CIS Communication Theory Exam

Outlined below are some of the major theories discussed in CIS 701 and COM 611:

Jump To:    Summaries    Pre-Modern    Modern    Post-Modern    Democracy    Papers

What is a Theory?

Communication Theory Summaries:

Scientific Paradigms

• Thomas Kuhn

General Communication Theories

• What is a Theory?
• Process:  Shannon and Weaver, Howard Lasswell
• Semiotics (signs and symbols):  Pierce, Dogm/Richard, Saussure, Barthes, Baudrillard

Summaries Of Communication Theories

• Mattleart and Mattleart
• Majid Tehranian
• John Fiske
• Stephen Littlejohn

(my CIS 701 Final Exam)

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Pre-Modern Communication Theories:

Orality and Literacy

• Walter Ong
• Notes from Majid Tehranian

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Modern Communication Theories:

Interpersonal Communication
(Personal Development, Psychology)

• Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Erik Erikson

Socialization Theories
(Way of Passing On Values)

• Semiotics (Pierce, Ogden & Richards, Saussure, Barthes, Baudrillard) - also see Littlejohn
• Symbolic Interactionism (Mead / Blumer), Extended Interactionism (Goffmann), Structuration Theory (Giddens)

Signification Theories:  Mass Media
(Language)

• Marshall McLuhan / Harold Innis
• Notes from Majid Tehranian on the History of Mass Media

Legitimization Theories:  Public Opinion / Ideology
(Power Structures)

• Walter Lippmann (Public Opinion)
• Democracy (See Democratization Below)
• Marxism
• Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

Accumulation Theories:  Diffusion / Modernization
Wealth / Growth

• Diffusion Of Innovation (Everett Rogers)

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Post-Modern Communication Theories:

Post-Modernism

- Gaining momentum in the 1960's, the structures / authorities of society were challenged (Vietnam, civil rights, womens rights, etc.)

Signification:  Semiotic Theory

Socialization:  Post-structuralist Theory

Legitimation:  Deconstructive Theory

Accumulation:  Post-Fordist Theory- Accumulation by Dispossession (Harvey)

• Nietzsche (super human Zarathustra -> Nazism, Fascism)
• neo-Marxism (equality, hegemony theories- but many ideas borrowed in critical studies, classical Marxism was anti-capitalism)
   
• Critical Theories:
  • Frankfurt school
  • Jurgen Habermas
  • Michel Foucault (Post-structuralist)
  • Stuart Hall (Post-structuralist, hegemony, cultural studies)
  • Jean Baudrillard - the new McLuhan? (modern semiotics:  nothing is real anymore)
     
• Cultural Studies
   
• Majid Tehranian's Notes on PostModernism
   
• Responding to Critical Theory:  Take Back the Humanities
  http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0009/vincent.php

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Democratization Theories:

• John Stuart Mill (On Liberty)
• Magna Carta
• Plato / Aristotle
• Different types of democratic institutions (democracies)
• Challenges to democracy
   

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My CIS 701 Papers:

Book Reviews:

1. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
2. Literacy and Orality by Ruth Finnegan
3. The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
4. Mind, Self and Society by George H. Mead
5. The Video McLuhan (Marshall McLuhan)
6. Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann
7. Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere
8. The Future of Human Nature by Jurgen Habermas

Final Exam

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(to do list)