COMM 1 Lecture : comm1 notes
Lecture Notes
● Final Review Readings + Nielsen
● Communication is…
○ people (sources/receivers)...
■ e.g. solar system, planets
■ someone must be sending/receiving the symbols
○ exchanging meaningful symbols (the back and forth)...
■ words, hand signals, pictures
■ anything that gets a message across
■ verbal vs. nonverbal
■ can’t exchange meaning without messages
■ we hope that meaning is shared
○ in various contexts...
■ e.g. interpersonal dyads, groups, media, etc.
■ situation in which communication is happening… e.g. happening in a
classroom; various divisions of communication based on contexts
● researchers specialize and focus on different aspects of
communication
● there can be crossovers between the aspects
• check gauchospace for topics and their definition
(intrapersonal,interpersonal,intergroup,smallgroup,organiza
tional…
○ through various channels...
■ e.g. social media, voice, radio, news, any way that information is transferred
■ can be disrupted by “noise
● messages can be cut off, interrupted, distorted, distracted
○ with feedback(!)
■ as we send and receive messages, we gauge how well we’re doing
● Communication is also…
○ a systematic, cognitive process
■ systematic - societal norms, follows a set of expectations and patterns
■ cognitive - encoding and decoding of the messages being transmitted
● encoding: taking idea and figuring words/symbols to convey
message
● decoding: receiving message and processing it (with self-
interpretation)
• mental shortcuts for easier processing: #1 product!/hey,
how you doing
○ that has transactional qualities
■ exchange, interdependence, irreversibility
● the exchange - you give and you get
● interdependence - both are reliant on each other
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• what you say is reliant on what they say and vice versa;
there’s a mutual influence
● irreversibility - you can’t take it back
• everyone is slightly different after giving/receiving a
message
• the only way to repair is to add more
○ ****It’s communication, not communications!
■ communications do the technological side. they install phone lines n shit
● AT&T and Verizon
■ FCC - business arrangements + content
● Studying Communication as a Science
○ Goals
■ We seek understanding of the patterns among communication variables
● people’s characteristics, attitudes, behaviors, etc.
• e.g. credibility connected to effectiveness
• beliefs, how we feel about things
● What is related to what?
• each of the what is a variable
• correlations
• e.g. cholesterol related to heart disease
• Ex: Compared to many Middle Eastern cultures, Americans
stand far apart when conversing.
■ culture is being related to nonverbal distance
● What causes what?
• must have direction
• causations
• Ex: Eye contact increases perceptions of attractiveness
■ measurable - amount of eye contact/ perceptions
■ eye contact → more attractive; not just correlation
■ (ow do we know it’s causation and not correlation?
The Scientific Method
● The Scientific Method - How do we know?
○ Formulate hypotheses about the relationship b/w variables
■ theorizing - what do i think, how to explain, how to test
■ Predictions based on prior studies/theories/models
○ Test hypotheses using empirical observations
■ Gather objective data!
● nonbiased, observable; awareness of subjectivity - attractiveness
○ 3 Major Research Methods
■ Survey/Observational Research
● Ask people what they think or do without influencing their existing
predispositions
• telephone,mail,internet,face-to-face
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• samples are difficult
● Purpose: Examine relationships b/w communication attitudes and
behaviors, etc.
• Ex variables: social media use; connectedness
• Hyp: The more social media use, the greater the feeling of
connectedness w/ others…
● Limitations~
• Reliance on self-reports
• Cannot make causal conclusions!
■ 2 variables may be related, but not do not cause each
other
■ 3rd variable
■ bidirectionality
■ Experimental Research
● Purpose: draw causal conclusions
• Ex variables: eye contact; attractiveness
• Similar to clinical drug testing – testing whether drugs have
effects on people’s symptoms
■ Control vs. experimental
● Manipulate causal variable(s)
• Ex: eye contact
■ ½ shown photo with face looking at camera
■ other ½ shown same face, but looking away
● Control everything else (same face, expression, background, etc.)
• similar setting
● Measure effect/outcome
• Ex: attractiveness rating
■ self-report measure… a scale
● Limitations~
• limited participants and artificial setting
■ not true representation of population; usually college
students :-)
■ control leads to artificial setting – labs are not a
normal setting
■ therefore: we cannot generalize results beyond
participants and
■ the lab environment
● realism; control is difficult outside of the lab
■ Content Analysis
● The quantitative analysis of the content of messages
• most commonly media
• define content variables and code/count them
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