9. Existing approaches to the study and concept of communication

• Learning approaches
• Concepts

In modern communication science the following concrete scientific approaches to the study of communication are distinguished.

Approaches to the study of communication

• Technocratic approaches
• Interactive Approaches
• Linguistic approaches

Technocratic approaches were most actively implemented after the Second World War, when the role of technical means of communication in the dissemination of knowledge had unusually increased.

The theory of the information society considered modern technical media as the most important stimulus and source of social development. The founders of this theory: D. Bell, J. Galbraith. But gradually the task of transition from man-made, including informational civilization, to anthropogenic, in which man should become the main value, became more and more relevant.

The concept of G.M. McLuhan is a Canadian sociologist and cultural expert (1911-1980). The main engine of history is the change of technology, which in turn causes a change in the way of communication. The type of society is determined by the dominant type of communication in it, and human perception - the speed of information transfer. He believed that as a result of the electronic-communicative revolution, humanity finds itself on the threshold of a “relaxed and carefree world” in which it can truly become a single family.

The mathematical theory of communication engineer and mathematician C. Shannon, based on the general theory of systems biologist L. fon Bertalanffy. A system is a set of objects that are interrelated with each other, forming a whole. There are two types of systems - closed (no exchange with the environment) and open (exchanging energy with the environment, focused on growth). The system approach considers communication as a system in which there is a source, transmitter, channel, receiver, destination, noise. Here great attention is paid to the category of feedback, which makes it possible to take into account the difference between the goal of the action and the result obtained.

On the basis of this theory, communication theories in organizations that were popular in the late 1960s - early 1970s were formulated.

Interaction approaches consider communication as interaction. Within the framework of interactionism, the trends developed by psychologists, sociologists, and cultural scientists have taken shape.

At the beginning and middle of the twentieth century, forms of social communication were considered in the context of the theory of behaviorism, which reduced it to the direct impact of communicator messages on the recipient, where the latter acts only as an object that reacts to perceived information.

An alternative vision of the essence of communication highlights the activity of the recipient as an equal subject of communication activity (T.Newcomb, 1953).

Symbolic interactionism developed in the works of the American philosopher and social psychologist DGMida (1803-1931). For this concept, communication is not just a reaction, but a subjective meaningfulness and focus on others.

The interactionist cultural-cultural approach to the study of communications becomes popular in the second half of the twentieth century, explores the general and the specific in communications of representatives of different cultures.

The interactional approach in sociology represents communication by social exchange and social interaction. This approach has developed into a separate area of ​​science - social communications.

Linguistic approaches put the focus on the problem of language, understood as a system of symbolic communication and as a landmark practice of personality formation, when studying communication.

F. de Saussure (1857-1913) - the founder of modern structural linguistics influenced the intellectual movement called structuralism. He considered linguistics as a field of psychological knowledge, singled out semiology, designed to study sign systems, the most important of which is language. Linguistics is divided by them into linguistics of language and speech. Language is a common, supraindividual, stable beginning of speech activity. Speech is a use of language that cannot be studied systematically. Speech refers to the field of psychology. The ideas of Saussure were developed and continued by R. Yakobson (1896 - 1982) - a Russian linguist and literary critic.

The rapid development of semiology or semiotics, the general science of signs, begins. It was developed in the 1960s in media research and cultural studies.

N. Chomsky occupies a prominent place in the field of language methodology. He is an American linguistic theorist whose ideas have helped linguistics to occupy one of the central places in the social sciences.

Chomsky's linguistic ideas are of great scientific value, although some experts doubt the validity of his emphasis on the universals of grammar or on highlighting primarily syntax to explain the diversity and progress of human societies in terms of language.

Sociolinguistic approach is important for the theory of communication. "Sociolinguistics" is short for the term "sociological linguistics", which was introduced by the Soviet linguist E.D. Polivanov back in the 1920s.

Sociolinguistics covers the field of research that is under the jurisdiction of sociology and psychology and is associated with social and cultural aspects, as well as with the functions of language.

In modern sociolinguistics, when analyzing linguistic phenomena and processes, the main emphasis is placed on the role of society: the influence of various social factors on the interaction of languages, the system of a separate language and its functioning is investigated. The linguistic situation as a whole and the functional load of its components depend on the position in a society that is occupied by the social or ethnic community that speaks to them. In the course of social development, especially in the event of fundamental sociopolitical changes, the situation of these communities changes and there is a need to harmonize their new situation with the functional load of language formations.

• Describe the system of basic approaches to the study of communication theory
• What is the essence of each approach?