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Assignment Description: Theory and Research Paper
(40 points, 15% of final grade in course)
The final paper is an opportunity for you to look deeper at theories that interest you and to propose a research
study that would answer further questions about phenomena that the theories describe.
Instructions:
• Summarize the theory that interests you and why it has practical value in the real world (~1 page)
•
Find and summarize a research study (not featured in class) that employs the theory (1.5-2.5 pages)
o What does the study find?
o How does the study advance the theory?
o What does the study tell us about communication that we did not know before?
o What practical implications does the study have?
o Does the study address any of the critiques of the theory that we discussed?
▪ If so, how?
o Look at the end of the book chapters for potential springboards from which you can find studies
▪ Google Scholar, Academic Search Ultimate
▪ Choose a study published since 2012 if possible
o Be sure to cite the sources in proper APA format
•
How would you continue this research program with a study of your own? (1.5-2.5 pages)
o Describe the research design (experiment, survey, focus group, ethnography, etc.)
▪ Why is this the most appropriate research design for your study?
o What new, interesting questions would this study answer?
▪ What do you predict you will find?
▪ How would the theory – or some other, different theory - explain findings that don’t fit
your prediction?
o Why does it matter?
▪ What does the study tell us about communication that we did not know before?
▪ What practical implications might the study have in the real world?
Important Details:
• Aim for 4-6 pages
• Microsoft Word format - .doc, .docx, or even .pdf
o File type issues are not an excuse
• Use APA format
• Proofread!
• Ask me for help if you need it!
• The paper is due to the Blackboard dropbox at 11:59 pm on December 11, 2018
o Every day that a paper is late results in a 1% deduction from your final course grade
o Per the course syllabus, any paper received later than 11:59 pm on December 16, 2018 will
automatically receive a zero
Grading Rubric
Excellent
Poor
Summarizes the theory; demonstrates practical value
10
7.5
5
2.5
0
Summarizes another research study effectively
15
11.5
7.5
3.5
0
Proposes and justifies new study’s design
5
4
2.5
1
0
Predicts potential results of study
5
4
2.5
1
0
Demonstrates value to communication field & practical
value
5
4
2.5
1
0
Adjustments (your grade may be lowered up to 10% for each of the following)
Grammar/Mechanics
APA Format (title page, header, margins, font)
TOTAL ____ /40
Excellent
-0%
-0
-1
-2
-3
Poor
-10%
-4
-0
-1
-2
-3
-4
Muted Group Theory
COMM 100
September 25, 2018
Overview
• Muted Group Theory
• Background
• Some Details
• Muted Groups in Media
• Influence of modern tech
• Evaluation
• Exercise
• Film Report Assignment
• New due date
• Other syllabus changes
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
Muted Group Theory
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
• Language as a man made construction
• Pretty hard to argue with that
• Not all speakers contribute equally to the formation of a
language, especially given the contexts of when many
languages arose
• Women’s words are discounted in society and their thoughts
devalued
• Muted group: people belonging to low-power groups must change
their language when communicating publicly
• Thus their ideas are often overlooked
• Their words appear less often in the sphere of public debate
Women hold 107 (20%) of the 535 seats in the US Congress. 23/100 in
the Senate and 84/435 in the House.
Muted Group Theory
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
• Men’s system of perception is dominant
• Men frame the discussion
• Think about terms regarding women’s talking
• Catty, bitchy, shrill, cackling, gossipy, etc.
• Equivalents for men?
• Women often silenced by not having publicly recognized vocabulary
through which to express their experience
• May even come to doubt the validity of their experience and
legitimacy of their feelings
“Why didn’t she come forward sooner? Why didn’t she call
the police? Why didn’t she report it at the time?”
#WhyIDidntReport
Muted Groups in Media
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
• More media gatekeepers (editors, writers, producers) are men
• Media representation skews toward men
• We will cover this again with agenda-setting and cultivation
Muted Groups in Media
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
Muted Groups in Media
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
Muted Groups in Media
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
Muted Groups in Media
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
Muted Groups in Media
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
Maybe Tech Will Save Us?
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
• Some promising findings re: Instagram and Twitter
• Kramarae: “Females are likely to find ways to express
themselves outside the dominant public modes of expression
used by males in both their verbal conventions and their
nonverbal behavior.”
• Diaries and journals Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest
• But who makes the algorithms?
• Silicon Valley culture is dominated by men
New technology provides new means to both
“unmute” and “mute” groups. The jury might still
be out on the “net effect” though.
Evaluation
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
• New understanding of people?
• Undoubtedly
• Clarification of values
• Elevating muted voices
• Not just women!
• Aesthetic appeal
• A Feminist Dictionary is pretty interesting
• Not beholden to quantitative data, there is more room for
artistry
• Qualitative research
• Historically
• But quantitative is appearing too
Evaluation
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
• Community of agreement
• One of the most impressive across the social sciences!
• Reform of society
• Let’s hope
• Remember, when “sexual harassment” was first used in a court
case in the 1970s, it was the only legal term defined by women!
• Giving voice to muted experiences might well be a mark of our
times
• #MeToo
• #BlackLivesMatter
Few theories can match the elegance,
effectiveness, and relevance of Muted Group
Theory. Let’s expand our discussion with an
exercise.
Wrapping Up
• Next Application Log NOW DUE OCTOBER 9
• Gives you an extra week
• #1 will be graded later this week
• Film Report NOW DUE OCTOBER 16
• Gives you an extra week
• Assignment Distribution
• For Thursday
• Social Information Processing
• Read Chapter 10
Have a great day! See you Thursday!
Muted Group
September 25, 2018
Expectancy Violations Theory
COMM 100
September 4, 2018
Overview
• Chapter 7
• Expectancy Violations Theory
• Origins
• Nonverbal Expectancy Violations
• Refinement
• Core Concepts
• Expectancies
• Violation valence
• Communicator reward valence
• Some examples
• Other contexts
• Evaluation
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
Background
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Nonverbal Communication
• Personal Space
• “Invisible, variable volume of space surrounding an individual
that defines the individual’s preferred distance from others”
• Historically, study of proxemics
• Edward T. Hall
• Study of people’s use of space
• Anthropological approach
• Four Interpersonal Distances
• Intimate distance: 0 – 18 inches
• Personal distance: 18 inches – 4 feet
• Social distance: 4 to 10 feet
• Public distance: 10 feet to infinity
Burgoon’s Early Model
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Yes, people have definite expectations about how close others
should come
• Vary by person
• Vary by culture
• KEY POINT: There are times when it is best to break the rules
• In some contexts, violating social norms and personal
expectations might be a useful strategy
• Nonverbal Expectancy Violations Theory
Nonverbal Expectancy
Violations Theory
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Threat threshold
• Hypothetical outer boundary of intimate space
• Violation causes arousal
• Cognitive appraisal of the communication
• Makes sense, right?
• Didn’t work in experiments
• Often, our intuitions are wrong
• Refinement
• Threat threshold?
• Not just spatial distance
• Facial expressions, eye contact, touch, body lean
Now just “Expectancy Violations Theory” (EVT)
Expectancy Violations Theory
• Frequent outcomes
• Attraction
• Credibility
• Influence
• Involvement
• Three core concepts
• Expectancy
• Violation valence
• Communicator reward valence
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
Expectancy
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Expectancy
• What people predict will happen
• NOT what people desire
• Sources:
• Context
• Cultural norms
• Setting of the interaction
• Relationship
• Similarity, familiarity, liking, relative status
• Communicator characteristics
• Demographics (age, sex, etc.)
• Physical appearance
• Personality
• Communication style
Violation Valence
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Violation valence
• Positive or negative value we assign to a specific unexpected
behavior, regardless of who does it
• Important: can be negative OR positive
• First, interpret the meaning of the violation
• Then, evaluate whether we like it
• Works in tandem w/ communicator reward valence
Communicator Reward
Valence
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Communicator Reward Valence
• Evaluation of the person who commits the violation
• The sum of the positive and negative attributes a violator
brings to the encounter, plus the potential they have to
reward or punish in the future
• Some factors: status, looks, ability
Some Examples
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Meeting a senior professor
• Expectancy: very science oriented, straightforward, soft-spoken
• Violation: upbeat, talkative, very animated
• Violation valence: positive
• Communicator reward valence: positive, can reward
• Response: committee member, might design a course together
• Quitting soccer in high school
• Expectancy: parents OK w/ decision
• Violation: Dad calls, forcefully calls it a mistake, says I can do it
• Violation valence: positive
• Communicator reward valence: positive, can reward
• Response: Called coach, asked to rejoin tryouts, made 2-mile
time next day
• What about you?
Seinfeld, Revisited
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Close Talker (from the episode The Raincoats, season 5)
• From Jerry’s Mom’s view
• Expectancy: converse at a comfortable distance
• Violation: close talking
1. Violation valence: ?
2. Communicator reward valence: ?
3. Response: ?
• From Jerry’s view
• Expectancy: converse at a comfortable distance
• Violation: close talking
1. Violation valence: ?
2. Communicator reward valence: ?
3. Response: ?
Some Refinement
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• In my examples, and Seinfeld
• Interested in response
• EVT explains, but doesn’t predict response
• Interaction Adaptation Theory
• Systematic analysis of how people adjust their approach when
another’s behavior doesn’t mesh with what’s needed,
anticipated, or preferred
• Reciprocity
• Human tendency to respond to another’s action with similar
behavior
Other Contexts
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Why limit to interpersonal, in-person communication?
• Expectancy violations in advertising
• Ram Super Bowl ad
• What MLK actually said
• Expectancy violations on the internet
• Intrusiveness of targeted ads?
• Or targeted ads that are welcome?
• Machine-generated journalism?
• Interpersonal expectancy violations?
• Likes, Photos, Language
• Others?
Evaluation
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• Explanation & prediction?
• Describes pretty well
• Prediction: not great, but OK
• Relative simplicity
• A few easy to grasp concepts
• Falsifiability
• Able to test w/ hypotheses in numerous contexts
• Quantitative research
• Valence = ±
• Practical utility
• What do you think?
Wrapping Up
Expectancy Violations
September 4, 2018
• For Thursday
• Read Chapter 8
• Social penetration theory
Have a great day! See you Thursday!