THEORY 1: Social Penetration

Social penetration theory was developed to explain the evolution of interpersonal relationships (Altman and Taylor, 1973; Taylor, 1968; Taylor and Altman, 1975; Shaw and Costanzo,1982). This theory explains the communication at the level of personal relationships such as friendship, romance and family.

Altman and Taylor (1973) compared people to onions. They also stated that proximity between people occurs through a gradual process of self-disclosure, and closeness develops if the participants proceed in a gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both imediate and forecast outcomes. Self- disclosure refers to the voluntary sharing of personal history, preferences, attitudes, feelings, values, secrets, etc., with another person (Griffin, 2012)

The video is about how Sheldon and Leonard going through a process of social penetration for the first time they meet. In this case, Sheldon is over exposing himself to Leonard by asking him several questions which indirectly reveal his identity. In their first conversation Sheldon is willing to tell lot of things about himself. The reason is that Sheldon will gain benefits if the process of penetration proceeds for instance he is able to prove that Leonard is really a scientist.  On the other hand, Leonard is also actively participating in Sheldon’s conversation. This is known as Law of reciprocity which means that Sheldon’s openness leads to openness in Leonard. Other than that, the speed of penetration is very fast. 

REFERENCES

Griffin, Em. (2012). A First Look at Communication Theory. (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Shaw, M. E. and P. R. Costanzo: 1982,  Theories of Social Psychology (McGraw-Hill, New York).

Taylor, D. (1968). ‘The Development of Interpersonal Relationships: Social Penetration Processes’, Journal of Social Psychology 75(1), 79–90.

Taylor, D. and I. Altman: 1975, ‘Self-Disclosure as a Function of Reward Cost Outcomes’, Sociometry 38(1), 18–31. 

THE BIG BANG THEORY 'When Leonard Met Sheldon' Clip 720p HD. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AWN_JvrWmE

THEORY 6: GENDERLECT

The term genderlect suggests that masculine and feminine styles of discourse are best viewed as two distinct cultural dialects rather than as inferior or superior ways of speaking” (Griffin, 2000, p.436). This theory is introduced by Deborah Tannen in which she highlighted on different communication styles between genders.

Obviously, men are more influential than women. According to Tannen (1990), men are concerned with status and but women are concerned with connection and intimacy. Men exert greater influence than women and resist women’s influence more than women do because of the greater power that men possesses in group interactions. (Linda L. Carli, 2001) 

According to semiotic and socio-cultural traditions, men’s report talk focuses on status and independence and women’s rapport talk seeks human connection. This is an example of the difference of communication between men and women. 

Based on the one of the scenes from 3 Idiots movie, Piya is a daughter of Professor Virus and she works as a doctor. During her sister’s wedding, her fiancé argued with her just because of she wears an old wrist watch. The reason being is that her fiancé is a very concerned with status. He simply asked Piya to take it off because he thinks that it might damage his image and reputation if people see her wearing “an old piece of junk”.  However, Piya doesn’t see that as a big issue because for her, the old wrist watch has a sentimental value as it is her late mother’s watch. She wears it on her sister’s wedding due to she missed her so much. On the other hand, Rancho is one of his father’s engineering students who came at the wedding and witnessed the scene. Rancho then try to make Piya realized that her fiancé is actually a “price tag”- a person who value materials and seek for high status rather than relationships. Thus, he tries to advice Piya not to marry him because he knows that the reason why her fiancé want to marry her is because she is a doctor and a daughter of a professor. 

Even though Piya feel dishearten with his fiancé action, she is trying to compromise with him because she really concern about their relationship.

To sum up, men seeks for status because high status reflects their achievement and independence. In comparison, several research revealed that women are nicer and warmer than men. (Diekman & Eagly, 2000; Eagly & Johannesen-Schmidt, this issue). Therefore it has proven that women value connection with people rather than status.

 REFERENCES

Best Demo's by Amir Khan in 3 Idiots Favourited by Abu Shayan.mpg. Retrived from:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYQ0aru_5Pg

Carli, Linda L. (2001) Gender and Social Influence. Journal of social issues Vol. 57, No.4, pp. 725-741

Diekman, A. B., & Eagly, A. H. (2000). Stereotypes as dynamic constructs: Women and men of the past, present and future. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1171-1188. 

Griffin, E. (2000). A first look at communication theory (4th ed.). United States: The McGraw-Hill companies, Inc.

Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand. NSW: Random House Australia.

THEORY 5: Communication Accommodation

Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) is focusing on the role of conversation between people in their everyday lives.  People might change their way of speaking automatically in order to make adjustments or accommodate with the language being use under some situation. Howard Giles (1973) introduced two strategic forms of communication that diverse people use when they interact- convergence and divergence. (Griffin, 2012).

Speakers were said to converge sociolinguistically when they reduce the actual or apparent phonological differences between their respective speech styles. (Coupland, 1991).

From the video above, it shows how Inspector Clouseau is trying to change his American English to English with French accent. The reason he change his accent is because he want to adjust his speech style so that he can reduce the social differences between him and the French while he is doing an investigation in France. This is known as covergence strategies.

Giles (1973) stated that ‘when two people from different ethnic or cultural groups interact, they tend to accommodate each other in the way they speak in order to gain the other’s approval. (Griffin, 2012)

On the other hand, divergence is a strategy of identification with linguistic communicative norms of some reference group external to the immediate situation. ( Giles, H., Coupland, N., & Coupland, J., 1991). To the extent that divergent strategies are probably adopted more often in dyayds where the participants derive from different social backgrounds, the incorporations of idea from Tajfel’s theory of intergroup relations and social change (Tajfel,1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) provides an appropriate context in which to consider divergent shifts more generally (Giles, Bourhis & Taylor, 1977).

This is an example of divergence strategies where Lee-Young Jae, a popular actor try to avoid a conversation with a girl that he just met on the plane during his flight to China. Thus he diverge from the girl because he knows that they have different backgrounds. Therefore he decided not to answer every single questions from the girl and he rather sleep.

REFERENCES      

Couplan, N. (2010). Society and Language Use.  (p. 21) John Benjamins Publishing Companies

Learning English pronunciation retrievd from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq8IqZXy1s8

Full House Drama Episode 1. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6H64UXe_yc

Griffin, Em. (2012). A First Look at Communication Theory. (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Giles, H., Coupland, N., & Coupland, J.(1991). Accommodation Theory: Communication, Context and Consequence. Journal of Context of Accommodation: Development in Applied Sociolinguistics, p.27

THEORY 5: Symbolic Interactionism

People may encounter a situation where a meaning is not truly understood while interacting with others. In this kind of situation, symbolic interactionism theory is useful to understand the way people behave by understanding the meaning and processes created by humans. Symbolic interaction is the ongoing use of language and gestures a person uses in anticipation of how the other will react; a conversation (Griffin, 2012, p.54).

This analysis is merely focusing on Mead’s concept of the self. Individuals create an identity and understanding of the self through reflection of the self via perception and judgment of others- the looking glass theory. According to Charles Cooley (1902), looking-glass self is defined as the mental self-image that results from taking the role of the other; the objective self; me. (Griffin, 2012) 

To further explain what does Mead's concept of self means,here is an example from 3 Idiots movie. 

In this movie, the self is focusing on Farhan's life. Since he was born, his parents already decided that he will become an engineer when he grown up. Since he was the only child in the family, his parents really want him to work as an engineer so that he can afford to take care of them and the society will respect him. Few years later he was accepted in Imperial College of Engineering, the best engineering college in India. Unfortunately, Farhan's dream is not to be an engineer, but a photographer. However, he couldn't be what he want to be because he knows that his parents and other people will laugh at him if he work as a photographer. Moreover, he thinks that people will look down on him if he earns small salary by becoming a photographer whilst he's actually can get more if he becomes an engineer. This shows that Farhan is actually imagining how does he appear to other people and then he develops self-feelings according to the judgement made by others to him. 

The self is defined  from the Symbolic Interactionism perspective as a complex interpretive process that  involves a continuous communication between the “I” and the “Me;” that is, the “I” acts  and the “Me” defends, evaluates,  and interprets the self as  reflected by others (Mead, 1934).

                      

  

This scene is showing Farhan during  his final year to complete his study in engineering. Finally, Farhan had the courage to tell his parents about his passion of being a photographer instead of an engineer after his friends supported him. Before he confessed his feelings to his parents he actually finds it hard to explain it. The reason being is that he afraid that his parents, especially his father will not understand his feelings and unable to accept him after all the sacrifices that his father made for him. Moreover, Farhan also think that his father will embarrass if he don't be an engineer as he knows that all people in his neighborhood praise him of being manage to enter the best engineering college in the country. 

Fortunately, his parenst are willing to understand what Farhan really want in his life instead of thinking of what will people say about him. Farhan was so glad that he was accepted by his parents the way he really is to himself after so many years he is force to be someone that he is not  just to fit in the society.

In conclusion, the self occur through the process of social interaction with others. Through the looking-glass self, people see and judge themselves from what others think of them thus thier identity was created via others reflection.

REFERENCES

Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press

Griffin, Em. (2012). A First Look at Communication Theory. (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

3 Idiots Trailer - Three Idiots Promo. retrieved on 4/4/2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CiV0oJoctA

3IDIOTS_ENGLISH(PART 14).wmv retrieved on 4/4/2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPhoOojx9OM&feature=relmfu

THEORY 4: Agenda-Setting and Framing (Week 6)

To begin with, media has a big influence on its audience as the content of the media, be it printed or electronic is capable of spreading the news within just in a blink of an eye. Particularly, media and communication professionals such as journalist must be able to decide what type of content that they want to inform the audience so that the right ‘agenda’ can be selected to highlight a certain issue.  Cohen (1963) stated that the media had much greater capacity to influence which issues were perceived as important. 

The importance and interpretation of people attach to potential items on the public agenda are strongly influenced by how the media present news stories (Chyi & McCombs, 2004). The framing of the content will take place once an agenda had been chosen. It is very crucial that framing must have a narrative fidelity because it will be a good frame thus the content can elevate people’s concern about life.

The text below will illustrate how agenda-setting and framing can be applied.

The Minister of Health of a country "X" is very concerned that the older citizens are spitting and urinating in public places and the younger generation believes that to be a cultural norm. This will adversely affect the image and economy of the country as foreign companies will be less willing to invest in a country that cannot manage public deviance that fosters an unhealthy environment. The government believes that public education must start immediately.

At the same time, a public survey was recently conducted by an independent body and the predominant public concern is the lack of primary schools for younger children who are working and running amok in the streets, which is causing a rise in criminal activities. The public believes that public education must begin with the development of schools so that a higher educated population will curb the acts of social deviance. In the long run, these changes will attract investors and help the economy.

In this case, a journalist may choose government agenda as a priority in the article. Government agenda becomes a priority because the government points out that the development of the nationwide and welfare of the public depends on economic and environmental health. On top of all the issues in country ‘X’ the journalist is focusing on the issue of unhealthy environment in country ‘X’ such as urinating and spitting. Thus, the journalist decides to highlight it as a priority because this may lead to bad image and reputation of country ‘X’. Moreover it could also affect the public’s health. For instance, “Spitting and Urinating in Public is a common Sight across X” is the heading for his article to draw attention to the issue. Therefore, clarification of set of problems or issues is called frame amplification.

After frame amplification, the journalist must extend or widen the issue by pointing out that the public lifestyle will be better if the environmental pollution is at minimal. Moreover, he can put in more ideas into the case such as the measures taken by the government to reduce the environmental pollution or creating public awareness on the adverse effects of the pollution in long term. This framing process is known as frame extension where the journalist adds ideas or issues to an argument. After that, frame bridging process takes place. Frame bridging is the linkage of two or more ideas which is similar to frame extension. In this case, the frame bridging is the foreign investors will be interested to invest in country ‘X’ if the government implements effective actions in preventing public urination and spitting thus the money can be used to develop both education and health sectors.

In conclusion, different people will have a different priority on what they deicde to frame. But, it deosn’t mean that the journalists are trying to make a wrong speculation or mislead their audiences (Scheufele & Tewksburry, 2007). 

References

Chyi, Hsiang Iris & McCombs, M. (2004). Media salience and the process of framing: coverage of the Columbine school shootings. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 81(1): 22-35.

Cohen, Bernard C. (1963). The press and foreign policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Scheufele & Tewksbury (2007). Framing, Agenda Setting, and Priming: The Evolution of Three Media Effects Models. Journal of Communication.

THEORY 3: Media Ecology (week 5)

Analytical Text - "Medium is the message"

                                          

 “In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology." (Marshall McLuhan, 1964, p.7).

Medium is the message is introduced by McLuhan where he highlighted on medium as a channel to state the content as a substitute of the message itself.  The analysis of media content is insignificant since McLuhan believes that it is the medium which has the ability to change the meaning of a message which makes it more powerful than the message. This is merely to say that different type of medium conveys messages differently depending on the character of the medium being used.

Frequently, misperception occurs as most people think that the message will allow them to communicate effectively. However, people didn’t realized that the right choice of the medium to deliver the message is rather essential than the content of the message. This is due to the effect of changing the medium would also affect the communication environment. According to Mark Federman (2004), McLuhan highlighted that people are usually distracted by the content of a medium. Also, McLuhan stated that normally the “content” of any medium blinds people to the character of the medium and it is the character of the medium that is its potency or effect - its message.  Thus, it shows that medium has the power to influence the communication process being carried out in a society.

On the other hand, McLuhan also coined the term “global village” when he found that media has made the world smaller. For example, nowadays, people prefer to have a conversation via Face Time instead of face-to-face conversation like the way they did before. From this, it shows that the use of advanced medium such as smart phone could shape the way the society communicate.

Apart from that, McLuhan also made a distinction between “hot” and “cold” media. A hot medium refers to the one that has low participation of audience but gives high information load such as radio. While the one that requires low information load but high participation of audience, for example television, is called a cold medium. However, hot and cold media is not seem  to be useful today as compared to McLuhan's time. Today's fast-paced technology where internet and mobile devices are being used widely has made this differentiation may not even be applicable anymore. 

According to Federman (2004) the medium is the message tells us that noticing change in our societal or cultural ground conditions indicates the presence of a new message, that is, the effects of a new medium. Federman (2004) stated that we can set out to characterize and identify the new medium before it becomes obvious to everyone- a process that often takes years or even decades thus he suggests that people have the opportunity to influence the development and evolution of the new innovation before the effects become pervasive.  

To sum up, media can influence the society. McLuhan considered medium is the message due to medium can change the meaning of the content. McLuhan also came up with the classification of media called “hot” and “cold” medium. Medium can shape the society in which it plays a role not only by the content conveyed over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.

REFERENCES 

Griffin, E. (1997). A First Look at Communiaction Theory. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Federman, M. (2004). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? Retrieved on 12/3/2012 from http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/MeaningTheMediumistheMessage.pdf.

McLuhan, Marshall. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill.

 The Medium is the MESSAGE Marshall McLuhan (2011) Retrieved on 25/3/2012 from: http://vimeo.com/16197184