integrating theory--dialogue

As Griffin points out in Chapter 36, a number of communication theories center on the notion of dialogue, the final principle in the list. In the public speaking book I mentioned in my previous entry, dialogue plays a prominent role, particularly in the listening part of public speaking. In the book, I argue that ethical public speaking requires dialogue, in which speakers and listeners communicate with each other to create meaningful communication. Dialogue focuses primarily on content, taking a collaborative approach in which listeners invite speakers to express their ideas. Listeners are concerned more with arguments, reasoning, evidence, and claims rather than with criticizing delivery.

In the book I go on to describe a recent survey of employee satisfaction in which WL Gore & Associates was ranked at the top of the list. The company's success stemmed from creating effective dialogue between subordinates and supervisors. In all highly-ranked companies, bosses genuinely sought out employee feedback, then listened to and acted on their concerns. For companies where bosses talked a lot and listened little, employees reported scant confidence in the company’s leadership, greater levels of stress, and a strong desire to find a new job. Although Griffin's "cause for pause" indicates that dialogue is difficult to define and achieve, it's still a critical part of effective communication, as so many theorists point out.

~ Professor Cyborg

integrating theory--audience adaptation

I just published a public speaking textbook, Public Speaking: The Evolving Art, with Wadsworth, so I was especially interested in the section in the final chapter on audience adaption, Principle 7. Many theories address the need for audience adaptation in effective communication, but the classic theory is Aristotle's work. Aristotle took a systematic approach to studying rhetoric (or public speaking), writing The Rhetoric over the course of nine years, 342-330 B.C.E. He emphasized the importance of adapting speeches to the specific situation and audience. Much of the research in effective message design stems from Aristotle's initial discussion of the three proofs used in rhetoric: logos, pathos, and ethos. And research in credibility is grounded more specifically in Aristotle's conceptualization of ethos, or the speaker's character. In writing the public speaking book, my coauthor and I were influenced in part by the work of Aristotle. We also addressed mindfulness, particularly in the listener's role. One point we make in the book is that although you probably think of audience adaptation primarily in the public speaking context, you adapt to audiences in a range of situations, such as at work, with your friends, and in your classes.

Griffin's "cause for pause" in the principle of audience adaptation suggests that communicators sometimes try to adapt too much to what they think are the audience's expectations. The recent presidential campaign provided several examples of that. In such cases, audience members question the authenticity of the message and wonder about the candidate's true beliefs.

~ Professor Cyborg

integrating theory--self image

In Chapter 36 Griffin brings closure to the text and to his discussion of communication theories. Although most textbooks have an introduction, few have a conclusion. I appreciate Griffin's attention to integrating the vast amount of material covered in the text.

In identifying 10 recurring principles in communication theories. Griffin points out themes across the various theories. This process proves helpful in highlighting similarities, differences, and contradictions in how communication theories conceptualize communication.

Principle 4 focuses on the notion of self-image. I decided to start with this principle because I attended the Carroll Arnold Lecture at the National Communication Association convention on Friday, November 21. Professor Gerry Philipsen from the U of Washington presented the lecture. His speech codes theory is featured in Chapter 32. Griffin notes that Philipsen's work supports communication accommodation theory, which suggests that the more individuals identify with a group, they'll view outsiders as different. In the lecture, Philipsen discussed the complexities of culture and cautioned against more simplistic views. In addition, he noted the difficulties in examining the cultures in which we're embedded because we take them for granted. Also, because so much of our identity is intertwined with culture, any perceived attacks on our culture are also perceived as attacks on our identity.

More information about the lecture is on the National Communication Association website. To view a version of the lecture presented at the University of Washington, go to the UW's Department of Communication news page.

~ Professor Cyborg

muted group theory

The final theory in the text is muted group theory developed in the communication discipline by Cheris Kramarae. Edwin Ardener, a social anthropologist, first suggested the idea of women as a muted group. His coworker, Shirley Ardener, proposed that muted groups present their ideas so they can be understood in public discourse. Kramarae argues that the public-private linguistic distinction exaggerates gender differences.

Kramarae analyzed the metaphors used to describe the internet. She observes that the information superhighway metaphor ignored the start-up costs of internet access that most women around the world can't afford. The new frontier metaphor suggests an anarchistic atmosphere with which women are uncomfortable. In contrast, the democracy metaphor for the internet suggests that the internet's anonymity can encourage women to express themselves. Moreover, the global community metaphor for the internet holds the possibility of women being able to share their concerns with each other.

In her interview with Em Griffin, Cheris Kramarae stated that muted group theory is based on the idea that language does not serve all speakers equally. In Kramarae's critique of the two-culture hypothesis to explain women's and men's interactions, she argues in the interview that the hypothesis ignores issues of exploitation and manipulation. During the interview, Griffin asks Kramarae if there should be men's studies university programs as there are women's studies programs. Kramarae responds that universities themselves are men's studies programs.

~ Professor Cyborg

standpoint theory

Griffin discusses Sandra Harding and Julia Wood's standpoint theory in Chapter 34. These researchers are especially interested in standpoint based on gender. They argue that gender is a cultural construction.

Standpoint is the place from which you view the world. You can think of standpoint as a position, perspective, viewpoint, or outlook. According to standpoint theorists, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation produce different standpoints based on social inequity. Harding and Wood suggest that those who are less powerful can provide a more objective view than those who are more powerful. Thus, standpoint theorists believe that the lives of women and others who are marginalized should provide the grounding for communication research. However, these scholars reject postmodernists' absolute relativism or the notion that one perspective cannot be evaluated as more useful than another. Because she is committed to critiquing an androcentric world, Wood believes that a sense of solidarity among women is politically necessary.

Other scholars prior to Harding and Wood have discussed the idea of standpoint. For example, Marx and Engels' proletarian standpoint referred to the impoverished poor. Standpoint theorists argue that knowledge is situated and partial, but also maintain that those in less privileged groups have more complete knowledge than those higher in the social hierarchy. Therefore, starting research from the standpoint of marginalized groups results in strong objectivity. In contrast, starting research from the standpoint of dominant groups results in weak objectivity. Some critics assert that the concept of strong objectivity is inherently contradictory.

In the section on interactive universalism, Griffin discusses Seyla Benhabib's argument that a universalist ethic is possible if it is contextually sensitive. At the end of the chapter, Griffin observes that feminist scholars are concerned that standpoint theory underestimates the role of language in expressing an individual's standpoint.

~ Professor Cyborg

gender and communication

Griffin prefaces the final theories he discusses in the section on gender and communication. He notes that "most of us believe that women and men interact differently." These differences have been popularized in books such as Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray. In an article published in the Southern Communication Journal several years ago, Julia Wood argues persuasively that such popular press notions are inconsistent with empirical research. For example, she states, "well-grounded research refutes three of Gray's claims about the sexes' desires to be needed and cherished" (p. 204). Most important, Wood argues, is that accepting stereotypes of women and men means that "we should neither challenge nor try to change how we act" (p. 208).

Similar to Wood's argument, Griffin presents three cautions about the assumptions you may have regarding gender differences. First, he notes that empirical research has found more similarities in the ways in which women and men communicate than differences. Second, communication styles vary more within each group (within women and within men) than between women and men. Third, sex is grounded in biology whereas gender is socially-constructed. So what is considered feminine and what is considered masculine arise through our interactions with others.

If you're interested in reading the Wood article, the citation is:
Wood, J. (2002). A critical response to John Gray's Mars and Venus Portrayals of men and women. Southern Communication Journal, 67, 201-210.

~ Professor Cyborg

speech codes theory

Chapter 32 discusses Gerry Philipsen's speech codes theory. Dr. Philipsen is a professor of communication at the University of Washington and will be honored at the on November 21 at 2008 National Communication Association convention November as the Carroll C. Arnold Distinguished Lecturer. His talk, "Coming to Terms with Cultures," will feature is work in this area of communication studies.

Philipsen changed the name of his theory from "ethnography of communication" to "speech codes theory" because he wanted to move from description to explanation and prediction. According to Philipsen, the culture of Nacirema is practiced by a majority of Americans. According to Philipsen's theory, a distinctive culture will always have a distinctive speech code. For example, in Teamsterville conversation is laced with assurances of common place among those in the neighborhood.

Applying Philipsen's theory, Tamar Katriel studied dugri in Israel, which is a blunt form of straight talk. Dwight Conquergood's research on Chicago street gangs is an example of performance ethnography. Philipsen's theory includes six propositions. The sixth proposition suggests that by a thoughtful use of shared speech codes, participants can guide metacommunication. Speech codes theory has been criticized because Philipsen is silent about power relationships.

In the interview with Em Griffin, Gerry Philipsen said that his current research stems from the Nacirema Code, which emphasizes the individual as unique. In his interview, Philipsen argues that ethnography is a method.

~ Professor Cyborg

face-negotiation theory

Stella Ting-Toomey developed face-negotiation theory, discussed in Chapter 31. Griffin begins the chapter by discussing a model of negotiation that includes techniques such as brainstorming and performing a reality check, noting that this type of third-party mediation doesn't work across cultures. In exploring conflict, Ting-Toomey uses "face" as a metaphor for the individual's public self-image. Ting-Toomey's research is based on the notion of individualistic (about one-third of world's population) and collectivistic (about two-thirds of the world's population) cultures. Individualistic cultures have an "I" identity and collectivistic cultures have a "we" identity.

Ting-Toomey defines face restoration as facework used to preserve autonomy and personal freedom. Face giving is facework that supports another's need for inclusion.

In Ting-Toomey and Oetzel's cultural map of eight conflict management styles the obliging approach to conflict management is associated with a very high concern for others' face and a very low concern for one's own face. The dominating approach to conflict management is associated with a low concern for others' face and a high concern for one's own face. The integrating approach is associated with a high concern for others' face and a high concern for one's own face. The passive aggression approach demonstrates a high concern for self-face and a moderate concern for others' face. The emotional expression approach is concerned with letting feelings show. Ting-Toomey found in her research that the third-party help approach to conflict management is used in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures, but defined in different ways.

In applying Ting-Toomey's work in face-negotiation theory, the author of your text argues that knowledge is the most important dimension of facework competence. Mindfulness involves seeking multiple perspectives on the same event.

In her interview with Em Griffin, Stella Ting-Toomey defines a(n) independent self-construal as emphasizing personal initiative, achievement, and accountability. She also explains that an interdependent self-construal emphasizes relational harmony and cooperation.

~ Professor Cyborg

intercultural communication and communication accommodation theory

Blogging is optional for students this week, but not for me. Today I'll cover intercultural communication and communication accommodation theory.

In the introduction to this section of the text, Griffin notes that Gerry Philipsen defines the basis of culture as a code. Griffin then goes on to discuss Hofstede's four dimensions of culture. Power distance refers to the extent to which less powerful members of a society accept the unequal distribution of power. Clearly defined sex roles are associated with Hofstede's masculinity dimension of culture. Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance dimension refers to the degree to which people feel threatened by ambiguity. Group loyalty is associated with Hofstede's individualism dimension of culture. Individualistic cultures tend to rely on message content in their interactions with others. In contrast, collectivistic cultures tend to rely on message context in their interactions with others.

Howard Giles' communication accommodation theory, associated with the socio-psychological tradition, was originally called speech accommodation theory. According to Giles, the process of adapting behavior to be more similar to the other person is convergence. The desire for social approval provides the main motivation to converge. Divergence occurs when you accentuate the differences between yourself and another person. When communicators use overaccommodation their talk is demeaning or patronizing.

Griffin using the context of intergenerational communication to illustrate communication accommodation theory as much of Giles' work has been in this area of communication. Rigidly held stereotypes contribute to the impression of a communication encounter being an intergroup experience. For accommodation, what is ultimately important is not how a communicator converges or diverges, but the other person's perceptions of the behaviors. Giles relies on attribution theory to help explain the process of interpreting another’s behavior. Listeners who interpret convergence as a speaker’s desire to break down cultural barriers react favorably.

In critiquing communication accommodation theory, Griffin notes that relative simplicity is the criterion of a good theory that's most problematic for Giles' work.

~ Professor Cyborg

spiral of silence

The spiral of silence theory of media effects posits that people feel increasing pressure to not voice their views when they think they're in the minority. The scholar who developed the theory, Noelle-Neumann, defines public opinion as the attitudes that people feel they can express in public without isolating themselves. She suggests that people have a sixth sense or a quasi-statistical organ that provides trustworthy information about what a society in general is thinking and feeling.

Solomon Asch is the researcher whose group conformity studies with different length lines provides support for the notion of a spiral of silence. Noelle-Neumann recommends that two questions should be asked to sample an individual's perception of the climate of opinion: questions about the present climate and future forecast. Pluralistic ignorance refers to the mistaken assumption that everyone thinks like us.

Still, some people will speak out even when they think they're in the minority. For example, research has found that middle- and upper-class people find it easier to speak out. The most important factor that determines if people will voice their own opinion is whether they are in the majority or minority. Hard-core nonconformists are the vocal minority of outspoken believers who continue to speak out in defiance of threats of isolation because they have nothing to lose. Dietram Scheufele found contemporary support for the spiral of silence by asking people their opinion toward and willingness to speak out about biotechnology. However, the spiral of silence theory has been criticized because of an over-reliance on hypothetical scenarios.

In spite of its shortcomings, the spiral of silence provides insight into why people speak out or are silent. For example, consider all the people who remained silent before the Iraq war--when being against the war put people in the minority--who now have spoken out when public opinion changed.

~ Professor Cyborg

agenda-setting theory

Chapter 28 discusses the agenda-setting theory of McCombs and Shaw. These researchers have developed a model of media effects that is structured as Media Agenda —› Voters' Agenda. Griffin provides support for McCombs and Shaw's argument, noting that newspapers such as the Washington Post and the New York Times get over 50% of what they print from press releases and press conferences. Tankard defines framing in agenda-setting theory as how the media supply news contexts through selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration.

In agenda-setting theory, interest aggregations refer to clusters of people who demand attention for their single concern. Research in agenda-setting theory has found a media malady effect, which refers to links between negative economic headlines and negative consumer sentiment. If you've been following the current economic crisis (who hasn't?), you've likely observed this media malady effect. Consumers are definitely expressing negative views of the economy--and spending less--in light of the downturns in the stock market and housing market along with increases in the price of everyday goods and services.

In the section on ethics, Griffin notes that Clifford Christians views mutuality as forming the essence of humanness. Christians' communitarian ethics views a reporter's primary goal as facilitating a morally literate and active citizenship. In critiquing agenda-setting theory, Griffin states that recent developments in agenda-setting theory have been criticized because framing may be irrelevant to agenda-setting research.

In the interview with Em Griffin, Max McCombs states that elements emphasized in the media become regarded as important by the public provides the core idea of agenda-setting theory. McCombs also stated that the starting point of agenda-setting theory was the observation that the media focus people's attention. McCombs argued that about 2-3 issues are most frequently included in the public's agenda. He also argued that most journalists are message producers.

~ Professor Cyborg

media effects

The two chapters for this week provide quite a contrast to the two from last week. Whereas the chapters that focused on media and culture stemmed from the work of postmodernists and took an interpretive (or critical) approach, media effects research takes an objectivist approach.

The section in the text on media effects sets the stage for agenda-setting theory and spiral of silence. In this introductory section, Griffin discusses earlier views on media effects. A very early model, the hypodermic needle model, depicts a direct media influence on audience members. In the two-step flow of communication model, opinion leaders are posited to pass on and interpret messages to others in face-to-face conversations. In contrast, the excitation transfer theory suggests that fear, anger, humor, and love produce the same physiological state. Bandura’s social learning theory model is probably the most famous as his research with children has been widely reported in the media. His theory predicts that violence on television leads to antisocial behavior when children get older.

The two theories for this week, agenda-setting and spiral of silence, provide a more sophisticated view of media effects than the ones I’ve mentioned here. Still, all these theories have in common an objective approach, which assumes that there is one truth accessible through unbiased observation. In addition, the theories seek to identify a cause-and-effect relationship between media content and human behavior.

~ Professor Cyborg

cultural studies

Chapter 26 discusses Stuart Hall’s cultural studies approach. Similar to Deetz’s critical approach to organization, Hall has developed a critical perspective to examine media.

Hall argues that cultural studies is valid if it deconstructs media research that fails to address ideology. Like all critical theorists, Hall is suspicious of research that ignores power relationships. Hall believes that mainstream mass communication research in the U.S. supports the myth of democratic pluralism. In his view of cultural studies, Hall places his emphasis on resistance. He argues that media hegemony results in the production of consent. In hegemonic encoding the dominant accepted discourse rules out alternative ideas.

In his discussion of cultural critics whose work is related to that of Stuart Hall’s, Griffin observes that the Frankfurt School theorists were the first to examine the failure of Marx's prediction that capitalist economies would decline. Another cultural critic, Roland Barthes, argues that mythic signs, such as the yellow ribbon, reinforce a culture's dominant values. Michel Foucault, a cultural critic Griffin discusses, provided the impetus for a "discursive turn" in cultural studies. Foucault's research on mental illness found that the definition of insanity changed a great deal over time. Kellner, another cultural critic, argues that during the first Gulf War, the major television networks effectively portrayed war as theater. From Hall's perspective, in framing opposition to the 1991 Gulf War as not an option, the media engaged in ideological discourses of constraint.

Hall argues that the primary function of discourse is to make meaning. From Hall's cultural studies perspective, an ideological fight is a struggle to capture language. According to Hall, the powerless may resist the dominant ideology using their own decoding options: operating inside the dominant code, applying a negotiable code, and substituting an oppositional code. So like Deetz, Hall holds out the possibility that people who are oppressed will not necessarily participate in their own oppression (hegemony) and instead will find ways to fight back.

This is a somewhat complex chapter, so read it through several times, take notes, and review it again before taking the quiz.

~ Professor Cyborg

media ecology

Although you might think that Marshall McLuhan was a communication studies professor, he was an English professor at the University of Toronto. You probably know him best for his pronouncement that "The medium is the message," which suggests that the channel is more influential than the content it carries. McLuhan argued that media environments are invisible to communicators because these environments are so ordinary to us. According to McLuhan, accounting for the complexity of the media environment means considering both incremental and sudden changes.

McLuhan proposed that changes in media technology determine the course of human history. The figure on page 315 is helpful in understanding how McLuhan viewed the media map of history—the four ages he identified (tribal, literate, print, and electronic) and the technological development and the dominant sense receptor associated with each age. For example, the dominant sense receptor associated with the literate age was the eye and those associated with the electronic age are the ear and hand. As another example, the invention of the phonetic alphabet was the catalyst for the literate age and also led to a linear approach to thinking.

McLuhan described people of the tribal age as having more passion and spontaneity than we have today. The literate age was when human beings developed a civilized private detachment from each other. Although the printing press brought with it the ability to widely distribute written materials, McLuhan argued it also led to a sense of separation and aloneness for people of that era. More recent scholars have suggested we’re now in the digital age, the next epoch in human history.

Neil Postman, founder of NYU’s media ecology program, continued McLuhan’s work, although not always in the same trajectory. For example, Postman argues that any new technology always presents a Faustian bargain and the primary task of media ecology is to make moral judgments.

~ Professor Cyborg

media and culture

Today I'll blog about the Media and Culture section in the text as it provides a framework for the two chapters we're covering this week. Also, there are questions on the quiz from these pages.

In this section, Griffin discusses the six defining features of postmodernism, using the film Blade Runner to illustrate those features. The first feature highlights the notion that the modernistic ideology postmodernism rejects is faith in science. Second, "we have become tools of our tools" means that people shape the media and the media shape people. Third, "in a postmodern world, any claim of truth or moral certainty is suspect" means that there are interpretations and no facts because all knowledge is relative. Fourth, "images become more important than what they represent" refers to the idea that the media are more real than real--a hyperreality. Fifth, "with a media assist, we can mix and match diverse styles and tastes to create a unique identity" means that we're in an age of individualism. Sixth, postmodernism represents "a consumer society based on multinational capitalism," which leads to the conclusion that people are what they consume. This feature is particularly relevant in light of the current global economic crisis.

~ Professor Cyborg

narrative paradigm

This is my last entry for the week, continuing my discussion of key points you should know from the chapters for this week's quiz. Today I'll focus on Chapter 23, the Narrative Paradigm of Walter Fisher.

What's not to like about Chapter 23? Human love to tell stories and that's what this approach is all about. Based on Fisher's assumption that people are narrative beings appeals to reason are fundamentally stories. Fisher argues that a paradigm is a conceptual framework. The rational-world paradigm assumes that people make decisions on the basis of argument. In contrast, Fisher's narrative paradigm assumes that history, biography, culture, and character determine what we consider good reasons. Fisher argues that all stories must have coherence and fidelity. Be sure you know what these terms mean.

According to Fisher, the ideal audience is guided by humane values in determining good reasons. Griffin argues that Fisher's narrative paradigm is strongly democratic. One critic of Fisher's narrative paradigm argues that is cannot explain the persuasive power of evil stories. I found this criticism particularly interesting, because in a sense, you could consider Fisher's narrative paradigm naive. Critical theorists such as Stan Deetz certainly do, arguing that stories often reinforce the status quo in subtle ways that make them difficult to resist. So while Fisher's work is appealing and does underscore our fundamental nature as storytellers, he ignores issues of power often implicit in stories.

Let me know if this week's blog entries help you out on the quiz.

~ Professor Cyborg

Dramatism

Today I'm continuing my discussion of key points on this week's quiz, focusing on Chapter 22, the Dramatism of Kenneth Burke. I met Professor Burke over 20 years ago when he attended a panel on which I was presenting the results of my master's thesis. He was quite elderly at the time and didn't say anything. But he was quite alert and nodded his head and smiled throughout the panel. At any rate, I'm especially interested in this chapter because of my work with his approach.

In terms of studying for the quiz, there are a number of key points you'll want to focus on. Burke considered groups of words as dances of attitudes. He called himself a gypsy scholar. According to Burke, a word a speaker uses to sum up all that is bad or evil is a devil term. From Burke's perspective, a god term is one that is above all the other positive terms a speaker uses. Burke's pentad included act, agent, agency, scene, and purpose. You'll want to know the definition of each one.

Burke calls scapegoating victimage and he refers to identification as consubstantiation. In contrast, behavioral scientists use the term homophily to refer to perceived similarity between speakers and audience members. Burke uses the term substance to refer to a person's physical characteristics, talents, and the like. According to Burke, the ultimate motivation for public speaking is purging the self of guilt. Burke's approach has been criticized because his writing is often confusing and obscure. Having read several of Burke's books in my master's program, I agree with that criticism. Still, his work has had a profound impact on the analysis of rhetoric.

~ Professor Cyborg

Aristotle's Rhetoric

There's been some discussion on the listserv about the quizzes, so this week I thought I'd blog about the quiz questions for each reading. Today I'll blog about Chapter 21, The Rhetoric. Later in the week I'll blog about the other two chapters.

Here are some key points you should know about Chapter 21:

The Sophists were early Athenian public speaking teachers who took a practical approach but had not theoretical foundation. Aristotle envisioned rhetoric as an art and a science. An enthymeme is a deductive argument that omits a premise.

The canon of rhetoric that includes topoi is invention. Speaker credibility is related to Aristotle's notion of ethos. Ethos includes perceived intelligence, virtuous character, and good will. Metaphor is a key component of style, one canon or rhetoric. Aristotle originally listed four canons of rhetoric; later writers added a fifth, memory.

Aristotle's golden mean includes making truthful statements, self-disclosing, and displaying courage. Aristotle's Rhetoric has been criticized because he viewed the audience as passive.

Those points should get your started in studying Chapter 21 for this week's quiz.

~ Professor Cyborg

Deetz interview

This interview provides insight into Deetz's view of conflict in and around organizations. He believes conflict is essential for organizations to function in ways that benefit all stakeholders, not a select view (like the crazy CEO compensations I blogged about yesterday). As he points out, most communication theories are based on a consensus model--a strive toward harmony. But with that overriding desire for harmony can come a glossing over of important issues and points of disagreement. Consider the current financial crisis that now has affected markets around the globe. Taking a more critical approach--questioning subprime mortgages and other highly risky financial deals--might have avoided the state we're in.

I also liked when Deetz said in the interview, "in one of my early books I argued that a full human being has to have three characteristics. One has to be careful, thoughtful, and filled with humor." Certainly if the top managers of the financial institutions had been more careful and thoughtful, they would not have allowed such risky investments. And humor is a key aspect of developing and maintaining relationships in organizations, so when conflicts arise, they can be accomplished more productively.

~ Professor Cyborg

CEO compensation

Chapter 20 focuses on Deetz's critical approach to organizational communication. Deetz suggests that corporate colonization, the "encroachment of modern corporations into every area of life outside the workplace" (p. 262) negatively impacts our quality of life, enriching the few to the detriment of the many. Griffin offers this fact: "compensation for . . . CEOs has risen from 24 times to over 175 times that of the average worker" (p. 263). Unfortunately, the situation is even worse than that. According to a New York Times article on the bailout of financial institutions, "In 2007, the total compensation of chief executives in large American corporations was 275 times that of the salary of the average worker. . . . In the late 1970s, chief executive pay was 35 times that of the average American worker." And that pay isn't linked with performance. A 2006 Mercury News article about Bay Area CEO pay provided several examples of struggling companies that paid its top executives huge salaries. For example, "While Sun Microsystems has struggled since the dot-com bust, Chief Executive Scott McNealy received a $1.1 million bonus in 2005 and had been awarded 3.7 million options over the past three years."

Deetz argues that top management is most concerned with control and it "often takes precedence over representation of conflicting interests and long-term company and community health" (p. 264). The results of this emphasis on managerial control are evident in the current financial crisis, which some economists had predicted more than two years ago. But the push to deregulate the banking industry, giving top executives free reign to institute their own corporate controls, led to risky investment practices and poor decisions.

Would Deetz's approach to organization, with its emphasis on stakeholder democracy, have prevented the current financial crisis? The issues are complex, so it's difficult to know. Still, involving more people in the decision-making process might have put the brakes on the high-risk investment strategies that got our economy in this mess.

~ Professor Cyborg

organizational stories

My primary area of specialization is organizational communication, so the chapters this week especially resonate with me. I was first introduced to the notion of organizational culture in graduate school at the University of Kentucky. While I was there, I took a course in the role of organized religion in Appalachia. As part of the class, students had access to data collected in the 1950s, including in-depth interviews and tapes of sermons given by ministers and lay members of the churches. My colleagues and I analyzed some of the data. We published our results of one study in the American Communication Journal.

In the article, Speaking for God: The Functions of Church Leader Storytelling in Southern Appalachia in the 1950s, we identified how speakers used stories in their sermons. We examined two different denominations, Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee and Southern Baptist. Speakers in both groups used stories in similar ways: manage meaning, reduce uncertainty, and encourage church member bonding. However, there were differences based on the speaker's status (minister or lay leader), with lay leaders focusing more on reducing listeners' uncertainty. I found this research particularly interesting because it provided a window into the Appalachian culture in the 1950s.

~ Professor Cyborg

the practicality of structuration theory

In the interview with Griffin, Poole says, "whenever we act, we’re using a structure to act; but our action is also creating the grounds for that structure’s existence. We’re producing it, using it." As Griffin then points out, this process can constrain group behavior. However, it also means that if group members alter their behaviors, they can make changes in how the group functions. Poole suggests that individual group members can change their communication strategies if they're not satisfied with how the group is working. In addition, group members can "undertake a major intervention" by explicitly talking about and taking steps to change how the group interacts.

When I taught at Ohio University, a member of the faculty was always assigned to be the process observer in department meetings. This person would keep the group on track, remind members of the meeting's purpose, and also note if the members weren't following the rules of discussion, such as critiquing ideas, not people. Having a process observer highlighted how the group structured itself and made it easier to make changes if needed.

~ Professor Cyborg

structuration theory

Probably the greatest contribution of Poole's structuration theory is its application in group decision support systems (GDSS). Group members meet online, either synchronously or asynchronously. The software structures the decision-making process to promote a democratic approach. Contributions and voting are anonymous to allow for a freer exchange of ideas. The system is quite task oriented and designed based on Poole's notions of rules and resources. Poole and his associates were the first communication researchers to systematically examine the use of computer-mediated communication in small group work.

Griffin reports "Poole notes that group members sometimes appropriate rules or resources in ways that thwart their intended use. He calls this an ironic appropriation because it goes against the spirit of the structure" (p. 241). This notion of ironic appropriation fits well with my earlier discussion of the communication imperative. Rather than taking a deterministic view of technology, the idea of a communication imperative suggests that humans are wired to communicate with each other and will use the technology at their disposal to achieve their communicative goals. People don't just follow the rules--they make the rules, they change the rules, they discard the rules.

~ Professor Cyborg

goals and groups

My spouse and I are writing a small group communication text for McGraw-Hill, so I'm especially interested in this week's chapters. In our book's chapter on critical thinking that I'm finishing up today, I discuss the importance of goals in critical thinking. That is, when group members have a clearly stated goal for a meeting or other interaction, and a plan to achieve that goal, they're more likely to carefully analyze and interpret information presented, leading to a better decision. As Griffin notes in Chapter 17, "Because group members need to be clear on what they are trying to accomplish, Hirokawa and Gouran regard discussion of goals and objectives as the second requisite function of decision making" (p. 224).

I've observed the importance of goals in faculty meetings. At the suggestion of one of my colleagues in the department, Dr. Shawn Spano, I instituted a new way of setting up the agenda for faculty meetings when I was department chair. In addition to listing an item for discussion, I also listed the goal or the outcome we should achieve from the discussion. For example, one item we discussed at a meeting was laptop security (after one faculty member's laptop was stolen). I listed the item, laptop security, and then the goal, decide on a system or systems we want to use to prevent/handle laptop theft. By having a goal, we kept our discussion more focused and on topic. The faculty met nearly every other Friday for 3-4 hours in the spring semester. Listing our goals for the meetings greatly improved our productivity and sense of accomplishment. Faculty members didn't feel like those hours were wasted.

~ Professor Cyborg

interactional view

The interactional view of communication had a tremendous impact on communication scholarship, especially in the area of family communication. By placing a focus on the communication between people, the interactional moved attention away from individuals to what was happening as they interacted. Griffin’s example at the beginning of Chapter 13 highlights how the interactional view has been applied to family communication. By viewing the family as a system, therapists and communication researchers examine the family as a whole, rather than just each person in the family. Rather than blaming family problems on one person, therapists and researchers study the ways in which everyone in the family contributes to ongoing behaviors and communication patterns.

The theory certainly has undergone criticism, particularly the axioms, which take a law-governing approach to communication. The first, “one cannot communicate” probably has been debated more than any of the others. Griffin discusses this at the end of the chapter, noting that the original developers of the theory admit “not all nonverbal behavior is communication” (p. 177). This is an important admission. One problem with “one cannot not communicate” is that all behavior becomes communication. More recent communication scholars have argued that communication requires intention: the sender intends to send the message, the receiver interprets the message as intentional, or both. So that’s what differentiates behavior from communication—there must be intentionality for communication to occur.

~ Professor Cyborg

dialectics and health communication

In Chapter 12 Griffin discusses relational dialectics. I've applied this theory in my own work on communicating disability and communicating breast cancer. For the latter study, my colleague Joy Hart and I examined blogs written by women with breast cancer. Previous research on blogs written by people with cancer found they blogged to express their own opinions and frustrations, share stores, for empowerment, and as a coping mechanism.

In our study we examined five blogs written by women with breast cancer. We were interested in the dialectics the women expressed in writing about their experiences with the disease. We identified four dialectics: control-acceptance, same-changed, private-public, and selfish-nurturing. The first dialectic represented a tension between exercising control over the cancer and the person's overall health and accepting the diagnosis as something to live with and learn from. The same-changed dialectic represented a tension between being unaffected by the cancer and treatment (remaining "normal") and being a different person since the diagnosis. The public-private dialectic referred to a tension between seeking support from others and at the same time being alone in the experience of the illness. The selfish-nurturing dialectic highlighted the tension between focusing on the self and providing support for others, a tension the women found particularly difficult to deal with due to cultural norms.

Although relational dialectics has been applied primarily in examining interviews or surveys in which people describe their interpersonal relationships, this study demonstrated the utility of applying the theory to how bloggers describe their experiences with a health crisis.

~ Professor Cyborg

f2f & cmc

Although I don't agree completely with Walther's social information processing theory (SIP), his work has had a tremendous influence on the study of online interaction. As Griffin notes, Walther's 1992 journal article detailing the theory won a prestigious award from the National Communication Association. Most important from my perspective is this: "While most scholars assumed that online communication is an inherently inferior medium for relational communication, he [Walther] rejected that brand of technological determinism" (p. 148). Unfortunately, some scholars, particularly those in communication, still adhere to an old-fashioned view of online communication, arguing that in person communication is inherently superior. But Walther's work demonstrated that assumption is not supported.

Those immersed in new communication technologies find the distinctions between online and offline communication silly. At work and in social relationships, communicators generally move seamlessly among the various communication tools available. Early notions of "virtual" vs. "real" relationships seem quaint. Certainly online classes are just as real as in person ones. Most of my relationships involve a combination of in person, phone, and online communication. The percentages vary with the relationship, but generally are based on how far away that person lives from me. What the internet (and cell phones) has done is allowed me to more easily maintain connections with friends across the country and around the world.

~ Professor Cyborg

making life predictable

In the interview with Em Griffin, Dr. Berger said this in explaining uncertainty reduction theory: "The problem for all of us is that, if we’re going to act in ways that will achieve our desired goals – that is, we’ll get what we want – we have to be able to anticipate, to be able to predict what the physical world is going to do and what the people in it are going to do."

This explanation for the rationale underlying uncertainty reduction theory goes a long way toward explaining why Dr. Berger developed it. I understand the desire for predictability, but I wonder if its entirely reasonable. Can you really predict what others will do? To a certain extent, the answer is yes. But not completely. For example, I've known my spouse since 1994. I think I have a pretty good idea of his likes and dislikes. So when someone asked me if Ted likes movies such as Babe (about a pig raised by sheepdogs), I said of course not because I know he likes movies such as Terminator and The Matrix (the first one). Imagine my surprise when I found out later he really liked Babe!

Part of what makes life interesting is the uncertainty and ambiguity of our everyday interactions with others. Too much uncertainty can prove overwhelming and confusing. Too little uncertainty and you're bored and unmotivated. Some degree of prediction helps communicators navigate daily life. But achieving desired goals also calls for responding to uncertainty and developing new strategies in the moment.

uncertainty reduction theory

Although uncertainty reduction theory has its critics it remains a popular theory because it seems so intuitive. For example, one of our cars, a 1982 Toyota Starlet, was getting pretty run down. One side window was held in with a bungee cord. There was an electrical problem so it wouldn't always start; we'd have to rock the car from side to side or take a mallet to the battery. It had little in the way of safety features (such as air bags). It was time to buy a new car. So we bought a Prius. First we did quite a bit of research on the car, including conversations with people who owned one. Then we test drove one at the dealership. After we bought it, we continued to search for information that reinforced our decision. It was a big purchase, and we wanted to reduce our anxiety about it.

Still, when applied to human communication, uncertainty reduction has its detractors. The theory assumes that all uncertainty is bad, harmony is good, and that more information will reduce uncertainty. Yet these assumptions haven't proved accurate. In addition, as the author of your text points out, several theorems have not stood the test of carefully-designed studies. The idea of uncertainty reduction is intriguing, but like all aspects of human communication, it's much more complex than it appears.

CPM and the workplace

Chapter 9 in the text discusses social penetration theory. Although the theory began as a fairly simplistic representation of the self and how individuals communicate, more recent applications have posited greater complexity in interpersonal interactions.

Communication Privacy Management theory (CPM) suggests that complete breadth and depth of self disclosure isn't what's always best for a relationship or the individuals involved. CPM identifies privacy boundary rules that people develop. These rules guide the degree that individuals are willing to disclose information. Communicators don't set those boundaries all on their own, however. Boundaries are always set, and negotiated, with others. Thus, rules may change over time and based on the relationship with the other person.

My colleagues and I recently applied CPM to organizational surveillance in the workplace. Students in my previous organizational communication classes gathered much of the data, so the responses to a large extent reflect norms in Bay Area organizations. What surprised us what the degree to which organization members allowed the organization to set privacy boundaries. Granted, employees are at a power disadvantage when dealing with surveillance in the workplace. But we expected more instances of resistance and more talk about the intrusion of the surveillance. Yet for the most part organization members accepted the reasons organizations gave for the surveillance and did little to subvert the system.

CMM

I started by master's work in communication at the U of Massachusetts (finished at Central Michigan U) and took classes from Barnett Pearce and Vern Cronen, the scholars who developed the coordinated management of meaning theory. Although the theory may appear overly-complex and the use of obscure terms tedious at times, CMM has had important impacts on the field in how scholars think about communication. As Griffin notes, CMM underscores how "persons-in-conversations co-construct their social realities. . . . The coordinated management of meaning is the most comprehensive statement of social construction crafted by communication scholars" (p. 82).

Chapter 6 briefly discusses the Cupertino Community Project and how Pearce and others applied the principles of CMM to diversity forums for people living in Cupertino, teaching residents to engage in dialogic communication to discuss especially thorny issues, particularly ethnic diversity. If you want to read more about the Cupertino Project, read SJSU communication studies professor Dr. Shawn Spano's book, Public Dialogue and Participatory Democracy.

constructivism

No blogging requirement this week, but I wanted to get in a brief word about constructivism.

As I mentioned before in my mapping the territory entry, I have a background in psychology. What I like about constructivism is the link it provides between psychology and communication. Constructivists are interested in individual differences in social cognitive structures and message production and message interpretation. What does that mean? Researchers in this area want to know how the ways in which people organize social knowledge (what we know about others and our interactions with them) influence their communication. For example, researchers have found that people who think of others in more complex ways produce messages that are more geared toward others as unique individuals (more person-centered).

With its focus on person-centered messages, constructivism is a very practical theory. Research has demonstrated that people can be taught to think of others is more sophisticated ways and develop messages that are more person-centered. And person-centered message are more effective in comforting and persuading others.

For me, constructivism fills a gap that many communication theories ignore--how people think. Constructivists recognize the reflexive relationship between thinking and communicating--both influence the other.

~ Professor Cyborg

end of week 2

Week 2 is drawing to a close. Many excellent blog entries and comments on the material in Chapters 4 and 5. My students in the summer said that blogging about the class material was a great way to better understand course concepts. And reading others' blogs highlighted concepts and points otherwise missed.

I have been going through and reading your entries, even if I don't comment on them. One goal for the blogging assignment is to get students talking with each other, rather than to me. The next time you're in an on campus class, observe the interaction. Generally, students talk to the instructor, even when they're making comments about what another student said. With blogging, the instructor isn't in the middle and you can communicate directly with each other.

I hope you're all having a great weekend! Be sure you finish up your blog entries and comments as well as Quiz 1 tonight by midnight.

~ Professor Cyborg

symbolic interactionism

Chapter 5 in your text discusses symbolic interactionism, a theory developed by G. H. Mead, a sociologist, that has had a strong influence on theory in the communication discipline. Mead's theory got scholars to reconsider their view of reality. Instead of reality being something separate and apart from people, Mead's theory argues that social reality is something people create. And if that's the case, then people can create, maintain, and change that reality.

Near the end of the chapter, Griffin outlines several ways in which symbolic interactionism is applicable to communication. One area, naming, recognizes the ways in which labeling influences how communicators think of something and respond to it. Reflect on the alias you chose for your blogs--how does that alias represent you? In addition, the power to name and define is an important one. Consider the strategies politicians use to define their opponents.

~ Professor Cyborg

ethics in communication

In a previous edition of the text, your author had separate sections focused on ethical considerations. Now he's moved the discussion of ethics into the chapters providing a more integrated view of ethics, rather as an afterthought. In Chapter 4, Griffin refers to the National Communication Association's Credo for Communication Ethics. I discuss NCA's principles in Public Speaking: The Evolving Art, recently published by Wadworth. The ethical principles apply across the broad range of communication contexts, from interpersonal communication to organizational communication to public speaking.

Adopted nearly 10 years ago in the early years of the digital age, the principles resonate with communicators today. The first one is especially relevant during a presidential campaign year: "We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of communication."

Sometimes a communicator's truthfulness, accuracy, and honesty are difficult to determine, particularly with public figures. As election day draws nearer, a useful site to visit to find out just how accurate candidates' ads and statements are is FactCheck.org. The site is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, whose director is communication professor Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson. FactCheck.org is completely nonpartisan and scrutinizes statements made by representatives of all political parties. To maintain its independence, the project doesn't accept any funding from corporations, lobbyists, labor unions, or others who might try to influence what's investigated. Check it out. You might be surprised by what you learn.

~ Professor Cyborg

my travels in the communication field

In Chapter 4, Griffin provides a map of the communication discipline, identifying seven traditions in the field. Staking out my place on the map requires a bit of history.

My father is a (now retired) experimental psychologist, so I was raised in the socio-psychological, empiricist, logical positivist tradition. When I was growing up, if I couldn't quantify and measure it, it didn't exist. Then I took a class in interpersonal communication from Peter Northhouse at Western Michigan U and was introduced to a phenomenological approach, which I found quite appealing. I started my master's at the U of Massachusetts, where classes with Barnett Pearce and Vern Cronen introduced me to the coordinated management of meaning (CMM, Chapter 6), which falls within the socio-cultural and phenomenological traditions. At Central Michigan U, where I completed my master's, David Ling's class in rhetorical criticism got me interested in Kenneth Burke's (Chapter 22) and Ernest Bormann's (Chapter 3) work; my thesis was on the rhetoric of Al-Anon.

When I began my doctoral work at the University of Kentucky, I pursued my interest in the cybernetic tradition, but soon realized I was more interested in conversations than network links and nodes. So Jim Applegate became my advisor at UK, and my research turned to a constructivist approach to social support in health care teams (Chapter 8). Although the author of your text places constructivism within socio-psychological and rhetorical traditions, recent work my colleagues and I have done takes a more interpretive, socio-cultural approach. Finally, my latest publications in organizational storytelling, metaphors of disability, and organizational surveillance take a decidedly critical stance. As you can tell, with the exception of semiotics, I've roamed the communication theoretical and metatheoretical territory.

~ Professor Cyborg

nearing the end of week 1

I've spent most of this week organizing my classes, adding students to the blog roll, Google Reader, and the wiki. It's also been a heavy advising week--a lot of students with a lot of questions. The new department website that I developed this summer has proven a useful advising tool. Unlike the old site that was way out of date and difficult to update, the platform for the new site is fairly easy to use--and the information is current.

I hope you've all had a chance to read the first three chapters of your text. They provide an important foundation for the rest of the book. Chapter 3 is particularly useful because Griffin goes through a systematic analysis of Bormann's symbolic convergence theory--an analysis template you can apply to any theory.

The week ends tomorrow. Be sure you've completed all your process tasks so you have a good start in the class this semester. And enjoy the holiday weekend!

~ Professor Cyborg

off and running

The class is off and running! Over half the students have set up their blogs and signed up for the listserv. Several have accessed the class wiki and tried it out. So by Sunday, the first day of the second week, everyone should be ready to read, blog, and take the first quiz.

There's plenty to blog about in the first few chapters. I like how the author discusses images and definitions of theory in Chapter 1 and defines communication. He personalizes the theory process, which makes it more accessible and less mysterious.

So read Chapters 1-3 this week, post your first blog entry, and comment on others' blogs. Week 1 isn't graded, but it's good to get into the blogging habit right away.

~ Professor Cyborg

class launched, students messaged

I just contacted the COMM 101 students about the class via mySJSU messaging. I emailed eCampus twice about what information that office as sending out this semester. No response. In the summer session, the staff at eCampus didn't bother to contact the online students about how to get started and it led to the not unpredictable mess. And the staff also managed to give incomplete instructions for logging on to Blackboard. Thank goodness I only use it for quizzes and grades.

The good news is the class website is up and running. The wiki is waiting for me to invite students to join, which I'll do once I get their email addresses.

Ted, River and I are on our way over the hill to set up the office for the fall and then go to the department welcome party. I'll be spending this weekend putting the finishing touches on my class materials and responding to student emails. Let the fall semester begin!

~ Professor Cyborg

the new comm 101

I haven't taught COMM 101 in four years. The first time I taught the course was when it was still COMM 105. Then the faculty reinvented the major the second or third year after I was hired. COMM 105 became more of a survey course for nonmajors and COMM 101 became the introductory course for majors. So the course has undergone many changes in my time at SJSU.

If you've read my COMM 144 blog, you'll know that eCampus's transition from WebCT to Blackboard led me to completely reconceptualize my online teaching. Rather than rely on the user-unfriendly proprietary software Blackboard offers, I moved to locate my classes primarily on the open internet. I posted all my class materials on my own server and used Google tools for other classroom functions, such as blogging and listservs.

This semester I'm adding another feature, a class wiki. I learned about wikis in a 3-day workshop on classroom technology offered by SJSU's Center for Faculty Development. I implemented several for the department while I was acting chair. The wikis proved essential to completing numerous tasks and preserving institutional memory (e.g. a place to store meeting minutes and agendas that all faculty can access easily). For this class, students will use the wiki to develop their ePortfolio.

So there's a lot of new going on in COMM 101--new teaching and learning tools, a new textbook, new assignments. I've just started working on the class website and hope to have it launched soon. I'll be interested in feedback from students on how the class is designed and structured.

~ Professor Cyborg