Communication theory 2

Second Communication Theory lecture

1. What is all this communications
stuff?
David Phillips
FCIPR, FSNCR

2. What We Will Do Today
•Look back to see what how much we know about
communicating
•Learn about different models for communication
•Look at the evolving communications landscape

3. Interacting
•Communication through books - Did you delight in pp
144-146 of Exploring Public Relations 2006 (Tench &
Yeomans) and pp 20- 31 The Public Relations
Handbook 2001 ( Theaker et al)?
•Communication using experiences one to many - This
slide show is available at Slideshare.net (
http://www.slideshare.net/dphillips4363)
•Adding a bit of a symmetrical interaction, noise and
feedback - You can have cell phones on, blog, Twitter,
and ask questions.
•One to one is not all bad with a bit of symmetrical
influence - You can email me david.g.h.phillips (at)
geemaildotcom or chat on Google Talk/Live Messenger.

4. History of Models
•Animals communicate – Humans communicate –
what is the difference?
•If humans communicate why don’t we understand
much about it?
•After 60,000 years of human evolution, Aristotle
2300 years ago thought of three models
–Ethos – The nature and qualities of the communicator
–Logos – The nature, structure and content of the
message (s)
–Pathos – The nature, feelings and thoughts of the
audience.

5. Laswell’s theory
•Who says – what – to whom – with what – effect.
•Great for propagandists – all control – and limited
in effect (McQuail & Windahl) – audiences have
feelings to (and can turn a deaf ear)
•Shannon and Weaver explained how by adding
Noise ( now extended to physical, cultural,
intellectual, emotional) and Feedback (the receiver
has a role too) we can see its not that simple.
•The bank of England dropped interest rate 1.5% -
did the message get through for student loans?

6. Osgood and Schramm

7. All too linear
•Assumption that communication is linear
•From someone to someone
•Who could possibly be interested?
•What was the effect
•Should communication ‘do something’?
•A cognitive implication?

8. Westley & McLean

9. Context, society, experience and
culture
•Communication uses ‘signs’ (Peirce, Saussure)
•Pictures, words, movements etc.
•They have meanings
•My picture is not the same as your picture. My word
means what it means to me not what it means to you
(Fiske).
–Denotative - dictionary definition, explication of a picture
etc)
–Connotative - experience of the sign – nice/nasty, fun/dull)
–Ambiguous - signs with many meanings – fit (healthy)/fit
(worth a snog)/fit (shoes that don’t)/ fit (a health problem)
–Polysemic can be interpreted differently. Often leads to
misunderstanding – ‘I was bombed in London’

10. The inquisitive human
•McQuail/Blumer & Katz
–Seeks diversion (from boring lectures)
–Looks for personal relationships (the social animal)
–Personal identity (the ‘badges’ that say ‘I’m me’ in the group
or crowd
–Surveillance (where am I, opportunities, threats, what’s
cool)
•McGuire
–Search for knowledge
–Search for emotional reward
–Active or passive engagement
–Ambition to get educated (internalised)/ need to get a
degree (external badge)
–Seeks gratification

11. Maletzke
C= Communicator, M = Message, R = Reciever

12. Mass media
•Does it work? It depends (friends & neighbours)
•Opinion Formers and agenda setters
•Two step flow (with ‘journalist’ in the middle)
•Agenda setters

13. Social Media
•Network effect
•One-2-one
•One-2-many
•Many-2-one
•Many-2-many
•Niche not mass communication
•The transition of mass media (http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk)

14. Lets try out the theory
•Facebook for the corporation
•Twitter for the newspaper
•YouTube for the University
•Computer Games for the teacher
•Mobile for the fashion industry
•Network or broadcast?
•Mass media or niche media?

15. What We Will Do Today
•Look back to see what how much we know about
communicating
•Learn about different models for communication
•Look at the evolving communications landscape

16. What is all this communications
stuff?
David Phillips
FCIPR, FSNCR