Traditions of
Communication Theory
Chapter 3
Robert T. Craig, Ph.D.
• “Communication theory as a field”
• Published in 1999
• Lead to the 7 traditions of comm theory
• Areas of scholarly focus based on researchers interest in
how communication works to spread thoughts, influence
individuals, and shape our world
Semiotic Tradition
• Views communication as the mediation by signs
• Objects and words are symbols
• Symbols have meaning because:
• They relate to other symbols
• You organize them to understand life
• Semiotics is:
• Study of signs & what they represent
Signs vs. Symbols
• Wedding Rings
• How are they a sign?
• What do they symbolize?
Triad of Meaning
Semiosis
Three Divisions of Semiotic
• Semantics
• What meaning?
• Ex. Pink Sky at night . . .
• Syntactic
• Relationship between signs and rules used to combine
into meaning
• Verbal and nonverbal
• Pragmatics
• Practical relationship between context and meaning
Phenomenological Tradition
• Defined: Interpretation by the individual
• Key Ideas:
• Phenomenon
• Observable event, object, or condition through individual
perception
• Phenomenology
• How we understand the world
Three Basic Principles of
Phenomonology
• Knowledge comes from direct experience
• How you relate to an object determines its meaning
• Language is the vehicle of meaning
Variations of
Phenomenological Tradition
• Classical
• Edmund Husserl
• Used bracketing to create highly objective view
• Phenomenology of Perception
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• Perception provides foundation for understanding
• Subjective view
Hermeneutic Phenomenology
• Martin Heidegger
• Knowledge gained by experience through
interpreting communication
Cybernetic Tradition
• Communication is system created by the sum of its
parts
• Complex system that uses networks to connect
different parts
Variations in Cybernetic
Tradition
• Basic System
• Formalized structures that can be observed and
analyzed from outside
• Cybernetics
• Emphasis on the feedback loop and how circular forces
can be used to maintain balance & create change
• Information Theory
• Evaluates signal transmission and the impact of noise
• General System Theory
• Looks for commonalities among different systems
• Second – order cybernetics
• What we observe
• Determined by how we observe it
• Impacted by what is observed
Sociopsychological Tradition
• Focus on Individual
• Key Ideas:
• “Science of Communication”
• Research focuses on message processing
• Provide insight into how information is processed
• Evaluates inputs and outputs of Cognitive system
• Behavioral Theories
• Looks at how people behave in communication
situations
• Cognitive Theories
• Evaluate thought
• Biological Theories
• How genetics affects behavior
Sociocultural Tradition
• Evaluates interaction in social groups
• Variations:
• Symbolic Interactionism
• Social structures are created and maintained through
interaction
• Social Construction
• Evaluates how knowledge in constructed through
interaction
• Social groups create common experience
• Sociolinguistics
• Impact of culture
• Philosophy of language
• Language games
• Ethnography
• Groups create meaning verbally and nonverbally
• Ethnomethodology
• Science of observing behavior
Critical Tradition
• Evaluates production of privilege, power, and oppression
through communication
• Key Ideas:
• Work to understand power structures that dominate society
• Evaluate oppression through communication
Rhetorical Tradition
• Rhetoric
• Use of symbols
• Five Cannons of Rhetoric
•
•
•
•
•
Invention
Arrangement
Style
Delivery
Memory