COMT360LectureChapter1______________.ppt

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1. Communication Theory
•How do therapists know how to help
People?
•How do teachers know how to teach?
•How do coaches know how to win?
•How do we know how to communicate
most effectively?

2. Are Theories Difficult?
•An invitation to the life of the mind
•Learning to love knowledge for its own
sake
•Invitation to an ongoing conversation
i.e. Kenneth Burke’s Parlor
•Communication Theory is an idea game

3. Suggestions
•Stay Positive
•Maintain a Perspective--Big Picture
•Find Good Resources
•Don’t Procrastinate

4. Some Perspectives
•Fort Peck--Order or Chaos
•The Elephant and the Blind Researchers
•What is your perspective?
•How do you perceive communication?

5. More on Perspectives
•Communication Theories describe and/or
explain. Do they predict?
•Eastern vs. Western perspectives--
Wholeness and unity vs. analytical
reductionism; spirituality vs. individual
purpose; non-speech vs. speech/language
•Study of Communication is diverse,
eclectic, and multidisciplinary today.

6. Three Types of Scholarship
•Science--objectivity
•Humanities--subjectivity
•Social Science--blends the two

7. Three Approaches to Knowledge
•Knowing by discovery--search for
objectivity
•Knowing by interpreting--construction of
meaning
•Knowing by criticism--application of values
and judgements to what is observed or
experienced

8. Five Genres of Communication
Theories
•Structural/Functional--assumes that reality
is ordered
•Cognitive/Behavioral--mechanisms of the
mind
•Interactional/Conventional--social life
•Interpretative--meaning and language
•Critical Theories--domination/oppression

9. Four Levels or Contexts of
Inquiry
•Interpersonal
•Group
•Organizational
•Mass

10. Ten General Theories
•We will look at ten general theories that
may apply to all the categories
•They are core theories and apply to any
context

11. So, Welcome to the Adventure of
the Mind called Theory
•The Farmer and the “object in the field”
•Which explanations do you most often turn
to?