COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING

Introduction to Communication Theories

By Anne Cortez | Adamson University

Discussion Outline

• Communication and Social Realities

• Stories Lived and Stories Told

• Coordination, Coherence, and Meaning

• Summary

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Pearce regards language as “the single most powerful tool that humans have ever invented for the creation of social worlds”.

The Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Theory starts with the assertion that persons- in-conversation co-construct their own social realities and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create.

We create the world we live in and that world creates us.

-W. Barnett Pearce

Analysis of the Bond of Union (M.C. Escher) • The faces in Bond of Union have no substance; they consist

in the twists and turns of the spiraling ribbon

• The process of communication (the ribbon) creates the events and objects of our social worlds (the faces) not by its substance but by its form

I HAVE A SECRET.

I have a secret.

I have a secret. I have a secret.

I have a secret.

I HAVE A SECRET.

COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING

COORDINATION

COHERENCE

MEANING

STORIES LIVED VS STORIES TOLD • Stories lived are the co-constructed actions that we perform

with others. • Stories told are the narratives that we use to make sense of

stories lived.

The stories we tell and the stories we live are always tangled together, yet forever in tension.

COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING • Coordination- takes place when we fit our stories

lived into the stories lived by others in a way that makes life better.

How do we do coordination? Through dialogic communication – speaking in a way that makes it possible for others to listen, and listening in a way that makes it possible for others to speak.

COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING • Coherence- takes place when we interpret our

stories in the same way

Communication and Coherence No matter what the speaker says, the words of a story will make sense only if they are understood within the framework of a specific episode, the relationship between the parties, the self- identity of the speaker, and the organizational or societal culture from which he or she comes.

• Speech act - Any verbal or nonverbal message as part of an interaction; the basic building block of the social universe people create; threats, promises, insults, compliments, etc

• Episode - a sequence of speech acts with a beginning and an end that are held together by story

• Relationship - emerge from the dynamic dance over coordinated actions and managed meanings.

• Identity - continually crafted through the process of communication, and in turn our self-image becomes a context for how we manage meaning

• Culture - webs of shared meanings and values, people who come from different cultures won’t interpret messages exactly the same way

Communication is performative. It forms who we are and creates and defines our relationship with other people. Communication is reflexive. Our words and actions on others bounce back and affect us.

STRANGE LOOP An unwanted repetitive communication pattern— “Darn, we did it again

Every conversation has an afterlife . Tomorrow’s social reality is the afterlife of how we interact today.

COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING • The experience of persons-in-conversation is the

primary social process of human life.

• The way people communicate is often more important than the content of what they say.

• The actions of persons-in-conversation are reflexively reproduced as the interaction continues.

REFERENCES

Em Griffin, A First Look at Communication Theory, 2006. Stephen Littlejohn and Karen Foss, Communication Theory, 2010.

QUESTIONS?