comm theory

• -Predicts how events and actions are related
• -Theories help practitioners expalin and predict human behavior and communication and guide organizational decision making

• Effective communicators understand:
• 1. How ppl receive messages
• 2. How ppl process info and change their perceptions
• 3. What media and tools are most effective for messages

Communication theories center around the most effective ways to send messages to elicit desired responses

• -Mass Society Theories
• -Limited effects theory
• -Two-step flow Theory
• - Concentric Circle Theory
• -Spiral of Silence Theory

• *Dominant from 1890s through 1950s
• -Saw mass media (press, radio) as having too powerful of an effect on masses and were a threat to the social order.
• -Promulgated by elite who were afraid they'd lose their grasp on power. Mostly discredited.

• -*Paul Lazarsfeld's Voters Studies...1940s and 1950s
• -Showed media had a limited effect on most adults
• -They formed opinions based on family, friends, peers and institutions (churches, schools)

• -*Organization sends a message through mass media and depends on media to deliever.
• -Flawed- Media are a filter and do not guarantee recipients will read and or understand message properly.

• -*Opinion Leadership
• -Ideas evolve in concentric circles

Great thinkers-> Great Disciples-> Great disseminators-> Lesser disseminators->Politically Active ->Politically Inert

• -Elisabeth Noelle Neumann...1970s
• -The silent majority, often fearing disenfranchisement, goes with the majority. Peer PRESSURE.
• -Some communications that work well depend on the nonparticipation of the so-called silent majority. (tutition increase, if no public outcry, goes through)