You might recall from our first class the 
Newcomb model.

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

The model contains the elements A, B and X.

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

1) influences the relationship between A & B and

2) is influenced itself by this relationship.

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

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

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

she thinks it’s pretentious and boring.

The relationship between Barbara and Xavier has 
changed.

She is not such a big fan anymore.

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

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

Also, Anton’s relationship with Xavier might 
change,

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

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

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

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

and is itself influenced by the communication 
process.

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

A reality that’s very personal for every individual.

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

became popular in the nineteen sixties.

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

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

all knowledge that we take for granted,

even simple and even objective ‘truths’,

are actually born from and maintained by social 
interactions.

We ‘know’ that lying is wrong,

that boys play with cars,

that motorcycles are cool.

and that we should obey the law,

because as children and adults

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

and indirectly by mediated communication,

with ideas of what is real.

We are socially taught seemingly fixed ‘rules’

and ‘truths’ that in reality are social constructs.

This reality is unique for every individual.

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

This is the theory of social constructionism that 
was further developed

by scholars in the sixties and seventies.

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

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

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

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

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

This meant that scientists – according to social 
constructionists -

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

how they use social interaction and mediated 
communication

to create and maintain their personal image of 
reality.

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

Communication scientists borrowed new 
methods from anthropology,

sociology, political sciences and literature 
studies

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

New popular methods were in-depth interviews,

textual analysis

and historical and socio-political analysis.

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

in which communication was produced and 
received.

We will discuss that further next.