What is communication?

It is a human experience, which will be analyzed by many theories or schools.

Theories, then, provide a set of useful tools for seeing the everyday processes and experiences of
communication through new lenses and offering new possibilities for communicating as a result.

Towards a definition of communication

 Restrictive and non-restrictive
 Intentionality
 Normative judgment: that the idea or message was successfully transmitted\


In fact, the evolution of this textbook offers evidence of this shift fi-om reliance on other disciplines to
disciplinary autonomy.
We need a metamodel. The term meta means “above,” so a metamodel is a “model of models.” The
second requirement for coherence in the field is a definition of theory. Rather than viewing a theory
as an explanation of a process, it should be seen as a statement or argument in favor of a particular
approach.
Craig describes the importance of this dynamism to communication as a field: “Communication . . . is
not a secondary phenomenon that can be explained by antecedent psychological, sociological,
cultural, or economic factors; rather, communication itself is the primary, constitutive social process
that explains all these other factors.
Craig describes seven traditional standpoints that provide different ways of talking about
communication: (1) the rhetorical; (2) the semiotic; (3) the phenomenological; (4) the cybernetic; (5)
the sociopsychological; (6) the sociocultural; and (7) the critical. These traditions are described in
greater detail in chapter 3 and constitute the framework used to organize this book.
The elements of a theory

 Inquiry. Asking questions about a phenomenon

 Observation. Different methods in order to grasp the object.
 Constructing answers
Different kinds of scholarship

scientific
humanistic
social scientific
What is a theory?

Theory in its broadest sense as any organized set of concepts, explanations, and principles that
depicts some aspect of human experience.
1. Theories are abstractions. Theories function as guidebooks that help us understand, explain,
interpret, judge, and participate in the communication happening around us.
 2. Theories are constructions. The lenses that we used to interpret reality. Is better question
about the usefulness of the lenses that the truthfulness of the reality that they represent. A
theory is just one way to capture the truth of a phenomenon, but it is not the only way to do it.
3. Theories are tied to actions. The theory influence the way we act in reality.
Part of a theory
Concepts. Concepts—terms and definitions—tell us what the theorist is looking at and what is
considered important.
Explanations. Causal explanation: the consequent event is determined by an antecedent even.,
practical explanation: outcomes are made to happen by actions that are chosen.
Principles
Evaluating communication theories

Theoretical
scope
Appropriateness
Heuristic value
Validity
Parsimony
Openness