Blog Fifteen: The Uses and Gratification Theory and Relationship Provisions

The uses and gratifications theory states that an audience "has a complex set of needs which it seeks to satisfy in the mass media" and that this concept corresponds "with theories of face-to-face communication" as well. (Fiske, 151)  This approach focuses on  society and its search for satisfaction and and an outlet to fulfill personal needs.   Robert Weiss' provisions theory relates to the idea of uses and gratification as it claims that there are six specific areas "where relationships provide us with something special, needed or valued."(Duck, 147)  This means that a primary function of relationships is to reaffirm the value of a person by accepting and acknowledging their views of the world, ensuring a sense of emotional and physical support, validating their existence, and reassuring their worth.  People not only seek out these provisions, but also must provide them for others.  The process works both ways and it is necessary that each form of support is both provided and received in order for a relationship to be successful.  Jackie Wiseman calls this the bond and bind dilemma, meaning that we must make sacrifices and give things up (bind) in order to benefit from a relationship (bond). (Duck, 165)  It is clear that people enact the uses and gratification and provision theories everyday, whether or not they realize it.  Simply asking a friend to come over and talk because you had a bad day, and that friend's opinion being valued,  is an example of using and providing provisions to achieve gratification.  The friend in need is given an outlet to express emotions and receives an opinion that hopefully reaffirms their own personal world of meaning, while the friend who is helping realizes that their own world of meaning and advice is being recognized and accepted. Relationships are transacted and essentialized through these processes, and allow people to form deeper connections based on the fulfillment  of specific personal needs.

Blog Fourteen: Norms and Convention in Family Life and in Society

Duck’s chapter on family communication includes a discussion of the norms involved in families as ways of orchestrating proper behavior in certain activities.  These norms provide families with the foundations of routines, and this specific and expected behavior is repetitively used to share meaning amongst its members, who practice these norms as part of the family structure.  Duck defines norms as “habitual rules for conducting any family activity” (185), and Fiske defines them as “common practices of a group and society (that are) thus predictable, the expected” (101).  Both mean to say that behavior, whether in a small group or in a larger aspect of society, is dictated by what people feel is conventional and that coincides with how others behave.  I feel that Duck’s portrayal of norms within the family expresses an idea of separation from others in a way, as he points out that these family norms “distinguish (a family) from other families and their worlds of meaning”(185).  By saying that norms within a family are used to tie together that particular family through traditions and customs that differ from those of other families, Duck focuses more on a familial transacted relationship that is distinctly unique from its relationship with society.  Fiske refers more to the entire social picture of acceptance of norms and the reluctance to deviate from common social practices.  In essence, both authors demonstrate how people transact relationships.  Adopting a certain behavior to fit in is a form of establishing relationships and signaling something about the way we want these relationships to develop, based on our convergence toward or diversion from convention.  After reading about norms, I have realized that it is not only “Society’s Secret Agents” that enforce standards of behavior and interaction, but how we ourselves do the same thing by choosing to accept such standards, and that we can even enact these norms in our own family life.  It appears that “society’s” secret agents are not limited to their role in society, but also affect close, small group or family communication. 

Blog Thirteen: Information Flow and its Functions

   When thinking about the relationship that I have with my parents, I feel restricted and can never fully express myself to them.  I have different attitudes, values and beliefs and tend to censor myself, knowing that my mom and dad are very old fashioned and that they have set ideas about how I should act and behave.  Because of this, I feel more comfortable informing my sister of events in my life, and turn to her with news first before I share with my parents.  My sister and I have similar ways of thinking and I know that she will understand and support me.  The idea of information flowing from person to person and our decisions to give primacy to particular people in divulging this information connotes our relationships with people.  Who we choose to tell the most important things to first says something about the strength of our relationship with that person.  Duck says, “Information flows through the family system in a way that reflects the closeness of the relationships that people have with one another and operates in a way that sustains the hierarchy or the strength of those relationships.” (Duck/McMahan, 192)  This means that we consciously choose who to share information with first, and that the patterns of revelation to certain people in a particular order mimics the strength of our bond with them.  I feel close to my twin sister as we are the same age and are best friends that share similar experiences and can relate to one another, as opposed to my parents, with whom I feel the strong effects of a generation gap.  By calling my sister and telling her that I have been accepted to graduate school before informing my parents, I am demonstrating the notion of information flow and transacting my relationships with members of my family.  Due to the distance between us because of college, my phone calls allow me to maintain a relationship with my family, but the order in which I make these calls expressing the same information conveys a deeper level of meaning that indicates how strong these relationships are.  Information flow can therefore be seen as transactional, in how simply the order of information exchange has a deeper meaning, indexical, in pointing out who we feel closest to, essential, in my case by using phone calls to stay in contact with my family and talking the relationship into existence by assuming that it lasts when we are apart, and also as performing relational maintenance, in the necessity of information flow to keep relationships alive even when there is distance between people.  I have never thought about how my decisions to tell certain family members information before others as an indication of my relationship with them, but now I am more aware of how the flow of information says something about how I feel about people.  In telling my family about my decisions for graduate school, this is the order that I called them in:

Sister

Mom

Dad

Uncle

When I look back and analyze the sequence of information, I would agree that it transitions from the level of closest to least close in terms of my relationship with that person.

         

Blog Twelve: Outline

Outline

Introduction: Present my topic and briefly describe how it is important to the field of communication

RELEVANCE

How is my chosen topic is relevant to communication studies?  What form of communication does my topic primarily address?   How does my topic fit into communication? What do I personally think about my topic? (I think)

USE OF LITERATURE

What information has already been gathered on my topic?  Who gathered this information?  What do they say about this information? (study/theory/model)  How do the authors interpret this information, how do I understand this interpretation and how do I plan in building on it? (They say)

EXPANDING UPON LITERATURE

Based on the literature that I have reviewed, what questions do I want to ask?  Include a statement of my own ideas/theories based off of current theories and how I would implement these theories in relation to my topic.  How would I add to the literature I reviewed?  Include a clear understanding and analysis of established theories as well as my own and how they line up with my topic.  Be sure to explain my ideas and provide my own assessments.  (This means)

FINDINGS

What have I learned about my topic?  How has the literature and established models allowed me to develop and interpret my own ideas?  Include a statement of these ideas and how can further expand upon them in the future.  Who are some additional authors that I can use as a foundation? 

Conclusion: Restate my topic and the purpose of this paper in relation to communication studies.