Intro to Comm Perspectives

8/11/2019 Intro to Comm Perspectives

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Communication perspectives We will discuss:

What is communication

Some definitions

Approaches

Types

Models

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Definitions Society is a highly intricate network of partial

or complete understandings between the

members of organisational units of everydegree of size and complexity

Every cultural pattern and every single act ofsocial behaviour involves communication ineither explicit or implicit sense

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Definitions Communication is talking to one

another; it is television; it is spreading

information; it is hairstyle or attire, andalso it is literary criticism

The list could be endless

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Definitions Talking itself could be by means of

language, sound, sign, gesture, colour

and so on.

Similarly, information could be spread

through mass media, a web ofcomputer network (internet) and othersuch means

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Definitions Communication is also understood as

the exchanging of understanding

Communication consists of transmittinginformation from one person to another

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Definitions Communication also means the sign language

of the hearing impaired, a bill board

Communication has come to include means oftransportation, the system of sendingmessages from one point to the other andreceiving the same

and also the system of moving troops andsupply

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Definitions Some of the more functional definitions of

communication:

the transfer of meaning,

the transmission of social values,

the sharing of experience,

social interaction through messages

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Definitions Perhaps it would be appropriate to think

of communication as a series of actions

or operations, always in motion,directed toward a particular goal; not astatic entity fixed in time and space but

a dynamic process used to transfer ofmeaning, transmission of social valuesand sharing of experiences

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Approaches to study of communication Broadly two schools:

Transmission or the process school: It sees communication as the transmission of

messages It tends to address itself to acts of communication

Semiotic or ritual school It sees communication as the production and

exchange of meaning. It tends to address itself to works of communication

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Approaches to study of communication

The transmission school seescommunication as a process by which

information is transmitted betweenindividuals and/or organisations so thatan understanding response results

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In the simplest way we can say that this"understanding response" from a fellow

human being is received as feedback.

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Communication is an endless current passingthrough us -- changed, to be sure, by our

interpretation, our habits, our abilities andcapabilities, but the input still being reflectedin the output.[i]

[i]. De Vito, Joseph A (1976): The InterpersonalCommunication Book, New York, Harper & Row Publishers.

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Semiotic Approach:

It sees communication as the production andexchange of meanings.

Concerned with how messages, or texts,

interact with people in order to producemeanings; that is, it is concerned with the

role of texts in our culture.

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Semiotic Approach:

Misunderstanding is not necessarilytreated as an evidence ofcommunication failure in this approach.

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How do you see 3 Idiots?

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Semiotic Approach:

It believes that the cultural differencesbetween sender and receiver may give rise tomisunderstanding

So the focus is on the study of text andculture with the main method of study beingsemiotics

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Approaches to study of communication Definition of communication:

Social interaction through messages

Interpretation of social interaction throughmessages" in their own ways

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Transmission school: Defines social interactionas the process by which one person relates

himself/herself to others or affects thebehaviour, state of mind or emotional responseof another and vice versa

Semiotics: Defines social interaction as aprocess which constitutes an individual as amember of his or her culture or society

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Approaches to study of communication For instance, a person knows that he/she responds to

the budgetary speech of the country's financeminister or a Satyajit Ray film in broadly the same

way as members of his/her culture.

He or she also becomes aware of cultural differencesif he/she finds a rural youth unable to relatemeaningfully to either of the two.

One expresses one's commonality with othermembers of the society by responding "normally" to

a given setting

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Types of communicaiton

What could be the types?

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Intrapersonal

Interpersonal

Group

Mass

Mass line Interactive communication

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Three stages of interpersonalcommunication

The phatic stage

The personal stage

The intimate stage

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Types of communication

Mass-line

Lead by example

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Process of communication

Explained through models ofcommunication

What are models?

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Classical models of communication

Aristotalian

Rhetoric

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Aristotalian

Rhetoric: the faculty of observing inany given case the available means ofpersuasion (Rhetoric)

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Aristotle

Speaker-centered model developed byRoman educator Quintilian (ca. 35-95

AD) whose Institutio Oratoriawas filled

with advice on the full training of agood speaker-statesman

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Models of communication

Laswell's model:

Who says what to whom in whatchannel with what effect

-- (Laswell, Herald D (1960) in "The Structure and Function ofCommunication" in Society in Mass Communication , (ed) WilburSchramm, Urbana, Illinois, University of Illinois.)

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Shannon and Weaver's model:

(In their book "The Mathematical Theory of Communication)

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Schramm's models:

(In "How Communication Works" in The Process and Effects of MassCommunication, (1954) Urbana, University of Illinois Press)

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Schramm's models:


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Schramm's models:


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Katz and Lazarsfeld's model:

The "two-step flow" concept ofcommunication

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Hypodermic Needle Model:

Used in a big way in communication fordevelopment support initiatives

Audience treated impressionable and open tomanipulation

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Westley and MacLean model:

(Ruben in Communication and Human Behaviour, (1984) New York,Macmillan)

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Westley and MacLean model

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Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Basic elements: source, message, channeland receiver but for each of these he lists anumber of controlling factors

stresses the idea that "meanings are in

people, not in words"

(in "The Process of Communication, 1960)

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Source:

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Source:

Comm skills

Attitudes

Knowledge

Social system

Culture

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Message:

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Message:

Elements

Structure

Content

Treatment

Code

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Channel:

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Channel:

Seeing

Hearing

Touching

Smelling

Tasting

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Receiver:

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Receiver:

Comm skills

Attitudes

Acknowledge

Social system

Culture

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Newcombs ABX model:

First to introduce as factor the role ofcommunication in a society or socialrelationships

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Newcombs ABX model:

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A B

X


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Newcombs ABX model:

A and B are communicators

X the situation or social context in whichcommunication takes place

A, B interact with X and with each other

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Newcombs ABX model:

Balance is maintained in the comm processthrough desirable adjustments

Continuous and twp-way feedback ensures

this

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Berger:

Sees media as a metadiscipline

Combines theories from various disciplines:

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Models of communication: Berger

Semiotics

Aesthetics theory

Psychoanalytic theory

Sociological theory

Political theory

Anthropological Theory

Literary theory

Philosophical thought

Historical perspectives

Comparative perspective

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Models of communication: Berger

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Medium

Audience

Art work(text)

America(society)

Artist


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Indian model:

Based on the works of Bharata

Sadharanikaran

Only among sahridayas

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Effectiveness of communication

How can you check effectiveness?

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How can you check effectiveness?

Survey? Interview?

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Let us call it Feedback

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Three levels of problems in the study of

communication.

What could be these?

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Three levels of problems in the study of

communication. These are:

Level A: How accurately can the

symbols of communication be

transmitted ?(Technical problems)

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Three levels of problems in the study ofcommunication. These are:

Level B: How precisely do thetransmitted symbols convey the desired

meaning ?(Semantic problems)

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Three levels of problems in the study ofcommunication. These are:

Level C: How effectively does thereceived meaning affect conduct in the

desired way ?(Effectiveness problems)

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Semiotic Approach

Saussures model

Peirces model

Ogden and Richards model


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Communication, Meaning, Signs

Language plays a commanding role; predominantmeans of communication

Kristeva (In Hawkes, 1977): Social practices signifysomething and hence articulated like a language.

Sapir (in Hawkes, 1977): Every cultural pattern andevery single act of social behaviour involvescommunication.


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Sign

Fiske: Something physical; perceivable byour senses; refers to something other thanitself; depends upon a recognition by itsusers

OSullivan: Three essential characteristics:# Must have physical form;

# Must refer to something other than itself

# Must be recognised by people as sign


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Saussures model

Sign (signe)

Signified (signifie)

Signifier (significant)

Signifier -- signified: Arbitrary relationship

So youve to learn the relationship: What does it mean: youve to pick up some

structured associations or codes, youve to

learn.


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Saussures model


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Peirce model

P i t i h t Th t


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Peirces trichotomy: Three typesof signs

Icon

Index

Symbol


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Ogden and Richards Model


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Conclusion

The two approaches draw on different worldviews, involve different priorities, and requiredifferent kinds of methods.

The process approach stresses ways ofcommunicating

Ritual view gives more weight to the cultural

context Ritual view orients us much more to the the

messages and meanings than to effects, culturaland sub-cultural variations within the audience

S b li Rit l M h i ti


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Symbolic-Ritual Mechanistic-transmission

Bias towards

Languages, modes,

forms

Context

Meaning,

interpretation

Expressive use

Interaction, xchange

Sharing and

participation

Ambiguity

Bias towards

Channels, networks

Means, Technology

Causes and effects

Instrumental use One-directional flow

Control, management

Non-ambiguity


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Symbolic-Ritual Mechanistic-transmission

Bias towards

The static

Lateral flow

Descriptive method

Open system

Storage ofinformation

Ideas

The indexical

Bias towards

The dynamic

Vertical flow

Measurement,quantification

Closed system

Transmission of info

Behaviour

The cognitive

Documents

Intro to Comm Perspectives