Management of Meaning--U of Ohio
from http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~th104196/CMM.htm
The Coordinated Management of Meaning says communication is a process that allows us to create and manage our social reality. This theory describes how we as communicators make sense of our world, or create meaning.
Meaning comes from many sources and can be interpreted differently because of the following ways of creating meaning:
Raw sensory data - the inputs from your eyes, ears and skin. It is the visual and auditory stimuli you interpret to see images and hear sounds, and also the stimuli from touch.
Content - interpreted content. Words that are spoken by one may not always be understood to be what they refer to if the interpreter is from another culture or interprets the communication in a different way from what it was meant to be.
Speech acts - content is more meaningful when it is interpreted as belonging to a speaker who has the same communication style, a relationship with the listener, or the same intentions as the speaker.
Episodes - a communication routine that has boundaries and rules. It reoccurs with many different people at many different times in our lives. A common one among OU students is saying "What's up?" to a friend. They then reply something like "Oh, not much. So what are you doing this weekend?" This is a routine we all do many times during the day with many different people.
Master contracts - these define the relationships of the communicating participants, and also what each can expect of the other in a specific situation.
Life scripts - the things in life a person expects they will be a part of. These may include graduating from college, getting married, getting a job, etc...
Cultural patterns - culturally created set of rules that govern what we understand to be normal communication in a given episode. People from different cultures must learn to be compatible for effective communication.
posted by Doc Syl at 11:44 PM
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