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Introduction.
A. Theorists grounded in behavioral science approach communication objectively
(observing behavior).
B. Theorists grounded in the humanities approach communication through
interpreting texts.
C. Theory encompasses all careful, systematic, and self-conscious discussion and
analyses of communication phenomena.
II.
III.
IV.
C.
V.
VI.
Stanley Deetz
Communication scholar from the University of Colorado who believes that every general
communication theory has two prioritieseffectiveness and participation. His theory of
organizational communication is featured in Chapter 20.
Communication Theory
An umbrella term for all careful, systematic, and self-conscious discussion and analysis
of communication phenomena.
Behavioral/Social Scientist
Theorist who assumes truth is singular and accessible through the senses, who
assumes behavior has identifiable causes, who values objectivity and universal laws,
and who relies on quantifiable experiments and surveys. Used interchangeably with
objective scholar.
Interpretive Scholar
Theorist who is concerned with the web of meaning that constitutes human existence
who assumes multiple meanings are accessible and meaning is connected to the
knowers values who believes human behavior is voluntary who seeks to expand the
range of free choice and who uses textual analysis and ethnography to establish
meaning. Closely related to the humanist.
Interpretive Scholarship
The work of assigning meaning or value to communicative texts.
Epistemology
The study of the origin, nature, method, and limits of knowledge.
Determinism
The assumption that behavior is caused by heredity and environment.
Free Will
The assumption that behavior is predominantly voluntary.
Experiment
A research method that manipulates an independent variable in a tightly controlled
situation in order to judge its effect on a dependent variable and thus establish a
cause-and-effect relationship.
Independent Variable
In a scientific experiment, the factor that the researcher systematically alters in the
quest to discover its effect on one or more dependent variables the cause in a
hypothesized cause-and-effect relationship.
Dependent Variable
In a scientific experiment, a measured outcome that presumably is influenced or
changed by the independent variable the effect in a hypothesized cause-and-effect
relationship.
Survey Research
A research method that employs questionnaires and face-to-face interviews to collect
self-report data demonstrating what people think, feel, and intend to do.
Textual Analysis
A research method that describes and interprets the characteristics of any text.
Ethnography
A method of participant observation designed to help a researcher experience a
cultures complex web of meaning.
Principal Changes
The material in this chapter has been edited for clarity and precision and Griffin has
added the depiction of the objective-interpretive scale (19).
Further Resources
One of the finest discussions we know of the debate over free will and determinism is
William Jamess The Dilemma of Determinism, in The Will to Believe and Other
Essays in Popular Philosophy (New York: Dover, 1956), 145-83. Jamess analogy of the
chess game between the novice and the expert demonstrates a kind of resolution or
middle ground between the free will argument and the determinist argument (181-82).
The fact that James works religion into the discussion makes his position even more
interesting.
Science and subjectivity
Two intriguing discussions of science and subjectivity are James Watsons classic
expose, The Double Helix (New York: NAL, 1969), and David Raups The Nemesis Star:
A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science (New York: Norton, 1986).
Evidence
For discussion of the issue of what constitutes appropriate evidence in communication
research, see:
o The symposium The Dialogue of Evidence: A Topic Revisited, Western Journal
of Communication 58 (1994): 1-71
o Stuart J. Sigman, Question: Evidence of What? Answer: Communication,
Western Journal of Communication 59 (1995): 79-84
o Leslie Baxter and Lee West, On Whistlers Mother and Discourse of the Fourth
Kind, Western Journal of Communication 60 (1996): 92-100.
Ethnography
A good basic ethnography text is Wendy Bishops Ethnographic Writing Research:
Writing It Down, Writing It Up, and Reading It (Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999).
See also H. Lloyd Goodall, Writing the New Ethnography (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira
Press, 2000).
One of the finest ethnographic studies weve encountered recently is David
Sutherlands Frontline documentary, The Farmers Wife. This approximately six-hour
film explores the lives of Juanita and Darrel Buschkoetter, a Nebraska couple who
struggle to save their farm and their marriage. In addition to serving as a profound
example of thick description, the film can be used to discuss many of the theories
presented in A First Look.
Another intriguing ethnographic effort is H. Lloyd Goodalls trilogy, Casing a Promised
Land: The Autobiography of an Organizational Detective as Cultural Ethnographer
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), Living in the Rock n Roll
Mystery: Reading Context, Self, and Others as Clues (Carbondale: Southern Illinois
University Press, 1991), and Divine Signs: Connecting Spirit to Community (Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1996).
For recent work on ethnography, see:
o Lyall Crawford, Personal Ethnography, Communication Monographs 63
(1996): 158-70
o Dwight Conquergood, Rethinking Ethnography: Towards a Critical Cultural
Politics, Communication Monographs 58 (1991): 179-94
o AltaMira Presss Ethnographic Alternatives series, particularly Carolyn Ellis and
Arthur P. Bochners Composing Ethnography: Alternative Forms of Qualitative
Writing (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1996)
o John Van Maanen, Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1988).
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Sample Questions are not reproduced in the online version of the Instructor's Manual.
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Sample Questions are not reproduced in the online version of the Instructor's Manual.
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Sample Questions are not reproduced in the online version of the Instructor's Manual.
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