HOPE AT LUTHER, NCA INSTITUTE FOR FACULTY, 2004

Hope Conference 2004-"Comm Camp"
Comm Theory

Tuesday - July 20, 2004

Lynn Turner-Introduction

• Graduated from Northwestern
• Was in theater at the high school level before going to grad school
• Currently teaching at Marquette in Chicago
• Primary interest in Family Communication

Issues for Discussion:

• How do we make it interesting for the students?
• Where does it belong-early on in the curriculum or toward the end?
• Should there be a global theory of communication? Is it desirable? Is it even possible?
• How do we make the conceptual part as interesting as the applied part?
• Are some theories outdated? And if so, should we still be teaching them? Is the historical value of a theory worth covering, even if it isn't used regularly?
• How do you do a final project when students don't know about the various theories until mid-way or later during the semester?
• What is the role of writing in the teaching of communication theory? And what style and type or writing?
• What is the utility of Relational Dialectics in research?
• What does a theory look like when you run across it?

Assignment Option: Write a letter to a relative about: What is communication? The basis of the final project. At the end of the semester, they expand on that and talk about certain theories that are important to them regarding communication.

Today's Topic: What is Communication Theory?
The handout we got is from the first edition of Turner and West, rather than the second.

How can things as disparate as dialectics and uncertainty reduction theory both be called theories?

What is a theory?

• Tools for understanding abstract human communication behaviors.

Activity:

Tell me a tool that has changed your life.
Tell me an idea that has changed your life.
Now let's talk about how people in communication build tools to help communication scholars understand abstract human behavior?

Activity:

Choose an issue such as underage drinking.
Ask students why they think students engage in the behavior.
Then put your thoughts on the other side of the board.
In essence you have written two theories up on the board. Then discuss how you decide if it is a good theory and whether the theory accurately describes the phenomena. Lastly we discuss how you would go about testing the theory.

At that point, students have identified a theory and introduced them to the reason for and concept of research.

Models, Perspectives, Metatheories, etc.

1999 Communication Theory Article - Robert Craig

1. Rhetorical tradition-discourse

2. Semiotic -signs

3. Phenomenological - comm. is the experience of the self and other thru dialog

4. Cybernetics-information processing

5. Socio-psychological-interpersonal influence

6. socio-cultural-co-construction

7. Critical-changing the unjust status quo

Given that comm. is defined so differently from each of these perspectives, you can't have one overall theory.

Worldviews=Perpsectives (empirical vs. a more qualitative perspective)

Comm is a contested term, and it is important for the discipline to struggle over what the fundamental definition is, and because all of these perspectives have different definitions, they will have different approaches to theory and research.

A grand theory is not to be expected or desired in the discipline.

Is CMM a general theory of communication? Is it the most embracing communication theory out there?

• Can it be applied to all perspectives of communication?

There isn't necessarily a weakness in using multiple theories and perspectives.

There really isn't a humanity that embraces one overall theory.

Natural Sciences seek the covering law/unifying theory. Not really available with the social sciences.

Wednesday June 21, 2004

Question: What is the usefulness of theory as a stand alone course vs. integrating theory intentionally in all communication courses?

No real sense of agreement. Almost all agree that there should be a theory class AS WELL AS infusing theory into all other courses.

Most agree that students need to have at least some critical thinking skills before taking a theory course.

Theory is a class where you can capture the dialectic between the practical and the thought-provoking; thought-provoking helps teach critical thinking and presents other views of the world.

For Tomorrow's Discussion: Berger's Uncertainty Reduction Theory. How do we teach the Theory class?

"The art of aging well is re-inventing oneself." This quote fits for Communication, too. To be successful in the discipline means having to re-invent one's courses and curricula. What works for today may not work for tomorrow.

Turner & West Text:

• TIPS = Theory Into Practice An example of something found in the popular media that might be something students would have come across or read about. Direct application of the theory to the story or example.
• Research Note: shows students where researchers are using these theories. Shows students that these ideas a living ideas rather than dead concepts taking up space in a text.

Possible Activity: Have students find things in their environment to which the theory can be applied.

To help increase reading: use Blackboard and give them 10 minutes to take the quiz and have it so that the quiz goes off line 30 minutes before class. Allows the classroom discussion to go so much further and allows the instructor to see where the weaknesses are before coming to class discussions.

QR Card: Question and Response Cards. The student either must give a question or a response/comment regarding the chapter. Students put the page number on card, and then the students are presenting materials to the instructor and helps guide the discussions. Everybody's QR isn't used for every chapter, but the instructor has a chance to sort through them and see where there are duplicate questions or what is of interest to them.

Names are important in terms of studying theory. Theories are not just "abstract" and "out there." They are concrete ideas written by REAL people, many of who are alive and still working. Also, emphasizing that these scholars are real people just like they are leads them to believe that they too could possibly be a communication scholar in the future.

As a discipline, students should know who the theorists are in the discipline. Communication is not a "fluff" subject matter, but a true discipline like many other humanities. Communication has "come of age" in terms of being theoretically based. We don't just borrow from other disciplines. We have our own unique, discipline-specific theories.

Knowledge is political. None of these ideas get presented pure and clean the first time around on a page. People discuss and argue and recreate and reformulate ideas and theories get modified. Theory construction is truly a part of a SOCIAL science-they are socially constructed and modified. Dialog allows for advancement. Dialog is a social process.

Theories are organic, growing things that are influenced by discussions, metatheoretical issues, and ontological issues. Theories are not static entities. They are dynamic. Students can take an active role in the discussion of the theories.

Shaking all the 'taken-for-granted' assumptions can allow students to get more involved in the discussion.

How do you get students to participate in the dialog and question the theory? Or what do you do with students who completely reject a theory because it doesn't resonate with their own personal life experience?

• Position papers. Do you agree or disagree. How might you check out this theory? What kind of data do I need to back it up.
• Present them false information (fake lecture). Let them take notes. Make sure the info doesn't ring true. Most will not question the material, but will write it down anyway. Then have students throw it away and explain that what you just told them wasn't true. Ask them why they wrote it all down rather than questioning the things presented. Then dialog about the expectations for thought and participation in class.
• Have students write papers about how they can view themselves through other lens. Helps make clear the cultural biases inherent in theories.

Thursday July 22, 2004

Check-in/Check-out:

For check-in, everyone goes around the room and tells how they are feeling relative to the class.

For check-out, everyone talks about what they learned for the day.

Keep it very brief. Encourage people to say their own thing rather than, "what s/he said."

EVT and social penetration theory are great examples of what constitutes a good theory. They are also both some of the first "pure" communication theories that don't borrow significantly from other disciplines.

What different meanings do people attach to the word 'theory'?

Pedagogical Issues:

Review of Lynn's syllabus:

• Entry level course at Marquette. People take this course first when they sign on as a major.
• Try to help students understand the concept of the "lens" one uses to view the world or a theory.
  • Get a series of glasses with different kinds of lens to try to create a concrete metaphor. Have students look through the lenses and discuss how the different lenses change the way the world looks.
  • Certain colored lenses would keep people from seeing that same color on a piece of paper or something. In other words, some of things wouldn't be visible at all because of the colored lenses. The color would prevent you from seeing some things.
  • Different lenses allow us to see different things. Changing lenses is not always easy to do.
  • Use different types of hammers to explain how different hammers are used for different tasks. You can't use a sledge hammer to do the same thing that a ball peen hammer would do or a rubber mallet. We have different tools for different tasks.
  • Get across the idea that the theory you start with guides the work.
• Course policies:
  • Citation policies (secondary citations) and turning in either the first page of the article or even the whole article. Helps clarify any misunderstandings of an author's piece.
  • Many do not put their outlines/notes online. Julia Wood tells her students that it is their responsibility to be able to discern from listening the main points, etc., from a lecture.
• Assignments:
  • No one big assignment; midterm and final; exercises; participation
  • Ask the question you wish I would have asked and answer it to the best of your ability. Gives a nice alternative to standard questions. Also, have students give you the question they think you should have asked and have them explain why you should have asked that question.
  • Oral presentation-an oral abstract of an article
  • Reaction Papers-1 page papers that cite using APA, 4 parts: a) What is the primary research question/What is the researcher trying to find out? b) what is the method used? c) what did the researchers find? d) What is your reaction to the article? Does it add to our understanding of communication? What more can be done in this area? Was this study absolutely pointless and why?
  • Presentation-have students compare and contrast a couple of theories, or develop/expand a model of a theory, apply the theory to another context, etc. They write a paper and make a final presentation.
  • Doctor for a day-have students be the authority as though they were presenting at a conference and are the authority. Have intro or public speaking students come and ask questions.
  • Set up a poster session in the hall and have people come through and ask them about their projects

Lynn's rationale for no final paper in theory: Feels it was too hard to cover all the material and still prepare a final project. The hope is that they will have what is necessary later on to write a good paper in other classes. Helps to balance out the semester.

For Tomorrow: Relational Dialectics, Boundary management, narrative theory, CMM

Every outline for the instructor's CD-ROM has a section that looks at the assumptions behind the theory.

PowerPoint slides are available for each chapter.

Following outline, there are at least 2 or 3 classroom activities.

Friday July 23, 2004

Narrative Paradigm:

The Call of Stories - Robert Coles

The Storied Self - The life stories we use to frame our lives.

Fisher is looking for a different kind of model

• asks for what are good reasons in a theory
• Coherence-Does it follow/flow logically?
  • The story makes sense. It doesn't contradict itself with an ending that doesn't seem to be supported by the rest of the story. The facts don't seem to be arranged in a logical fashion.
  • Character coherence is important. Is the behavior consistent with the behaviors of a character?
• Fidelity-Does it ring true with my experience? How does the story ring true with one's own experiences.
  • We need to caution them that their experience isn't necessarily everyone's experience, and just because it isn't true for you doesn't necessarily mean it isn't true.
  • Fidelity is put forth by Fisher descriptively. Many of us use it prescriptively. Just because one person hasn't experienced something doesn't mean it doesn't have fidelity.
  • ***Fidelity is faithful to HUMAN experience, not just my own experience, and that constitutes good reason.
  • Because we are socialized beyond our own experience, we have an understanding at some level of experiences, responses and relationships other than those we participate in. We can imagine being in a character's place.
  • Coherence and Fidelity are the entrance to a frame for consideration, and then within that frame, people can still choose to accept or reject the story.
  • Just because a story rings true does not mean that it IS true. Facts matter. (e.g., weapons of mass destruction in Iraq)
  • If the story SEEMS true to a person, it almost becomes not-so-important if it is true. Fisher says our reasoning isn't always based on facts. If the story seems true, then that is good enough.
  • People are very compelled by a great story, whether true or not.
  • Fisher wouldn't care if the story is true or not if it has fidelity and coherence.
  • Eskimos' words for snow-there really aren't more than 4 or 5 words for snow. But that myth has been perpetuated for so very long.
• There is a metalevel of stories-such as parables. Parables are not true, but they serve a useful purpose and function as coherent and having fidelity.
• There are always a variety of stories that surround us, and the tools of coherence and fidelity help us choose which stories we will attend to.

Fisher's definition-any accounts that have a sequence of actions that listener's assign a meeting to.

• critics have said that given this definition, a shopping list could be a narrative.
• For Fisher, an account of any series of events as mundane as "hi, how was your day" can be a story if meaning is ascribed to it.
• Thus, it makes the central construct of the theory so broad that it doesn't have a great deal of applicability

Fisher calls this the narrative paradigm rather than narrative theory.

Making the SO WHAT connection is not easy to do with this theory.

• what Fisher has offered is not an explanation for every question we have, but he offers an different explanation for how people make sense of the world. Then you can work with students to discover what other theory or theories could supplement the narrative paradigm to try and get a more complete, holistic picture.

Stories aren't just for fun. They are the stuff of everyday life.

Burke's Pentad and Fisher's narrative paradigm are consistent. Nothing contradictory exists between them. They are complimentary and woven together.

Activity:
Show Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or assign a short story. Or choose a 10 minute scene to show over and over for each theory and have them analyze the same clip from different perspectives.

Have groups of students assigned a theory and have them watch the movie and then analyze it according to that theory. Shows that there is not any one way to look at something. How do the different lenses provide insight to the phenomena?

Toolbox metaphor to weave through a course-

Types of theories can be compared to types of tools.

You cannot build a building with only one tool.

Saturday July 24, 2004

• A thought to ask NCA to run a different (perhaps a shorter-long weekend-conference) where people could bring data and ideas to brainstorm and consult with other people on their own research.

Dialectic Theory:

• the tensions NEVER get resolved. People have methods to try and reconcile them, but they are more coping mechanisms rather than solutions.
• Relationships can be understood as the efforts that people put forth to cope with the ongoing tensions that continually permeate relational life.
• Connection vs. autonomy-the first and most studied dialectic.
• If two people are playing a game, you can't focus on only the competition. If you do, you may no longer have a partner to play with. You must take into consideration the feelings of the other.
• Everyday talk is could be considered a strategy for maintaining the balance in the dialectics.
• History is important in understanding the dialectics in a relationship. Dialectics are always in and out of balance. The everyday talk is representative of the dynamic nature of relationships.
• "Chopping the Carrots" is the individual and collective together. "How was your day" focuses on the individual, but they are doing it together maintaining connection.
• "I want to show you my uniqueness in community with you." A management technique to balance the tension between the individual-connection dialectic.
• Wood Case Study Book-Double Jobs - a great case study for looking at dialectics.
• Getting to Yes - a book on negotiation strategy. Each individual in the relationship has to commit to stop the tension and talk about the circumstance and seek to find the common ground. Seeking out the common ground can then allow the opportunity for discussion of alternatives to alleviate the tension and arrive at the agreed upon common ground.
• With dialectics, you need to look at the WHOLE relationship. Perhaps one individual has the power in one circumstance while the other has the power in another circumstance. The dialectic is not necessarily balanced within each issue, but the two circumstances are balanced within the whole context of the relationship.
• Activity: have students write in first person a struggle that they have experienced. Then have them write in second person what they think the other person's position. Then come back as an outsider and analyze the situation.
• Rawlins adds the real vs. ideal dialectic. Deals with expectations within the relationship. And there is the public vs. private.