Socio-cultural Tradition of Communication

SOCIOCULTURAL TRADITION

PasCom 01Communication course

By: Doydoy, Charles FrancisChiquillo, Michael Ray Angelou

Socio-CulturalSocial

interaction cultural

Socio-CulturalSocial

interaction

MICROCOMMUNICATION

andMACRO COMMUNICATION

This tradition main concern is the interaction between micro communication practices and macro communication practices.

Socio-CulturalSocial

interaction

reality is constructed through a process of communicating in groups, society, and cultures.

Socio-Cultural

cultural Based on the

premise that when people communicate they produce and reproduce culture.

Importance of Culture?

According to Kim Dong-ho

Cultural enrichment can make individuals both the producers and consumers of culture.

Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Cultural Enrichment

RESULT. People come to have culture and the arts of living.

Socio cultural

Reality constructs our culture

Interaction constructs our reality

Socio-

Cultural

producing and reproducing of culture through social communication.

social communication

(Adams, 2005, p. 182)- "the synergistic emergence of social interaction, social cognition, pragmatics (verbal and nonverbal), and receptive and expressive language processing"

Communication in these traditions is typically theorized as a symbolic process that produces and reproduces shared sociocultural patterns

COMMUNICATION

Sociocultural focuses on patterns of interactions rather than individual characteristics or mental modes.

Based on the premise that when people communicate they produce and reproduce culture.

addresses the ways our understandings, meanings, norms, roles, and rules are worked interactively in communication.

Is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed. (Carey, 1989, p. 23)

Six Theories of Sociocultural Tradition:

1. Ethnomethodology 2. Symbolic Interactionism 3. Social Constructionism 4. Ethnography of Communication 5. Structuration Theory 6. Actor Network Theory

1. Ethnomethodology

An eidetic science (concerned with essential objects and relationships)

Involves extraordinarily accurate and vivid study of fundamental social practices

Goal of Ethnomology

to understand the methods and procedures people use to conduct

rational and orderly ways of conducting everyday life.

2. Symbolic Interactionism

From the work of George Mead, emphasizes the idea that social structures and meaning is created and maintained within social interactions.

2. Symbolic Interactionism

Communication is fundamental to the development of the self.

The self refers to the conscious, reflective personality of an individual

Group life is premised on cooperative interaction.

We determine others’ intentions by using significant symbols.

3. Social Constructionism

Based on the notion that “reality” is a social construction.

Also known as “social constructivism”

Human beings actively use symbols to objectify, circulate, and interpret the meaningfulness of their environments and existence

3. Social Constructionism

Humans use cultural stocks of knowledge to serve their evolving purposes

Useful constructions are reciprocated, sustained, and eventually embedded in formal institutions

Succeeding generations accept them as given and inevitable

3. Social Constructionism

Communication scholars into constructionism study how symbols, language, discourse, and media create our realities.

Central claim: communication is the fundamental activity by which humans constitute their social world as a “real” phenomenon.

4. Ethnography of Communication

Evolved from studies in anthropology, sociolinguistics, folklore studies, and semiotics

Many studies focus on linguistic practices

4. Ethnography of Communication

Regards social actors as simultaneously using multiple channels and codes to create meaningful interaction (such as that required for determining group membership).

5. Structuration Theory

Studies how social actors draw upon structures of meaning, power, and norms to: perform their social practices reinforce and transform those structures regards communication as a process

5. Structuration Theory

Can be analysed and traced on different levels:

Individual Group Organization Society

5. Structuration Theory

It defines and links three (3) concepts: Practices

observable patterns of activity that are meaningful to participants.

Systems: types of practices that build and maintain

relations among and between groups. Structure: the rules and resources,

actors draw on as they participate in system practices.

6. Actor Network theory  In social interaction, nonhuman artefacts

play as significant a role as do human actors. the potential elements of a network (both

human and nonhuman) are selected, activated, configured, and regulated

Networks operate symmetrically as social actors to delegate to other “actants” responsibilities for accomplishing desired purposes

Situations must be defined and publicized in a way that compels potential actors and relative influence

6. Actor Network theory

Social interaction occurs in complex sociotechnical networks made up of “nodes” that contain both humans and devices that constrain the interaction.

References

o Lecture #4: Theoretical Traditions: Sociocultural; www. COM 381.com

o Communication Theory as a Field ( Robert T. Craig)

o others