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Traditions of
Communication Theory

Chapter 3

Robert T. Craig, Ph.D.

•
“Communication theory as a field”

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Published in 1999

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Lead to the 7 traditions of
comm

theory

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Areas of scholarly focus based on researchers interest in
how communication works to spread thoughts, influence
individuals, and shape our world

Semiotic Tradition

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Views communication as the mediation by signs

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Objects and words are symbols

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Symbols have meaning because:

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They relate to other symbols

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You organize them to understand life

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Semiotics is:

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Study of signs & what they represent

Signs vs. Symbols

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Wedding Rings

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How are they a sign?

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What do they symbolize?

Triad of Meaning


Semiosis

Three Divisions of Semiotic

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Semantics

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What meaning?

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Ex. Pink Sky at night . . .

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Syntactic

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Relationship between signs and rules used to combine
into meaning

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Verbal and nonverbal

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Pragmatics

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Practical relationship between context and meaning


Phenomenological Tradition

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Defined: Interpretation by the individual

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Key Ideas:

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Phenomenon

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Observable event, object, or condition through individual
perception

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Phenomenology

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How we understand the world

Three Basic Principles of
Phenomonology

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Knowledge comes from direct experience

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How you relate to an object determines its meaning

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Language is the vehicle of meaning

Variations of
Phenomenological Tradition

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Classical

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Edmund Husserl

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Used bracketing to create highly objective view

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Phenomenology of Perception

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Maurice
Merleau
-
Ponty

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Perception provides foundation for understanding

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Subjective view

Hermeneutic Phenomenology


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Martin Heidegger

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Knowledge gained by experience through
interpreting communication

Cybernetic Tradition

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Communication is system created by the sum of its
parts

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Complex system that uses networks to connect
different parts

Variations in Cybernetic
Tradition

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Basic System

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Formalized structures that can be observed and
analyzed from outside

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Cybernetics

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Emphasis on the feedback loop and how circular forces
can be used to maintain balance & create change

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Information Theory

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Evaluates signal transmission and the impact of noise

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General System Theory

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Looks for commonalities among different systems

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Second
–

order cybernetics

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What we observe

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Determined by how we observe it

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Impacted by what is observed


Sociopsychological Tradition

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Focus on Individual

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Key Ideas:

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“Science of Communication”

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Research focuses on message processing

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Provide insight into how information is processed

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Evaluates inputs and
outputs of Cognitive system


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Behavioral Theories

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Looks at how people behave in communication
situations

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Cognitive Theories

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Evaluate thought

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Biological Theories

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How genetics affects behavior

Sociocultural Tradition

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Evaluates interaction in social groups

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Variations:

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Symbolic Interactionism

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Social structures are created and maintained through
interaction

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Social Construction

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Evaluates how knowledge in constructed through
interaction

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Social groups create common experience


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Sociolinguistics

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Impact of culture

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Philosophy of language

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Language games

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Ethnography

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Groups create meaning verbally and nonverbally

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Ethnomethodology

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Science of observing behavior

Critical Tradition

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Evaluates production of privilege, power, and oppression
through communication

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Key Ideas:

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Work to understand power structures that dominate society

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Evaluate oppression through communication






Rhetorical Tradition

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Rhetoric

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Use of symbols

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Five Cannons of Rhetoric

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Invention

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Arrangement

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Style

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Delivery

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Memory