COMM 250- Final Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 30 pages long!)

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Communication
• Course: COMM 250
• Professor: Susan Hubbard

Document Summary

Definition of communication- a process in which individuals use symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment. Models of the communication process: linear, interactional, transactional. Taxonomy- a conceptual representation of categories of a phenomenon (different classifications/labels: rewarding activities. Expertise (positive and negative: activation of impersonal commitments, moral appeal, self-feeling (pos and neg), altercasting (pos and neg), esteem (pos and neg, activation of personal commitments, altruism and debt. Model- a simplified representation of reality: specifies relationships between concepts, how the different concepts relate, temporal order (time) Goals of theory: to explain, describe, predict and control. Why so many communication theories: scholars have different assumptions about the nature of, communication, theory building and testing. Is communication a matter of choice? (communication is goal-oriented: communication is a matter of choice, or we are just acting in response to stimuli in our environment. Special type of rhetorician: critical scholars, goal to create social change.