode resembles interpersonal communication.
Often group communication is done for the purpose of
problem solving or decision making. Example: University
study group.
Levels…
• Public communication involves a large group
with a primarily one-way monologue style
generating only minimal feedback. Information
sharing, entertainment and persuasion are
common purposes of public communication.
Example: Lecture in university class.
o Another way of categorizing interpersonal
communication is on the function or setting of
the communication.
Levels…
• It occurs when a group becomes too large for all
members to contribute. One characteristic of
public communication is an unequal amount of
speaking. One or more people are likely to
deliver their remarks to the remaining
members, who act as an audience.
• This leads to a second characteristic of public
setting: limited verbal feedback.
• The audience isn’t able to talk back in a two-
way conversation the way they might in a dyadic
or small group setting.
Levels…
• Organizational communication deals with
communication within large organizations such as
businesses. This is sometimes considered part of
group communication, but communication
scholars have built up a body of knowledge
focused primarily on organizations. Example: Work
focused discussion between employer and
employee.
• Family communication focuses on
communication patterns within nuclear, extended
and blended families.
Levels…
• Like organizational communication, this too is
sometimes seen as part of the general category of
group communication, but much research has been
focused specifically on communication within a
family relationship.
• Family communication can be enhanced by the long-
standing and close relationships among participants
as well as the likelihood that families have shared
heritage, similar values, and social rituals.
• Patterns differ in communication between spouses,
between parent and child, among siblings, and within
the wider family context.
Levels…
Mass Communication
It consists of messages that are transmitted to
large, widespread audiences via electronic and
print media: newspapers, magazines, television,
radio and so on. Mass communication section
differs from the interpersonal, small group, and
public varieties in several ways.
• First, mass messages are aimed at a large
audience without any personal contact between
sender and receivers.
Levels…
• Second, most of the messages sent via mass
communication channels are developed, or at
least financed by large organizations.
• Finally, mass communication is almost always
controlled by many gatekeepers who determine
what messages will be delivered to consumers,
how they will be constructed, and when they will
be delivered. Sponsors (whether corporate or
governmental), editors, producers, reporters, and
executives all have the power to influence mass
messages in ways that don’t affect most other
types.
Components of communication
Source: the source is the initiator of the
communication process who has an idea, which is
intended to be transmitted to another individual,
group, or mass audience. Source can be a single
individual or groups & the source may or may not
have the knowledge about the receiver.
Encoding: The source translates the ideas & thoughts
into a code so that they can be understood by the
receiver in the process. The source has an idea or
thought. This idea or thought cannot merely be
transmitted to the receiver unless it is changed to a
form in which the receiver can perceive.
Components…
• This process is called encoding.
For example, suppose you want to buy new jeans. You
are trying to describe the jeans to your friend who is
going to help you buy the jeans you want. You might be
visualizing the model, color, number of the jeans & how
it will look when you wear it.
Putting your vision into words, you tell your friend you
are interested in a jeans that is “skinny, blue & Ethiopian
made.” You encode your perceptions of particular jeans
into words that can be understood by your friend.
 Or when your teacher tells you about elements of
communication; he is encoding his ideas and
thoughts.
Components…
Message: it is the product of the encoding process. It
is verbal or nonverbal form of the idea, thought,
feeling that the person (the source) wishes to
communicate to another person or group of people.
• The message is the content of the interaction. It
includes the symbols (words & phrases), you use to
communicate your ideas & thoughts, as well as your
facial expressions, body movements, gestures,
touch, tone of voice, & other nonverbal codes.
• The message may be relatively brief & easy to
understand or long & complex.
Components…
Channel
 A message moves from the source to the receiver of the
message by the means.
 A message moves from one place to another, by travelling
through a medium or channel. Airwaves, sound waves,
twisted copper wires, glass fibers, and cable are all
communication channels. Airwaves & cable are two of the
various channels through which you receive television
messages.
 Radio messages move through sound waves.
 Computer images travel through light waves.
 In person-to-person, face-to-face communication, you
send your messages through a channel of sound waves
Components…
Alternatively, we can classify channel into two
major types.
• Sensory channel: our sense organs can be
considered as channel.
• Institutionalized: are books, magazines,
newspapers, and electronic media. Some
messages use more channels to travel to the
receiver. Radio signals travel to each radio set in
the form of electromagnetic radiation, then
transform into sound wave so that they can
travel to our ears.
Components…
Decoding
• Is the receiver’s activity of assigning meaning for
the code sent by a source or it is an activity of
translating the message into meaningful idea or
thought. In the above example (in the encoding
part), your friend decodes the message-your
words-upon hearing & develops his/her own
picture.
• On the other hand, when you listen to your
course instructor, you are decoding the message
he is transmitting into ideas and thoughts.
Components…
• Receiver: The receiver is a person who receives
the message, which has been sent by the source.
The receiver is the intended target of the
message.
• Feedback: Feedback is the receiver’s verbal &
nonverbal response to the source’s message. It is
part of any communication situation. Feedback
can alter & shape the subsequent messages of
the source. It may be delayed or immediate.
Components…
Noise: any interference in a communication process that
reduces the clarity of a message is called noise. It can be
anything that interferes with receiving, interpreting, or
providing feedback about a message. It can be
• Semantic noise- this occurs when people have different
meanings for the same words or phrases. For instance, in a
Gojjam Amharic dialect, the word ª(wa) means ”È (endie)
but in Shoa dialect it is a sign of warning. So if a person who
speaks in a Gojjam dialect uses the word while
communicating with a person who speaks in Shoa dialect,
there will be misunderstanding because the person who
speaks the Shoan dialect may think that he is being
warned. These kinds of misunderstandings are created by
semantic noise.
Components…
• Mechanical noise: Is a problem with a machine
that is used to assist communication. If you are
using a mobile phone to communicate with your
friend & a problem happens with the networking,
it makes communication difficult. This kind of
problem happens because of mechanical noise.
• Environmental noise: It is external source of
noise, which barges in the communication
process. Distracting sights, nearby loud voices etc
are environmental noises.
Components…
• Psychological noise: this happens inside the
minds of receivers or sources. Daydreams about a
loved one, worry about things, pain & uncertainty
make up psychological or mental noise. If you, for
example, are thinking about something else while
the lecturer is giving lecture, it is a mental noise
inside your head that is creating a problem.
• As noise increases, message fidelity decreases.
• Feedback is important in reducing the effect of
noise; the greater the potential for
communication feedback, the greater the chance
to reduce noise.
Components…
• the source initiates the process by having a
thought or an idea that he/she wishes to transmit
to some other entity. Naturally, sources differ in
their communication skills. The source may or
may not have knowledge about the receiver and
sources can be single individuals, groups, or even
organizations.
• Then the source translates the ideas and
thoughts into a form that is may be perceived by
senses.
Components…
• When you have something to say, your brain and
your tongue work together to form words and
spoken sentences. When you write a letter, your
brain and your fingers cooperate to produce what
you write that can be seen on paper. What you
speak and write are messages, which are the actual
physical products of the encoding process.
• When we talk, our speech is the message. When you
write a text & send it via your mobile phones, it is a
message. What you watch on TV is a message. What
you read on newspapers is message. What your
instructor tells you about the course is a message.
Components…
• Messages can be directed at one specific
individual or at masses based on the context of
communication. In dyadic communication, the
target of the message is one individual; in mass
communication, the message is directed to
millions & billions of individuals. They can be
cheap to produce like spoken words or very
expensive like a book. Some messages are under
the control of the receivers than others.
Components…
• It is easy to turn off the TV when we watch a
commercial than hung up the phone when we are in a
telephone conversation with a friend and it is very
difficult to break off a communication when it is a face-
to-face communication than a telephone conversation.
• These messages travel through channels to reach
receivers. Channels are the ways messages move to
receivers. Sound waves carry spoken words; light
waves carry visual messages. Air currents can serve as
olfactory channels, carrying messages to our noses-
messages that are subtle but nonetheless significant.
Touch is also a channel.
Components…
• Then, through channels, receivers get the
message of the source. Receivers are the target
of the message-the ultimate goal. Nevertheless,
receivers must interpret these physical messages
in a form that has eventual meaning to them.
• This process is decoding which is the opposite of
encoding. When you read this module, you are
decoding.
Components…
• When you watch television, you are decoding.
When you are listening to your communication
theories course instructor, you are decoding.
Like encoding, a single communication event can
involve many stages of decoding.
• If you are listening to one of Ali Bira’s songs
while reading this note, you are encoding two
messages at the same time-the music as well as
the lines from the note or you are assigning
meaning to these messages.
Components…
• After the receiver decodes the message, which
was sent by the source, she/he has a chance to
respond. The responses of the receiver that shape
and alter the subsequent messages of the source
are called feedback. As you can see from figure
one, feedback represents a reversal flow of
communication. The original source becomes the
receiver; the original receiver becomes the
source.
Components…
• It changes the roles of the original source and
receiver. Since the source becomes receiver,
his /her role change from encoder to decoder
and since the receiver becomes the source,
his/her role changes from decoder to encoder of
message in the communication process.
Feedback is useful to both the receiver and the
source. It lets the source evaluate her/himself-
whether she/he is doing a good job in
transmitting the appropriate message or not.
Components…
 It allows the receiver to attempt to change some
elements in the communication process. Feedback
can be either positive or negative. Positive feedback
from the receiver usually encourages the
communication behavior in progress. For instance,
 if your friend invites you to dinner in one of the
most beautiful restaurants in town and you say
‘yes”, it is a positive feedback because it keeps the
progress of communication between you and your
friend. Negative feedback, on the other hand,
usually attempts to change the communication or
even to terminate it.
Components…
• If you say ‘no’ to your friend’s request, it is a
negative feedback. Feedback can also be
immediate or delayed. Immediate feedback is a
response of receivers immediately after they
receive the source’s message.
• This kind of feedback is very common in face-to-
face conversation. Delayed feedback, as the
name indicates, is a delayed response from the
receiver. Mostly, in mass communication, setting
this kind of feedback occurs.
What is theory?
 A theory is a related set of ideas that explains
how or why something happens.
• More formally, a theory is a set of interrelated
concepts, definitions, and prepositions that
present a systematic view of phenomena.
• It specifies the relationship among the concepts
with the objective of explaining and predicting
the phenomena being studied.
…theory
• Theories are integrated set of principles that
explain and predict observed behavior.
• They sum up numerous factual observations by
capturing underlying principles.
 Therefore, if an enormous body of facts can be
condensed to a much shorter list of theoretical
principles which predict most of the observed
facts then we will have a more powerful and
memorable theory than a long list of
disconnected facts.
…theory
 Theories are maps of reality; the truth they
depict may be objective facts “out there” or
subjective meanings in our heads. Either way we
need to have theories to guide us through
unfamiliar territory.
 Theories in communication are bodies of related
concepts and prepositions about the exchange of
information between individuals, groups, and
mass audience.
Communication theory
• Communication theory is an umbrella term for all careful
systematic & self-conscious discussion and analysis of
communication phenomena.
• In other words, communication theory is a set of
interrelated concepts about people’s communication
behavior that enables a communicator -a sender or
receiver of the message- how to communicate with
particular individuals in a given situation.
• They can help us understand our own communication
behavior as well as the communication behaviors of
others.
• In interpersonal communication, for instance, whenever
we communicate with others, we always anticipate the
costs and benefits of that particular communication.
…Contd
Social exchange theory of communication tells us
why we calculate those costs and benefits of our
communication, how we foresee these expenses
and positives of our relationship and it also
predicts what will happen if the cost or benefit of
our communication is greater than the other which
helps us decide to continue the communication or
not.
 Generally, Communication theory is a systematic
and thoughtful response of communication
scholars to questions posed as humans interact
with each other.
Nature and functions of theories
 Theories are man’s attempt to travel on the

journey to facts.
 The purpose of theory is perhaps a basic
human need to turn sensory data into some
sort of interpretation of reality.
 It must have evolved with our conscious minds
to satisfy our natural curiosity, in its most
primitive form a curiosity naturally selected as
being beneficial to our survival.
Nature and functions…
 With ever greater sophistication, theory has
evolved as a means to justify everything our
insatiable curiosity desires to explore, and to
explain, by sharing ideas with evidence, which
may generally be accepted as truths by a wider
audience, or not.
 Theories explain phenomenon; why it happens;
how it happens. They also predict what will
happen if something is done or not done. As a
result, they help us understand or make sense of
the world around us.
History of theory development in
communication
o Communication has existed since the beginning of
human beings.
o Communication Theory has one universal law
posited by S. F. Scudder.
o The Universal Communication Law states that, "All
living entities, beings, and creatures communicate."
o All of the living communicates through movements,
sounds, reactions, physical changes, gestures,
languages, breath, etc.
o Communication is a means of survival.
History of theory…
• Examples - the cry of a child (communication
that it is hungry, hurt, cold, etc.); the browning
of a leaf (communication that it is dehydrated,
thirsty per se, dying); the cry of an animal
(communicating that it is injured, hungry,
angry, etc).
• Everything living communicates in its quest for
survival.”
o Though not in detail, the study of communication
goes back to the 4th century BC when one of the
earliest definitions of communication came from
the Greek philosopher-teacher Aristotle (384-322
B.C.) in the name of Rhetoric. “Rhetoric”, according
to Aristotle, is “the faculty of observing in any
given case the available means of persuasion”.
o He had three fold cases in which speakers use their
means of persuasion differently. These
classifications are courtroom (forensic), political
(deliberative) and ceremonial (epideictic).
• The concept of communication developed by the
French philosopher ClaudeHenri de Saint Simon
(1970-1825) used the analogy of living organism.
• Development of a system of communication routes
such as roads, canals & railways and banks was vital
for an industrialized society and he states that the
circulation of money, for example, was equivalent
to that of blood for the human heart. I.e.
communication routes= Vascular system.
• The metaphor of the organism developed by Simon
was also fundamental for British philosopher
Herbert Spenser (1980-1903), who argued
…Like the vascular system, the physical network of
roads, canals and railways ensured the
distribution of nutrition, while ‘’channels of
information’’ (the press, telegraph and postal
service) functioned as the equivalent of the
nervous system, making it possible for the center
to propagate its influence to its most outer parts.
Dispatches are compared to nervous discharges
that communicate movement from an inhabitant
of the city to that of the other.
• However, it was throughout the 20th century,
during and after WWI, that people began to
study the process of communication in detail.
• As communication technologies developed,
there were series of studies of communication.
• When World War I ended, the interest in
studying communication intensified.
• The social-science study was fully recognized as
a legitimate discipline after World War II by
combining many aspects of diverse social
science disciplines.
• Communication studies focus on
communication as central to the human
experience, which involves understanding how
people behave in creating, exchanging, and
interpreting messages.
Traditions in the field of communication
• Every day, we have images, symbols, signs, and
impressions flashing before our eyes. Messages
upon messages collide with our own sense of
individuality and create the reality in which we
perceive our existence.
• How do we process the enormity of information
and comprehend the symbols of what each
import or export of the message means?
• There are many theories that try to understand
the broad nature of communication and how it
applies to the individual or society.
Traditions…
• The presences of such many theories & many
scholars from other social sciences who try to
define communication make the field of
communication theories a very complex, hard to
define discipline.
• University of Colorado communication professor
Robert Craig agrees that the terrain is confusing;
if we insist on looking for some kind of grand
theoretical overview that brings all
communication study into focus-a top-down,
satellite picture of the communication landscape.
Traditions…
• He suggests, however, that communication
theory is a coherent field when we understand
communication is a practical discipline.
• He explains that all communication theories are
relevant to a common practical life world in
which communication is already a richly
meaningful term.
• Craig thinks that it is reasonable to talk about a
field of communication theory if we take a
collective look at the actual approaches that
researchers have used to study communication
problems and practices.
Traditions…
• He developed a model that labeled and separated the
field of communication into seven traditions of
communication theory that include most, if not all, of
what theorists have done.
• These already established traditions offer distinct,
alternative vocabularies that describe different ways of
conceptualizing communication problems and
practices.
• Each tradition focuses on a different aspect or
specialized area of communication and knowing each
one gives new and sometimes-conflicting viewpoints
on why we relate and comprehend the information we
absorb on a daily basis.
Traditions…
• Despite the differences among these traditions,
communication research does cohere around
similar interests and looks at communication as
a fundamental perspective rather than one
among many topics.
• The seven/eight traditions offered by Robert
Craig are the following & sentences written
below the titles are expressions of how each
tradition views communication.
Traditions…
1. The Socio-psychological tradition
Communication as interpersonal influence
2. The cybernetic tradition
Communication as information processing
3. The rhetorical tradition
Communication as artful public address
What kind of individual do you consider as orator?
4. The semiotic tradition
Communication as the process of sharing meaning
through signs
Traditions…
5. The socio-cultural tradition
Communication as the Creation and Enactment
of social reality
6. The critical tradition
Communication as the reflective challenge of unjust
discourse
7. The phenomenological tradition
Communication as the experience of the self and
others through dialogue
8. The ethical tradition
Communication as people of character interacting
in just & beneficial ways
Criteria for good theory
 Explanation of data: good objective theory

explains an event or human behavior. A good
objective theory brings clarity to an otherwise
jumbled situation. It draws order out of chaos. A
good objective theory synthesizes the data at
hand; it explains what is happening. It also
explains why something is happening.
 Prediction of future events; a good objective
theory predicts what will happen.
Criteria…
 Relative simplicity; a good objective theory is
as simple as possible as; no more complex than
it has to be. Simplicity should be a virtue of a
theory.
 Testable hypothesis; a good objective theory is
testable. If a prediction is wrong, there ought to
be a way to demonstrate the error.
 Practical utility; a good objective theory is
useful. As Kurt Lewin puts it clearly & nicely,
“there is nothing as practical as a good theory.”
Criteria…
 Unlike scientists, interpretive scholars do not
have an agreed-on five-point set of criteria for
evaluating their theories.
• However, even though there is no universally
approved model for interpretive theories,
humanists & other interpreters repeatedly urge
that theories should accomplish some or all of
the following interpretive standards.
Criteria…
i. New understanding of people, an interpretive
theory is good when it offers fresh insight into
the human condition.
ii. Clarification of values; a good interpretive
theory brings people’s values into the open.
iii. Aesthetic appeal; good interpretive theory does
not just consider issues of artistry and aesthetic-
it embodies them. Art looks at an old material in
a new way. The form of a communication theory
can capture the imagination of a reader as much
as the content does.
Criteria…
iv. A community of agreement; we can identify a
good interpretive by the amount of support it
generates within a community of like-minded
scholars.
• Interpretation of meaning is subjective, but
whether the interpreter’s case is reasonable is
decided ultimately by others in the field.
• Their acceptance or rejection is an objective fact
that helps verify or vilify theorists ideas.
v. Reform of society; a good interpretive theory
often generates change. A critical interpreter is
reformer who can have impact on society.
2. Behaviorism and media effects
Lasswell’s chain of communication and propaganda

technique
• Harold Lasswell was a prominent scholar in the area
of propaganda research. He focused on conducting
both quantitative and qualitative analyses of
propaganda, understanding the content of
propaganda, and discovering the effect of
propaganda on the mass audience (Rogers, 1994).
• Lasswell is credited with creating the mass
communication procedure of content analysis
(Rogers, 1994).
Lasswell’s chain…
• Content analysis can be defined as, "...the
investigation of communication messages by
categorizing message content into
classifications in order to measure certain
variables" (Rogers, 1994).
• Lasswell explains that a content analysis should
take into account the frequency with which
certain symbols appear in a message, the
direction in which the symbols try to persuade
the audience’s opinion, and the intensity of the
symbols used.
• By understanding the content of the message,
Lasswell aims to achieve the goal of
understanding the "stream of influence that
runs from control to content and from content
to audience"
• This method of content analysis is tied strongly
to Lasswell's (1953) early definition of
communication which stated, "Who says what
in which channel to whom and with what
effects".
• Content analysis was essentially the 'says what'
part of this definition, and Lasswell went on to
do a lot of work within this area during the
remainder of his career.
• Lasswell's most well-known content analyses
were an examination of the propaganda
content during World War One and Two.
• In Propaganda Technique in the World War,
Lasswell (1938) examined propaganda
techniques through a content analysis, and
came to some striking conclusions.
• Lasswell (1938) was similar to Ellul, in that he showed that
the content of war propaganda had to be pervasive in all
aspects of the citizen’s life in order to be effective.
• Furthermore, Lasswell (1938) showed that as more people
were reached by this propaganda, the war effort would
become more effective. "...[The active propagandist is
certain to have willing help from everybody, with an axe to
grind in transforming the War into a march toward whatever
sort of promised land happens to appeal to the group
concerned.
• The more of these sub-groups he can fire for the War, the
more powerful will be the united devotion of the people to
the cause of the country, and to the humiliation of the
enemy" (Lasswell 1938).
• Aside from understanding the content of
propaganda, Lasswell was also interested in how
propaganda could shape public opinion. This dealt
primarily with understanding the effects of the
media.
• Lasswell was particularly interested in examining
the effects of the media in creating public opinion
within a democratic system.
• In Democracy Through Public Opinion, Lasswell
(1941) examines the effects of propaganda on public
opinion, and the effects of public opinion on
democracy.
• Lasswell (1941) claims, “Democratic government
acts upon public opinion and public opinion acts
openly upon government”.
• Affecting this relationship is the existence of
propaganda. Due to this propaganda, “General
suspiciousness is directed against all sources of
information.
• Citizens may convince themselves that it is
hopeless to get the truth about public affairs”. In
this way, Lasswell has created a cycle, whereby the
public is limited in the information that is presented
to them, and also apprehensive to accept it.
Hypodermic needle theory
 This theory is also called Magic Bullet Theory.
Metaphorically called the magic bullet theory or
the hypodermic needle theory.
 This paradigm asserted that the media acted
strongly and predictably on audiences in much the
way a bullet or hypodermic needle would. The
presumption was that media messages cause
people to think and act in certain predictable ways.
 It also presumes that people in a mass audience
are affected similarly and that communication
produces identical results that can be pinpointed
and direct.
Hypodermic…
 The examples pointed to were the use of
commercial advertising and military propaganda,
both of which were thought to be strong
influencers over public opinion, though
researchers were unable to explain how the
influence occurred.
 The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass
media had a direct, immediate, and powerful
effect on its audiences. The mass media in the
1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful
influence on behavior change.
Hypodermic…
 Two leading scholars were associated with this
paradigm. Walter Lippmann observed that
people see a world shaped primarily by the
media. Harold Lasswell defined the classic linear
explanation that communication involves who
says what, in which channel, to whom and with
what effect.
Hypodermic…
Several factors contributed to this "strong effects"
theory of communication, including:
 The fast rise and popularization of radio and
television
 The emergence of the persuasion industries, such as
advertising and propaganda
 The Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused
on the impact of motion pictures on children
 Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during
WW II to unify the German public behind the Nazi
party
Hypodermic…
Core Assumptions and Statements
• The theory suggests that the mass media could
influence a very large group of people directly
and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them
with appropriate messages designed to trigger a
desired response.
• Both images used to express this theory (a
bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and
direct flow of information from the sender to
the receiver.
Hypodermic…
• The bullet theory graphically suggests that the
message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun"
into the viewer's "head".
• With similarly emotive imagery, the
hypodermic needle model suggests that media
messages are injected straight into a passive
audience, which is immediately influenced by
the message.
Hypodermic…
• There is no escape from the effect of the message in
these models. The population is seen as a sitting
duck.
• People are seen as passive and are seen as having a
lot media material "shot" at them. People end up
thinking what they are told because there is no other
source of information.
• They express the view that the media are dangerous
means of communicating an idea because the
receiver or audience is powerless to resist the
impact of the message.
Hypodermic…
Limited-Effects Paradigm
• Further research dispelled the fears or hopes
associated with the previous model and instead
presented a minimalist model.
• Newer research had shown that the media are not
very powerful, and that studies of topics such as
voting behavior showed little direct or immediate
power by the media.
• Instead, the media operated in secondary ways. One
of the major theories associated with limited effects
paradigm is two-step flow -communication theory.
Two-step flow theory
o Interpersonal communication between the
audience and the opinion leader has strong
effect than the mass communication between
the media and audience because they have
indirect relationship.
History and Orientation
o The two-step flow of communication hypothesis
was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard
Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet in The People's
Choice, a 1944 study focused on the process of
decision-making during a Presidential election
campaign.
Two-step…
o These researchers expected to find empirical
support for the direct influence of media
messages on voting intentions.
o They were surprised to discover, however, that
informal, personal contacts were mentioned far
more frequently than exposure to radio or
newspaper as sources of influence on voting
behavior.
o Armed with this data, Katz and Lazarsfeld
developed the two-step flow theory of mass
communication.
Two-step…
• This theory asserts that information from the
media moves in two distinct stages.
• First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close
attention to the mass media and its messages
receive the information.
• Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations
in addition to the actual media content.
• The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer
to the process intervening between the media’s
direct message and the audience’s ultimate
reaction to that message.
Two-step…
 Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people
to change their attitudes and behaviors and are quite
similar to those they influence.
 The two-step flow theory has improved our
understanding of how the mass media influence
decision-making.
 The theory refined the ability to predict the influence
of media messages on audience behavior, and it
helped explain why certain media campaigns may
have failed to alter audience attitudes and behavior.
 The two-step flow theory gave way to the multi-step
flow theory of mass communication or diffusion of
innovation theory.
Multi-Step-Flow Theory
• This was based on the idea that there are a

number of relays in the communication flow
from a source to a large audience.
Hierarchy of needs
• Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, propounds
the fact that people choose what they wants to see
or read and the different media compete to satisfy
each individual’s needs.
• In the hierarchy of needs, there are five levels in
the form of a pyramid with the basic needs such as
food and clothing at the base and the higher order
needs climbing up the pyramid. The fulfillment of
each lower level need leads to the individual
looking to satisfy the next level of need and so on
till he reaches the superior-most need of self-
actualization.
Hierarchy…
• What motivates behavior? According to humanist
psychologist Abraham Maslow, our actions are
motivated in order to achieve certain needs.
• Maslow first introduced his
concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper
"A Theory of Human Motivation" and his
subsequent book Motivation and Personality.
• This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated
to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other,
more advanced needs.
Hierarchy…
• As a humanist, Maslow believed that people have
an inborn desire to be self-actualized, to be all they
can be. In order to achieve these ultimate goals,
however, a number of more basic needs must be
met first such as the need for food, safety, love, and
self-esteem.
From Basic to More Complex Needs
• This hierarchy is most often displayed as a pyramid.
The lowest levels of the pyramid are made up of
the most basic needs, while the more complex
needs are located at the top of the pyramid.
Hierarchy…
• Needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic physical
requirements including the need for food, water, sleep, and
warmth.
• Once these lower-level needs have been met, people can
move on to the next level of needs, which are for safety and
security.
• As people progress up the pyramid, needs become
increasingly psychological and social. Soon, the need for love,
friendship, and intimacy become important. Further up the
pyramid, the need for personal esteem and feelings of
accomplishment take priority.
• Like Carl Rogers, Maslow emphasized the importance of self-
actualization, which is a process of growing and developing as
a person in order to achieve individual potential.
Hierarchy…
Types of Needs
 Maslow believed that these needs are similar to
instincts and play a major role in motivating behavior.
Physiological, security, social, and esteem needs are
deficiency needs (D-needs), meaning that these needs
arise due to deprivation. Satisfying these lower-level
needs is important in order to avoid unpleasant
feelings or consequences.
• Maslow termed the highest-level of the pyramid as
growth needs (being needs or B-needs).
 Growth needs do not stem from a lack of something,
but rather from a desire to grow as a person.
Hierarchy…
Five Levels of the Hierarchy of Needs
 Physiological Needs
These include the most basic needs that are vital
to survival, such as the need for water, air, food,
and sleep.
 Maslow believed that these needs are the most
basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy
because all needs become secondary until these
physiological needs are met.
Hierarchy…
 Security Needs
These include needs for safety and security.
Security needs are important for survival, but
they are not as demanding as the physiological
needs.
Examples of security needs include a desire for
steady employment, health care, safe
neighborhoods, and shelter from the
environment.
Hierarchy…
Social Needs
These include needs for belonging, love, and
affection.
 Maslow described these needs as less basic than
physiological and security needs.
 Relationships such as friendships, romantic
attachments, and families help fulfill this need
for companionship and acceptance, as does
involvement in social, community, or religious
groups.
Hierarchy…
Esteem Needs
 After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem
needs becomes increasingly important. These include
the need for things that reflect on self-esteem,
personal worth, social recognition, and
accomplishment.
Self-actualizing Needs
 This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with
personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of
others, and interested fulfilling their potential.
Uses and gratifications approach
• In the mass communication process, uses and
gratifications approach puts the function of linking
need gratifications and media choice clearly on the
side of audience members.
• It suggests that people’s needs influence what
media they would choose, how they use certain
media, and what gratifications the media give them.
• This approach differs from other theoretical
perspectives in that it regards audiences as active
media users as opposed to passive receivers of
information.
Uses…
• In contrast to traditional media effects, theories,
which focus on “what media do to people” and
assume audiences are homogeneous, uses and
gratifications approach is more concerned with
“what people do with media” (Katz, 1959).
• It allows audiences personal needs to use media
and responds to the media, which determined by
their social and psychological background.
• Uses and gratifications approach also postulates
that the media compete with other information
sources for audience’s need satisfaction (Katz et al.,
1974a).
Uses…
History and Orientation
• The theory was originated in the 1970s, as a
reaction to traditional mass communication
research, which emphasized the sender, and the
message, uses gratification theory stresses the
active audience and user.
• Psychological orientation taking needs motives
and gratifications of media users as the main
point of departure.
Uses…
Five basic assumptions were stated in a study of
Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch in 1974 as follows.
They provide a framework for understanding the
correlation between media and audiences:
 The audience is conceived as active, i.e., an
important part of mass media use is assumed to
be goal oriented … patterns of media use are
shaped by more or less definite expectations of
what certain kinds of content have to offer the
audience member.
Uses…
 In the mass communication process much
initiative in liking need gratification and media
choice lies with the audience member…
individual and public opinions have power vis-à-
vis the seemingly all-powerful media.
 The media compete with other sources of need
satisfaction. The needs served by mass
communication constitute but a segment of the
wider range of human needs, and the degree to
which they can be adequately met through
mass media consumption certainly varies.
Uses…
 Methodologically speaking, many of the goals of mass
media use can be derived from data supplied by
individual audience members themselves- i.e., people
are sufficiently self-aware to be able to report their
interests and motives in particular cases, or at least to
recognize them when confronted with them in an
intelligible and familiar verbal formulation.
 Value judgments about the cultural significance of mass
communication should be suspended while audience
orientations are explored on their own terms.
Core: Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain
the uses and functions of the media for individuals,
groups, and society in general.
Uses…
There are three objectives in developing uses and
gratifications theory:
1) to explain how individuals use mass communication to
gratify their needs. “What do people do with the media”?
2) to discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use.
3) to identify the positive and the negative consequences of
individual media use.
• At the core of uses and gratifications theory lays the
assumption that audience members actively seek out the
mass media to satisfy individual needs.
Statement: A medium will be used more when the existing
motives to use the medium leads to more satisfaction.
Cultivation Theory
• Gerbner’s cultivation theory says that television
has become the main source of storytelling in
today's society. Those who watch four or more
hours a day are labeled heavy television viewers
and those who view less than four hours per day,
according to Gerbner are light viewers.
• Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and
therefore are affected by the Mean World
Syndrome, an idea that the world is worse than
it actually is.
• According to Gerbner, the overuse of television is
Cultivation…
• George Gerbner began the 'Cultural Indicators'
research project in the mid-1960s, to study
whether and how watching television may
influence viewers' ideas of what the everyday
world is like.
• Cultivation theorists argue that television has long-
term effects that are small, gradual, indirect but
cumulative and significant.
• Cultivation theory in its most basic form, suggests
that television is responsible for shaping, or
‘cultivating’ viewers’ conceptions of social reality.
Cultivation…
• The combined effect of massive television
exposure by viewers over time subtly shapes the
perception of social reality for individuals and,
ultimately, for our culture as a whole.
• Gerbner argues that the mass media cultivate
attitudes and values, which are already present in
a culture: the media maintain and propagate
these values amongst members of a culture, thus
binding it together.
• There is also a distinction between two groups of
television viewers: the heavy viewers and the
light viewers. The focus is on ‘heavy viewers’.
Cultivation…
• People who watch a lot of television are likely to be
more influenced by the ways in which the world is
framed by television programs than are individuals
who watch less, especially regarding topics of
which the viewer has little first-hand experience.
• Light viewers may have more sources of
information than heavy viewers may. ‘Resonance’
describes the intensified effect on the audience
when what people see on television is what they
have experienced in life. This double dose of the
televised message tends to amplify the cultivation
effect.
Agenda Setting Theory
The original agenda: Not what to think, But what
to think about.
• Journalist professors Maxwell McCombs and
Donald Shaw regard ‘Watergate’ as a perfect
example of the agenda setting function of the
mass media. McCombs and Shaw believe that
the “mass media have the ability to transfer the
salience of items on their news agenda to the
public agenda.”
Agenda…
• They are not suggesting that broadcast and print
personnel make a deliberate attempt to influence
listener, viewer, and reader opinion on the issue.
• Reporters in the free world have a deserved
reputation for independence and fairness. But
McCombs and Shaw say that we look to news
professionals for cues on where to focus our
attention. “We judge as important what the media
judge as important.”
• Pulitzer Prize-winning author Walter Lippmann
claimed that the media act as a mediator between
“the world outside and the pictures in our heads.”
Agenda…
• McCombs and Shaw also quote University of
Wisconsin political scientist Bernard Cohen’s
observation concerning the specific function the
media serve. “The press may not be successful
much of the time in telling people what to think,
but it is stunningly successful in telling its
readers what to think about.”
• Agenda setting theory boasted two attractive
features: it reaffirms the power of the press
while still maintain that individuals were free to
choose.
3. Interpersonal Communication Theories
Symbolic Interaction
• The theory consists of three core principles: meaning,
language, and thought. These core principles lead to
conclusions about the creation of a person’s self and
socialization into a larger community (Griffin, 1997).
• Meaning states that humans act toward people and things
according to the meanings that give to those people or
things.
• This theory suggests that people are motivated to act based
on the meanings they assign to people, things, and events.
• Further, meaning is created in the language that people use
both with others and in private thought.
• Language allows people to develop a sense of self and to
interact with others in community.
Symbolic…
Meaning: the Construction of Social Reality

• Blumer’s starts with the premise that humans act
toward people or things on the basis of the
meanings they assign to those people or things.
Language: The Source of Meaning
• Blumer‘s second premise that meaning arises out
of the social interaction that people have with
each other. In other words, meaning is not
inherent in objects; it’s not pre-existent in a state
of nature.
• Meaning is negotiated through the use of
language-hence the term symbolic interactionism.
Symbolic…
• As human beings, we have the ability to name

things. We can designate a specific object
(person), identify an action (screen), or refer to
an abstract idea (crazy).
• Mead believed that symbolic meaning is the
basis for human society.
• The book of Genesis in the Bible states that
Adam’s first task was to name the animals-the
dawn of civilization.
• Interactionalists claim that the extent of knowing
is dependent on the extent of naming
Symbolic…
• Blumer’ third premise is that an individual’s

interpretation of symbols is modified by his/her own
thought processes. Symbolic interactionists describe
thinking as an inner conversation. Mead called this inner
dialogue minding.
• Minding is the pause that’s reflective. It’s the two-
second delay while we mentally rehearse our next
move, test alternatives, anticipate others’ reactions.
• Mead says we do not need any encouragement to take
before we leap. We naturally talk to ourselves in order
to sort out the meaning of a difficult situation. But first,
we need language. Before we can think, we must be
able to interact symbolically.
Expectancy Violation Theory
 Expectancy violation theory sees communication as
the exchange of information which is high in relations
content and can be used to violate the expectations of
another which will be perceived as either positively or
negatively depending on the liking between the two
people.
• When our expectations are violated, we will respond
in specific ways.
• If an act is unexpected and is assigned favourable
interpretation, and it is evaluated positively, it will
produce more favourable out comes than an expected
act with the same interpretation and evaluation.
Expectancy…
• This theory assumes that humans have a certain
amount of free will.
• This is because it assumes that humans can survey and
interpret the relationship and liking between
themselves and their conversational partner and then
make a decision whether or not to violate the
expectation of the other person depending on what
outcome they would like to achieve.
• The expectancy violations theory is very practical and
useful theory because it assumes that there are
universal norms and reactions to violations to those
norms. It also seeks to predict what the reactions to
each violation of norms will be.
Expectancy…
EVT has three core concepts. These are expectancy,
violation valence, and communicator reward valence.
Expectancy
o …“prefer to reserve the term ‘expectancy’ for what
is predicted to occur rather than what desired.
Violation valence
o The term violation valence refers to the positive or
negative value we place on a specific unexpected
behaviour, regardless of who does it.
Expectancy…
Communication reward valence
• Expectancy violation theory is not the only theory
that describes the human tendency to size up
other people in terms of the potential rewards
they have to offer.
• The reward balance of a communicator is the sum
of the positive and negative attributes that the
person brings to the encounter put the potential
he or she has to reward or punish in the future.
Coordinated Management of Meaning
• CMM is a practical theory that sees
communication as doing things fully as much as
talking about them, “Talking the communication
perspective” consists of looking at
communication and seeing it as a two sided
process of coordinating actions with others and
making or managing meanings.
• The fundamental building blocks of CMM theory
focus specially on the flow of communication
between people. The three different processes
experienced either consciously or unconsciously
are coherence, coordination and mystery.
CMM…
Coherence
• Coherence describes how meaning is achieved in
conversation. It is the “process by which we tell
ourselves (and others) stories in order to interpret
the world around us and our place in it”.
Coordination
• The concept of coordination has to do with the
fact that our actions do not stand alone with
regard to communication.
• The words or actions that we use during a
conversation come together to produce patterns.
CMM…
• Pearce and Cronen are quick to point out that
coordination does not imply a commitment to
coordinate “smoothly” but rather the concept is
meant to provide the basis for being mindful of the
other side of the story.
Mystery
• The final concept has to do with the concept that not
everything within communication can be explained.
Mystery also known as stories unexpressed is the
recognition that “the world and our experience of it
is more than any of the particular stories that make it
coherent or any of the activities in which we engage.
Social penetration theory
 The theory proposed that closeness occurs

through a gradual process of self-disclosure, and
closeness develops if the participants proceed in
a gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to
intimate levels of exchange as a function of both
immediate and forecast outcomes.
 Social penetration theory was formulated by
psychology professors Irwin Altman and Dalmas
Taylor in attempt to describe the dynamics of
relational closeness.
Social…
• Self-disclosure is the act of revealing more about
ourselves, on both a conscious and an unconscious
level.
• Altman and Taylor believe that only through
opening one's self to the main route to social
penetration - self-disclosure - by becoming
vulnerable to another person can a close
relationship develop.
• Vulnerability can be expressed in a variety of ways,
including the giving of anything, which is considered
a personal possession, such as a dresser drawer
given to a partner.
Social…
• Social penetration is perhaps best known for its onion
analogy. Self-disclosure is referred to in terms of breadth and
depth, the latter of which is described in units of layers.
• This analogy is used to describe the multilayered nature of
personality. When one peels the outer skin from an onion,
another skin is uncovered.
• When the second layer is removed, a third is exposed, and so
forth.
• The outer layer of personality contains the public self, which is
accessible to anyone who wants to look. The public self layer
has a myriad of details which help to describe who one is,
such as height, weight, gender, and other public information
which takes little questioning to discover.
Social…
• Below the surface layer, however, the personality
holds more private information like beliefs, faith,
prejudices, and general relationship information.
Held within the inner core are values, self-
concept, and deep emotions.
• The inner core is the unique private domain of
individuals, which, although invisible to the rest
of the world, has a profound impact on the areas
of life, which lie closer to the surface.
• The amount revealed can vary according to
culture.
Social…
Key points of self-disclosure
• Peripheral items are exchanged more frequently and
sooner than private information .Let us go back to the
idea that you are a new student in the university, so the
information you share with your new roommate starts
with those of at the upper level such as your name , your
friends in high school, which are not as such personal .
• Self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages
of relationship development. In the process of exposing
one’s personal values, it is highly dependent on the give
and take sprit since for you to tell your new friend your
deep secrets he/ she shall do the same (scratch my back
and I will scratch yours).
Social…
• Penetration is rapid at the start but slows down quickly
as the tightly wrapped inner layers are reached. It is an
advice we get in all our interactions to take it easy in
exposing our thoughts. There are societal norms
against telling too much too fast as a result we tend to
share observable features as soon as possible and
think over a way to share core values we have.
• De-penetration is a gradual process of layer-by-layer
withdrawal. This is to mean that once you became
open to your friend in telling what goes in your life and
start to hide up some things; this will create a negative
impact on your relationship building and leads to
termination of it.
Uncertainty Reduction theory
Ability to predict outcome of communication
• Central to this theory is the assumption that
when strangers meet, their primary concern is
one of uncertainty reduction or increasing
predictability about the behavior of both
themselves and others in the interaction.
Therefore, the following discussion will revolve
and get into core ideas concerning this process.
Uncertainty…
• Since the mid-twentieth century, the concept of
information has been a strong foundation for
communication research and the development
communication theory.
• Information exchange is a basic human function in
which individuals request, provide, and exchange
information with the goal of reducing uncertainty.
• URT accredited to Charles R. Berger and Richard J.
Calabrese (1975), recognized that reducing
uncertainty was a central motive of
communication.
Uncertainty…
• Health and Bryant (2000) state: “One of the
motivations underpinning interpersonal
communication is the acquisition of information
with which to reduce uncertainty” . The study of
information is basic to all fields of
communication.
• URT places the role of communication into the
central focus, which was a key step in the
development of the field of interpersonal
communication.
Uncertainty…
• The research underlying the theory and efforts
made by other contemporaries marked the
emergence of interpersonal communication
research; with the development of URT,
communication researchers began to look to
communication for theories of greater
understanding rather than theoretical approaches
founded in other social sciences.
• Shannon and Weaver (1949) proposed that
uncertainty existed in a given situation when there
was a high amount of possible alternatives and the
probability of their event was relatively equal.
Uncertainty…
• Shannon and Weaver related this view of
uncertainty to the transmission of messages, but
their work also contributed to the development of
URT.
• Berger and Calabrese (1975) expanded the concept
of uncertainty to fit interpersonal communication
by defining uncertainty as the “number of
alternative ways in which each interactant might
behave”. The greater the level of uncertainty that
exists in a situation, the smaller the chance
individuals will be able to predict behaviors and
occurrences.
Uncertainty…
• During interactions, individuals are not only

faced with problems of predicting present and
past behaviors, but also explaining why partners
behave or believe in the way that they do.
• Berger and Bradac’s (1982) definition of
uncertainty highlighted the complexity of this
process when they stated: “Uncertainty, then,
can stem from the large number of alternative
things that a stranger can believe or potentially
say”.
Uncertainty…
• Uncertainty plays a significant role when
examining relationships. High levels of
uncertainty can severely inhibit relational
development.
• Uncertainty can cause stress and anxiety that can
lead to low able to develop relationships or may
be too anxious to engage in initial interactions.
• West and Turner (2000) note that lower levels of
uncertainty caused increased verbal and
nonverbal behavior, increased levels of intimacy,
and increased liking.
Uncertainty…
• In interactions , individuals are expected to increase
predictability with the goal that this will lead to the
ability to predict and explain what will occur in future
interactions.
• When high uncertainty exists, it is often difficult to
reach this goal. Although individuals seek to reduce
uncertainty, high levels of certainty and predictability
can also inhibit a relationship.
• Heath and Bryant (2000) state: “Too much certainty and
predictability can deaden a relationship; too much
uncertainty raises its costs to an unacceptable level.
Relationship building is dialectic stability, change,
certainty, and uncertainty” .
Uncertainty…
Axioms of Uncertainty Reduction Theory
 Verbal communication: Given the high level of
uncertainty present at the onset of the entry phase, as
the amount of verbal communication between
strangers increases, the level of uncertainty for each
interactant in the relationship will decrease. As
uncertainty is further reduced, the amount of verbal
communication will increase.
 Nonverbal warmth: As nonverbal affinitive
expressiveness increases, uncertainty levels will
decrease in an initial interaction situation. In addition,
decreases in uncertainty level will cause increases in
nonverbal affinitive expressiveness.
Uncertainty…
 Information seeking: High levels of uncertainty cause

increases in information seeking behavior. As uncertainty
levels decline, information seeking behavior decreases.
 Self -disclosure: High levels of uncertainty in a
relationship cause decreases in the intimacy level of
communication content. Low levels of uncertainty
produce high levels of intimacy.
 Reciprocity: High levels of uncertainty produce high rates
of reciprocity. Low levels of uncertainty produce low
reciprocity rates.
 Similarity: Similarities between persons reduce
uncertainty, while dissimilarities produce increases in
uncertainty.
Uncertainty…
 Liking: Increases in uncertainty level produce decreases in
liking; decreases in uncertainty level produce increases in
liking.
 Shared networks: shared communication networks
reduce uncertainty, while lack of shared networks
increases uncertainty.
Strategies to cope with uncertainty
 After a serious of investigations, the pioneer scholar in
this theory, Berger, concluded that most social interaction
is goal- driven; we have reasons for saying what we say.
He labeled his work “a plan based theory of strategic
communication” because he was convinced that we
continually construct cognitive plans to guide our social
action.
Uncertainty…
 Seeking information and new perspectives: is a way in
which people in the interaction try to gather information
about each other so that they can determine and
anticipate the outcome. The process of finding new
perspective also helps to reduce uncertainty. When you
could not find your first choice, you go for similar
alternative this way you could cope with your uncertainty.
 Hedging: is the process by which participants of

communication give up some unclear assumptions they
have about the participant before the interaction and
tries to create positive interactional link. It works both
ways since they come closer through the hedging process.
Social information processing theory
• SIP is an interpersonal communication theory and
media studies theory developed in 1992 by
Joseph Walther.
• Social information processing theory explains
online interpersonal communication without
nonverbal cues and how people develop and
manage relationships in a computer-mediated
environment. Walther argued that online
interpersonal relationships may demonstrate the
same or even greater relational dimensions and
qualities (intimacy) as traditional FtF relationships.
Social info…
• However, due to the limited channel and
information, it may take longer to achieve than
FtF relationships.
• These online relationships may help facilitate
interactions that would not have occurred face-
to-face due to factors such as geography and
intergroup anxiety.
• The term Social Information Processing Theory
was originally titled by Salancik and Pfeffer in
1978.
Social info…
• They stated that individual perceptions,
attitudes, and behaviors are shaped by
information cues, such as values, work
requirements, and expectations from the social
environment, beyond the influence of individual
dispositions and traits. Later, they renamed
Social Influence model. The SIP theory we talk
here was conducted by Walther in 1992.
Social info…
 At the start of the 1990s, after the advent of the
Internet and the World Wide Web, interest grew in
studying how the Internet impacted the ways people
communicate with each other. Joseph Walther, a
communication and media theorist, said that computer-
mediated communication (CMC) users can adapt to this
restricted medium and use it effectively to develop close
relationships.
 Walther understood that to describe the new nature of
online communication required a new theory. Social
information processing theory focuses on the social
processes that occur when two or more people are
engaged in communication.
Social info…
Assumptions
• Social information processing researchers like Joseph
Walther are intrigued by how identities are managed
online and how relationships are able to move from one
of superficiality to one of intimacy.
Three assumptions related to the SIP theory are listed
below:
 Computer-mediated communication provides unique
opportunities to connect with people.
• The first assumption rests on the premise that computer-
mediated communication is a unique opportunity to build
interpersonal relationships with others.
Social info…
• The CMC systems are vast and almost always text based.
It has been identified as "an organic setting" and it can be
both synchronous and asynchronous.
• CMC is clearly different than face-to-face communication,
but it offers an unparalleled opportunity to meet
someone whom you would never meet FtF. Moreover,
relationships established via CMC systems also prompt
emotions and feelings we find in all relationships.
• Finally, since CMC systems are available around the globe,
the uniqueness of being able to cultivate online
relationships with someone who is very far away cannot
be ignored.
Social info…
 Online communicators are motivated to form
(favorable) impressions of themselves to others.
• The second assumption indicates that impression
management is essential in online relationships and
participants undertake efforts to ensure particular
impressions. Researchers have found that social
networking sites (SNS) like Facebook are filled with
people who wish to provide a number of different self-
presentations to others.
• Since the more Facebook friends one has, the more
attractive the individual is viewed to be, managing
one's online impression remains important on various
SNS and on numerous CMC system platforms.
Social info…
 Online interpersonal relationships require extended
time and more accumulated messages to develop
equivalent levels of intimacy seen in FtF interpersonal
relationships.
• The third assumption of SIP states that different rates
of information exchange and information accrual affect
relationship development.
• Social information processing theory is suggesting that
although the messages are verbal, communicators
"adapt" to the restrictions of online medium, look for
cues in the messages from others, and modify their
language to the extent that the words compensate for
the lack of nonverbal cues.
Social info…
• This third assumption reflects Walther's
contention that given sufficient time and accrual
of messages, online relationships have the same
capacity to become intimate as those that are
established face to face.
• In addition, online comments are usually
delivered rather quickly and efficiently.
• Further, these messages "build up" over time and
provide online participants sufficient information
from which to begin and develop interpersonal
relationships.
Interactional view theory
• Relationships within a family system are interconnected
and highly resistant to change.
• Communication among members has both a content and
relationship component.
• The system can be transformed only when members
receive outside help to reframe the relational punctuation.
• The Interactional View is also known as the theory of
pragmatics because of the dependence on the particular
situation at hand.
• Miscommunication occurs because people are not
"speaking the same language." These languages contrast
because people have different points of view from which
they are speaking.
Constructivism
• Constructivism is a communication theory that
seeks to explain individual differences in people’s
ability to communicate skillfully in social
situations.
• You probably do not need to be convinced that
some people are better at understanding,
attracting, persuading, informing, comforting, or
entertaining others with whom they talk.
Constructivism…
• In fact, you may take communication courses so

that you can become more adept at reaching
these communication goals.
• Also some might suspect that communication
success is simply a matter of becoming more
assertive or outgoing, Jesse Delia believes that
there is a crucial behind-the-eyes- difference in
people who are interpersonally effective.
Constructivism…
• His theory of constructivism offers a cognitive
explanation for communication competence.
• The core assumption of constructivism is that
“persons make sense of the world through
systems of personal constructs.” Constructs are
the cognition templates, or stencils, we fit over
“reality” to bring order to our perceptions.
Social Judgment Theory
• We hear a message and immediately judge
where it should be placed on the attitude scale
in our minds.
• According to Muzafer Sherif, this subconscious
sorting out of ideas occurs at the instance of
perception. We weigh every new idea by
comparing it with our present point of view.
• This is called social judgment theory. Sheriff by
his two studies found that people’s perceptions
are altered dramatically by group membership.
Social Judgment…
• Social judgment theory extended his concern
with perception to the field of persuasion. He
saw an attitude as an amalgam of three zones.
 The first zone is called the latitude of acceptance.
It’s made up of the item you underlined and any
others you circled as acceptance.
 A second zone is the latitude of rejection. It
consists of the opinion you crossed out as
objectionable.
Social Judgment…
 The left over statements, if any, define the
latitude of non-commitment.
• These were the items that you found neither
objectionable nor acceptable. They are akin to
marking undecided or no opinion on a
traditional altitude survey.
• Sheriff said we need to know the location and
width of each of these interrelated latitudes in
order to describe a person’s attitude structure.
Cognitive dissonance theory
• Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable
feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas
simultaneously.
• The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes
that people have a motivational drive to reduce
dissonance.
• They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs,
and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by
justifying, blaming, and denying.
Cognitive dissonance…
• Experience can clash with expectations, as, for

example, with buyer's remorse following the
purchase of an expensive item.
• In a state of dissonance, people may feel
surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment.
People are biased to think of their choices as
correct, despite any contrary evidence.
• This bias gives dissonance theory its predictive
power, shedding light on otherwise puzzling
irrational and destructive behavior.
Cognitive dissonance…
• Smoking is often postulated as an example of

cognitive dissonance because it is widely accepted
that cigarettes can cause lung cancer, yet virtually
everyone wants to live a long and healthy life.
• In terms of the theory, the desire to live a long life
is dissonant with the activity of doing something
that will most likely shorten one's life.
• The tension produced by these contradictory
ideas can be reduced by quitting smoking,
denying the evidence of lung cancer, or justifying
one is smoking.
4. Group and public Communication Theories
Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making
• Hirokawa and Gouran are convinced that group
interaction has a positive effect on the final decision.
Hirokawa seeks quality solutions. Gouran desires
decisions that are appropriate.
• Both scholars regard talk as the social tool that helps
groups reach better conclusions than they otherwise
would. As the Hebrew proverb suggests, “Without
counsel plans go wrong, but with many advisers they
succeed.”
The functional perspective specifies what
communication must accomplish for jointly made
Functional Perspective…
Four Functions of Effective Decision Making
• Hirokawa and Gouran draw an analogy between
small groups and biological systems.
• Complex living organisms must satisfy a number
of functions, such as respiration, circulation,
digestion, and elimination of bodily waste, if
they are to survive and thrive in an ever-
changing environment.
Functional Perspective…
• In like manner, Hirokawa and Gouran see the group decision-
making process as needing to fulfill four task requirements if
members are to reach a high-quality solution.
• They refer to these conditions as requisite functions of
effective decision making—thus the “functional perspective”
label.
• The four functions are:-
1) problem analysis
2) goal setting
3) identification of alternatives, and
4) evaluation of positive and negative characteristics of
each alternative.
Adaptive Structuration Theory
• Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) seeks to
understand the types of structures that are
provided by advanced technologies and the
structures that actually emerge in human action as
people interact with these technologies.
• AST offers an explanation for the use and effects of
technologies in organizations.
• AST focuses on the dynamic relationship between
the structures provided by technologies (e.g.,
document sharing) and the ways in which those
structures are used by organizational members (e.g.,
collaboratively produced documents).
Adaptive Structuration…
• Poole believes that group members affect outcomes
and calls his theory adaptive because he thinks that
group members intentionally adapt rules and
resources to accomplish goals.
• AST is an approach for studying the role of advanced
information technologies in organizational change.
• The theory seeks to understand the types of
structures that are provided by advanced
technologies and the structures that actually
emerge in human action as people interact with
these technologies.
• The decision making school is a positivist
approach that emphasizes cognitive processes
associated with rational decision-making.
• It proposes that technology should bring
productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction to
individuals and organizations and posits that
failure to achieve desired change reflects a failure
in the technology, its implementation, or its
delivery to the organization.
• The institutional school is an interpretive
approach to research that focuses on social
structure and human interaction.
• The study of technology is seen as an opportunity
for change, not a causal agent of change.
• This school promotes the belief that people
generate social constructions of technology using
resources, interpretive schemes, and norms
embedded in the larger institutional context.
• The social technology school is an integrative
approach of the positivist and the interpretive.
• It says that technology has structures in its own
right but that social practices moderate their
effect on behavior.
• AST focuses on social structures, rules, and
resources provided by technologies and institutions
as the basis for human activity.
• The theory purports that structures in technology
and structures in action are continually intertwined,
continuously shaping each other.
• Social structures provided by advanced information
technology have two parts.
 First, structural features are specific types of rules
and resources, or capabilities, offered by the
system.
 Second, spirit is the general intent with regard to
values and goals underlying a given set of
structural features.
• Spirit helps users understand and interpret the
meaning of technology.
 Examples of dimensions that characterize the
spirit of a social structure include: decision
process, leadership, efficiency, conflict
management, and atmosphere.
Information Theory
• Information is viewed as a measure of entropy or
measure of uncertainty in the system.
• In the information theory of communication, a
source produces a message and this message is
passed along a channel to a receiver that interprets
the message.
• The channel bandwidth that affects the level of
information that can transmitted; bandwidth is a
measure of communicative capacity. For example, in
modern terms, if we connect the Internet via
modem, its bandwidth affects how fast we can
download data.
Information Theory…
• A channel’s bandwidth may also be limited by the form
that the communication has. For example, when
speaking on a telephone, the channel is limited to
audio- only data; visual information isn’t
communicated.
• Wiener points out that the effectiveness of
communication in such a model is dependent on
quality of channel.
• High quality channel transmits only the information
that the sender communicates, whereas a poor quality
channel may be contaminated by extraneous
information, what Wiener referred to as background
noise.
• In the information theory model, meaning is in
the message. This message transmits from point
in a linear fashion, self-regulated via feedback
loops between source and receiver.
• Shannon and weaver’s information theory has
had a significant influence on the development
of communication theory. There are however a
number of drawbacks to their model.
Significantly, the information theory model
disregards the influence of contexts and
environments on communication.
• It assumes that all communication travels from point
to point, either from one source to one receiver, or
from many source to many receivers. Rather than
being viewed as contextual influences, extraneous
information is considered to be noise, which the
receiver must filter out in order to discern the
meaning of the message.
• Essentially, Shannon and Weaver’s information theory
reflects a cybernetic view of communication that is
entirely focused on “nodes” (speaker and hearers),
which are connected only to each other and not with
their contexts.
Cultural Approach to Organizations
• Cultural approach to organization is a theory that
looks into how organizations and business have
their own corporate culture with in its
environment.
• The theory explores what exactly cultural is in a
corporate context and how it effects the
environment, and once culture is established can
it be changed.
• Geertz wrote that “man is an animal suspended in
webs of significations that he himself has spun”.
Cultural Approach…
• Cultural approach to organization focuses on
three types of stories: Corporate, personal and
collegial.
 Corporate stories are ones that focus in
management and reinforcing company policy
 while personal stories are those of the
employees and are usually how they want to
be viewed within the company.
 Collegial stories are positive and negative ones
that are told about others within the
environment.
Critical Theory of Communication in Org.
• The critical approach to organizational

communication defines that organizations are
locations of domination with power and control as
central.
• It's based on the idea that power is not equally
distributed.
• The critical approach is based on a traditional
hierarchy with several organizational levels of
power.
Critical Theory of Communication in Org…
• It was designed to explore ways to insure the
organizations’ health while increasing the
representation of diverse human interests.
• Deetz does this first by showing that corporations
have become political as well as economic
institutions.
• Deetz then employs advances in communication
theory to point out how communication practices
within a corporation can distort decision making.
• Finally, he outlines how workplaces can become
more productive and democratic through
• Humanists feel that meanings are in people not words.
Deetz accepts this but goes another step and wants to
know whose meanings are in people.
• The companies meanings, the CEO’s meanings, the
perception the companies give as their meanings, this is
what Deetz is looking for.
• When people use slang in big business, they begin to put
corporate values in to play.
• According to EM Griffin, this theory is critical in that he
wants to critique the assumption that “what’s good for
General Motors is good for the country.”
• Furthermore, Deetz feels that most people fall into the
norm that is presented to them from corporate America.
• Companies in today’s society are appearing more
democratic.
• They appear as more focused on the worker, the
consumer, and society than their monetary needs. Is
this to say that they are not concerned with money?
No. The bottom line for the company is cash.
• However, the latest strategy is perception. How the
company is perceived, makes a huge difference in how
society interprets them.
• This theory will help us understand consent practices
in the workplace. Corporations tend to make critical
decisions for the public, regardless of if they know or
not.
The Rhetoric
• Aristotle, like Plato, deplored the demagoguery of
speakers using their skill to move an audience
while showing a casual indifference to the truth.
• But unlike Plato, he saw the tools of rhetoric as a
neutral means by which the orator could either
accomplish noble ends or further fraud: “. . . by
using these justly one would do the greatest good,
and unjustly, the greatest harm.”
• Aristotle believed that truth has a moral
superiority that makes it more acceptable than
falsehood.
The Rhetoric…
• But unscrupulous opponents of the truth may fool a
dull audience unless an ethical speaker uses all
possible means of persuasion to counter the error.
• Speakers who neglect the art of rhetoric have only
themselves to blame when their hearers choose
falsehood.
• Success requires wisdom and eloquence.
• The Rhetoric is a searching study of audience
psychology.
• Aristotle raised rhetoric to a science by systematically
exploring the effects of the speaker, the speech, and
the audience.
The Rhetoric…
RHETORIC: MAKING PERSUASION PROBABLE
• Aristotle saw the function of rhetoric as the
discovery in each case of “the available means of
persuasion.”
• Aristotle raised rhetoric to a science by
systematically exploring the effects of the
speaker, the speech, and the audience.
• He regarded the speaker’s use of this knowledge
as an art.
The Rhetoric…
• Rhetorical theory is based on the available means
of persuasion.
• That is, a speaker who is interested in persuading
his/her audience should consider three rhetorical
proofs: logical, emotional, and ethical.
• Audiences are key to effective persuasion as well.
rhetorical syllogism, requiring audiences to
supply missing pieces of a speech, are also used
in persuasion.
The Rhetoric…
• There are three kinds of artistic proofs: logical
(logos), ethical (ethos), and emotional (pathos).
• Logical proof comes from the line of argument in
the speech, ethical proof is the way the speaker’s
character is revealed through the message, and
emotional proof is the feeling the speech draws
out of the hearers.
• Some form of logos, ethos, and pathos is present
in every public presentation,
Dramatism
• Burke believed that language is a strategic human
response to a specific situation.
• Verbal symbols are meaningful acts from which
motives can be derived.
• As Burke viewed it, life is not like a drama; life is
drama.
• This theoretical position compares life to a drama.
• As in dramatic action, life requires an actor, a
scene, an act, some means for the action to take
place, and a purpose.
Dramatism…
• Burke’s pentad directs the critic’s attention to five
crucial elements of the human drama-act, scene,
agent, agency, and purpose.
• In a well-rounded statement about motives, you
must have some word that names the act (names
what took place in thought or deed), and another
that names the scene (the background of the act,
the situation in which it occurred); also you must
indicate what means or instruments he used
(agency), and the purpose.
Narrative Paradigm
• This theory argues that ‘people are story telling
animals.’
• Fisher thinks that human communication reveals
something more basic than rationality, curiosity, or
even symbol-using capacity.
• He is convinced that we are narrative beings who
‘experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing
narratives, as conflicts, characters, beginnings, middles,
and ends.’
• If this is true, then all forms of human communication
that appeals to our reason need to be seen
fundamentally as stories.
Narrative Paradigm…
• Fisher defines narration as “symbolic actions-
words and/or deeds-that have sequence and
meaning for those who live, create, or interpret
them.”
• The definition: narration is communication
rooted in time and space.
• It covers every aspect of our lives and the lives of
others in regard to character, motive, and action.
Narrative Paradigm…
• Even when a message seems abstract-is devoid of
imagery- it is narration because it is embedded in
the speaker’s ongoing story that has a beginning,
middle, and end, and it invites listeners to
interpret its meaning and assess its value for their
own lives.
Social Learning Theory
o Social learning theory is a general theory of human
behaviour, but Bandura and people concerned with
mass communication (e.g TV news) have used it
specifically to explain media effects.
o Bandura warned that children and adults acquire
attitudes, emotional responses, and new styles of
conduct through filmed and televised modelling.
o Albert Bandura cautioned that TV might create a
violent reality that was worth fearing.
o Bandura's warning struck a responsive chord in
parents and educators who feared that escalating
violence on TV would transform children into bullies.
Social Learning…
o He explains that social learning or "observational
learning" involves how behaviours and attitudes
can be modeled merely by observing the
behaviours and attitudes of others.
o For example, mass media contents showing
violent behaviour towards a specific ethnic group
or widely distributing stereotypes pertaining to
gender characteristics (e.g. girls are emotional
and boys are logical) may be learned and
imitated on the individual level.
Social Learning…
o If negative outcomes result and become

widespread, the line between mass media's
accountability and individual accountability may
not be apparent thus creating a cycle where
mass media play the "individuals can make their
own decisions" game while individuals
comprising society collectively learns via media
to internalize negative attitude towards
minorities.
Social Learning…
o An important factor of Bandura’s social learning
theory is the emphasis on reciprocal
determinism.
o This notion states that an individual’s behaviour
is influenced by the environment and
characteristics of the person.
o In other words, a person’s behaviour,
environment, and personal qualities all
reciprocally influence each other.
o Bandura proposed that the modeling process
involves several steps:
Social Learning…
 Attention – in order for an individual to learn something,
they must pay attention to the features of the modeled
behaviour.
 Retention – humans need to be able to remember
details of the behaviour in order to learn and later
reproduce the behaviour.
 Reproduction – in reproducing a behavior, an individual
must organize his or her responses in accordance with
the model behavior.
 Motivation – there must be an incentive or motivation
driving the individual’s reproduction of the behaviour.
 Even if all of the above factors are present, the person
will not engage in the behaviour without motivation.
Spiral of Silence Theory
 The focus of the spiral of silence theory is on how
public opinion is formed.
 The theory explains why people often feel the
need to conceal their opinions, preference or
views etc, especially when they fall within the
minority of a group.
 The mass media play an important role in the
spiral effect process
 The mass media play a powerful role here, in that
they define the dominant views and add
importance to it.
Spiral of Silence…
 The tendency of one to speak up and the other
to be silent starts off a spiral process which
increasingly establishes one opinion as the
prevailing one.
 Because of the power of the media, the media
can wield and canvass popular views so that
individual views in opposition of the media
become unpopular.
 The theory identifies two reasons why people
remain silence;
 Fear of isolation when the group or public
realizes that the individual has a divergent
opinion from the status quo.
 Fear of reprisal or more extreme isolation, in the
sense that voicing said opinion might lead to a
negative consequence beyond that of mere
isolation (loss of a job, relationship or status,
etc.)
 Individuals who perceive their own opinion as

being accepted will express it, whilst those who
think themselves as being a minority, suppress
their views.
 Innovators and change agents are unafraid to
voice different opinions, as they do not fear
isolation.
5. Intercultural Communication Theories/Gender and
Communication Theories
Anxiety Uncertainty Management Theory

• Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) theory is
known as the high levels of anxiety one may experience
as they come in contact with those of another culture.
• Gudykunst believed that in order for successful
intercultural communication a reduction in
anxiety/uncertainty must occur.
• This is assuming that the individuals within the
intercultural encounter are strangers. AUM is a theory
based on the Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) which
was introduced by Berger and Calabrese in 1974.
AUM theory…
• AUM theory defines how humans effectively
communicate based on their balance of anxiety
and uncertainty in social situations.
D/ces between URT/AUM
 URT is based on human thought processes and
their approach to social situations in which they
have uncertainty. URT suggests that uncertainty
stems from human attempts to proactively
predict the other's attitudes, values, feelings,
beliefs and behaviors during social encounters.
AUM theory…
 Humans attempt to reduce their uncertainty in
social encounters when there is a motivation to
do so.
 URT highlights three core motivations in reducing
this uncertainty:
 the human anticipates other social interaction
at another point in time,
 the recipient has something the human needs
or wants as a form of reward,
 the recipient is acting in a strange or deviant
way which is unexpected.
AUM theory…
• AUM focuses on both anxiety and uncertainty
reduction, highlighting the major difference
between URT and AUM.
• The intended outcome of URT is simply to reduce
uncertainty, whereas AUM's outcome is for
cultural adaptation and not solely the reduction
of uncertainty.
• The inherent difference is that managing anxiety
is to maintain it between minimum and
maximum thresholds along a spectrum, while
reducing anxiety is unidirectional.
AUM theory…
• Gudykunst assumed that at least one person in
an intercultural encounter is a stranger.
• He argues that strangers undergo both anxiety
and uncertainty; they do not feel secure and
they are not sure how to behave.
• Gudykunst noted that strangers and in-group
members experience some degree of anxiety
and uncertainty in any new interpersonal
situation, but when the encounter takes place
b/n people of d/nt cultures, strangers are
hyperaware of cultural differences.
AUM theory…
• They then tend to overestimate the effect of
cultural identity on the behavior of people in an
alien society, while blurring individual
distinctions.
• The purpose of the first iteration of AUM was to
be a practical application with a high degree of
utility.
• The format of AUM includes numerous axioms,
which in turn converge on one another, moving
in the direction of effective communication.
Face-Nagotiation Theory
 Stella Ting-Toomey’s face-negotiation theory helps to
explain cultural differences in responses to conflict.
 Ting-Toomey assumes that people of every culture
are always negotiation face.
 The term is a metaphor for our public self-image,
way we want others to see us and treat us.
 Face-work refers to specific verbal and nonverbal
messages that help to maintain and restore face loss,
and to uphold and honorface gain.
 Our identity can always be called into question, and
the anxiety and uncertainty churned up by conflict
make us especially vulnerable.
Face-Nagotiation…
 This theory suggests that face maintenance is the
crucial intervening variable that tie culture to
people’s ways of handling conflict.
 Ting-Toomey bases her face-negotiation theory
on the distinction between collectivism and
individualism.
 The most extensive differentiation between the
two types of cultures has been made.
 Harry Triandis says that the three important
distinctions between collectivistic and
individualistic cultures are the different ways
members perceive self, goals, and duty.
Face-Nagotiation…
 More than two-thirds of the world’s people are
born into collectivistic cultures, while less than
one-third of the population live in individualistic
cultures.
 Triandis says that the Japanese value collective
needs and goals over individual needs and goals
 They assume that in the long run, each individual
decision affects everyone in the group.
 Therefore, a person’s behavior is controlled by
the norms of the group.
Face-Nagotiation…
 This we-identity of Japanese is quite foreign to
the I-identity of the Americans whose values
individualistic needs and goals over group needs
and goals.
 The American’s behavior is governed by the
personal rules of a freewheeling self that is
concerns with individual rights rather than group
responsibilities.
Face-Nagotiation…
 For Japanese, unique individual differences seem
less important than group-based information.
 Americas assume that every person is unique, and
they reduce uncertainty by asking questions to the
point of cross-examination.
 Face-negotiation theory is based on face
management which describes how people from
different cultures manage conflict negotiation in
order to maintain face.
 Self-face and other-face concerns explain the
conflict negotiation between people from various
cultures.
Speech Codes Theory
• Speech codes theory refers to a framework for
communication in a given speech community.
• As an academic discipline, it explores the
manner in which groups communicate based on
societal, cultural, gender, occupational or other
factors.
• A speech code can also be defined as a
historically enacted socially constructed system
of terms, meanings, premises, and rules,
pertaining to communicative conduct.
•
Speech Codes…
• This theory seeks to answer questions about the
existence of speech codes, their substance, the
way they can be discovered, and their force
upon people within a culture.
• This theory deals with only one type of human
behavior, which is speech acts.
• Basil Bernstein define speech code as a coding
principle is a rule governing what to say and how
to say it in a particular context.
The Genderlect Style Theory
• Genderlect theory proposes that there are
separate languages based on gender.
• The core of this theory explains how different sets
of linguistic features used by males and females
develop through the gender acculturation process
and how these gender-linked language features.
• Communication is a necessary skill for success in
life.
• Misunderstandings in communication occur
frequently between people due to language and
perceptual differences.
The Genderlect Style…
• In intimate relationships, this misunderstanding in
communication between the man and the woman
leads to great agitation and tension -- seemingly
the two sexes speak in completely different
vernaculars.
• The Genderlect style theory explains that men and
women talk in distinct cultural dialects and
mannerisms, which reflect the different genders’
objectives; men desire status and achievement,
while women desire personal connections and
relationships.
• In genderlects, there is no superior or inferior
method of communication, but rather, men and
women just communicate differently.
• By understanding these differences, one can
reduce the amount of misunderstandings in
future conversations.
• The circle of influence and experience were
different between men and women because of
the differences in philosophies of life.
• The differences in philosophies of life created
communication problems between men and
women.
• What seemed to be interesting to one person
would not be interesting to another.
• The key to a successful relationship would be to
communicate with your spouse in all aspects of
life, even if it was not a mutual interest.
• The author of Sex, Lies, and Conversation, Deborah
Tannen, explained how men and women
communicated differently through listening skills,
body language, and emotions.
Standpoint Theory
• Standpoint theorists Harding and Wood claim
that one of the best ways to discover how the
world works is to start the inquiry from the stand
point of women and other groups on the margin
of society.
• A stand point is the place from which to view the
world around us.
• Whatever our vantage point, its location tends to
focus our attention on some features of the
natural and social landscape while obscuring
others.
Standpoint…
• Synonyms for standpoint include viewpoint,
perspective, outlook, and position.
Each of these words suggests a specific location in time
and space where observation takes place while
referring to values or attitudes.
• Harding and Wood think the connection is no accident.
• As standpoint theorists, they claim that the social
groups within which we are located powerfully shape
what we experience and know as well as how we
understand and communicate with ourselves, others,
and the world.
• Our standpoint affects our world view.
Standpoint…
• Standpoint theorists suggest that we can use the
inequalities of gender, race, class, and sexual
orientation to observe how location within the
social hierarchy tends to generate distinction
accounts of nature and social relationships.
• Specifically, Harding claims that when people
speak from the opposite sides of power relations,
the perspective from the lives of the less
powerful can provide a more objective view than
the perspective from the lives of more powerful.
• Her main focus is the standpoint of women who
are marginalized.
Muted Group Theory
• Kramarae maintains that language is literary a
man-made construction.
• The language of a particular culture does not
serve all its speakers equally, for not all speakers
contribute in an equal fashion to its formulation.
• Women (and members of other subordinate
groups) are not as free or as able as men are to
say their uses have been formulated by the
dominant group men.
Muted Group…
• According to Kramarae and other feminist
theorists, women’s words are discounted in our
society; women’s thoughts are devalued.
• When women try to overcome this inequality,
the masculine control of communication places
them at a tremendous disadvantage.
• Man-made language aids in defining,
depreciating and excluding women.
• Women are thus a muted group.
Seduction of the Innocent Theory
• Seduction of the Innocent cited overt or covert
depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other
adult fare within "crime comics – a term
Wertham used to describe not only the popular
gangster/murder-oriented titles of the time, but
superhero and horror comics as well.
• The book asserted that reading this material
encouraged similar behavior in children.
Seduction…
• Comics, especially the crime/horror titles
pioneered…were not lacking in gruesome
images; Wertham reproduced these extensively,
pointing out what he saw as recurring morbid
themes such as "injury to the eye".
• Many of his other conjectures, particularly about
hidden sexual themes (e.g. images of female
nudity concealed in drawings or Batman and
Robin as gay partners), were met with derision
within the comics industry.
Seduction…
• At this time homosexuality was still viewed as a
mental disorder by society; still being officially
classified as such by the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders.
• Wertham critiqued the commercial environment of
comic book publishing and retailing, objecting to
air rifles and knives advertised alongside violent
stories.
• Beginning in 1948, Wertham wrote and spoke
widely, arguing about the detrimental effects that
comics reading had on young people.
Seduction…
• Consequently, Seduction of the Innocent serves
as a culminating expression of his sentiments
about comics and presents augmented examples
and arguments, rather than wholly new material.
• Wertham's concerns were not limited to comics'
impact on boys.
• He also expressed a concern for the effect of
impossibly proportioned female characters on
girl readers.
Relational Dialectics Theory
 Relational dialectics is an interpersonal
communication theory about close personal ties and
relationships that highlights the tensions, struggles
and interplay (reciprocal action & reaction) between
contrary tendencies.
 The theory proposed by Leslie Baxter and Barbara
Montgomery in 1988, defines communication
patterns between relationship partners as the result
of endemic dialectical tensions.
 Dialectics are described as the tensions an individual
feels when experiencing paradoxical desires that we
need and/or want.
Relational Dialectics…
 Relational dialectics highlight the tension, struggle,
and general messiness of close personal ties.
 According to Baxter, the best way we can grasp
relationship dialectics is to look at a narrative in which
competing discourses are etched in bold relief.
 Contradiction is a core concept of relational dialectics.
 Contradiction refers to the dynamic interplay between
unified oppositions.
 A contradiction is formed whenever two tendencies or
forces are interdependent (the dialectical principle of
unity) yet mutually negate one another (the
dialectical principle of negation).
 Baxter and Montgomery suggest that couples take
advantage of the opportunity it provides: From a
relational dialectics perspective, bonding occurs in
both interdependence with the other and
independence from the other.
 One without the other diminishes the relationship.
 It’s important to understand that when Baxter uses
the term relational dialectics, she is not referring to
being of two minds— the cognitive dilemma within
the head of an individual who is grappling with
conflicting desires.
 Instead, she’s describing the contradictions that are
“located in the relationship between parties, produced
and reproduced through the parties’ joint communicative
activity.”
 So dialectical tension is the natural product or
unavoidable result of our conversations rather than the
motive force guiding what we say in them.
 And despite the fact that we tend to think of any kind of
conflict as detrimental to our relationships, Baxter and
Montgomery believe that these contradictions can be
constructive.
 That’s fortunate, because these theorists are convinced
that dialectics in relationships are inevitable.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
 The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion is a
dual process theory describing the change of attitudes.
 The ELM was developed by Richard E. Petty and John
Cacioppo in 1980.
 The model aims to explain different ways of processing
stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on
attitude change.
 The elaboration likelihood model explains how people
can be persuaded to change their attitudes.
 When people are invested in a topic and have the time
and energy to think over an issue, they're more likely
to be persuaded through the central route
Elaboration Likelihood…
 The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is
designed to discover how it's possible that there
are differences in persuasion.
 The model also shows these differences affect
people's attitudes.
 Elaboration in this model therefore refers to the
cognitive action that occurs when analyzing a
persuasive argument.
 The central route involves message elaboration.
Elaboration is “the extent to which a person
carefully thinks about issue-relevant arguments
contained in a persuasive communication.”
 In an attempt to process new information
rationally, people using the central route carefully
scrutinize the ideas, try to figure out if they have
true merit, and mull over their implications.
 Similar to Berger’s characterization of strategic
message plans, elaboration requires high levels of
cognitive effort.
 The peripheral route offers a mental shortcut
path to accepting or rejecting a message
“without any active thinking about the attributes
of the issue or the object of consideration.”
• Instead of doing extensive cognitive work, recipients
rely on a variety of cues that allow them to make quick
decisions. Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University
lists six cues that trigger a “click, whirr” programmed
response. These cues allow us to fly the peripheral route
on automatic pilot:
1. Reciprocation—“You owe me.”
2. Consistency—“We’ve always done it that way.”
3. Social proof—“Everybody’s doing it.”
4. Liking—“Love me, love my ideas.”
5. Authority—“Just because I say so.”
6. Scarcity—“Quick, before they’re all gone.”
Interpersonal Deception Theory
• Interpersonal deception theory (IDT) is one of a
number of theories that attempts to explain how
individuals handle actual (or perceived) deception
at the conscious or subconscious level while
engaged in face-to-face communication.
• The theory was put forth by David Buller and Judee
Burgoon in 1996 to explore this idea that
deception is an engaging process between receiver
and deceiver.
• IDT assumes that communication is not static; it is
influenced by personal goals and the meaning of
the interaction as it unfolds.
Interpersonal Deception…
• The sender's overt (and covert) communications
are affected by the overt and covert
communications of the receiver, and vice versa.
• Intentional deception requires greater cognitive
exertion than truthful communication, regardless
of whether the sender attempts falsification
(lying), concealment (omitting material facts) or
equivocation (skirting issues by changing the
subject or responding indirectly).
• IDT explores the interrelation between the
sender's communicative meaning and the
receiver's thoughts and behavior in deceptive
exchanges.
• Previous research into deception was more
focused on the strategies and effects of lying,
leading Burgoon and Buller's research to pave the
way in which researchers would look at
deception as an interactive communication
process in the decades to come.
• IDT proposes that the majority of individuals
overestimate their ability to detect deception.
• In some cultures, various means of deception are
acceptable while other forms are not.
• Acceptance of deception can be found in language
terms that classify, rationalize or condemn, such
behavior.
• Deception that may be considered a simple white
lie to save feelings may be determined socially
acceptable, while deception used to gain certain
advantages can be determined to be ethically
questionable.
• It has been estimated that “deception and
suspected deception arise in at least one quarter of
all conversations”.
• Interpersonal deception detection between
partners is difficult unless a partner tells an outright
lie or contradicts something the other partner
knows is true.
• While it is difficult to deceive a person over a long
period of time, deception often occurs in day-to-day
conversations between relational partners.
• Detecting deception is difficult because it places a
significant cognitive load on the deceiver.

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Communication Theories

The Nature and Definition of Communication

 misreading of body language, tone and other non-

• Denis McQuail (“Towards a Sociology of Mass

 Self-concept is the basis for intrapersonal communication,

Beliefs, values and attitudes all influence

• Whereas self-concept focuses internally,

Intrapersonal communication may involve different levels

 Solo vocal communication includes speaking

• Interpersonal communication is communication

 Theories are man’s attempt to travel on the

 Explanation of data: good objective theory

Lasswell’s chain of communication and propaganda

• This was based on the idea that there are a

Meaning: the Construction of Social Reality

• As human beings, we have the ability to name

• Blumer’ third premise is that an individual’s

 The theory proposed that closeness occurs

• During interactions, individuals are not only

 Information seeking: High levels of uncertainty cause

 Hedging: is the process by which participants of

• In fact, you may take communication courses so

• Experience can clash with expectations, as, for

• Smoking is often postulated as an example of

• The critical approach to organizational

o If negative outcomes result and become

 Individuals who perceive their own opinion as

Anxiety Uncertainty Management Theory

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