Communication Terms List
Process School
Sees communication as the</i>transmission of messages.</i> Concern with accuracy, whether or not communication has take place based on if the audience or listener had the intended reaction.
Redundancy
That which is predictable or conventional in a message. Lets the reader easily understand what is being communicated.
Entropy
That which is unpredictable in a message.
Infantilizing
The act of emphasizing the eyes and mouth of a subject to make it appear childish
Silence
The act of not speaking is a form of nonverbal communication.
Communication
The act or process of using words sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange info or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings to someone else.
Uses and Gratification Theory
The belief that the audience has a complex set of needs which it seeks to satisfy in the mass media
Referent
The object to which a sign is referring
Cultivation
The relationship between mass media and the culture from which it grows and to which it speaks
Convention
The structuring of a message according to shared patterns.
Semiotics
The study of signs and messages
Medium
The technical or physical means of converting the message into a signal capable of being transmitted along the channel.
Deviation
The unexpected or non-conventional
Feedback
Transmission of a reader's reaction back to the sender.
Paradigm
an explanation of how the world works and maybe why
Content Analysis
designed to produce an objective, measurable, verifiable, account of the manifest content of messages
Encoding
Changing abstract thought into communication
Decoding
Changing symbols/language into abstract thought
Hegemony
Dominant ideologies made up by the dominant class that are constantly resisted by the submissive class. Works to make certain--not necessarily true--ideologies "common sense"
Message
Content the sender is trying to communicated to the receiver
Dominant Culture
Group that has the power to make decisions for the institutions in that society W=White A/S=Anglo-Saxon P=Protestant H=Heterosexual A=Able-bodied M=Male
Commutation Test
Identify significant differences, or distinctive features, within a paradigm or syntagm to help define that significance. Change a unit in the system to assess the change of meaning
Arbitrary
If relation between the signifier and the signified are by agreed upon by users its...?
Context
Impacts the way the message is perceived
Boundary Rituals
Rituals made to ease the transition between categories ex. funeral
Semiotic School
Sees communication as the <i>production and exchange of meanings.</i> Concerned with texts and how they interact with people and their cultures.
Myth
Creates an explanation, thereby "naturalizing" something which often isn't natural
Perception
"A process": -Selection -Organization -Interpretation
Accentuation
(Functions of nonverbal communication) Accenting verbal language with nonverbal. Reinforces meaning, adds emphasis
Impression Management
(Functions of nonverbal communication) Dramaturgy; Trying to manage the impression people have of you using nonverbals
Substitution
(Functions of nonverbal communication) Nonverbal is used instead of verbal
Repetition
(Functions of nonverbal communication) Repeats the verbal in some respect
Cultural
(Functions of nonverbal communication) Using nonberbals to denote culture
Regulation
(Functions of nonverbal communication) Using nonverbals to control the flow of a communication event
Contradiction
(Functions of nonverbal communication) Verbal and nonverbal communication contradict; Easier to lie verbally than nonverbally
Ideology
-A system of characteristics of a particular class or group -A system of illusory beliefs--false ideas or false consciousness--which can be contrasted with true or scientific knowledge -The general process of the production of meanings and ideas
Shannon and Weaver
-Developed the first communication model -Bell Telephone workers, did technology research
Empiricism
-It is deductive instead of inductive -It assumes a universal, objective reality available for study -It assumes that humans are able to devise methods of studying this reality objectively -It assumes that hypotheses explaining this reality are capable of proof or disproof
Denotative meaning
Dictionary definition, meaning shared by speech community
Visual Metaphor
A metaphor depicted in imagery that associates characteristics of more than one paradigms by transposition
Symbol
A sign that has no connection or resemblance to object, has shared meaning
Norm
A statistically average example of behavior or evaluation. Common practices
Myth (Lévi-Strauss)
A story that is a specific and local transformation of a deep structure of binarily opposed concepts that are important to the culture
Codes
A system of meaning common to the members of a culture or subculture.
Binary Opposition
A system of two related categories that, in its purest form, comprises the universe
Semantic Differential
A wa of studying peoples feelings, attitudes, or emotions toward a certain concept
Narrowcast
Aimed at a specific audience
Noise
Anything that interferes with a message unintended by the sender.
Signs
Artefacts or acts that refer to something other than themselves; signifying constructs.
Sender/Source
Individual with original abstract thought.
Kinesics
Language incorporating the use of body language, gestures, posture
Oculesics
Language incorporating the use of eye contact/movement
Proxemics
Language incorporating the use of personal space
Paralanguage
Language incorporating the use of rate, pitch, intonation
Anomalous Category
One that does not fit the categories of the binary opposition, but straddles them.
Broadcast
One that is shared by members of a mass audience
Connotative meaning
Personal reaction toward a word
Channel
Physical means by which a signal is transmitted.
Frame of Reference
Psychological window though which we see the world