Chapter1

Copyright (c) Allyn & Bacon 2008

Chapter One: The Process of

Human

Communication


What is communication?

Two views

oCommunications

oCommunication


Communication Defined

The process by which one person stimulates meaning in the mind(s) of another person (or persons) through verbal and nonverbal messages.


Types of Communication

Accidental Communication: When a source communicates a message to a receiver that is unintentional and happens outside the source’s conscious control.


Expressive Communication: Messages sent by a source that expresses an internal emotional state.



Two Levels of Expressive CommunicationContent level of messages: words

comprising the message.Relational level of messages:

expression of how we feel about the other person or our relationship with the other person, and suggests to the other person how he or she should interpret our message.


Rhetorical Communication: Messages sent by a source that are goal directed and are intended to produce a specific meaning in the mind of another individual.



Influence and Persuasion

Influence: cause the person to alter her/his thinking or behavior.

Persuasion: We try to alter her/his thinking or behavior, we do so with conscious intent.


Clarifying the Definition of Communication

Stimulates Meaning

Verbal Messages

Nonverbal Messages


Critical Components of Human CommunicationSource

oDecide Meaning

oEncode

oTransmit

Receiver oReceive

Message

oDecode

oRespond


Critical Components of Human Communication (continued) Message: Any verbal or

nonverbal stimulus that stimulates meaning in the receiver.

Channels: The means by which a message is carried from one person to another.


Feedback: A receiver’s observable response to a source’s message.

Goals

oDevelop Interpersonal Relationships

oGain Compliance

oGain Understanding

Critical Components of Human Communication (continued)


Context of Communication (Critical Component)

Context focuses on:

oThe roles each of us take on in that situation.

oThe rules that govern our interactions according to those roles.


Five different contexts:

oFamily

oPeers

oSchool

oWork

oIntimate Relationships

Context of Communication (Critical Component)


Interpersonal Communication Model


Rhetorical Communication Model


Ten Misconceptions of Communication


Ten Misconceptions of Communication

1. Meanings are in words. 2. Communication is a verbal

process. 3. Telling is communicating. 4. Communication will solve all

our problems.5. Communication is a good

thing.


Ten Misconceptions of Communication (continued)

6. The more communication, the better.

7. Communication can break down.

8. Communication is a natural ability.


Ten Misconceptions of Communication (continued)

9. Interpersonal communication = intimate communication.

10. Communication competence = communication effectiveness.


How Did We Get Here?

A Brief History of the Field of Communication Studies


The Ancient World


Ptah-Hotep The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep was written by Ptah-Hotep for the Pharaoh Djedkare Izezi’s son as guidance in effective communication and leadership in approximately 2200 b.c. in Egypt.


The Sicilian Thinkers1) Totalitarian regime headed by Thrasybulus had stolen property from countless Sicilian citizens.

2) After the overthrow of Thrasybulus’ regime, a more democratic state was established.


The Sicilian Thinkers

3) In this new democratic state, Sicilian citizens who had property taken during Thrasybulus’ reign could go to court and attempt to recover their property.


The Sicilian Thinkers

Corax and his pupil Tisius wrote the first manual on public

speaking.


Greek Thinkers


Life in Greece

450 BC – Development of the Athenian City States

Athens was about 1,000 square miles The development of a city state created:

o rules

o laws

o trade/bargaining

o political systems

o courts


Four Signs of Increased Rhetoric in City States

1) New Rationalism

a) Had proofs and arguments b) Had to deal with probability

c) Had to show that someone “probably” committed a crime


Four Signs of Increased Rhetoric in City States

2) Dividing a speech into parts

3) New interest in prose styles

4) Study of philology: Study of words. [dictionary]


The Sophists

Sophists would tutor individuals in the areas of science, literature, philosophy, and rhetoric.

First, paid teachers. Students were taught that people

could be persuaded to any truth the rhetorician desired if he was a good speaker.


TheWhores

of Rhetoric


Protagoras of Abdera

Father of DebateEncouraged students to argue

both sides Created grammatical structure

(still with us)


Gorgias of Leontini Gorgias taught his students to add

emotion to their speeches through the use of prose and poetry.

Gorgias taught that oratory should exaggerate the use of poetic diction, symmetrical clauses, rhythms, and musical effects to get one’s point across to an audience.


Isocrates

Isocrates is considered to be the first major speechwriter.

Isocrates argued that a good speaker must be trained in the liberal arts and be a good person.


Aspasia

Founded a school of philosophy and rhetoric in 450 BC.

She taught the daughters of good families as well as men. (even Socrates)


Thrasymachus

Believed that what men call “justice” is simply the will of the strongest man or party.


A Man Called Socrates


Debate over Authentication of

Socrates


Differing Voices Alluding to Socrates

1) In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Socrates was a brave warrior.

2) In Xenofon’s Memoribilia,Socrates is depicted as fairly dull, non insightful, and wrote that Socrates was often ridiculed by the Athenian people.


3) In Aristophanes’ comedic play The Clouds, Socrates is depicted as a slightly buffoonish teacher who always has his head in the clouds.

4) Antisthenes wrote about his time in jail with Socrates shortly before he was executed.


5) Diogenes of Sinope believed that Socrates was the intellectual founder of the Cynics because they were protesting the same types of issues.

6) Aristotle Primarily gives us a timeline on Socrates the actual man (470-399 BC).


7) Plato was a student of Socrates and is credited with writing what we really know about Socrates’ beliefs on Rhetoric.


The Dialectic (Basis of the

“Socratic Method”)


Step OneLogical Argumentation – Won’t exactly keep you up at night!


Step TwoStrip Away The Ignorance – Show that someone has a clearly knowledge

gap and that they haven’t really thought an argument through.


Step ThreeDemonstrate a Lack of Reflection on Their Part – Show the person that if they

had really reflected on an argument, they would have come to your side)


Step FourPower to Penetrate Behind the World of

Appearances

oLack of reflection allowed specific types of biases on their part to slip through.

oDemonstrate the False Self - The reason I don’t reflect is because it might show me something that I really don’t want to see.


Step FiveChanging of the Soul - This process leads to a chemical transformation

where a person is holistically changed.


Two Important Works by Plato


Gorgias Plato wrote that sophistry was akin to trickery .


Phaedrus 1) Non-lover: someone who didn’t care about her/his relational partner.

2) Evil-lover: someone who intended to manipulate her or his relational partner.

3) Noble-lover: someone who cared about her or his relational partner and did not have an ulterior motive for the relationship.


Aristotle


RhetoricThe ability to recognize and implement all of the available means of

persuasion in a given situation.


Aristotle's Rhetoric Aristotle's Rhetoric consists of three books: one focusing on the speaker, one

on the audience, and one on the speech itself.

The Rhetoric is considered by historians, philosophers, and communication experts to be one of the most influential pieces of writing in the Western world.


Two Assumptions of Aristotelian

Theory


Effective public speakers must consider their audience.


Proofs Inartistic Proofs - Objects you can physically bring to a speech (witnesses,

laws, oaths, contracts, torture)


Artistic Proofs

1) Ethos – ethical credibility

2) Pathos – emotional appeal

3) Logos – logical appeal


Types of Rhetorical Speeches

1) Forensic: Court room speeches. 2) Epideictic (ceremonial): Speeches that praise, honor, blame or shame.

3) Deliberative: Speeches associated with the future-what an audience will do or think as a result of a speaker's efforts.


Roman Thinkers


CiceroRhetorica ad Herennium (82 BC)

oFirst Roman speech book.

oSome scholars think it was either written by or highly influenced by Confucius.


Cicero & EducationTrivium

oRhetoric

oLogic

oGrammar

Quadrivium

oArithmetic

oGeometry

oMusic

oAstronomy


Marcus Fabius Quintilianus Institutio de Oratoria

oCollection of 12 books on the Education of Rhetoricians from childhood to death.

oRhetoric: The good man speaking well.

oHe used the words Rhetoric and Oratory Interchangeably


Three Parts of Rhetoric

Art: The knowledge of speaking well.

Artist (Artificer): Has acquired the art of rhetoric. It is “his business to speak well.”

Work: That which the artificer achieves; that is, “good speaking.”


From Late Antiquity to the Renaissance


Juda

ic T

radi

tion

Ancien

t Greece

Late Roman Empire

Middle Ages

Refor

mat

ion Renaissance

Modernity


Plotinus (d. 270 AD) and Neo-Platonism

Greek philosopher alive a generation before Christianity became the official religion in Rome.

Combined Plato’s ideas along with the Stoics and Aristotle’s to create a new breed of philosophy called Neo-Platonism.


Augustine (St. Augustine of Hippo)


Background of AugustineBorn in Tagaste, Numidia (Africa) Roman education at the University at

Carthage Went back home to teach at Tagaste

and then back to Carthage as a rhetorical professor

Professor of rhetoric to the imperial court in Milan Here he converted to Christianity


Important Writings


The ConfessionsThe church believed that rhetoric wasn’t

necessary because God had predetermined who would listen and be saved and who wouldn’t.

Since god had predetermined who would be a Christian, the priest’s speaking style was not a consideration.

The church also believed that rhetoric was of the Pagans so innately evil.


De Doctrina Christiana

In this text, Augustine creates a new intellectual field called semiotics, or the study of signs and signifiers.

Sign: A thing which, in addition to the impression it makes upon the senses, makes something else come into our thoughts.


Types of SignsNatural Signs (smoke as a sign of

fire) “Given” or communicative signs

(e.g., words) Divinely given signs (Scripture

and Sacraments)


Signs and Teaching

We use signs to teach things.BUT signs don’t teach things! We learn the significance of signs

from the things they signify, not the other way around. (e.g., We don’t understand what a lion is until after we “see” what it is with our mind’s eye.)


Signs and Teaching

We learn intelligible things from a divine inner teacher.

Ultimately, signs serve as a way to direct attention to something so we can look and see the thing for ourselves.


Three Teaching StylesPlain Style - for teaching

Middle Style - for delighting or entertaining

Grand Style - for Persuading


The Renaissance


Thomas Wilson

The Arte of Rhetorique Rhetoric: “Rhetorique is an Arte to

let foorth by vtteraunce of words, matter at large, or (as Cicero doth say) it is learned, or rather artificiall declaration of the mynd, in the handling of any cause, called in contention, that may through reason largely be discussed.”


Three Things Required of an Orator

To Teach

To Delight

To Persuade


Pierre de la Ramée (Petrus Ramus) (1515-1572) “Quæcumque ab Aristotele dicta

sunt, commentitia sunt” (“All Aristotle’s doctrines are false”)

He believed that logic and art should be clearly disassociated from each other.


British Thinkers


Sir Francis Bacon (1600-1725)

The Advancement of Learning (1605) and De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623)

Argued that both speaking and writing were forms of rhetoric.


Friedrich Nietzsche (1824-1900) Rhetoric: “It is not difficult to prove that what

is called “rhetorical,” as a means of conscious art, had been active as a means of unconscious art in language and its development, indeed, that the rhetorical is a further development, guided by the clear light of the understanding, of the artistic means which are already found in language.” From Description of Ancient Rhetoric


Rhetoric is on one hand an effect and on the other hand an expression of the power to get people to view the world from your point of view.


The Colonial Period in America

(1492–1783)


François Fénelon

French thinker who disagreed with Ramus (All Aristotle’s Doctrines are False).

Fénelon advocated that logic and rhetoric were inseparable.

Fénelon also argued that the main goal of rhetoric was style and clarity that would be natural, not mechanical.


Elocution Movement


Thomas Sheridan’s 1762 book Lectures on Elocution

Believed that rhetoric could be broken down and scientifically understood.


George Campbell’s 1776 Philosophy of Rhetoric

Believes that knowledge, evidence, human passion, wit, humor, ridicule, purity, clarity, audience analysis, and vividness of language are important for great orators.


John Quincy Adams

Chair of rhetoric at Harvard University.

First American Professor to teach the classical perspective on Rhetoric.

Latter became president.


The Twentieth Century


James A. Winans vs.

Everett Lee Hunt Winans wanted rhetoric to be more scientific.

Hunt believed that the scientific approach was antithetical to the enthusiasm and inspiration that was needed for good public speakers.


Carl Hovland & The Yale Studies

Post Hitler studies that focused on propaganda and persuasion.

The studies focused on how senders persuade people.


Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism Theory

The Act is simply what a person does.

The Scene provides the context surrounding the act.

The Agent is the person or people performing the act.


Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism Theory

Agency refers to the means used by the agent accomplishes the act (e.g., message strategies, storytelling, apologies, and speech making).

Purpose refers to the goal the agent had in mind for the act or the reason the act was performed.


Walter Fisher’s Narrative

Narration: Any verbal or nonverbal account with a sequence of events to which listeners assign a meaning.


Narrative RationalityCoherence: The internal

consistency of a narrative.

Fidelity: The truthfulness or reliability of the story. Stories with fidelity have the ring of truth to them for listeners.


The Rise of the Social

Sciences


Areas of Study in Communication(Just to name a few) Argumentation &

Forensics Comm & Aging Family Comm Group Comm Health Comm Computer-Mediated

Comm Instructional Comm

Social Cognition International/

Intercultural Comm Mass Comm Nonverbal Comm Interpersonal Comm Org. Comm Political Comm Visual Comm

Chapter1

Education

Transcript of Chapter1