(This was sent directly to Prof. Hayden directly on Sept. 10th.)
When I was an Undergraduate (at the University of Kansas – Go Jayhawks) I conducted an experiment for a communications class that I was enrolled in. The method of the study was to watch groups of individuals interact for the first time, and track the flow of the conversation. Not the messages that were actually being conveyed, but how the conversation progressed. For example, who interrupts, who changes the subject, who monopolizes the time or who adds acknowledging/supportive phrases (such as: “uh-huh”).
I was reminded of this investigation when I read through Carey’s piece. Yes, when people get together, they do try to transmit messages and their agenda to each other. Communication can also be a way in which rituals and cultural roles are advanced and solidified. Communication provides a way in which information can be passed on and utilized. Carey specifically mentions Religious messages and newspapers, but I found that the people I watched more often had a political agenda to espouse. But, the transportation and ritual theories are again focused on the substance of the conversation.
More interestingly, I have come to believe that communication provides a way for two people to meet, test each other’s boundaries (in a myriad of ways), establish whether this is someone they enjoy, start making the connections that will form the foundation of their relationship, and upon which their rapport can be restored. Try watching two people meet for the first time, without focusing specifically on what they say, but instead on how they interact. Does one person make a joke? Does the other person think they are funny? Are the messages that they are trying to send out being received positively, and if so are they making a network from which they can pull, the next time that they meet? None of this deals specifically with content, and this is what I connected to in Carey’s writing when he refers to communication being, “a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed.”
That study seems to be a terrific way of enlightening understanding of communication as a ritual, and not simply transmission of information. The ritual view refers to communication as representing shared beliefs through portraying and confirming a particular worldview. When people interact with one another as you describe Lynn, apart from verbal messages they are exchanging symbols (eye contact, spatial distance, touch) as they create a reality in which to understand this relationship. Society exists because of our ability to communicate, thus it is our development of shared understanding that makes communication the fabric that binds society.
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