Review for Exam 1 Comm 250 Introduction to Communication Inquiry General Comments and Guidelines The exam will consist of no more than 50 multiple choice questions The exam will cover Chapters 1 2 3 and 4 in your text West Turner 4th edition Focus will be on class notes but questions from the text will be asked you should use your text in conjunction with your class notes to further your understanding of the topics discussed in class I will NOT test you on anything from the text that we didn t ALSO cover in class The exam will require you to know more than terms and definitions You will be asked 1 to think about the broad implications of each of the topic areas we covered i e How do each of the topic areas relate to one another and to communication theory 2 to identify examples of class concepts acting in real life situations and 3 to apply your understanding of the concepts to theory building and testing Defining Communication Is communication intentional What are the issues involved in defining communication There are so many possible ways to define communication and depending on how they answer the following questions Does it have to have correspondence Does it have to be successful Does it have to be ethical Does it have to include symbolic actions Does it include cognition thought perception Does it have to be human to human Define communication A social process in which individuals use symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment Social involves people and interactions Process dynamic ongoing unending occurrence that tends to change over time Symbols arbitrary labels or representation of phenomenon o Arbitrary in that is may mean different things to someone outside of a group o Concrete representation symbol represents object vs Abstract representation symbol stands for idea or thought Meaning what people extract from a message one needs to be able to repeat explain clarify for when others do not comprehend the message Environment the context in which communication takes place Why is it important to define communication It is important to limit the scope of what we accept as communication A limited scope allows for theory building Defining is part of building theory Models of the communication process know their components and how they differ conceptually Linear a source will encode a message then send it to a receiver through sensory channels the receiver receives and decodes the message Example ads TV voicemail one way sender encoder sends a message to a receiver decoder with background noise physical semantic psychological and physiological no feedback Interactional feedback is involved communication goes in two directions sender receiver and receiver sender this process suggests that communication is ongoing one element that is essential is feedback feedback takes places after the message is received not during the message itself Transactional simultaneous sending and receiving of messages in a communication episode people build shared meanings ongoing no middle or end which makes both parties responsible for creating meaning Types of noise Physical external actual noise i e loud music garbage disposal Semantic problems can arise regarding the meaning of words slang specialized language Psychological stress frustration bias irritation Physiological Communication contexts know what they are and topics of study within them these topics can be found in your text Intrapersonal communication with oneself Interpersonal face to face communication Small Group communication with a group of people Organizational communication within and among large and extended environments Public Rhetorical communication to a large group of listeners ethos pathos logos Mass Media communication to a very large audience through mediated forms of technology Cultural communication between and among members of different cultures Introduction to Theory What is Theory i e theory defined Theory conceptual representation or explanation of a phenomenon Difference between a theory a model and a taxonomy Taxonomy conceptual representation of categories in a phenomenon Model a simplified representation of reality specifies relationships between concepts temporal order What are the Goals of Theory Goals of theory include trying to explain describe predict and or control could be control variables or to create social change manipulate behavior Metatheoretical Assumptions Ontological branch of philosophy that studies the nature of reality comes from philosophy concerned with studying the nature of reality model representing reality so have to know what that thing looks like in the real world Ontological Questions Assumptions 1 In the real world is communication a matter of choice Do humans make real choices choice Example goal is for you to like me In order to do that I may choose to be nice to you We use communication in order to achieve goals and how we do that is a matter of 2 Is human experience basically individual or social Is communication an individual event or a social event individual to say you re in my space and cause other individual to back off Individual event example when one is invading someone s space may cause an Social event when communication is a social endeavor When two individuals work together in order to communicate and create meaning 3 Is communication in the real world contextualized Does the context matter Is human If you have the goal to predict then you re saying context does not matter May change experience contextualized from context to context Context depends on physical location classroom vs movie theater type of relationship between people context of cultures e g invasion of space some cultures do matter in this sense different cultures have different levels of tolerance for people invading their space Epistemological learn about 1 Can knowledge exist before experience Most scholars agree that we must experience communication in some way in order to A few scholars believe that we can innately know something before experience Example some people just know it if they don t like certain foods without actually trying it Same example for innately knowing communication Some kids also know they won t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because it s possible that they know they are allergic to it or something 2 Can knowledge be certain This is an issue that once we know something or acquire knowledge is it always going to be this way Example before people used
View Full Document
Unlocking...