Mapping the Theory (7 Traditions in the Field of Communication Theory) 1. Phenomenological Tradition  Intentional analysis of everyday life from the standpoint of the person living it  Emphasizes people’s perceptions and interpretations of their own subjective experiences  Rogers: Three (3) conditions for personality and relationship change – congruence, unconditional positive regard, emphatic understanding 2. Critical Tradition  Associated with Frankurt School  Focus on history as the unjust distribution of power and suffering  Control of language (discourse) perpetuates power imbalances  Mass media dull sensitivity to repression  Blind reliance on scientific method and empiricism blunts critical thinking 3. Socio-Cultural Tradition  Communication produces and reproduces culture  Sapir-Whorf hypothesis says structure of language shapes what people do and think  Language is not a neutral conduit  Through language, reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed 4. Semiotic Tradition  The study of signs (Richards, Ogden, Saussure)  Signs signify by indications, representation or by arbitrary convention (symbol)  Words are symbol (arbitrary)  Words do not have precise meanings  Meanings reside in people not words or symbols  A symbol is indirectly related to its referent 5. Rhetorical Tradition  Speech distinguishes humans  Confidence in efficacy of public address  Setting: one speaker addressing large audience with intention to persuade  Oratorical trainings for leaders’ education  Power and beauty of language moves people emotionally and stir them to action