The process includes: 1. Conceptualisation: This is the definition of the subject of inquiry. You may call it a topic of research. Operationalisation: This involves translation of general concepts into specific variables and specification of the procedure adopted in research. From problem statement to generalisation 3. Observation: This is the careful study observation of the specified variables from available data, using any modes of research.
Analysis: This involves extracting meaning from the facts observed. This must be done objectively. Testing: Here, the results of analysis are used to test the hypothesis or research questions raised in a study. Generalisation: The findings from the test are used to make some generalisations, regarding the subject of inquiry. Theory: Theories are formulated from the generalisation made as a result of our analysis and testing.
Law: Theory eventually leads to law after it has been repeatedly tested without being disproved or substantially modified. Laws are difficult to come by in social sciences because we study human organisation and behaviour, which are capricious. From the foregoing it can be seen that theory and research are closely linked. Both theory and research may be seen as two sides of the same coin. Any scientific assertion needs to have both logical and empirical support; that is, it must make sense and align with observations in the real world.
Theory provides the logical support while research provides the empirical observation support. Normative theories do not describe things as they are nor do they provide scientific explanations; instead, they describe the way things shall be if some ideal values or principles are to be realised. They help to explain the way in which social communication rules impinge on mass media structures, conventions and performance, and highlight the consequences of non-convergence between societal communication principles and mass communication principles.
They include: 3. It is an idea that placed all forms of communication under the control of a governing elite or authorities. Authorities justified their control as a means to protect and preserve a divinely ordained social order. It actually began in 16th century Europe a period when feudal aristocracies exercised arbitrary power over the lives of most people.
The media in an authoritarian system are not allowed to print or broadcast anything which could undermine the established authority, and any offense to the existing political values is avoided. The authoritarian government may go to the extent of punishing anyone who questions the state's ideology. The fundamental assumption of the authoritarian system is that the government is infallible.
Media professionals are therefore not allowed to have any independence within the media organization. Also foreign media are subordinate to the established authority, in that all imported media products are controlled by the state.
Authoritarian media still operate today in countries where the press is largely owned or controlled by government mostly repressive government. The instruments of authoritarian control include, repressive legislation and decrees, heavy taxation, direct or subtle control of staffing and of essential production inputs like newsprints, prior censorship and suspension of production.
It prescribes that an individual should be free to publish what he or she likes and to hold and express opinions freely. Libertarian theory does not advocate media immunity to the rule of law but asserts that people should be seen as rational beings able to distinguish between good and bad, truth and falsehood- which renders prior censorship of media unnecessary.
As a matter of fact, in the libertarian system, attacks on the government's policies are fully accepted and even encouraged. Moreover, there should be no restrictions on import or export of media messages across the national frontiers. Moreover, journalists and media professionals ought to have full autonomy within the media organization. It also advocates that the press be seen as partner in progress with the government in the search for truth, rather than a tool in the hands of government.
It is hard to find intact examples of libertarian media systems in today's world. Siebert traces the roots of this theory back to the Russian Revolution based on the postulates of Marx and Engels. The media organizations in this system were not intended to be privately owned and were to serve the interests of the working class. It advocates the complete domination of media by a communist government for the purpose of forcing those media to serve the party.
The main task of the press is to promote the socialist system and maintain the sovereignty of the proletariat working class via communist party. While the soviet- communist theory seeks to use the media to support development and change towards the attainment of the communist stage, the authoritarian seeks to use the media to maintain the status quo. But they are similar in subjecting the media to direct state control. Every issue in Soviet communist must be seen and interpreted in favour of the communist party.
The four working principles of soviet press are 1 Truthfulness. Libertarian and Social Responsibility theories assign economic function to the press while the Soviet press removes the profit motive since it is an arm of government and financed by government.
Social Responsibility Media Theory Social Responsibility Theory emerged as a result of conflict between professionalism and self-regulation of the press and pressure for greater regulation of the media. The Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the press was established in and released its report in The Commission members were sharply divided between those who held strongly libertarian views and those who supported some form of press regulation. Hitler used the media against the Jew.
On the other hand, placing the media under a control or regulation will hinder the freedom of the press. The Commission therefore decided to place their faith in media practitioners and called on them to redoubled their efforts to serve the public and that the media have certain obligations to society.
These obligations were expressed in the words "informativeness, truth, accuracy, objectivity, and balance". This theory states that the media can be used by anyone who has an idea to express but they are forbidden to invade private rights or disrupt social structures. It opposes media regulation but believes that the press is automatically controlled by community opinion, consumer protest and professional ethics.
It also points out that the media, in carrying out their obligations, must adhere to the highest ethical standards. Social Responsibility Theory basic principles, summarised by McQuail , include: consideration of public affairs generally accessible. The media are to be used to stimulate and empower pluralistic groups. In other words, the existing bureaucracy, commercialisation and professional hegemony in media system should be broken down to allow or guarantee easy media access to all potential users and consumers.
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Leading scholars present the principal findings and conclusions of a long-term program of research into the nature and dynamics of human communication. Well-known authors present not only their own theories of human communication, but also describe, from personal vantage points, the process by which they constructed their theories. The authors' narratives of their experiences in posing, formulating, and empirically investigating their questions provide invaluable instructional models for current students.
The vitality of this book derives from the communal focus on the theory and practice of language and other means of communicative conduct. Each chapter is concerned with the pragmatics of human communication and describes an original and systematic study of the phenomena with recourse to data. Together, these chapters represent a range of important contemporary directions in communication studies.
Eine Naturgeschichte der menschlichen Moral ist der derzeit wohl umfassendste Versuch zu verstehen, wie wir das geworden sind, was nur wir sind: genuin moralische Wesen. The Encyclopedia of Communication Theory provides students and researchers with a comprehensive two-volume overview of contemporary communication theory.
Reference librarians report that students frequently approach them seeking a source that will provide them with a quick overview of a particular theory or theorist - just enough to help them grasp the general concept or theory and its relation to the discipline as a whole. Communication scholars and teachers also occasionally need a quick reference for theories. Edited by the co-authors of the best-selling textbook on communication theory and drawing on the expertise of an advisory board of 10 international scholars and nearly contributors from 10 countries, this work finally provides such a resource.
More than entries address topics related not only to paradigms, traditions, and schools, but also metatheory, methodology, inquiry, and applications and contexts. Entries cover several orientations, including psycho-cognitive; social-interactional; cybernetic and systems; cultural; critical; feminist; philosophical; rhetorical; semiotic, linguistic, and discursive; and non-Western.
Concepts relate to interpersonal communication, groups and organizations, and media and mass communication. A broad definition, as earlier mentioned, may expand the study of the subject and makes communication study abstract and unrealistic. Hence, an inclusive, specific and not too general definition has the higher tendency of expressing the concept of communication as it ought to be. If we compare this with the American College Dictionary definition of communication: Communication is the means of sending military messages, orders as by telephone, telegraph, radio or courier.
Some definitions include purposeful message sending and receiving while some simply do not emphasis the purpose. The third dimension is dubbed Normative Judgment. In this dimension, some definitions include a statement of success or accuracy while some other definitions do not contain such implicit judgment. Take for example, Communication is the verbal interchange of a thought or idea.
And Communication is the transmission of information. The first definition here is judgmental through the verbal interchange while the second simply talks of the transmission of information. Burgoon and Ruffner also categorized two similar dimensions in defining communication. They are source-oriented definitions or receiver-oriented definitions. The Source-oriented definitions suggest that communication is all activities in which a person the source intentionally transmits stimuli to evoke a response.
Source-oriented definitions share attributes of intentionality and purpose with the Second dimension. By our definition, intent to communicate and intent to influence are synonymous. If there is no intent, there is no message. Applying the concept of intentionality in the manner provided for by Miller and Steinberg tends to make one view all communication activities as instrumental and persuasive.
Such a view focuses attention on certain variables in the process, such as the context of a speech or message, the method of delivery, and persuasiveness of the message. Much of the text using such a definition focus on the production of effective messages. With these sorts of definitions, human communication has occurred when a human being responds to a symbol. It also implies that communication can be provided intentionally or unintentionally and responded to accordingly.
The problem with receiver-oriented definition is that it is so broad that it only rules non-symbolic behaviour as communication. Against these various dimensions, a suitable working definition of communication can be attempted. Hence, a simple but broad definition — simple enough to allow understanding and broad enough to include many contexts of communication should be profitable. We have found Pearson et al definition of communication adequate in this direction.
They define communication as: The process by which meaning is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behaviour.
This is a definition that emphasizes sharing of meaning, rather than message, as an important aspect of human communication. A careful analysis of the keywords in this definition will give us a full grasp of the intricacies enshrined in the concept of communication.
These keywords are process, meaning, exchange and system of symbols, signs or behavior. These shall be discussed in turn. One of the clearest statement about communication as a process is provided by Berlo , a pioneer in the field of communication, he says: If we accept the concept of process we view events and relationships as dynamic, ongoing, ever changing, continuous.
When we label something as a process, we also mean that it does not have a beginning, an end or a fixed sequence of events. If is moving.
The question that should be on our mind now is what are the ingredients, components or variables which interact in the process of communications. These are the source or Sender, or Encoder of message , the message, the channel and Medium, the Receiver, the Feedback and Noise. The source creates the message. The receiver, on the other hand, is the entity or the person s to which the message is targeted — that is the message final destination.
This act of responding to the message then completes the process of communication. Hence, when language is put into use, meaning facilitates an appropriate response that indicates that the message was understood. Meaning also requires the understanding the contexts of interaction. By context we mean the environment — physical or psycho-sociological environment in which the communication takes place.
Hence, we have symbolic representation only for things we experience in our environment — names are given to various experiences. Whorf-Sapir hypothesis Thus, language, which exists primarily as verbal and nonverbal codes, becomes an important part of communication. The verbal codes are the spoken and the written words while the nonverbal codes are all symbols that are not words. So far, we believe you have gained some insights into the concept of communication — as a dynamic phenomenon, changing from time to time and never static.
It is informal as can be seen from a child learning how to talk and formal in a child learning the rudiments of grammar. It is a process — having no easily defined beginning and end.
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