Communication Hotline: Life Problems Answered
August 26, 2017
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Updated 3 September 2017
Rhetorical Tradition
Rhetoric
is about the art of persuasion and human symbol use.
Theory
Critical
Rhetoric Theory
This
theory explains about the discourse of power: how power (and knowledge) affect
and change society. Using this theory to analyze the situation above, Kylie is
unsure of what she will do because her action might give her either freedom or
domination. Through critical rhetoric, she will be able to fully understand the
effects of her future decision.
Critique
Rhetorical
tradition only focuses on the sender and the medium, thus, does not give
insight on how the meanings are perceived by those who receive it. Listeners, also, have a tendency to be swayed with the words, thus, ad misericordiam.
Research Topic
The process of
appreciating pop music by general audience
Using
the vid-oral theory, this research aims to find out the evolution of
music and the motivation of audience to listen to the music. It also aims
to find out how different symbols present in pop music are used, as effective
tools in persuading people to appreciate pop music itself.
Semiotic Tradition
This tradition holds the use of signs and symbols – verbal and nonverbal to represent states of being. In
the scenario above, Semiotics is seen there when Kendall’s boyfriend is giving
him mixed signals. Since this tradition claims that everything has a meaning
underlying with it, her boyfriend might want to say something to her.
Theory
Speech Codes
Theory
Meanings
evolve. Meanings are socially constructed and for people to reach a certain
degree of connection there must be a shared knowledge in the society.
Critique
Semiotic
tradition have not taken peoples’
complexity into consideration, that meanings are contextual and
Research Topic
Study of
political organization in the university
Speech
Codes Theory shall be used for the study to be able to know why and how does an organization exists. The purpose of the study is
for the researcher to discover the organization’s ideology, their belief,
immerse with the members, and formulate an outsider’s perspective to discover organization's purpose.
Cybernetic Tradition
According
to cybernetics, any type of communication is a system, whether it be in
friendship or family. A system means that the parts are
interdependent. The scenario above, Kourtney and her friends are the parts. The
state of their relationship and communication depend on themselves. Within that
system, there is a flow of control pattern. As for Kourtney’s case, she
said they barely talk because of the distance between them.
The system
comprises of feedback and information. Feedback is
the response given by the parts to each other. Information is
the meaning of the response. Meaning changes as the parts interact because each
has its own interpretation of other’s feedback. Kourtney’s interpretation of
how her/his friends interacted with her is that they’re only forcing themselves
to reconnect with their past even though they have changed as time progressed.
Theory
Relational
Dialectics Theory
Relationships
are always in a flux, it is always changing. Change originates from tensions.
Tensions occur when clash exists between individuals. Just as how Cybernetics sees
every communication process as a system, there will be changes because of
differences in feedback and decoding of meaning. The system will only stabilize
if they reach a point of agreement.
Critique
Cybernetics holds that control is present in every system
(in our case, relationship),
and though this assumption proves to be true for
some cases (i.e. when an open dialogue is happening between two people), this
claim treats humans like machines. This tradition, also, doesn't
account for the perception of each individual.
Research Topic
An analysis of
college roommates’ adaptation to each other's culture
Using the Relational Dialectics Theory and
Cognitive Dissonance Theory, the study will center on how roommates’ cultures
clash and how they formulate solution to achieve a more peaceful roommate life.
It aims to discover the factors that affects individual and his/her
relationship with other individuals and his/her environment.
Phenomenological Tradition
Phenomenology
is a method of recording personal experiences and analyzing the
reasons behind it. According to this tradition, communication reveals
experiences of the world and others through one’s own view. From what we understood in Khloe’s message,
her current feelings about low marks were influenced by her parents. She
became fixed with the idea that success means higher grades.
Theory
Autoethnography
New
knowledge about the self’s environment can be gained by investigating one’s own
life because phenomenology may fail to wholly capture and analyze captas.
In this theory, it is only the self who can dig deeper into
experiences. This is why it is the self who is in-charge of collecting and
controlling data and analyzing captas. It is essential that the questions
are self-asked and self-answered. Ethnography comes into the picture when the
experiences are analyzed and found to be connected to a larger social system
like culture and politics.
Critique
Phenomenology
ignores the existence of facts in daily experiences and communication exchanges
which can only be recognized by a more objective researcher. Pure subjectivity
will not arrive at accurate results because it clouds other sides and chooses
only what it wants to reveal.
An exploration
of gender roles in the 21st-century Philippine society
Using
autoethnography as a method of inquiry, the study aims to find out what are the
gender roles assigned to women, how women influence systems, and what do these
things tell about Philippine society.
Socio-Psychological Tradition
Socio-psychological
tradition focuses on the individual as a social being and as a part of a
network. It explains how reality is constructed through communicating and
interacting with your group or with other people. This tradition also focuses
on the individual’s own judgment to a message. It is about cause and effect—how
an individual’s thoughts, opinions are affected by other people. Just like in
Rob’s situation, he can’t explain why he hated the other political organization
because he was just affected by the thoughts and opinions of his own political
organization which resulted in a new reality for him.
Theory
Agenda Setting
Theory
This
theory explains how media is a powerful tool that influences people to focus on
the important issues on people’s lives.
Critique
Socio-psychological
tradition focuses too much on interaction as a major factor that influences an
individual’s thoughts and ideas while others factors are left out to be
considered, such as culture. This tradition is also about how people are
divided in the “them” and “us” group in which the concept of all us belonging
in one group or network was ignored.
Research Topic
Study on the
effectiveness of using famous celebrities as a commercial product endorser
People
purchase a certain product because their favorite celebrities “use” that
product. The thoughts and opinions of the celebrity matter to the buyer that is
why they purchase the endorsed product.
Socio-Cultural Tradition
The Socio-Cultural Tradition focuses on our interaction with our social groups and how this interaction affect us in understanding our world and how we create our own reality. It is centered on how we construct our very own identity as a part of a social group or culture.
Critique
The socio-cultural tradition helps us understand how rich different cultures can be. It tells us how a single word can have multiple meaning among different cultures or social groups. Sometimes this tradition can be vague because some realities created by a certain group or culture was not due to the interaction of people among the group but because of different psychological processes.
Theory
Ethnography
This theory talks about studying and observing a certain group in order to find out how they generate meanings of things. It focuses on the group's type of communication, use of words in communication, and meaning of the words in their communication.
Research Topic
Studying different political organizations in UP Baguio
Through Ethnography, the researcher would be able to identify the different realities existing among these political organizations. Ethnography will help to study how a certain ideology differs among these orgs.
Critical Tradition
Under the critical tradition, communication reflects the ideology (kind of thinking) that dominates a society and the power-relationships between different groups. Critical tradition seeks to find out where oppression is and to propose a solution for a more equitable society.
For example, the “a man marries a woman” belief. In the Philippine society, many Filipinos think that it's strange or a taboo for people to be involved in same-sex romantic relationships, let alone marriage. This kind of thinking is due to the teachings of the Christian of what is “right” and to the usual scenarios of homosexual couples which describe what is “normal.” This is why homosexual marriage is still not legitimized despite the constant fight of the LGBTQ+ community for equal rights.
For example, the “a man marries a woman” belief. In the Philippine society, many Filipinos think that it's strange or a taboo for people to be involved in same-sex romantic relationships, let alone marriage. This kind of thinking is due to the teachings of the Christian of what is “right” and to the usual scenarios of homosexual couples which describe what is “normal.” This is why homosexual marriage is still not legitimized despite the constant fight of the LGBTQ+ community for equal rights.
Critique
Critical tradition places the world in too much negative light by making social systems (families, government, schools, churches) appear power hungry or placing their own interest over others; thus Thomas Hobbes claim in 'The Leviathan' where life on earth is "solitary, nasty, brutish, and short." Too much questions can affect the interpretation of subjects and the findings of the research. Also, humans have their roles in forming their own principles and line of thinking. Their rationale are not only dependent on their environment but also themselves.
Theory
Corporate Colonization Theory
Economic corporations dominate decision-making process and lifestyle. They begin to replace the logic of how things work both in public and private spheres. They had begun to influence legislation and consumption. Buying certain products lead consumers to identify with the corporate manufacturer/brand. Some policies are made in favor to the advantage of these corporations.
Research Topic
Popular Expensive Clothing Brands Defining “What's In” and Views on Society
Guess, Celine, and other brands are known for the quality of the clothe they use, the designs of different brands, and their expensive price. Using the corporate colonization theory, the study will aim to analyze how chosen brands' released fashion line affect consumers' choice, definition of high quality, fashion trends, and how it changes views of other classes/groups by their clothes.
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References:
Craig, Robert and
Heidi Muller. 2007. Theorizing Communication. Los Angeles,
California: Sage Publications, Inc.
Griffin, Em.
2000. A First Look at Communication Theory, 4th ed. New
York: McGraw Hill.
Katheryn. 2006.
“Making Sense of Seven Communication Traditions.” Communication
Teacher 20 (4): 89-92. Accessed August 28, 2017. doi: 10.108017404620601014708.
Littlejohn,
Stephen and Karen Foss. 2009. Encyclopedia of Communication Theory. n.p.: Sage Publications, Inc.
Written & Modified by: Ren Escosio, Celine Jimenez, Chelsea Serezo
2 comments
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi, good day! Here are our comments on your blog regarding Craig's seven traditions of communication theory.
ReplyDeletePOSITIVE:
-The idea of using videos featuring the Kardashian dealing with everyday experiences and problems to further the explanation for each tradition is good as it shows an innovation as compared to other group’s websites which only employed images and texts.
-Your explanations of the traditions as well as the theories under them are concise and brief which makes them easier for a dummy to understand.
NEGATIVE:
-The idea of utilizing videos is good. However, the said videos are too long and distracting as the typing of the reply to the sender takes so much of the time. It would be better if you cut the video short and directly go to the message as it takes patience to finish reading them. Moreover, the font size and the video screen are also too small. The said factors make it hard for an audience to comprehend the message being delivered in the video. Also, you should have also maintained the usage of videos for all the traditions for consistency.
- You stated in your critique of semiotic tradition that it “have not taken peoples’ complexity into consideration, that meanings are contextual and people are complicated beings and within ourselves resides multiple meanings and contexts.” Actually, what you wrote above as critique is not a critique at all. We believe it to be more of a central concept of the tradition as the semiotic tradition emphasizes the process of meaning making and the goal of the tradition is to help bridge the gap between differing viewpoints by creating an understanding between opposing groups. Therefore, in order to achieve the said goal, the tradition needs to incorporate and consider first the notion that meanings are contextual, personal, and subjective. And we believe that the tradition believes in it because if it does not, then what bridges are it trying to build then?
- One of the theory used, the Relational Dialectics, was already employed in the class report by the group who reported on Phenomenological tradition.
- By the way, what are “captas” in the Phenomenological tradition? Isn’t it a jargon word? You didn’t even bother to explain what the said word means.
- Cognitive dissonance theory as used in the cybernetic tradition and vid-oral theory lacks explanation as to what they are all about. Readers who are not familiar with them may have a difficulty in understanding their connections to the tradition and examples.
-Your layout though simple is very easy to the eyes. However, you should have used a bigger font size and a more unique font to add to the design of your blog.
-Arvie Cayabyab and Jemimah Cresencia
Comm 140-G