Coordinated Management of Meaning Critique by Heidi Radakovich

The Coordinated Management of Meaning theory of W. Barnett Pearce and Vernon Cronen falls under the humanistic category. The criteria to determine whether a theory is humanistic is as follows.

Understanding of People

In order for a humanistic theory to be a good one it has to help make sense out of complex communication. The theory also needs to explain why people do what they do through subjective understanding. I think the Coordinated Management of Meaning theory does a good job of this by explaining the concept of persons-in-conversation. Persons-in-converesation is the idea that our communication creates the social environment in which we live. This concept helps explain our conversations by showing how we are engaged in language games, participating in the social universe, and how our actions effect us. Coordinated Management of Meaning definetely shows a new understanding of people.

Clarification of Values

Humanists highly value individual liberty, equality, and freedom. Therefore, a good humanistic theory examines power relationships in society and brings peoples values into the open. I think Coordinated Management of Meaning is lacking in this area. I did not notice any efforts by Pearce and Cronen to include these aspects into their theory.

Aesthetic Appeal

Not only is the content of a theory important but the form is as well. A good theory captures the imagination of the reader through artistry. In order to accomplish this a theory must look at old material and present it in a new light. Although Coordinated Management of Meaning was not entirely lacking of asethic appeal, it could be improved upon. The old material that I found to be looked at in a new way in the theory was the idea of stories told, stories lived, and stories unexpressed. According to Pearce and Cronen, stories told are how persons-in-conversation attempt to achieve meaning in life, stories lived are how we try to coordinate our lives with others, and stories unexpressed represent the mystery in conversations. I think this way of looking at story telling is a sign of aesthic appeal.

Community Agreement

The amount of support a theory generates within a scholarly community proves whether or not it is a good theory. Pearce and Cronen are not only published in my text book but are published as well in major communication journals. To the scholarly community Coordinated Management of Meaning is known as the most comprehensive statement of social construction crafted by communication scholars. I think Pearce and Cronen definetely fufill the criteria of community agreement.

Reform of Society

The final criteria for a humanistic theory to be considered a good one is based on whether the theory generates change and has an impact on society. I think Coordinated Management of Meaning is completely lacking in this area. Personally, I do not feel that the theory has impacted me in any way. As for society, I do not see how the theory can offer any great insight or change to our world.

Griffin,EM. A First Look At Communication Theory. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1997

This page was last updated by Heidi Radakovich on 2/23/00

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