Instructor Resource
Duck/McMahan, Communication in Everyday Life, 3e
SAGE, 2018
Lecture Notes
Chapter 1: An Overview of Communication
Outline and Key Terms
I. Everyday Communication and the Relational Perspective
A. Interactions may include “big” moments
1. Initial encounters
2. Betrayals
3. Disclosure of secret information
4. Family upheavals
B. Most interactions are ordinary and dull; conversation content may include mundane
topics
1. Schedules
2. Weather
3. What to eat
4. What to watch on television
5. What bills need to be paid
6. Source of a foul odor
C. Everyday conversations may not be memorable but do constitute one’s life
and are quite important.
1. Everyday conversations create, maintain, challenge, and alter
relationships.
2. These conversations also create, maintain, challenge, and alter other
aspects of one’s life.
a. Identities
b. Culture
c. Gender
d. Sexuality
e. Ethnicity
f. Meaning
g. Reality
3. Everyday conversations should be studied because extraordinary things
occur through those conversations.
D. The relational perspective is based on the belief that communication and
relationships are interconnected—all communication assumes a relationship under it.
E. The relationship between people will influence a number of things.
1. What is communicated
2. How it is shared
3. The meanings that develop
Instructor Resource
Duck/McMahan, Communication in Everyday Life, 3e
SAGE, 2018
F. We talk differently with different people
1. Parents
2. Coworkers
3. Supervisors
G. Meanings change, depending on the relationship.
II. What Is Communication?
A. One definition, which suggests that communication is “the transactional use of
symbols, influenced, guided, and understood in the context of relationships,” does
not entail what communication actually is.
B. There are many suitable definitions of communication.
C. Communication is different from other studies because we have been doing it all of
our lives.
1. Experience can be beneficial in applying course material.
2. The drawback to previous experience is not seeing the value in studying
something so common to one’s life.
D. Most people communicate without thinking about it.
E. Many newcomers to communication assume simplicity involving sending
messages from one person to another.
1. Spoken word
2. Text message
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
F. Communication involves more than sending a message.
G. Communication is more complex than it appears.
1. Words are symbols that convey information.
2. Messages are made up of words or symbols.
a. Symbols represent something, an idea.
b. Cultural assumptions are being made.
c. Some messages are appropriate only at given times in the
interaction.
H. There are built-in expectations about the interactants.
I. Communication is more than a simple exchange of messages.
2. Personal perspectives are displayed.
3. Other issues are negotiated.
a. Gender
b. Status
c. Power
d. Politeness
III. Communication Is Symbolic
A. The use of symbols characterizes all communication.
Instructor Resource
Duck/McMahan, Communication in Everyday Life, 3e
SAGE, 2018
1. A symbol is an arbitrary representation of something else.
a. Object
b. Idea
c. Place
d. Person
e. Relationship
f. Others
2. Symbols are verbal or nonverbal.
a. Verbal involves language.
b. Nonverbal involves all other symbols.
3. A symbol can be many things:
a. Word
b. Movement
c. Sound
d. Picture
e. Logo
f. Gesture
g. Mark
h. Other representations
B. Symbols and signs are not the same.
1. Signs are consequences or indicators of something specific.
2. Symbols have no direct connection to what it is they represent.
3. Symbols are arbitrarily selected.
4. Symbols may differ in different cultures.
5. Symbols may also mean different things in the same culture.
C. The complexity of symbols is evidence of the complexity of communication.
IV. Communication Requires Meaning
A. Communication requires that symbols convey meaning.
1. Particular meanings are not tied to one symbol.
2. Particular meanings can be conveyed in multiple ways using varied
symbols.
B. Social construction of meaning
1. Symbols take on meaning in a social context or society as they are used
over time.
3. Taken-for-granted meanings attached to symbols have developed
through repeated and adapted use over time.
C. Meaning and context –Symbols or messages have different meanings in
different contexts.
1. Physical context is the actual location in which a symbol is used.
3. Situational context is the situation in which the communication
occurs.
Instructor Resource
Duck/McMahan, Communication in Everyday Life, 3e
SAGE, 2018
D. Verbal and nonverbal influence on meaning
1. Accompanying verbal and nonverbal symbols affect meaning.
2. Facial expressions
3. Tone of voice
E. Meaning and the medium
1. The medium refers to the means through which the message is conveyed.
a. Sound wave
b. Sight
c. Smartphone
d. Text message
e. e-mail
f. Instant message
g. Chat room
h. Social networking site
i. Note placed on someone’s windshield
j. Smoke signal
k. Others
2. The topic is important in cases involving a medium.
a. Additional messages – how you view the partner, the relationship, or
yourself – are conveyed based on the medium used
V. Communication is Cultural
A. Different cultures make different assumptions and take different knowledge for
granted.
1. When we talk to anyone, we are
a. Taking knowledge for granted
b. Doing what our culture expects
c. Treating people in ways the culture acknowledges
2. We are doing, performing, and enacting our culture through
communication.
B. Culture influences communication, and communication creates and reinforces culture
1. How we use verbal and nonverbal cues is based on cultural expectation.
C. Following cultural expectations reinforces them.
D. Violating cultural expectations also reinforces them.
VI. Communication is Relational
A. Communication and relationships impact one another.
B. Relationships are assumed when we communication with another.
C. When we communicate, we relate to the other person
D. All communication contains both a content and relational level of meaning –not easy
to separate.
1. The content level is the information conveyed in the message
2. The relational level of meaning expresses how the sender and receiver
are socially and personally related.
Instructor Resource
Duck/McMahan, Communication in Everyday Life, 3e
SAGE, 2018
1. Formal relational terms may be included.
2. Terms unique to the relationship may be included.
F. Relational cues within communication can help determine who is who.
1. Boss
2. Employee
G. The content and relational messages are not always easy to separate because
1. For example, group decision making involves
a. Logical arguments
b. Agenda setting
c. Solution evaluations
2. Group decision making also involves
a. Group member relationships with one another outside the group
setting.
b. Group members tend to know one another, talk informally
outside the group setting, and have personal likes and dislikes for
each other.
c. These issues affect their discussions about certain matters.
VII. Communication Involves Frames
A. Frames are basic forms of knowledge that provide a definition of a scenario
1. Helps people make sense of things
2. Because both people agree on the nature of the situation
4. Previous relational context of talk gives interactants a clue
5. Communication frame draw boundaries around the conversation and pulls
attention towards some things and away from others
B. Coordinating interactions
1. Frames help people understand their roles and the expectations of them
in a conversation.
2. Shared understanding of frames enables people to make sense of what is
occurring so they can coordinate their symbolic activities.
C. Assigning meanings
1. Frames are used to make decisions about what symbols are used
2. Frames are used to make decisions about how those symbols should be
interpreted.
3. Symbols used between two people have meaning unique to that particular
relationship
4. Shared relational knowledge enables two people to assign unique meanings to
those words
D. Perspectives
1. Frames are partly based on a person’s perspective of situations and
relationships.
Instructor Resource
Duck/McMahan, Communication in Everyday Life, 3e
SAGE, 2018
2. Frames of perspective influence the coordinating of interactions and
assigning of meaning.
3. Frames also explain why people do not always agree on what is
occurring.
VIII. Communication Is Both Presentational and Representational
A. Communication can serve two purposes.
1. Representational communication conveys facts or information.
2. Presentational communication presents a particular version of the facts
or events.
3. Communication is never neutral.
a. Conveys the perspective or worldview of the person sending the
message.
b. Our communication with others presents our preference for how
we want them to see the world.
B. Sometimes the presentation of views is carefully developed.
C. Sometimes the selection of worlds may not be carefully planned out but still
presents a perspective to others.
D. The representational and presentational nature of communication is not limited
to transactions between people –includes all types of communication.
IX. Communication Is a Transaction
A. Communication is sometimes thought of as action – a sender sending messages
whether or not they are received – an attempt to communicate
1. Could be improved by asking whether someone must receive a message for it
to be communication
B. Communication is sometimes also thought of as interaction — an exchange of
information – a message is sent and received and a reply is sent and received.
1. This definition is limited in its scope and fails to capture what truly happens
when people communicate
C. Communication as transaction is a more sophisticated way of thinking about
communication – the construction of shared meanings or understandings.
1. The interaction results in more than the literal exchange of messages (e.g., an
outcome, an action, a relationship between speakers).
2. The relational perspective of the book leads to a focus on the transactional
nature of communication and we take a constitutive approach to
communication, emphasizing what communication does or brings about.
D. The constitutive approach to communication maintains that communication
creates or brings into existence something that has not been there before
1. Relationships
2. Cultures
3. Genders
4. Ethnicities
5. Sexualities
6. Realities
Instructor Resource
Duck/McMahan, Communication in Everyday Life, 3e
SAGE, 2018
E. There is no part of life that does not involve communication –it serves as the
foundation for most of our life experiences.