Communication Theory and Scholarship - Personal Competence - Lecture Slides, Slides of Sociology

Download Communication Theory and Scholarship - Personal Competence - Lecture Slides and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Communication Theory and Scholarship • Theory provides a set of useful tools for seeing new and useful things, a systematic way of “looking.” • The study of communication has a lengthy and respectable academic history. Docsity.com Communication has been studied since antiquity. • Academic interest in communication became an especially popular subject following World War I. • Advances in technology, industrialization and literacy made communication a topic of concern. • The rise of communication technologies such as telephone, radio and later television and communication satellites helped spur this interest. • The interest was further promoted by popular twentieth century philosophies of progressivism and pragmatism. • Political and social events in the middle of the past century brought about a keen interest in propaganda, public opinion, media and other communication concerns. Docsity.com There are also differences between Eastern and Western approaches to communication. • Eastern theories focus on wholeness and unity, while Western approaches tend to be analytical. • Western approaches have a bias toward the individual, purpose, and thought, while Eastern ones view human experience as the unplanned and natural outcomes of events and emphasize feeling and spirituality. Docsity.com Differences between Eastern and Western approaches to communication • In the West, communication is a focus on verbal symbols (language and speech), while Eastern approaches tend to mistrust and downplay this feature. • Relationships in the West are viewed as interactions between separate individuals while relationships in the East are based more on role, social position and status. • Like all distinctions, the Eastern-Western division should be viewed with caution. Docsity.com Communication theory is any attempt to describe or explain the communication process. • It is a construction of what communication involves based on systematic observation. • The term communication theory can refer to a single theory or be applied to a body of theories that describe and/or explain communication. • A theory is the product of human development and discussion. • Different people “see” different things and present different ways of knowing. • Therefore, theories vary in terms of how they were generated, the kind of research used, the style in which they are presented and the aspect of communication they address. Docsity.com At the heart of developing theories is the process of inquiry • the systematic study of experience that leads to understanding. • The first stage is asking questions of definition, or fact, or value. • The second stage is observation by various methods. • The third stage is constructing answers, the stage usually referred to as theory. • Theory construction is a circular process where each stage affects, and is affected, by the other. Docsity.com Methods of inquiry can be grouped into three broad forms of scholarship. • Science emphasizes objectivity, standardization and replication. • Humanities emphasize subjectivity seeking creative interpretations. • Social science is a curious blend of the two that focuses on human beings as the object of study. Docsity.com The study of communication is a social science because it blends science and humanities. • Communication is a social science because it focuses on human beings as the object of study. • A major philosophical issue facing social science is the degree to which scientific explanations of human behavior can be reached without consideration of the humanistic knowledge of the observed person. • Some theories of communication have more of a scientific weight while others have more of humanistic emphasis. Docsity.com