| 3 Bs of television | blurring of distinctions among worldviews, blending of realities into the cultural mainstream, and bending of the mainstream to institutional
and corporate interests
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| abstract symbol | symbol representing an idea or thought
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| accommodation | adjusting, modifying, or regulating behavior in response to others
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| accuracy | the ability to see more than what's available to one's own specific social location
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| act | communication behaviors indicating a person's ambiguity in receiving a message
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| act | one prong of the pentad; that which is done by a person
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| actions | intentional choice responses
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| activeness | refers to how much freedom the audience really has in the face of mass media
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| active strategy | reducing uncertainties by means other than direct contact
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| activity | refers to what the media consumer does
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| adjustment | organizational responses to equivocality
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| affective exchange stage | stage of social penetration that is spontaneous and quite comfortable for relational partners
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| affiliative constraints | refers to when members withhold their input rather than face rejection from the group
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| agency | behaviors or activities used in social environments
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| agency | one prong of the pentad; the means used to perform the act
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| agent | a person engaging in behaviors or activities in social environments
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| agent | one prong of the pentad; the person performing the act
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| alienation | perception that one has little control over his or her future
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| allocative resources | material assistance used to help groups accomplish their goals
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| applied research | research to solve a problem or create a policy
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| approbation facework | focusing less on the negative aspects of another and more on the positive aspects
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| arousal | increased interest or attention when deviations from expectations occur
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| arrangement | a canon of rhetoric that pertains to a speaker's ability to organize a speech
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| attitude | a later addition to the pentad; the manner in which the agent positions himself or herself relative to others
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| audience analysis | an assessment and evaluation of listeners
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| authoritative resources | interpersonal assistance used to help groups accomplish their goals
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| autonomy and connection | an important relational tension that shows our conflicting desires to be close and to be separate
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| avoiding | staying away from disagreements
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| axiology | questions about what is worth knowing
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| axioms | truisms drawn from past research and common sense
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| behavioral sequences | a series of actions designed to achieve a goal
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| behavioral uncertainty | degree of uncertainty related to behaviors
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| behavior control | the power to change another's behavior
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| belief in the inherent morality of the group | assumption that the group members are thoughtful and good, therefore the decisions they make will be good
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| biased scanning | thinking of arguments in favor of a counter-attitudinal position while suppressing those against it
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| bias of communication | Harold Innis's contention that technology has a shaping power on society
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| body | part of an organizational strategy in a speech that includes arguments, examples, and important details to make a point
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| boundaries | a property of systems theory stating that systems construct some structures delimiting themselves
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| boundary coordination | one of the processes in the privacy rule management system; describes how we manage private information that is co-owned
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| boundary linkage | the connections forming boundary alliances between people
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| boundary ownership | rights and privileges accruing to co-owners of private information
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| boundary permeability | how much information is able to pass through a boundary
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| boundary turbulence | conflicts about boundary expectations and regulation
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| breadth | number of topics discussed in a relationship
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| breadth time | amount of time spent by relational partners discussing various topics
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| buyer's remorse | postdecision dissonance related to a purchase
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| calibration | a property of systems theory stating that systems periodically check the scale of allowable behaviors and reset the system
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| causal argument | an assertion of cause and effect, including the direction of the causality
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| cause | an antecedent condition that determines an effect
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| channel | pathway to communication
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| characterological coherence | a type of coherence referring to the believability of the characters in the story
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| charmed loop | rules of meaning are consistent throughout the loop
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| civic spaces | a metaphor suggesting that speakers have "locations" where the opportunity to persuade others exists
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| closed-mindedness | a group's willingness to ignore differences in people and warnings about poor group decisions
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| co-cultures | cultural groups that are part of the larger (national) culture
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| code | converting raw data to a category system
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| coercive power | perception that another person has the ability to enact punishment
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| cognitions | ways of knowing, beliefs, judgments, and thoughts
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| cognitive arousal | mental awareness of deviations from expectations
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| cognitive dissonance | feeling of discomfort resulting from inconsistent attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors
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| cognitive uncertainty | degree of uncertainty related to cognitions
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| coherence | a principle of narrative rationality judging the internal consistency of a story
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| cohesive | sense of togetherness in a group
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| cohesiveness | the extent to which group members are willing to work together
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| collective boundary | a boundary around private information that includes more than one person
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| collective rationalization | situation in which group members ignore warnings about their decisions
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| collectivism | priortizing group needs or values over the needs or values of an individual (we-identity)
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| collectivism | a cultural value that places emphasis on the group over the individual
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| communication | a social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment
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| communication apprehension | fear of speaking before an audience
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| communicator reward valence | the sum of the positive and negative characteristics of a person and the potential for him or her to carry out rewards or punishments
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| comparison level (CL) | a standard for what a person thinks he or she should get in a relationship
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| comparison level for alternatives (CLalt) | how people evaluate a relationship based on what their alternatives to the relationship are
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| compromising | using give-and-take to achieve a middle-road resolution
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| concepts | labels for the most important elements in a theory
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| conclusion | part of an organizational strategy in a speech that is aimed at summarizing a speaker's main points and arousing emotions in an audience
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| concrete symbol | symbol representing an object
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| concurrence seeking | efforts to search out group consensus
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| conscientious objectors | group members who refuse to participate because it would violate personal conscience
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| consonance | the belief that all media are similar in attitudes, beliefs, and values
|
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| consonant relationship | two elements in equilibrium with one another
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| constitutive rules | organize behavior and help us to understand how meaning should be interpreted
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| consubstantiation | when appeals are made to increase overlap between people
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| content | the conversion of raw data into meaning
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| contexts | environments in which communication takes place
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| contextual dialectics | tensions resulting from the place of the relationship within the culture
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| contract | relationship agreement and understanding between two people
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| contradiction | the central feature of the dialectic approach; refers to oppositions
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| control | the researcher's ability to direct the important concepts in the research process
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| convergence | strategy used to adapt to another's behavior
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| cool media | low-definition communication that demands active involvement from a viewer, listener, or reader
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| coordination | making sense of message sequencing
|
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| costs | elements of relational life with negative value
|
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| counter-hegemony | when at times, people will use hegemonic behaviors to challenge the domination in their lives
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| covering law approach | a metatheoretical framework suggesting that theories should follow if-then formats and should be universal, invariant statements
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| critical approach | an approach stressing the researcher's responsibility to change the inequities in the status quo
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| cultivation differential | the percentage of difference in response between light and heavy television viewers
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| cultural patterns | images of the world and a person's relationship to it
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| culture | community of meaning and a shared body of knowledge
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| culture wars | cultural struggles over meaning, identity, and influence
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| cumulativeness | the belief that media repeat themselves
|
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| cycles | series of communication behaviors that serve to reduce equivocality
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| cyclic alternation | a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to changes over time
|
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| dark side of communication | negative communication that can undermine the communication process
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| data | the raw materials collected by the researcher to answer the questions posed in the research and/or to test a hypothesis
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| decoding | receiving and comparing messages
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| deductive logic | moving from the general to the specific
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| deliberative rhetoric | a type of rhetoric that determines an audience's course of action
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| delivery | a canon of rhetoric that refers to the nonverbal presentation of a speaker's ideas
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| dependency overaccommodation | occurs when speakers place listeners in a lower-status role
|
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| dependent variable | a concept of interest that is presumed to vary as a result of the independent variable
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| depenetrate | slow deterioration of relationship
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| depth | degree of intimacy guiding topic discussion
|
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| depth interviews | semistructured or unstructured interviews lasting at least one hour aimed at collecting rich descriptions from respondents
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| dialectic approach | an approach framing contradiction as both/and
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| direct exchange | an exchange where two people reciprocate costs and rewards
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| discursive consciousness | a person's ability to articulate personal goals or behaviors
|
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| dispositional matrix | the beliefs you have about relationships
|
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| disqualifying | a substrategy of integration; refers to exempting certain issues from the general pattern
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| dissonance ratio | a factor in determining magnitude of dissonance; the amount of consonant cognitions relative to the dissonant ones
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| dissonant relationship | two elements in disequilibrium with one another
|
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| divergence | strategy used to accentuate the verbal and nonverbal differences between communicators
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| diversion | a category of gratifications coming from media use; involves escaping from routines and problems
|
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| division | when two people fail to have overlap in their substances
|
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| dominant group | the group that holds the power in a given culture
|
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| dominant-hegemonic position | operating within a code that allows a person to have control over another
|
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| dominating | using influence or authority to make decisions
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| double interact loops | cycles of an organization (e.g., interviews, meetings) to reduce equivocality
|
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| dramatistic ratios | the proportions of one element of the pentad relative to another element
|
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| dual climates of opinion | difference between the population's perception of a public issue and the way the media report on the issue
|
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| dualisms | organizing things around pairs of opposites
|
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| dualistic approach | an approach framing contradiction as two separate entities
|
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| duality of structure | rules and resources used to guide organizational decisions about behaviors or actions
|
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| duration | organizational rule stating that decisions regarding equivocality should be made in the least amount of time
|
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| dyadic uniqueness | distinctive relationship qualities
|
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| effect | a condition that inevitably follows a causative condition
|
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| effective matrix | the transformations you are able to make to your given matrix, by learning a new skill, for example
|
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| effort | organizational rule stating that decisions regarding equivocality should be made with the least amount of work
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| electronic era | age in which electronic media pervades our senses, allowing for people across the world to be connected
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| enactment | interpretation of the information received by the organization
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| enculturation performances | organizational behaviors that assist employees in discovering what it means to be a member of an organization
|
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| enhancement | law that states media amplifies or strengthens society
|
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| enmeshment | extent to which partners identify themselves as part of a system
|
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| enthymeme | a syllogism based on probabilities, signs, and examples
|
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| entry phase | the beginning stage of an interaction between strangers
|
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| environment | situation or context in which communication occurs
|
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| epideictic rhetoric | a type of rhetoric that pertains to praising or blaming
|
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| episodes | communication routines that have recognized beginnings, middles, and endings
|
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| epistemology | questions about how we know things
|
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| epoch | era or historical age
|
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| equifinality | a property of systems theory stating that systems can achieve the same goals through different means
|
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| equivocality | the extent to which organizational messages are uncertain, ambiguous, and/or unpredictable
|
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| essentialism | the belief that all women are essentially the same, all men are essentially the same, and the two differ from each other
|
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| ethics | perceived rightness or wrongness of an action or behavior
|
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| ethnography | a specific research method where researchers immerse themselves in participants' lives, aiming to describe people's culturally distinct patterns of communication
|
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| ethos | the perceived character, intelligence, and goodwill of a speaker
|
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| evaluation | process of judging a conversation
|
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| examples | statements that are either factual or invented by the speaker
|
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| exit phase | the stage in a relationship when people decide whether to continue or leave
|
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| expectations | thoughts and behaviors anticipated in conversations
|
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| experimental research | a specific research method where researchers manipulate conditions; often done in a laboratory setting
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| expert power | perception that another person has the ability to exert influence due to special knowledge or expertise
|
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| explanation | the ability to interpret the meaning of behavioral choices
|
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| exploratory affective exchange stage | stage of social penetration that results in the emergence of our personality to others
|
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| face | a metaphor for the public image people display
|
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| face concern | interest in maintaining one's face or the face of others
|
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| face management | the protection of one's face
|
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| face need | desire to be associated or disassociated with others
|
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| face restoration | strategy used to preserve autonomy and avoid loss of face
|
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| face-saving | efforts to avoid embarrassment or vulnerability
|
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| facework | actions used to deal with face needs/wants of self and others
|
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| false consciousness | Gramsci's belief that people are unaware of the domination in their lives
|
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| fate control | the ability to affect a partner's outcomes
|
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| feedback | communication given to the source by the receiver to indicate understanding (meaning)
|
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| feedback | a subprocess of calibration; information allowing for change in the system
|
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| feedback | information received by an organization and its members
|
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| feminism | focusing on women's social position and desiring to end oppression based on sex
|
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| fidelity | a principle of narrative rationality judging the credibility of a story
|
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| field journal | personal log to record feelings about communicating with people in a different culture from one's own
|
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| field of experience | overlap of sender's and receiver's culture, experiences, and heredity in communication
|
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| first order effects | a method for cultivation to occur; refers to learning facts from the media
|
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| forensic rhetoric | a type of rhetoric that pertains to speakers prompting feelings of guilt or innocence from an audience
|
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| fraction of selection | Schramm's idea of how media choices are made: the expectation of reward divided by the effort required
|
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| Frankfurt School theorists | a group of scholars who believed that the media were more concerned with making money than with presenting news
|
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| gender | social category consisting of the learned behaviors that constitute masculinity and femininity for a given culture
|
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| gender polarization | viewing men and women as polar opposites
|
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| generalized exchange | an exchange where reciprocation involves the social network and isn't confined to two individuals
|
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| generalized other | the attitude of the whole community
|
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| given matrix | the constraints on your choices due to the environment and/or your own skill levels
|
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| global village | the notion that humans can no longer live in isolation, but rather will always be connected by continuous and instantaneous electronic media
|
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| glosses | outdated words in a speech
|
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| good reasons | a set of values for accepting a story as true and worthy of acceptance; provides a method for assessing fidelity
|
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| grand theory | theory that attempts to explain all of a phenomenon such as communication
|
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| grounded theory | theory induced from data collection and analysis in a study
|
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| group factors | group-related characteristics associated with achieving a group task
|
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| group insulation | a group's ability to remain unaffected by outside influences
|
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| group-structural factors | systemic resources available to a group to achieve its task
|
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| group-task factors | individual group resources available to a group to achieve its task
|
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| guilt | tension, embarrassment, shame, disgust, or other unpleasant feeling
|
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| habitual rules | rules that are set by an authority and are nonnegotiable
|
|
| hard core | group(s) at the end of the spiral willing to speak out at any cost
|
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| Hawthorne experiments | research studies that found workplace productivity increased when changes in environment occurred
|
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| hegemony | the domination of one group over another, usually weaker, group
|
|
| heurism | a criterion for evaluating theories; refers to the amount of research and new thinking stimulated by the theory
|
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| hierarchy | organizing principle demonstrating rankings
|
|
| hierarchy | a property of systems theory stating that systems consist of multiple levels
|
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| high-context cultures | cultures, like Japan, where the meaning of a message is in the context or internalized in listeners
|
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| homeostatic | a term for stable systems
|
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| homogeneity | group similarity
|
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| hot media | high-definition communication that demands little involvement from a viewer, listener, or reader
|
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| hypotheses | testable predictions of relationships between concepts that follow the general predictions made by a theory
|
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| I | the spontaneous, impulsive, creative self
|
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| ice age analogy | a position stating that television doesn't have to have a single major impact, but influences viewers through steady limited effects
|
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| identification | when two people have overlap in their substances
|
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| ideology | framework used to make sense of our existence
|
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| illusion of invulnerability | belief that the group is special enough to overcome obstacles
|
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| illusion of unanimity | belief that silence equals agreement
|
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| imperviousness to influence | refers to audience members' constructing their own meaning from media content
|
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| importance | a factor in determining magnitude of dissonance; refers to how significant the issue is
|
|
| impression management | an alternative explanation to CDT; involves activities people engage in to look good to themselves and others
|
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| independent variable | a concept of interest that is presumed to have effects on another variable
|
|
| indirect stereotyping | imposing outdated and rigid assumptions of a cultural group upon that group
|
|
| Individual Differences Perspective | a specific approach to the idea of Limited Effects; concentrates on the limits posed by personal characteristics
|
|
| individualism | prioritizing personal needs or values over the needs or values of a group (I-identity)
|
|
| individualism | a cultural value that places emphasis on the individual over the group
|
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| inductive logic | moving from the specific to the general
|
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| information environment | the availability of all stimuli in an organization
|
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| in-groups | groups in which a person feels he or she belongs
|
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| integrating | collaborating with others to find solutions
|
|
| integration | a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to synthesizing the opposition; composed of three substrategies
|
|
| intentionality | occurs when people's prior motives determine use of media
|
|
| interactional dialectics | tensions resulting from and constructed by communication
|
|
| interactional expectations | an individual's ability to carry out the interaction
|
|
| interactional model of communication | view of communication as sharing of meaning with feedback linking source and receiver
|
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| interactive strategy | reducing uncertainties by engaging in conversation
|
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| intercultural communication | communication between individuals with different cultural backgrounds
|
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| interdependence | a property of systems theory stating that the elements of a system are interrelated
|
|
| intergroup overaccommodation | occurs when speakers place listeners in cultural groups without acknowledging individual uniqueness
|
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| internal and external stress | pressure exerted on the group by issues and events both inside and outside of the group
|
|
| interpersonal communication | face-to-face communication between people
|
|
| interpersonal meaning | the result when two people agree on each other's interpretations of an interaction
|
|
| interpretive (hermeneutic) approach | an approach viewing truth as subjective and stressing the participation of the researcher in the research process
|
|
| intimacy | the feeling state of knowing someone deeply in all ways because that person is significant in one's life
|
|
| intimate distance | very close spatial zone spanning 0-18 inches
|
|
| intrapersonal communication | communication with one's self
|
|
| introduction | part of an organizational strategy in a speech that includes gaining the audience's attention, connecting with the audience, and providing an overview of the speaker's purpose
|
|
| invention | a canon of rhetoric that pertains to the construction or development of an argument related to a particular speech
|
|
| irrelevant relationship | two elements that have no meaningful relation to one another
|
|
| lack of decision-making procedures | failure to provide norms for solving group issues
|
|
| lack of impartial leadership | refers to when groups are led by individuals who put their personal agenda first
|
|
| language | a shared system of verbal and nonverbal symbols
|
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| last-minute swing | jumping on the bandwagon of popular opinion after opinions have been expressed
|
|
| laws of media | further expansion of Medium Theory with focus on the impact of technology on society
|
|
| legitimate power | perception that another person has the ability to exert influence because of title or position
|
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| life scripts | clusters of past or present episodes that create a system of manageable meanings with others
|
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| lifespace | group member's psychological environment
|
|
| limited effects | the perspective replacing Mass Society Theory; holds that media effects are limited by aspects of the audience's personal and social lives
|
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| linear model of communication | one-way view of communication that assumes a message is sent by a source to a receiver through a channel
|
|
| literate era | age when written communication flourished and the eye became the dominant sense organ
|
|
| logical consistency | a criterion for evaluating theories; refers to the internal logic in the theoretical statements
|
|
| logos | logical proof; the use of arguments and evidence in a speech
|
|
| looking-glass self | our ability to see ourself as another sees us
|
|
| loop | the reflexiveness of levels in the hierarchy of meaning
|
|
| low-context cultures | cultures, like the United States, where most of the meaning is in the code or message
|
|
| macrotheory | a theory with extensive boundaries
|
|
| magnitude of dissonance | the quantitative amount of discomfort felt
|
|
| mainstreaming | the tendency for heavy viewers to perceive a similar culturally dominant reality to that pictured on the media although this differs from actual reality
|
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| mass communication | communication to a large audience via mass media
|
|
| mass media | channels or delivery modes for mass messages
|
|
| Mass Society Theory | the idea that average people are the victims of the powerful forces of mass media
|
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| material coherence | a type of coherence referring to the congruence between one story and other related stories
|
|
| Me | the reflective, socially aware self
|
|
| memory | a canon of rhetoric that refers to a speaker's effort in storing information for a speech
|
|
| message | words, sounds, actions, or gestures in an interaction
|
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| metaphor | a figure of speech that helps to make the unclear more understandable
|
|
| metatheory | theory about how to develop theory
|
|
| microtheory | a theory with limited boundaries
|
|
| mid-range theory | theory that attempts to explain a specified aspect of a phenomenon such as communication
|
|
| mind | the ability to use symbols with common social meanings
|
|
| minimal justification | offering the least amount of incentive necessary to obtain compliance
|
|
| models | simplified representations of the communication process
|
|
| monologic approach | an approach framing contradiction as either/or
|
|
| morphogenic | a term for changing systems
|
|
| mortification | one method of purging guilt, by blaming ourselves
|
|
| motion | refers to the processual nature of relationships
|
|
| movements | stimulus-response behaviors
|
|
| narration | an account to which listeners assign meaning
|
|
| narrative rationality | a standard for judging which stories to believe and which to disregard
|
|
| narrow theory | theory that attempts to explain a very limited aspect of a phenomenon such as communication
|
|
| negative face | desire to be autonomous and free from others
|
|
| negotiated position | accepting dominant ideologies, but allowing for cultural exceptions
|
|
| neo-Marxist | limited embracement of Marxism
|
|
| networks | communication patterns through which information flows
|
|
| neutralizing | a substrategy of integration; refers to compromising between the oppositions
|
|
| new media | electronic media (notably computer-related technology) such as the Internet, e-mail, and digital cable
|
|
| noise | distortion in channel not intended by the source
|
|
| nominal concepts | concepts that are not directly observable
|
|
| norms | expectations of behavior in conversations
|
|
| novelty and predictability | an important relational tension that shows our conflicting desires to have stability and change
|
|
| objective factors | characteristics (e.g., clarity, rules) associated with achieving a group task
|
|
| obliging | satisfying the needs of others
|
|
| observations | focused examination within a context of interest; may be guided by hypotheses and/or research questions
|
|
| obsolescence | law that states media eventually renders something out-of-date
|
|
| ontology | questions about the nature of reality
|
|
| openness | acknowledgment that within all human systems the boundaries constructed are more or less permeable
|
|
| openness and protection | an important relational tension that shows our conflicting desires to tell our secrets and to keep them hidden
|
|
| operationalize | making an abstract concept measurable and observable
|
|
| opinion | expression of attitude
|
|
| oppositional position | substituting alternative messages presented by the media
|
|
| order or hierarchy | a ranking that exists in society primarily because of our ability to use language
|
|
| organizational communication | communication within and among large, extended environments
|
|
| organizational culture | the essence of organizational life
|
|
| organizational rituals | routines that pertain to the organization overall
|
|
| orientation stage | stage of social penetration that includes revealing small parts of ourselves
|
|
| outcome | whether people continue in a relationship or terminate it
|
|
| out-groups | groups in which a person feels he or she does not belong
|
|
| out-group stereotypes | stereotyped perceptions of group enemies or competitors
|
|
| outsider within | a person in a normally marginalized social position who has gained access to a more privileged location
|
|
| over-accommodation | attempt to overdo efforts in regulating, modifying, or responding to others
|
|
| overestimation of the group | erroneous belief that the group is more than it is
|
|
| Palo Alto team | a group of scholars who believed that a person "cannot not communicate"
|
|
| paradigms | intellectual traditions that ground specific theories
|
|
| paradigm shift | a significant change in the way most people see the world and its meanings
|
|
| parametric rules | rules that are set by an authority but are negotiable
|
|
| parasocial interaction | the relationship we feel we have with people we know only through the media
|
|
| parsimony | a criterion for evaluating theories; refers to the simplicity of the explanation provided by the theory
|
|
| partial | a recognition that no one has a complete view of the social hierarchy
|
|
| particular others | individuals who are significant to us
|
|
| passion performances | organizational stories that employees share with one another
|
|
| passive strategy | reducing uncertainties by unobtrusive observation
|
|
| pathos | emotional proof; emotions drawn from audience members
|
|
| pentad | Burke's method for applying Dramatism
|
|
| perception | process of attending to and interpreting a message
|
|
| performance | metaphor suggesting that organizational life is like a theatrical presentation
|
|
| personal boundary | a boundary around private information that includes just one person
|
|
| personal distance | spatial zone of 18 inches to 4 feet, reserved for family and friends
|
|
| personal identity | a category of gratifications coming from media use; involves ways to reinforce individual values
|
|
| personal idioms | private intimate expressions stated in a relationship
|
|
| personal meaning | the meaning achieved when a person brings his or her unique experiences to an interaction
|
|
| personal phase | the stage in a relationship when people begin to communicate more spontaneously and personally
|
|
| personal relationships | a category of gratifications coming from media use; involves substituting media for companionship
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| personal rituals | routines done at the workplace each day
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| personal space | individual's variable use of space and distance
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| personnel | organizational rule stating that the most knowledgeable workers should resolve equivocality
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| physical (external) noise | bodily influences on reception of message
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| physical arousal | bodily changes as a result of deviations from expectations
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| physiological noise | biological influences on reception of message
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| pluralistic ignorance | mistaken observation of how most people feel
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| political performances | organizational behaviors that demonstrate power or control
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| positive face | desire to be liked and admired by others
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| positivistic (empirical) approach | an approach assuming the existence of objective reality and value-neutral research
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| power | the degree of dependence a person has on another for outcomes
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| power | imposition of personal will on others
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| practical consciousness | a person's inability to articulate personal goals or behaviors
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| praxis | refers to the choice-making capacity of humans
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| prediction | the ability to forecast one's own and others' behavioral choices
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| pre-interactional expectations | the knowledge or skills a communicator brings to an interaction
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| pressures on dissenters | direct influence on group members who provide thoughts contrary to the group's
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| pressure toward uniformity | occurs when group members go along to get along
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| primary territories | signal a person's exclusive domain over an area or object
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| print era | age when gaining information through the printed word was customary and seeing continued as the dominant sense
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| privacy rule attributes | one of the features of privacy rule characteristics; describes how people acquire rules and the properties of rules
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| privacy rule characteristics | one of the processes in the privacy rule management system; describes the nature of privacy rules
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| private boundaries | the demarcation of private information from public information
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| private disclosures | the process of communicating private information to another
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| private information | information about things that matter deeply to a person
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| probabilities | statements that are generally true, but still require conjecture
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| problem-solving groups | sets of individuals whose main task is to make decisions and provide policy recommendations
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| process | ongoing, dynamic, and unending occurrence
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| productive exchange | an exchange where both partners incur costs and benefits simultaneously
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| proxemics | study of a person's use of space
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| psychological noise | cognitive influences on reception of message
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| public | legal, social, and social-psychological concerns of people
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| public and private dialectic | a contextual dialectic resulting from a private relationship and public life
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| public communication | dissemination of information from one person to a large group
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| public distance | spatial zone of 12 feet and beyond, reserved for very formal discussions such as between professor and students in class
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| public image | outer layer of a person; what is available to others
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| public opinion | attitudes and behaviors expressed in public in order to avoid isolation
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| public territories | signal open spaces for everyone, including beaches and parks
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| punctuate | how individuals interpret or emphasize an episode
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| pure research | research to generate knowledge
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| purpose | one prong of the pentad; the goal the agent had for the act
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| Pygmalion effect | living up to or down to another's expectations of us
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| qualitative methods | methods that require data to be interpreted through sense-making analyses
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| quantitative methods | methods that require data to be converted to numbers and subjected to statistical analyses
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| quasi-statistical sense | personal estimation of the strength of opposing sides on a public issue
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| rationale | a factor in determining magnitude of dissonance; refers to the reasoning employed to explain the inconsistency
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| rational world paradigm | a system of logic employed by many researchers and professionals
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| ratio of the senses | phrase referring to the way people adapt to their environment (through a balance of the senses)
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| raw data | uninterpreted stimuli
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| real and ideal dialectic | a contextual dialectic resulting from the difference between idealized relationships and lived relationships
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| real concepts | concepts that are observable
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| receiver | recipient of message
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| reciprocity | communication that mirrors the previous communication behavior
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| reciprocity | the return of openness from one person to another
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| redemption | A rejection of the unclean and a return to a new order after guilt has been temporarily purged
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| referent power | perception that another person has the ability to achieve compliance because of established personal relationships
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| reflexivity | a person's ability to monitor his or her actions or behaviors
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| reframing | a substrategy of integration; refers to transforming the oppositions
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| regulative rules | guidelines for people's behavior
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| relational uncertainty | a lack of certainty about the future and status of a relationship
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| relationships | the ways in which the concepts of a theory are combined
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| requisite variety | engaging in communication that is as complex as the messages received
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| resonance | occurs when a viewer's lived reality coincides with the reality pictured in the media
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| resources | stories, symbols, and images that people use to make sense of their world
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| resources | attributes or material goods that can be used to exert power in an organization
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| response | reaction to equivocality
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| retention | collective memory allowing people to accomplish goals
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| retrieval | law that states media restores something that was once lost
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| reversal | law that states media will—when pushed to their limit—produce or become something
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| reward/cost ratio | balance between positive and negative relationship experiences
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| reward power | perception that another person has the ability to provide positive outcomes
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| rewards | elements of relational life with positive value
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| rhetoric | speaker's available means of persuasion
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| rhetoric | the available means of persuasion
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| ritual performances | regular and recurring presentations in the workplace
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| ritual perspective | a position depicting the media as representers of shared beliefs
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| roles | positions of group members and their relationship to the group
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| role taking | the ability to put oneself in another's place
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| rule development | one of the features of privacy rule characteristics; describes how rules come to be decided
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| rule properties | the characteristics of a rule that reveal how stable or changeable it is
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| rules | general routines that the organization or group follows in accomplishing goals
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| rules | guidelines in organizations as they review responses to equivocal information
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| rules approach | a metatheoretical framework suggesting that theories should follow a format that lists rules in given contexts and should acknowledge variability across situations, cultures, and time
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| scapegoating | one method of purging guilt, by blaming others
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| scene | one prong of the pentad; the context surrounding the act
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| scientific method | the traditional method for doing research involving controlled observations and analysis to test the principles of a theory
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| scope | a criterion for evaluating theories; refers to the breadth of communication behaviors covered in the theory
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| secondary territories | signal a person's affiliation with an area or object
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| second order effects | a method for cultivation to occur; refers to learning values and assumptions from the media
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| second shift | the phenomenon of working women putting in eight hours on the job and another day's work at home
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| segmentation | a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to changes due to context
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| selection | a coping response to dialectical tensions; refers to prioritizing oppositions
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| selection | choosing the best method for obtaining information
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| selective attention | a method for reducing dissonance by paying attention to information that is consonant with current beliefs and actions
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| selective exposure | a method for reducing dissonance by seeking information that is consonant with current beliefs and actions
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| selective interpretation | a method for reducing dissonance by interpreting ambiguous information so that it becomes consistent with current beliefs and actions
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| selective retention | a method for reducing dissonance by remembering information that is consonant with current beliefs and actions
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| selectivity | audience members' use of media reflects their existing interests
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| self | imagining how we look to another person
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| self-affirmation | an alternative explanation to CDT; involves creating dissonance by behaving in a manner that threatens one's sense of moral integrity
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| self-appointed mindguards | individuals who protect the group from adverse information
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| self-censorship | group members minimize personal doubts and counterarguments
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| self-concept | a relatively stable set of perceptions people hold about themselves
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| self-disclosure | personal messages about the self disclosed to another
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| self-disclosure | purposeful process of revealing information about one's self
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| self-esteem | the positive orientation a person has of himself or herself
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| self-fulfilling prophecy | a prediction about yourself causing you to behave in such a way that it comes true
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| self-identity | personal attributes of another
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| self-perception | an alternative explanation to CDT; involves making conclusions about your attitudes by observing your behavior
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| semantic noise | linguistic influences on reception of message
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| sensory overaccommodation | overly adapting to others who are perceived as limited in their abilities (physical, linguistic, or other)
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| sex | biological category divided into male and female
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| sexual division of labor | allocation of work on the basis of sex
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| significant symbols | symbols whose meaning is generally agreed upon by many people
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| signs | statements that identify reasons for a fact
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| situated knowledges | what anyone knows is grounded in context and circumstance
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| situational contexts | environments limited by a number of issues, including people, space, and feedback
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| small group | individuals who come together for a common purpose
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| social | the notion that people and interactions are part of the communication process
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| Social Categories Model | a specific approach to the idea of limited effects; concentrates on the limits posed by group membership
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| social distance | spatial zone of 4-12 feet, reserved for more formal relationships such as those with co-workers
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| Social Identity Theory | a theory that proposes a person's identity is shaped by the groups to which he or she belongs
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| social integration | reciprocity of communication behaviors in interaction
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| social penetration | process of bonding that moves a relationship from superficial to more intimate
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| social performances | organizational behaviors intended to demonstrate cooperation and politeness with others
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| social reality | a person's beliefs about how meaning and action fit within an interpersonal interaction
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| social rituals | routines that involve relationships with others in the workplace
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| society | the web of social relationships humans create and respond to
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| solidarity facework | accepting another as a member of an in-group
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| Sophists | teachers of public speaking (rhetoric) in ancient Greece
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| source | originator or transmitter of message
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| speech acts | actions we perform by speaking (e.g., questioning, complimenting, or threatening)
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| stable exchange stage | stage of social penetration that results in complete openness and spontaneity for relational partners
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| standpoint | an achieved position based on a social location that lends an interpretative aspect to a person's life
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| statistically significant | a finding indicating the presence of a relationship at a rate greater than chance
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| strange loop | rules of meaning change within the loop
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| stranger-on-the-train | revealing personal information to strangers in public places
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| structural coherence | a type of coherence referring to the flow of the story
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| structuration | the production, reproduction, and transformation of social environments through rules and resources in relationships
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| structure | the rules and resources used to sustain a group or organization
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| style | a canon of rhetoric that includes the use of language to express ideas in a speech
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| substance | the general nature of something
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| subsystems | lower levels of a system
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| success | organizational rule stating that a successful plan of the past will be used to reduce current equivocality
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| suprasystems | higher levels of a system
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| surveillance | a category of gratifications coming from media use; involves collecting needed information
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| survey research | a specific research method asking participants to respond to written questionnaires
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| syllogism | a set of propositions that are related to one another and draw a conclusion from the major and minor premises
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| symbol | arbitrary label given to a phenomenon
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| synergy | process that allows for multiple perspectives to be given on issues or events
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| system | a group or organization and the behaviors that the group engages in to pursue its goals
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| systems approach | a metatheoretical framework suggesting that theories should follow a format that maps the systemic properties of a phenomenon; takes the position that people have free will, which is sometimes constrained by systemic factors
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| tact facework | extent to which a person respects another's autonomy
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| tactical rules | unstated rules used to achieve a personal or interpersonal objective
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| task-oriented groups | sets of individuals whose main goal is to work toward completing jobs assigned to them
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| task rituals | routines associated with a particular job in the workplace
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| technopoly | a term coined by Postman that means we live in a society dominated by technology
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| territoriality | person's ownership of an area or object
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| testability | a criterion for evaluating theories; refers to our ability to test the accuracy of a theory's claims
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| test of time | a criterion for evaluating theories; refers to the theory's durability over time
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| tetrad | organizing concept to understand the laws of media
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| textual analysis | a specific research method requiring researchers to analyze a particular text such as a presidential speech or a television series
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| theatre of struggle | competition of various cultural ideologies
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| the medium is the message | phrase referring to the power and influence of the medium—not the content—on a society
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| the negative | rejecting one's place in the social order; exhibiting resistence
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| theorems | theoretical statements derived from axioms, positing a relationship between two concepts
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| theory | an abstract system of concepts and their relationships that help us to understand a phenomenon
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| theory of sociocultural evolution | Darwin's belief that only the fittest can survive challenging surroundings
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| thick boundaries | closed boundaries allowing little or no information to pass through
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| thick description | explanation of the layers of meaning in a culture
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| thin boundaries | open boundaries allowing all information to pass through
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| thought | an inner conversation
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| threat threshold | tolerance for distance violations
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| topics | an aid to invention that refers to the arguments a speaker uses
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| totality | acknowledges the interdependence of people in a relationship
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| train test | assessment of the extent to which people will speak out
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| trajectory | pathway to closeness
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| transactional model of communication | view of communication as the simultaneous sending and receiving of messages
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| transmissional perspective | a position depicting the media as senders of messages across space
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| triangulation | an approach to research involving multiple methods
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| tribal era | age when oral tradition was embraced and hearing was the paramount sense
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| ubiquity | the belief that media are everywhere
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| uncertainty avoidance | an attempt to avoid ambiguous situations
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| unit of analysis | the specific object of study; may be an individual, a family, an organization, and so forth
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| unwanted repetitive patterns (URPs) | recurring, undesirable conflicts in a relationship
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| utility | a criterion for evaluating theories; refers to the theory's usefulness or practical value
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| utility | using the media to accomplish specific tasks
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| values | standards and principles in a culture
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| victimage | the way we attempt to purge the guilt we feel as part of being human
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| violation valence | perceived negative or positive value of a deviation from expectations
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| violence index | a yearly content analysis of prime-time network programming to assess the amount of violence represented
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| whistle-blowing | process in which individuals report unethical or illegal behaviors or practices to others
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| wholeness | a fundamental property of systems theory stating that systems are more than the sum of their individual parts
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