Theory and Practice of Communication

Theory and Practice 

of Communication

Science and Information technology

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Miguel D'Addario

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Third edition

2020

CE

Table of contents

About the author

Introduction to edition

The object of the theory of communication

There are two traditions that address this issue

The communicative capacity is reached when

The advantages of the communicative process

The risks of the communicative process:

Communication has allowed transmission of knowledge

Differences between animal and human communication

History

Shannon

Entropy and information

Theory of communication

Phylogenesis

Keys in the process of evolution

Theories on the origin of language

Ontogenesis (ontogenetic development)

Ontogenetically three periods are distinguished

The process of acquiring communicative competence is influenced by:

Language and thought are intimately related

The communication as a system

A system is a set of interrelated elements

Processes and models

Analysis

Scolari

John B. Thompson.

Differences between the lived experience and the media experience

The influence of the technologies in the culture

The media as extensions of the human senses

Who finances the development of mass media?

Agenda setting

Causes of this evolution

Theory of Agenda setting

This theory was raised by Shaw and McCombs

Types of agenda

Functions of the media for audience uses

Part of works of Katz, Blumer and Gurevitch

E. Katz, G. Blumer and M. Gurevitch

Three main sections of study

Rubin (1984) studied the reasons why people watch TV

Violence in the media

The Spiral of Silence

Why does this happen?

Climate of Opinion

Do people really fear isolation?

Results

Observation and communication

Communication: system and process of interaction

Behavior: combination of actions

The communication covers various models

Functionalist theory and structuralist theory

Elements of the theory of Shannon

Source types

Message

Information

Sociology and communication

Within the interaction we find two types

Dependency Relationships: cause-and-effect relationship

We can distinguish two theoretical currents: idealistic and

The social process of communication

Internal and external components

The veracity and verifiability of reference data

Social theories about communication

Journalistic mediation

Types of behavior

Types of acts

The collective behaviors

Components of communicative Interactions

There are two types of technological instruments

Phenomenology of the communication

Communication needs some natural conditions

Semiotic table

Concept of paradigm of Kuhn

What to observe and examine

Kuhnian model of scientific development

Functionalist Model

Structuralist Model

Characteristics of the structuralism

Example of a structural model: the model of Levi - Strauss

Systemic Model

The model of Watzlawick

The intra-community verifiability

Different modes of communication

The production of social news

Communication, Technology and Society

Signals

Communication - Information technology

Five differentiated elements

Five great features

Knowledge of the systems of information transmission

Specific supports

Factors of inefficiency of the papyrus

The copyists and xylographers

The invention of the printing press and its consequences

Technological innovations of Gutenberg

Seven main elements

The case of Spain

The printing press in the 16th century

Printing press in the 17th and 18th centuries

The composition systems

Manual composition

Manual composition process

Linotype and monotype

Perforated Tape System

Photocomposition

The electronic drafting

Structure of the new composition:

The printing system

Typography

It has three elements

It has two phases

Rotogravure

The Offset

This form will be obtained as follows:

Disadvantages

Factors in the historical evolution of graphic journalism

Social factor

According to its form

The treatment of the photograph in the newspaper

Printing of photographs

Characteristics

The application of color in the written press

The process of introducing color

Disadvantages

Treatment of color in the written press

Composition

Color in journalistic photography

Definitions in technology

New communication technologies

The Internet

The App

Wikis

Facebook

Discussion forums on the Net

Blogs

Twitter

Tumblr

Photojournalism 2.0

Flickr, Instagram and Pinterest

Instagram and photojournalism

Flickr and Photojournalism

Pinterest and photojournalism

Radio and TV Journalism 2.0

Relationship with journalism 2.0

Television journalism 2.0

Video journalism 2.0

YouTube

Vimeo

Skype

Digital Books

2.0 Technologies

Journalists 2.0

File Formats

Glossary of terms and concepts

Terms

Concepts

Bibliography

About the author

Miguel D'Addario is a writer, coach and professor. Italian.

He has published artistic books, poetry, stories, existentialist philosophy, academics, and educational technicians with different publishers. His books have been translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Greek.

Degree in Journalism, Master in Social Education and Doctorate in Social Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid. He has developed his experience in various fields of teaching, from Vocational Training to the University level, both in Latin America and Europe. His books are in different centers of studies and libraries of the world, such as the University San Pablo of Peru, University of Santo Domingo the Dominican Republic, University of San Gregorio of Ecuador, University of Valencia, National Library of Spain, National Library of Argentina, University of Texas, University of Toronto, University of Deusto, University of Illinois, University of Kansas, Community of Madrid Libraries, Castilla y León, Andalusia, and the Basque Country, British National Library, Harvard University, Library of the Congress of the United States. PhD and essayist has received awards and mentions from Writers' Associations, Cultural Centers, Universities, and related offices. Also, as Speaker, Lecturer and Researcher, in Universities, Educational Centers, public and private.

As an engineer, he is the author of educational technical books of various levels and agendas. Author of books on philosophy, ontology and metaphysics.

Author of Self-help and Coaching books. His books are distributed in the five continents, are assiduously consulted in Libraries of the world, and are registered in catalogs, ISBNs and international bibliographic bases.

They are translated into multiple languages and can be found in international bookstores, both in paper format and in electronic version.

More about the author:

https://cutt.ly/2t1bmZv

Introduction to edition

The theory is a set of interrelated constructs that explains something, and which involves a systematic view of communication. The theory helps us to understand, it is to explain facts. Theory is not opposed to the practice. Theory comes from practice. It is elaborated from knowledge. Theories are dynamic since reality changes and theories are modified to explain it. Theory starts from reality and then serves to verify it. Theory of Communication studies the capacity that some living beings have to relate to each other by exchanging information.

The object of the theory of communication

• Material object of study: that which concerns the discipline of the processes of communication.

•  Formal object: the point of view from one' s studying of the material object > interaction and exchange as a meaningful activity.

The theory of communication is a scientific reflection, its study is very recent. However, its object of study, communication, is very old. This is because of the introduction of mass media that make scientists turn their attention to communication. Researchers have developed an interest in communication due to the appearance of the mass media and its impact on society. The difficulties in addressing the issue appear in the heterogeneity of the own communicative behavior, that is to say, when we speak of communication, we refer to very different terms; and multidisciplinary, because when we are talking about communication we are dealing with the different disciplines where it appears. It has sometimes been given a very broad definition of communication and this is a difficulty. On other occasions the opposite has happened, resulting in a very limited definition, like saying that communication is language. Another difficulty is the development of technologies, the speed of change (ITs). For example, the boom in social networks today, internet shopping, the use of the internet to download music and films, communication and human action are all very close. Moreover, communication is not only human and therefore there is a difference between human and animal. The solution is to understand all these elements as part of a whole that comprises diverse aspects.

There are two traditions that address this issue

• The philosophical tradition: it separates the human being from the rest of living beings. The human being is the only qualified to speak because it has soul (theology).

• Biological tradition: it focuses on the ordinary sometimes taken to an abusive extreme. It is understood that human forms of communication are sophisticated forms that are present in animals. The latter includes studies of ethology. Communication in human beings not only fulfills a function, but it is at the service of culture, values, etc.

The communicative capacity is reached when

• A living being can carry out a behavior that can be understood as a set of stimulations indicative of something.

• Another living being can perceive them without triggering a reactive response (answer in advance).

When can I say that there are communicant beings?

• When there is a behavior that involves at least two actors.

• When these have the capacity to interact.

• When they use signs to something.

The communication is not a coercive behavior, but it is a behavior that seeks to influence, convince or persuade, but that is not acting in a direct way.

The advantages of the communicative process

• To anticipate the effects of the action and exercise their freedom in behavior (freedom to act).

• Adaptation (survival).

• Reduce the randomness of the behavior.

• Less costly in terms of time and energy.

The risks of the communicative process:

• No signals to follow.

• Expressions are not understood.

• Do not let the other avenge by using his freedom.

Communication has allowed transmission of knowledge

The sense of evolution is the prevalence of communication as a substitute for other forms of interaction. Many times, we communicate by taste.

Differences between animal and human communication

• Use of the body in the communication: the human being has been able to generate a much larger number of expressions. But also, more qualitative expressions, refined, gesticulated. Example: articulate the language, postural attitude, gesture (deaf), paralinguistic (intonation, volume).

• Elaboration of artificial objects to use them in communication: animal species only use their body and what nature provides them (canines urinate, birds sing). The human being can make objects that serve as support for communication; to generate another type of signals or to translate, enlarge, transmit them (fiber optic, telephone).

• Use of language and other sophisticated systems of signs (icons, graphics) capacity of abstraction, scope of communication. Animal communication is instrumental (biological), in the human it is an end in itself (social) and learned (we are born with the capabilities, but then we learn to develop them).

In human evolution there are two factors of change: The society and Culture. The human being communicates for the pleasure of communicating and other times with purposes. The culture guides us how to communicate, with whom, and which are guidelines to communicate. Communication is at the basis of all social interaction (either micro or macro).

The theory of information, also known as the mathematical theory of communication (spanish: teoría matemática de la comunicación) or mathematical theory of information, is a theoretical proposal presented by Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver in the late 1940s.

This theory is related to the mathematical laws governing the transmission and processing of information and deals with the measurement of information and its representation, as well as the ability of communication systems to transmit and process information. 

History

The theory of information emerged at the end of World War II, in the 1940s. It was initiated by Claude E. Shannon through an article published in the Bell System Technical Journal in 1948, entitled: A Mathematical Theory of Communication (full text in English). At that time, the aim was to use communication channels more efficiently, sending a certain amount of information through a certain channel and measuring its capacity; the optimal transmission of messages was sought. This theory is the result of works begun in the 1910s by Andrei A. Markov, who was followed by Ralph V. L. Hartley in 1927, who was the precursor of the binary language.

At the same time, Alan Turing in 1936, carried out the outline of a machine capable of processing information with emission of symbols, and finally Claude Elwood Shannon, mathematician, electronic engineer and an American cryptographer, known as the father of theory of information , along with Warren Weaver, contributed to the completion of the settlement of the Mathematical Theory of Communication of 1949 - which today is known by all as the theory of information. Weaver managed to give it a wider scope than the initial approach, creating a linear and simple model:

Source/Encoder/Message/Channel/Decoder/Destination

The need for a theoretical basis for communication technology arose from the increasing complexity and massification of communication channels, such as the telephone, teletype networks and radio communication systems. The theory of information also covers all other forms of transmission and storage of information, including television and the electrical impulses that are transmitted on computers and in the optical recording of data and images. The idea is to ensure that the mass transport of data is not in any way a decline in quality, even if the data is compressed in some way. Ideally, data can be restored to its original form when it reaches its destination. In some cases, however, the objective is to allow data to be somehow converted for mass transmission, received at the destination point and easily converted to their original format, without losing any