WEBVTT

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You might recall from our first class the 
Newcomb model.

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One of the basic models we covered in our first 
week.

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The model contains the elements A, B and X.

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A is the sender, B is the receiver and X is some 
shared social factor that

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1) influences the relationship between A & B and

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2) is influenced itself by this relationship.

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Let’s say A is Anton and B is Barbara.

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Anton and Barbara are friends and both like the 
movies of the famous director Xavier.

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Xavier’s new movie comes out and Barbara 
absolutely hates it,

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she thinks it’s pretentious and boring.

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The relationship between Barbara and Xavier has 
changed.

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She is not such a big fan anymore.

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As a result the relationship between Anton and 
Barbara might change as well,

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since they now completely disagree on their 
appreciation of this movie and Xavier’s directing.

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Also, Anton’s relationship with Xavier might 
change,

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perhaps he will start to see this movie in a new 
light as a result of Barbara’s criticism

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or he will defend him avidly and as a result 
become an even bigger fan.

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Newcomb's model is important because it's one 
of the first communication models

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that includes the idea of a social environment 
that influences the communication process

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and is itself influenced by the communication 
process.

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It contains the idea that communication is used 
to construct and maintain a social reality.

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A reality that’s very personal for every individual.

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This theory, that communication is a building 
block of a social reality,

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became popular in the nineteen sixties.

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In their influential book ‘The Social Construction 
of Reality’,

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Berger and Luckmann's argue that all knowledge 
about everyday reality,

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all knowledge that we take for granted,

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even simple and even objective ‘truths’,

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are actually born from and maintained by social 
interactions.

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We ‘know’ that

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lying is

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wrong,

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that

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boys play with

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cars,

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that

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motorcycles are

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cool,

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that we should

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obey

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the law,

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because as children and adults

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we are programmed by parents, friends, family, 
classmates,

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and indirectly by mediated communication,

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with ideas of what is real.

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We are socially taught seemingly fixed ‘rules’

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and ‘truths’ that in reality are social constructs.

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This reality is unique for every individual.

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Our own reality lives, evolves and dies with us 
and in a way we are at the center of it.

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This is the theory of social constructionism that 
was further developed

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by scholars in the sixties and seventies.

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A key element of social constructionism is that 
people do not construct reality by themselves.

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We need to communicate with others to make 
sense of the world.

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To understand the ‘rules of live’ and know where 
we belong and don’t belong.

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This perspective completely challenged the idea 
that reality is fixed and objective,

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and that the truth of that reality can be proven by 
scientists.

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This meant that scientists – according to social 
constructionists -

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had to study how reality was formed in the mind 
of people,

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how they use social interaction and mediated 
communication

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to create and maintain their personal image of 
reality.

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New, more qualitative, deeper and explorative 
methods were required for this.

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Communication scientists borrowed new 
methods from anthropology,

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sociology, political sciences and literature 
studies

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to gain insight in how reality, or culture, is 
formed with use of communication.

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New popular methods were in-depth interviews,

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textual analysis

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and historical and socio-political analysis.

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Scientists were also more and more interested 
in the social and political context

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in which communication was produced and 
received.

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We’ll discuss that further next.