Histories of Communication

Online Chapter

Historiography

Persuasive effect of writing history in particular ways.

History written within contemporary political, social forces.

Textbook offers histories rather than definitive history of communication discipline.

Importance of Communication All communication studies matter.

Communication is central to conduct of society.

Communication is affected by society. Multiple definitions of communication.

Interconnections are as important as the differences.

Relational basis underlies all kinds of communication.

Importance of Communication

Relational InfluencesFaculty relationships formed,

developed departments.Oral cultures as communication origin.Later literate cultures expanded

freedom of ideas and expression.• Printed word leads to social changes.• Written word alters ability to remember.

Importance of Communication

Relational influences (cont.)Today’s technologies make definition

of communication more difficult.These technologies still used for

social and interpersonal uses.

Configuration of Communication Departments There are numerous configurations.

Theater and Art departments focused on performance.

Radio, TV, and film separated from Speech departments.

Speech departments combine with journalism and mass communication departments.

Configuration of Communication Departments Other formats exist as well, based on

interpersonal relationships between faculty.Different styles developed based on

social historical forces based on relationships of scholars.

Traditions: Rhetoric

Originates with ancient rhetoricians.Also wrote about relationships and

love, including role of relationships in persuasion.

Centuries of discussion of “good people speaking well.”

Traditions: Rhetoric

Organization of speech departments in late 1800s.

Teaching speech led to study of nature of rhetoric and persuasion. Led to study of persuasive writing speaking,

including developing media technologies. Development of professional organizations

in early 1900s.

Traditions: Media Studies and Mass Communication

Emerged from psychology, sociology, technology.

Original focus on speech of “one to many,” but expanded with media technologies.

Traditions--Media Studies and Mass Communication

Mass communication and media studies overlap.Rhetorician’s audience is large, but

less than mediated.Media studies focuses on audience or

technology.Media studies scholars focus on what

counts as medium.

Traditions: Media Studies and Mass Communication

Original focus on how technology connects, helps people.

Today, a major focus on alienation and more sinister implications of technology.

Traditions: Performance

Speech and drama at root. In oral cultures, drama was force for

representing morality and ethics. Today, still a critical theme in dramatic

performance studies. Symbolic Interaction: Mead & Goffman

People perform identities in constraints and circumstances.

Team, or cultural forces, construct and maintain identity.

Traditions: Communication Research Style, method of inquiry, derived from

psychology and sociology. Early work focused on social

influence, attitude change, persuasive messages, uncertainty reduction, influence of opinion leaders.

Scholars of persuasion had rhetorical analyses, shifted to lab experiments.

Traditions: Interpersonal Communication

Origins in personal influence. Some scholars shift from mass

phenomena to micro-sociology and small group.

Small group, organizational split from interpersonal to separate categories.

Major Perspectives: Social Science Assumptions

Truth exists independent of the observer. Establishment of numerical patterns. Operationalization of terminology.

Methods Direct measures of responses and

communicative activities. Questionnaires, laboratory experiments,

standard measures of occurrences over time.

Major Perspectives: Social Science Advantages

Reduction of subjectivity of analysis.Theoretical explanation of patterns

and new predictions.Making generalizations, explaining

variance.Determination of cause-effect

relationships to predict outcomes in untried circumstances.

Major Perspectives: Social Science

DisadvantagesAre results merely agreements

between researchers using the same vocabulary?

Experimenters may impose too much restriction on subjects’ reports.

Is generalization really useful?

Major Perspectives: Interpretivist

AssumptionsThere is no objective reality.People’s interpretations of experience

are more important.Rejection of underlying global causal

laws.Research cannot be value-free.

Major Perspectives: Interpretivist

MethodsGrounded theory focuses on

observation grounded in data, developed systematically.

Knowledge emerges from observation, reading data.

Comparison with other data until valid interpretation obtained.

Major Perspectives: Interpretivist

AdvantagesDraws attention to value laden nature

of observation.Questions whether it is possible to

separate knower, known.

Major Perspectives: Interpretivist Disadvantages

What is real must reveal itself to an interpreter.

If interpreter must be trained to recognize, interpretivism falls into trap of social science.

Questions of ethics in selection of theory, methods.

Can there be general interpretation of individual understanding?

Major Perspectives: Critical Theory

AssumptionsInbuilt structure gives advantage to

one set of people at expense of others.

Power is absolute authority, used to oppress, devalue minority groups.

Major Perspectives: Critical Theory

MethodsSimilar to interpretivists.Analysis of texts rather than

interviews.Look for hidden undertones in which

power dynamics are transacted.

Major Perspectives: Critical Theory Advantages

Redirects thinking toward awareness of inequity.

Disadvantages Critical theory gives itself power to comment

on how communication is used, rather than discovering misuse.

Ignores how power is accepted by those without it.

What kinds of power matter more, less than others.

Major Perspectives: Post-Modernism

Assumptions, MethodsDiscourse of representationDiscourse of modernism,

interpretivismDiscourse of suspicionDiscourse of vulnerability

Major Perspectives: Post-Modernism

AdvantagesDoes not assume there is one way to

do things, as held by other scientists.Aware of power in construction of

knowledge. Disadvantages

Reducto ad absurdum

Future of Communication and Relational Perspective Development of discipline is not

finished, is still continuing. All areas can use a relational approach. All topics contain presumption of nature

of relationships. Future of discipline is to apply principle

of relationships more broadly.