7 Traditions in the Field of Communication Theory

In chapter 4 Griffin maps out the seven traditions that professor Robert Craig of University of Colorado uses as a "sophisticated solution to help the many different communication theories. The traditions that I seemed to identify most with is the socio-psychological tradition. This is one of the traditions that has been discussed in my previous COMM classes, which is why it is most familiar. This theory makes sense to me because of its simplicity. The framework that was laid out by Psychologist Carl Hovland consists of "who says what to whom and with what effect" (p. 42). That is the base of any communication, there is who, what, and whom. I thought the study that Hovland and his colleagues did was very interesting. The experiment was to see if a message from a highly credible source could change opinions. I thought about how Oprah Winfrey, the who and highly credible source, swayed thousands of Americans on who to vote for, the what, just by backing Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election. If just any middle aged women said she was voting for Obama, not too many people would shift their vote, but when someone is credible they are likely to be listened to.