Module 6 Competing Theories of Comm

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Communication consists of:

• Schools of thought
• Models
• Definitions, uses, effects and functions

You need to be aware that people have already thought about communication and come up with ways of describing, mapping and modelling it. These approaches are called SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT (see Activity below)

To get started, we need to consider

• what communication is
• what we use it for
• what effect it has on us and our culture and environment.

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So, what can we agree on with regard to the first point, ‘What is communication?'

• Communication is important, no ‘vital' – “Communication is at the heart of our everyday lives” (Beck et al)
• Communication is a complex blend of intention, process and product
• Communication has many forms and many contexts

We might debate other aspects of that question and that is what a lot of approaches to communication and theories of communication do. The main debate, as you learnt in Module 2, is whether we should see communication as a process or an exchange of meanings.

Process School :

• Sees communication as the transmission of messages
• Is concerned with how senders and receivers encode and decode
• Sees communication as a process by which one person affects another
• Is concerned with matters such as efficiency and accuracy  
• Evaluates the success of communication in terms of a ‘delivered signal'

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Semiotic School

• Sees communication as the production and exchange of meanings
• Is concerned with how messages and texts interact with people
• Sees the study of communication as the study of text, context and culture
• Does not see misunderstanding as evidence of communication failure

Activity

1. Jot down all the 'models' or theories you can remember, from throughout the course ie Goffman, Johari Window etc.
2. Pick three models or theories - one from each of these modules - Module 2, Module 3 and Module 5. Answer the questions below for each of these three models.

• What is this model trying to illustrate or demonstrate about communication?
• How well is it doing this?
• What does it not show about communication?
• Is there a better theory or model which covers the same area of communication?
• Think of an example you could apply your model to.

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