Sunday, 22 April 2012

12. Communication Theory


  • Understanding what communication is and how it works
Potential problems with communication:

Level 1  Technical  Accuracy

  Systems of encoding and decoding
  Compatibility of systems/need for specialist equipment or knowledge

Level 2  Semantic  Precision of language

  How much of the message can be lost without meaning being lost?
  What language to use?

Level 3  Effectiveness

  Does the message affect behaviour the way we want it to?
  What can be done if the required effect fails to happen?
  • Different ways of defining audience: e.g. social class, occupational, ability, gender etc.
BARB definitions:


The main audience categories are: individuals, adults, men, women, children, and housewives. These are further subdivided by age and social class.

Semiotics:
Semantics addresses what a sign stands for. 

Dictionaries are semantic reference books; they tell us what a sign means.

Syntactics is the relationships among signs.

Signs rarely stand alone. They are almost always part of a larger sign system referred to as codes.

Pragmatics studies the practical use and effects of signs.

Codes are organized rules that designate what different signs stand for.



Rhetoric:

Synedoche: 'a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part'

Hyperbole: 'obvious and intentional exaggeration.
an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intendedto be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”


Irony:  'the use of words to convey a meaning that is the oppositeof its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when Isaid I had to work all weekend.'




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