CMN 3109 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Constitutive Equation, Luke Skywalker, Culture Industry
8 May 2018
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CMN 3109: Advanced Theories of Communication
Week 1: Friday, May 4, 2018
What is Theory?
Competing Definitions of Theory
• Scholars argue about what theory is
o James Carey vs Robert Craig
• There is no "correct" definition
• So instead we pick a definition and defend it by showing how it's useful for explaining the world
Three Approaches
1. Kyle Conway's patented Three Axioms of Theory
2. James Carey's paradox: the question that presupposes its own answer
o If you ask what is theory, you've already narrowed down the possible number of responses
3. Robert Craig's pragmatic compromise
o About the 7 traditions in communication theory
What do these people mean by theory?
How does their notion of theory shape what they mean by communication?
1. Konway's Three Axioms
1. Theory is an attempt to explain our experience of the world
2. If the explanation theory offers doesn't match our experience, it's bad theory (in the end, it's
all bad theory)
▪ If the explanation is bad, you need to come up with a new one by refining it, thus
improving it
3. We must refine our explanation to replace bad theory with better theory
What do these people mean by theory?
An explanation of our experience in the world.
How does their notion of theory shape what they mean by communication?
It leaves open a range of possible definitions.
Carey vs. Craig: Theoretical Cage Match
• Idea of wresting with ideas
• Agreements and disagreements
Carey and Craig: What is Theory?
Carey: we can see communication as transmission or ritual.
The model we choose influences how we explain communication.
Craig: no, we needn't choose between transmission and ritual.
Instead, we need to identify where different traditions agree and disagree (and put them into some kind
of conversation with each other).
• Paying attention to transmission
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
2. James Carey's paradox: the question that supposes its own answer.
"The transmission view of communication is the commonest in our culture - perhaps in all industrial
cultures - and dominates contemporary dictionary entries under the term. It is defined by terms such as
'imparting,' 'sending,' 'transmitting,' or 'giving information to others.' [It treats communication as] a
process whereby messages are transmitted and distributed in space for the control of distance and
people." (p. 12-13)
• Sender --> message (here there is interference) --> receiver
o By this model, a successful transmission occurs if the intended message is received by the
receiver
▪ Determined by feedback (i.e. Facial expressions, forms of reports such as "message
received")
• This is the most common communicative method
• How does transmission help us emit control?
o It establishes authority
▪ Ex. Prof asking questions and students answering them
o Sending messages helps eliminate distance and exert control
Ritual Model
"The ritual view of communication, through a minor thread in our national thought, is by far the older of
those views - old enough in fact for dictionaries to list it under 'Archaic.' In a ritual definition,
communication is linked to terms such as 'sharing,' 'participation,' 'association,' 'fellowship,' and 'the
possession of a common faith.'... A ritual view of communication is directed not toward the extension of
messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information
but the representation of shared beliefs." (pg. 15)
• The actors in communication are groups (i.e. Religious groups, political parties)
• Communication means these groups are building their own society
• For Carey, this is the more interesting model for study
o "Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired,
and transformed." (pg. 19)
▪ Hearing something so often you start to believe it
o "Reality is not given, not humanly existent, independent of language and toward which
language stands as a pale refraction. Rather, reality is brought into existence, is produced, by
communication - by, in short, the construction, apprehension, and utilization of symbolic
forms." (p. 20)
▪ Language is creating the reality that we see
▪ Our language divides the world into discrete units
▪ We can begin to see, when we learn a different language, that the world is divided into
further units
▪ Carey: the world we live in is always symbolic
▪ Because it's symbolic, we have to create the symbols to help us understand
o "We must likewise maintain what we have produced, for there are always new generations
coming along for whom our productions are incipiently problematic and for whom reality
must be regenerated and made authoritative." (pg. 23)
▪ We all experience reality differently (parents vs us)
▪ We have to maintain this symbolic reality, but also repair it
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
So instead we pick a definition and defend it by showing how it"s useful for explaining the world. Three approaches: kyle conway"s patented three axioms of theory, james carey"s paradox: the question that presupposes its own answer. If you ask what is theory, you"ve already narrowed down the possible number of responses: robert craig"s pragmatic compromise, about the 7 traditions in communication theory. How does their notion of theory shape what they mean by communication: konway"s three axioms, theory is an attempt to explain our experience of the world. If the explanation theory offers doesn"t match our experience, it"s bad theory (in the end, it"s all bad theory) If the explanation is bad, you need to come up with a new one by refining it, thus improving it: we must refine our explanation to replace bad theory with better theory. An explanation of our experience in the world. It leaves open a range of possible definitions.
