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Summary Theory - Intro toCommunication Science
Pre-master Communication Science University of Twente 2020
Britt Heuvel
,Content
This course develops the students’ knowledge and understanding of the basics of
communication science related to three main themes: Changing organizations, Digital
society, and Persuasive tech. The core communication science theories will be discussed in
this course, and students will study the role of communication in the context of global
challenges. Specifically, this course covers theories of, for example, intercultural
communication, organizational communication, and media and persuasive communication.
The exam materials are: The book Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life (4th
Ed.). - Dainton, M., & Zelley, E. D. (Chapters: 1,2,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 + politeness theory Ch5)
& the online materials (available via Canvas or UT library). Some theories/ ideas are
discussed in the video’s, but not in the book or the other way around. There is an overview
of what you need to know after each chapter. You do not have to rehearse the definitions by
heart or have to reproduce them literally, there are always ques and definitions in the exam
questions but you need to be able to describe concepts, apply them to different contexts
and to explain the relevance of the concepts/theories. What about the case studies? Each
chapter in the book concludes a case study, there will be no explicit questions about the
case studies.
Chapter 1 Intro to Communication Science – Menno de Jong (chapter 1 & 2)
Chapter 2 Purpose driven content – Ronald Voorn
Chapter 3 Changing organizations – Mark van Vuuren (chapter 8 & 9)
Chapter 4 Digital society – Ruud Jacobs (chapter 10 & 11)
Chapter 5 Persuasive tech- Joyce Karreman (chapter 7)
Chapter 6 Intercultural communication – Menno de Jong (chapter 4 & 6 +politeness theory)
,Chapter 1 Intro to Communication Science
1.1 Communication
How can we define ‘communication’ as an object of study? à The SMCR Model: the metaphor is transmitting
information from one entity to another. Limitations of the transmission metaphor
• Focus on information transmission
• Limitation to explicit and codified communication processes
• Forced linearity
• No attention to the role media play in our daily lives
• No attention to the active sense-making on either side
• Neglect of the complexity of communication in real contexts
Nowadays communication can be much more
multifaceted than just the transmission of a message,
and a model like this does not really help us understand
what is happening when people communicate.
Definition by Conrad & Poole: Communication is the
process by which people interactively create, sustain
and manage meaning. If this is the definition, what are
aspects of communication? ß
Communication is a very diverse field; communication actually serves
as a lens. Of course, we have a fixed set of theories that are
exclusively communication theories, but we are also willing to borrow
from any other theory/ discipline. But we look at things in reality
through the lens of communication (making sense of things,
interaction, information, collaboration/relationships). That is what
gives us a specific perspective. A lens makes some things sharp and
other things a little vague.
Our discipline has a couple of extensions: at the center: media,
messages & interaction. Around that we have:
• Vague boundaries, multidisciplinary
• Everything communicates
• Understanding people is a crucial skill
• Long-term, two-sided, in context & creativity
• Observing, listening and interpreting are crucial activities
• All five senses are involved
1.2 Science
What is science? (knowledge from) the careful study of the structure and behaviour of the physical world,
especially by watching, measuring, and doing experiments, and the development of theories to describe the
results of these activities (Cambridge dictionary).
What does science?
• Systematically working to uncover phenomena in reality
• Doing research
• Building on others’ insights
• Developing terminology to make sense of the world
• Creating a body of knowledge in terms of theories and models
The core elements of the scientific discipline are: Theories, Models & Core concepts. They can help us explain
and predict things we see in the real world and at the same time they give us some kind of terminology to make
sense of what we see and can also help us to see things.
,Two perspectives on a theory/model:
1 A principle that has universal or nearly universal explanatory and predictive power; it operates as a truth
2 A conceptual framework, a map or a lens that provides us a way of looking at the world
Example of a theory: Theory of Planned Behavior
Eventually you want to explain behaviour of people,
to explain the behaviour you have to explain the
intentions that people have. Intentions can be
explained by looking at the attitude towards the
behaviour, looking at the subjective norm and the
perceived behavioral control (capability). Used in
many contacts, quite successfully but at the same
time the percentage of behaviour that can be
predicted is never more than 50%.
A problem with theories is that Empirical Cycle Design Cycle
you always have three different How do we get to these core There is also a design cycle: for
criteria that you have to meet. On concepts/theories/models? when you design things (solutions
one hand you want the theory to Always in an empirical cycle: for complex problems)
be generalizable, on the other useful perspective of bringing
hand you want it to be accurate science into practice.
and you want it to be simple. And
there is always a tension between
these three criteria.
Generalizble
Simple Accurate
What are complicating factors?
• Reality that we study in social science is always complex and multifaceted
• Reality at least partly consist of people’s perceptions
• Reality is subject to change
• Reality cannot be mapped directly
There are two types of research:
1 Fundamental research: contributing to theory building
2 Applied research: contributing to the solution of practical problems
1.3 Communication Science
Communication science has many subdisciplines:
• Professional Communication • Corporate Communication
• Technical Communication • Business Communication
• Human-Computer Interaction • Health Communication
• New Media & Communication • Science Communication
• Marketing Communication • Document Design
• Organizational Communication
Our perspective (UT) on Communication Science: it is instrumental, fundamental & applied, research & problem-
solving and interwoven with subject matter.
,1.4 Communication professionals
What are communicational challenges? Societal Challenges, Technological Developments & Social Innovations.
• Energy transition • Radicalization • Organizational
• Environment • Mediation of personal stupidity
• Sustainability and professional • Facts and fiction
• Robotization relations • Trust
• Artificial Intelligence • Continuous change • Transparency
• Internet of Things • New ways of working • Big Data
• Democracy • Network organizations • Privacy
• Inclusiveness • Excel bureaucracy • Security
Communication can be part of the solution, but communication can also be part of the problem.
Characteristics of a communication professional:
• Good knowledge of communication • Creativity
theories and research • Perfect communication skills
• Brood research skills • Technological savviness
• Empathy • Organizational and strategical sensitivity
• Critical thinking • Cultural sensitivity
• Analytic and synthetic thinking • Societal awareness and informedness
1.4 Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life – Dainton and Zelley
Chapter 1 Introduction to Communication Theory
What is communication? According to the general public communication
is synonymous with information, it is the flow of information from one
person to another. But to scholar’s communication is more than just the
flow of information, it has various meanings.
Contexts of communication
• Cognitive context: the influence our thoughts have on the way we
communicate Theories
• Individual differences context: consider how individual differences
and social roles play a role in the communication process.
• Interpersonal context: the interactions between two individuals who
most often have a relationship with each other.
• Intercultural context: communication when two people are from
different cultures.
• Persuasive context: persuasion takes place in variety of settings.
Communication that is designed to influence other people by
adjusting their beliefs, values or attitudes.
• Group context: Consists of task (achieving goals) and
socioemotional communication (developing relationships) so the
balance between task focused and having fun in the process.
• Organizational context: the communication of groups within groups
• Mediated context: how technology influences our interpersonal
group and organizational communication.
• Mass communication context focuses on the influence of mass-
mediated messages.
Communication competence = Achieving a successful balance between effectiveness and appropriateness
Effectiveness: the extent to which you achieve your goals in an interaction
Appropriateness: fulfilling social expectations for a particular situation
Being effective without being appropriate: a job applicant who lies on a resume to get a job. Being appropriate
without being effective: for example, a person doing his job, who does not wish to take on additional task.
,Concepts, models and theories
Concept: an agreed-upon aspect of reality
Model: as a synonym for the term theory, as a precursor to a theory, as a physical representation of a theory or
as an application of predication.
Theory: in this concept describe an abstract understanding of the communication process.
Three types of theory
1. Commonsense theory: theories in use, it is a theory created based upon an individual’s own
experiences (Ex. Never date someone you work with)
2. Working theory: guidelines for behavior, generalizations made in particular professions about the best
techniques for doing something. (Ex. Audience analysis should be done prior to presenting a speech)
3. Scholarly theory: provides an accurate explanation for communication (Ex. Effects of violations of
expectations depend on the reward value of the violator)
Evaluating theory Five criteria that best capture the way to assess the usefulness of communication theories.
1. Accuracy: suggesting that systematic research supports the explanations provided by the theory
2. Practicality: have real-world applications been found for the theory
3. Succinctness: refers to whether or not a theory’s explanation or description is sufficiently concise
4. Consistency: a. Internal consistency – the ideas of the theory are logically built on one another & b.
External consistency – the theory’s coherence with other widely held theories
5. Acuity: The ability of a theory to provide insight into an otherwise intricate issue.
1.5 Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life – Dainton and Zelley
Chapter 2 Theory Development
Theory – research link
Inductive theory (grounded theory) – research comes before
theory
Deductive theory (scientific method) – theory or hypothesis
comes before research
What is research? “disciplined inquiry that involves studying
something in a planned manner and reporting it so that
other inquirers can potentially replicate the process if they
choose”
Primary research – conducting your own research, creating
data that did not exist before
Secondary research – conducted by another researcher,
gathering data that has been done by other researchers
Research methods in communication
• Experiment: is the only method that allows researchers to conclude that one thing causes another
o Variable: any concept that has two or more values
§ Independent variable = the presumed cause
§ Dependent variable = the presumed effect
o Manipulation = used to establish causality
o Laboratory experiment = is an experiment that takes place in a controlled environment
• Surveys: is used to find out how someone thinks, feels or intends to behave
o Interview: the response is always in oral form
o Focus group: small group of people in a discussion about a certain subject
o Questionnaire: questions to which the respondent answers in writing
o Key concepts associated with either type of survey research are:
§ Questioning: Open-ended questions & Closed-ended questions
§ Sampling: where the researcher takes a sample of the population. It can either be a
random sample where every member of the sample has a chance to be selected or a
nonrandom sample were volunteers are being used.
, • Textual analysis: used to uncover the content, nature or structure of messages. Types of textual analysis:
o Rhetorical criticism: a systematic method for describing and evaluating the persuasive force of
messages.
o Interaction analysis (conversation analysis): focus on the interpersonal communication
interaction with emphasis on the nature and structure of it
o Content analysis: seeks to identify, classify and analyze the occurrence of particular type of
messages. Associated with mass-mediated messages
§ A modern derivation of this type of research is text mining (data mining) = the use of
advanced data analysis tools to discover previously unknown, valid patterns and
relationships in large data sets.
§ Content analysis involves four steps:
• Step 1) The selection of a particular text.
• Step 2) The development of content categories.
• Step 3) Placing the content in categories.
• Step 4) Analyzing the results.
• Ethnography: Typically involves the researcher immersing himself into a particular culture or context to
understand communication rules and meanings. Ex. An ethnographer might study an organizational
culture, essential is that the research must take place in the natural environment. Those conducting
ethnographies need to decide on the role they will play in the research:
o Complete participant: is fully involved in the social setting and the participant is not aware that
the researcher is studying him.
o Participant-observer: the researcher is fully involved in the social setting, but the participants
are aware of the researcher
o Complete observer: no interacting between the researcher and the participant.
Social science and the humanities the difference between social science and the term humanistic:
Humanistic approach: one’s own interpretation is of
interest. Ex. Is English literature. Humanists believe
often use pragmatism which means that human
beings are not passive reactors to situations but
dynamic. Humans base their actions on the choice of
others
Social science approach: objectivity is center here,
be standardization researchers can observe patterns.
Social science researchers often follow
“determinism” which means they believe in past
experiences. The goal of a social scientific approach
is to both understand and predict communication
processes.
How theories change and grow: Once a theory is developed it still continues to grow. It either grows by
extension or intension. Extension meaning the theory adds more concepts and builds on what already is.
Intension meaning scholars gain a more in-depth understanding of the original concept.
,Chapter 2 Purpose driven content – Ronald Voorn
Purpose marketing is a new kind of marketing where companies found out that doing good is good for business.
2.1 What is Purpose Marketing?
Before we can answer the general question, we first have to answer: What is marketing?
• Marketing is the management process involved in identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
wants profitably (Institute of Marketing).
• Marketing is not just selling; it is about knowing and
understanding you customer.
• The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The
aim is to know and understand the customer so well that
the product or service sells itself (Peter Drucker).
• Official definition by the American Marketing Association:
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes
for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging
offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners
and society at large.
• There are four different things marketeers look at:
4 P’s model à Product, Price, Place & Promotion.
“So, the competitive messaging strives to give you a reason to buy one brand instead of another. What the
brand messaging doesn’t offer is something about the company itself, its values, passions and purposes! Some
companies are beginning to recognize that customers want to know something more about the brand before
adopting it as their favorite brand. These companies are starting to do more messaging about what consumers
really care about and that their brand really cares about.” – Philip Kotler (2018)
What is purpose marketing? “Brand purpose is an ideal that drives everything a brand does” (Hsu, 2017).
Purpose marketing is more than only the product, price, promotion and place, it is a brand that actually chooses
a social goal and tries to own that and do something for that social goal, also interpreting it in their marketing.
(Examples: Dove battles for beauty, Toms shoes supplies shoes for people in need after each buy).
Where does purpose marketing fit in?
Model of Corporate Identity/Image – Birkigt & Stadler àEvery
company/corporation has certain behavior, certain symbols and
certain ways of communication and also has its own personality in
how they act towards the world around them and this actually
results in a corporate image. So, one is the input and one is the
result they get in the minds of consumers.
Brand Identity à The way you want folks to perceive you (logo, tagline, aesthetic style, language & tone)
Brand Image à The ways that customers actually perceive you (reputation, emotion, impression & belief)
Company’s use all kinds of tools to influence the brand image. There are several models to show brand identity:
,We can distinguish different levels of ‘purpose activity’:
Charitable giving à Support of causes à Purpose becomes culture (more important than profit)
There is another type also of purely commercial corporation that’s starting to
define themselves and group together. And you can actually follow a program
by which you can get an official recognition as a certified B corporation. They
take a very broad societal view at how they want to operate in society, they
define how they want to do it and then they monitor it so that what they have
promised to do in their B corporation plan is actually monitored throughout
time, whether they live up to their promises.
The arc of justice (Kotler & Sarkar) à how important are brand values
throughout history? Brand values are becoming more important of
how brands operate in the world. Progressive customers also want
companies that are taking a more responsible approach to the world
they operate in.
Companies also become more purposeful and also it sometimes is
called brand activism instead of purpose marketing. This is where
they take a societal position about what they think is right and
wrong. (Example: Nike à black lives matter)
2.2 What are the consequences of Purpose Marketing?
When you talk about consequences of any type of marketing, there are some models that are giving an
interesting insight into what are brands and how do they create value.
1. Aaker’s Customer-Based Brand Equality Framework 2. Keller’s Customer-Based Brand Equality Framework
Left are the building blocks of what creates value for a Developed the previous framework further. He looked more
brand, then the boxes after that you see what the benefits closely into what are different brand elements that you build
are, what it delivers in terms on behavior and on the right value with, what are marketing programs you can develop
part you can actually see that ultimately when you do it in and how can you leverage them to secondary association
the right way you provide value to customers and provide that brands might have. In the middle you see that with
value to firms. those tools’ marketeers build brand awareness and brand
image these lead to all kinds of benefits.
, 3. Keller’s Brand Knowledge Structure 4. Park’s Revised Final Model
Brands are nothing more than a set of associations in the How does brand awareness have an effect, and is there a
minds of people. And then Brand Awareness are two significant effect? And the same for brand familiarity. He
different kinds (brand recall & brand recognition. And Brand found that when you have the right brand awareness and
Image also consist out of a number of building blocks which brand familiarity it leads to a significantly effect on brand
have certain attributes, benefits and attitudes towards the image, which in itself then has a really significant effect on
brand. customer satisfaction and brand trust. Customer satisfaction
also has an effect on brand trust (mediation effect).
Customer satisfaction and brand trust ultimately lead to
attitudinal brand loyalty (degree to which people actually
express their next behavior in terms of buying).
When you talk about consequences and effects of marketing and marketing communication activities and
especially when you discuss purpose marketing the whole subject of values becomes really important. Because if
the values of a brand are in line (congruent) with those values that the consumer finds important (that they give
priority to), so when there is congruence, it leads to very positive results.
In the Theory of Basic Human Values (Schwartz) you see what
different values are for people. There are basically four different
groups on two different axes (because they are opposite). The
groups are: Self-Enhancement and its opposite Self-transcendence
and Conservation and its opposite Openness to change. The values
that are close together are also grouped together. And when they
are opposed, they are really opposed from each other. When you
get a match between the brand values that are communicated and
also are seen in the behavior of a company and there is congruence
between the values that people find important then you get à value
congruence. You can also look at priorities in life studies and values
particularly important in long relationships (consumables vs. durables).
Consequences of value congruences/ purpose marketing:
• Helps to attract the right people
• Positively affect their loyalty and even the extent to which they help colleagues
• Contributes to financial results of companies
• Purpose marketing: The impact that it has on the world.
2.3 What are pitfalls you want to avoid?
Degree of purposefulness (Roach):
1. Born Purposeful à part of the DNA
2. Corporate Converts à Where not born with the purpose, discovered it
3. Pseudo Purpose à Marketing gimmick (false)
Three Pitfalls (Murrel):
• Not being credible à Build your purpose on a role that your product actually performs
• Not being considerate à Treat culturally important subjects with sensitivity
• Not being committed à Align all of your brand’s actions to your purpose
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