Symbolic Interaction Theory
Comments (0) okay…so this is just a small paper I wrote for my social mass media class. It doesn’t have much one can talk about, but something interesting to read, I guess… Please feel free to pass judgement or comment on the paper!
Kendall Durchanek
Symbolism in Mass Communication
In a world of media and communication, people relate to what they see and talk about as symbols. Symbols can be seen as people, objects or even subjects of interest. “Symbol” as defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is “an object that is used to represent something abstract” and “Symbolism” is “to represent by a symbol or symbols.”
Symbolic Interaction Theory (SIT) has been around and known for over sixty years now. Its roots are traced back to pragmatist philosophers such as Peirce, Dewey, Cooley, and Mead. Blumer, Becker, Goffman, Denzin, and Hochschild have taken the ideas of the philosophers and continued to study and improve the theory. Blumer, who agreed with Meads ideas, defines SIT as “the peculiar and distinctive character of interaction as it takes place between human beings.” (Gingrich).
Symbols have been around for a long time. Cavemen used the walls of caves to draw their stories to pass down the generations. Books were later formed to write down stories, then still pictures and now moving pictures: television and videos. These are not the only places one can find symbols. Within pictures, stories, and moving pictures there are symbols. There symbols are spoken, moving, or inanimate objects.
G.H. Mead and Herbert Blumer worked together to create the general basics of SIT. They focused on the communication and interactions between people. When one person talks to another, the process of what s/he says to the other they find the interpretation may be different. This comes from the idea that each person grew up with different influences around them than the other person. How they were raised with religion, politics, education, or even location are all factors of your interpretation or symbols in the world.
“Interactionists” focus on their image of people rather than on their images of society. They consider humans “pragmatic actors”, people who continually must adjust their behavior to the actions of other actors” (McClelland). They do these studies by personal observations. They say that personal interaction gives you a better feel for how people interact and behave in actual society. In conclusion they find that people are never the same around people (McClelland).
“The empirical path is one of the main reasons that symbolic interaction has remained an important theoretical influence in communication during most of the twentieth century is they question as to what really happens as humans interact. Given that it concerns human interaction the raw materials for study of this interaction are available to anyone. At the same time, the study requires careful observation, an ability to pay attention to detail, and a consideration of the accepted and routine. While it may be difficult to abstract from the perspective of each sociologist, empirical study must move beyond the prejudice and bias of the observer” (Gingrich).
When they studied people, they made a list of different things that they noticed about humans interactions with each other. These were their emotions, body postures and movements, and their etiquette. If someone had something important, they stood more still and seemed apprehensive, while if someone had some sad news they seemed slumped over and their emotions were slow and sad.
There are some downfalls to SIT though. These range from the fact that it’s “too broad, it places too much emphasis on personal behavior, it neglects other important variables, and it is not falsifiable.” They say that the subject of study is too broad and that one cannot pin-point and describe every symbol or interaction between the people. Another aspect is the reality of the subject. Some event may just be okay, but the people can accept the event as something really good or really bad. Their portrayal may be different than that of what was supposed to happen. These are two of the main topics as to why SIT is not a good theory on its own, but rather the basis for many theories (West and Turner).
As long as media is around, symbols will always be around. Also as long as humans are around, there will always be a study of their behaviors and interactions with each other. There will always be questions to be answered, but might not fully comprehend. We can always get close to finding these answers using technology, but then you take the human out of their normal comfort zones and they will not act the same.
Some interactions that I have had with this theory, through the media have to be based on politics, movies, and basic television watching. When I was little I watched movies and wanted to be like the actors and actresses I saw. As I got older and became more aware of actors and what they did, I changed my mind. They are basic people, but get more coverage, because they are in movies or television, and they lives are never left alone. I do not want to be famous for just making movies and having my “mistakes” made a big deal that could end my career.
If you look at symbols in a political sense, you have two main political parties, the Democrats and Republicans. These two parties are symbolized by a blue Donkey- Democrats- and a red Elephant- Republicans. Every two years there is either state or national elections to elect different politicians. How the Politian is doing in the race is marked by red or blue. People will then know what party is winning and where. These politicians stand for what America wants and represents. So when two people talk about politics, if they were raised in a house with different political views, then those two people’s interactions would not be the same. It might create stress or greater conflicts between the two people, but the two people can also work around those differences and make peace and understanding.
In general people associate education as a symbol of money and wealth. It is common to call people that have a college education on the middle class to wealthy status in life. And if you did not get a high school education, you are looked upon as poor and no money. These are all symbols of the general society. Not all wealthy people had college educations though. Most actresses and actors made it through at least high school-getting the diploma at the same time as acting-. These people are also looked upon as symbols. Little children look upon famous people as idols and want to grow up and be like them. People from other countries see these movies and believe that what they see is what America is like.
Everywhere you go you see signs, cars, and people sitting on the street holding signs. These are all symbols, symbols of life and the society around us. These are just some of the ways I interact and face the idea of Symbolic Interaction Theory. People study the aspect of how humans interact with each other: ranging from body language and emotions, the media’s portrayal of people and aspects of life and each person’s perspective on life.
Works Cited
Gingrich, Paul. “Sociology 319: Symbolic Interactionism.” 1 February 2000. University of Regina. 6 December 2008 .
McClelland, Kent. “SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM.” 21 February 2000. Grinnell College. 7 December 2008 .
West, Richard and Lynn H. Turner. “Symbolic Interaction Theory.” 2007. Introducing Communication Theory Analysis and Application Third Edition. 7 December 2008 .
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