Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
Introduction
Communication is the process through which information is conveyed, and involves the sending and receiving of the message. It is a platform that develops, maintains and improves relationships among individuals and groups. However, in some cases, it can be the destroyer of relationships. There are several definitions of communication depending on one’s point of view.
It has been described as the transition of information to ignite response, sharing of information and ideas among many other definitions. The word communication was adopted from a Latin word “communis”. The world has gone through several revolutions including communication revolution. Communication has come a long way due to the help of the consistent development of better communication equipment and technological development (Aggarwal & Gupta, 2001).
Today, the communication world is sophisticated due to the many technological advances that have been witnessed. There have been numerous studies conducted in the field of digital communication. These studies have been the driving force of this technological advancement. The world is driving towards the digital communication though this has not been achieved mostly in the developing countries (Thomas & Chandra, 2006).
Mass communication started in the fifteenth century by the invention of Johannes Gutenberg’s from printed information to moving information type. Printed information developed in the nineteenth century. Moving press information was aided by the improved transport system, the development of the telegram, and the invention of the telephone (Aggarwal & Gupta, 2001).
Literature review
The media industry in India has proliferated in the past recent years. The first Indian newspaper was printed in 1780, which is about two hundred years ago. Initially, the Indian media were divided into electronic and print media. The electronic media include television and radios. On the other hand, the print media include newspaper, magazines, and journals.
The present technological advancement obliterated this divide. Mass media are instruments that have shaped the social lives of the society of the word and not just in India. There are three types of communication theories: the common sense theory, the working theory and the scholar’s theory.
The common sense theory is created by the individual’s personal experiences and is useful to other people about how to communicate. The working theory is about the best way to do things. On the other hand, the scholar’s theory has undergone a systematic research, and the result provides an accurate and abstract understanding for the communication (Aggarwal & Gupta, 2001).
Cognitive dissonance theory
This theory concerns the incompatibility between people’s beliefs and actions. People deal with dissonance by avoiding hearing contradictory news of their own, seek reassurance after tough decisions are made, and try to change personal beliefs to match public behavior. A dissonance reaction can be explained by self affirmation and personal responsibility. This theory implies that influence is an intra-personal event that occurs when there is tension between attitude and an individual behavior.
This tension is ultimately solved by either influencing behavior or attitude. There are three relationship possibilities between behavior and beliefs. It can be irrelevant, consonance or dissonance. The irrelevance explains when there is no relationship between behavior and belief. Consonance can be an explanation when the two stimuli achieve congruence or balance.
A dissonance is used to explain a relationship between two stimuli that contradict each other. The level of dissonance felt by an individual is affected by the ones rationalism, dissonance ratio that is the weight of discomfort one feels (Miller, 2005). An individual’s experience with different topics also affects the weight of dissonance. These individuals are likely to show selective exposure, selective attention, selective retains and selective interpretation.
The selective exposure helps individuals to avoid information that related to a previous behavior or belief. Selective attention helps one to pay attention to only that information that support one’s belief while disregarding the opposing views. Selective perpetration is a mind struggle where one interprets the information to suit one’s belief. Selective retains is when one only retain the information that upholds information supporting ones belief while forgetting others.
A cognitive dissonance theory is also considered as a post decision theory. According to this theory, a decision is made with disregard to any information opposite to one’s belief or behavior. The media have the challenge with this group of individuals. In this case, it does not matter what information one conveys unless it supports their beliefs.
Even the extraction of information from the group is also dangerous. This way, the group interprets information to match their belief same way they provide information that matches their beliefs. Thus, such information may not be accurate. The media should try bridging this gap so that the information receivers are influenced to create cognitive harmony (Dainton & Zelley 2005).
Cultivation theory/analysis
This theory implies that the television and media play an important role in how people perceive the world. In this modern world, people get information through the media rather than from direct experiences. Therefore, these sources have shaped people’s sense of reality especially when it comes to violence. This theory almost refers to one form of media, which is the television. Thus, there are many assumptions in the cultivation theory.
- Television is widely used by the Indian society.
- The television has influenced its audience perception about the social reality.
- The television has limited side effects, there are other factors that affect one’s view on social reality apart from the television.
The violent television is known not to affect everyone. According to the theory, only individuals with social attitudes are affected as they become a pessimist with increased television watching. Violence is not just a physical force as it happens with or without the physical force to others or on one’s self. A mean world syndrome is the term used to describe the condition experienced by the pessimists. This happens when the nature of violence on the ground does not match the way it is perceived on the television. It affects heavy television watchers more than light watchers.
Sometimes the media show more violent incidences repeatedly and for a longer time as compared to positive peaceful occurrences. The media have the responsibility to air both positive and negative social occurrence to enhance a good relationship with viewers. An example is how the demonstration is sometimes carried out after a certain conflict or violence is shown on television. The intensity of such demonstration depends on how the violence is shown on television (Dainton & Zelley, 2005).
Group-think theory
This occurs when a given group fails to solve the group differences effectively through consideration of the best possible alternatives. Group theorists explain that members of a certain group think similarly most of the time. Therefore, at times, they fail to share dissimilar opinions with others. In such a case, the group may make premature decisions with daring consequences.
The group-think is not a good idea sometimes especially when the group’s values are overridden by the unanimity of opinions. The group-think idea was designed to examine and predict how a certain group makes poor decisions. There are three situations that may cause group think to occur (Dainton & Zelley 2005).
- Cohesion: This refers to the extent of group solidarity. A group that is bound is likely to do a group-think. This is due to the likeliness that the group members have similar interests and thus share opinions.
- Structural flaws: This is the reason that brings the group together. Some groups are formed after being isolated and abandoned by a larger group. Group think can occur in situations where the decision is intended not to agree with the leader’s opinion whether the leaders is right or not. It is common under biased leadership. If a group fails to follow procedural measure in decision making or lack the decision making process resulting into group-think.
- Situational characteristics: This happens when an abnormal situation forces a team to make certain decisions such as stress. Some assumptions made during the formation of the group can result into poor decision making as a result of group-think. An example is an assumption that the group will never fail or group has good characters so eve the decisions they make are good. Close minds and the pressure towards uniformity can also influence group-think. The group-think is not easy to deal with unless the group is split such that they are treated as individuals. However, it is not true that group-think is always not a good idea in decision making.
Communication accommodation theory
This perspective underlies what happens when two speakers change their communication styles. This theory implies that two people or groups can sometimes change how to communicate to accommodate another group.
This happens through divergence or convergence. A group that is bound by racial or ethnic background may use divergence communication style to show group identity. Divergence happens when the same group seeks a social acceptance to be approved by powerful individuals or groups (Baran, Baran & Davis, 2012). This theory explains the changes in one’s language or speech. It provides an informative solution to cultural differences in regards to language and speech.
Accommodation in a group occurs when one has a sense of belonging to a group. On the other hand, the accommodation out of the group occurs when one does not experience a sense of belonging to the group. A convergence individual has to change his/her speech to match that of the conversational colleague. A divergent speech is used when conversing with an unattractive personality to show differentiation. An example is when the teacher changes language and speech tone when disciplining pupils (Dainton & Zelley, 2005).
The media are sometimes forced to be the convergent persona. This happens when seeking information from a tribal group that may not be welcoming (Dainton & Zelley, 2005).
Social learning and social penetration theory
A social exchange theory indicates that for self satisfaction interest between people depends on the interpersonal relationship. Self interest is not a negative thing all the time since it can sometimes enhance a relationship. It is just like batter trade as people get satisfaction as long as they receive as much as they spend.
Social penetration is slow and predictable as it primarily starts with self disclosure and progresses into an intimate relationship. Self disclosure can bring people together or put one in a more vulnerable position. This theory can explain why some relationship nourishes while others end usually based on satisfaction.
There are three assumptions in this theory. First, relationships are based on the cost and benefits balance. Secondly, people want to receive maximum benefits while limiting expenses as much as possible. Lastly, humans are selfish. The core component of this theory is that relationships come with benefits and costs and the outcome is the difference between the reward and the costs.
The next component of the social exchange theory is the comparison level, which is one’s reward expectations in a relationship. Another component is the comparative level of all possible alternatives. Satisfaction is not enough for a relationship to continue or end as the predictable value of other alternative relationship determine whether a relationship survives or not. The professional media needs to have a good relationship between the viewers and information providers.
Having a good relationship with both parties will determine whether a certain journalist progress in career or not. For example, a journalist of a certain media house should maintain a good relationship with the politician so as to access information from the politician another time. If that politician’s view is shown in a negative way that he/she does not like, then the relationship ends and the journalist may not find another time to get information from the same politician (Dainton & Zelley 2005).
Uncertainty reduction theory
The theory is based on how people new to each other try to reduce their uncertainty levels upon meeting each other. This happens when people perceive how the opponent will behave or what the other person think about them. People use communication to reduce the uncertainty levels.
Human social life has many ambiguities and thus this theory tends to explain why, how and when people use communication to reduce their doubts that may arise when talking to new individuals or groups. The uncertainty is reduced when interacting with individuals one is likely to see again. The uncertainty value is the driving force behind the interaction as one would want to know the rewards of such interaction. Uncertainty can either be behavioral or cognitive. There are three uncertainty reduction strategies.
They include passive, active and interactive strategies. The passive strategy is when one obtains the surrounding information to develop a clue about a given group of people or about an individual. The active strategy involves the use of another person to understand a situation or a person. The interactive strategy is when one goes straight to another person and asks questions about things that one may not understand.
This is achieved by asking as many questions as possible and get enough information. Most media groups through their journalists use all the three strategies during and before investigations. Journalists are required to know enough about situations before reporting. This is meant to ensure that the information given is as accurate as possible. Therefore, journalists should employ the use of all the three strategies (Dainton & Zelley, 2005).
Conclusion
There are several communication theories that are no discussed above. Communication students can use these theories to understand the theoretical communication field work. Some of these theories are applied to journalism, and should be understood by journalists as they determine whether one will succeed in efforts to look for reports, news or while doing investigations. The application of the theories varies depending on the cultural diversity. Therefore, the cultural background knowledge is important to match a given theory.
References
Aggarwal, V.B. & Gupta, V.S. (2001). Handbook of journalism and mass communication. New Delhi: Concept.
Baran, S.J. Baran, S.J. & Davis, D.K. (2012). Mass communication theory: Foundations, ferment, and future. Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
Dainton, M. & Zelley, E.D. (2005). Applying communication theory for professional life: A practical introduction. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.
Miller, K. (2005). Communication theories: Perspectives, processes, and contexts. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Thomas, T.G., & Chandra, S.S. (2006). Communication theory. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.