Mike Calou

Commentary Five

All the World’s A Communicative Stage

            There is a lot to discuss about this week’s reading: communication viewed as a theatrical production, the actor-witness as participant-observer, who controls the communication process, projecting a definition of the situation, audience, social organization.

            The discussion of the communication process as a theatrical production gave me terminology to use to frame my understanding of communication: the actor as orator/ speaker; the one in control of the communicative situation; the stage as the setting and context of communication; and the listener as the audience of the actor/speaker.

            The discussion of the actor-witness reminded me of the Breuggmann article.  As

ethnographic observers we find ourselves in the role of the listener in a conversation.  There is a correlation to be made between the classroom observation and Goffman’s discussion of the world as a stage.  We are listening and visually observing the classroom interactions with an attitude that we will be persuaded by the participants (performers).  As observers we are playing the information game (8).  I liked Goffman’s use of this term to describe the checking behavior that the listener (observer) uses to verify or check the information given by the participant (performer).  In a way, we attempt to verify the information we receive from the classroom participant by comparing the information with our existing knowledge of the classroom environment.  We have to be careful not to let our knowledge of the classroom environment interfere with our observations of what is actually happening in the classroom we are observing.

            Who controls the communication process?  This question is explored by Goffman.  The socialness of communication cannot be understated according to Goffman.  The role of each participant in a communicative discourse is established immediately.  The individual who controls the communicative interaction is the person who can better present themselves.  The example used by Goffman of the vacationer in Spain provides a visual of the one in control of the communicative interaction.  The vacationer controls what the other people on the beach see about him.  This is the impression that Goffman says is given by someone in the communicative process.  The vacationer can also be compared to an orator in ancient times.  The vacationer is attempting to persuade the others on the beach: that he fits in.

            The relevance of Goffman’s writing also pertains to the social communication within the classroom.  Goffman uses the term “projecting a definition” (12) of the situation to define the interaction of the speaker in a communicative situation with his audience.  The teacher in a classroom projects a definition of the social organization in the classroom.  The social organization in the classroom is the creation of the teacher.  The social organization of the classroom can either positively or negatively affect the atmosphere of the classroom.

The importance of audience in communication (oratory or writing) keeps coming up in our readings.  In “The Presentation of Self…” Goffman suggests that the audience has the advantage over the actor (9) because the audience is constantly verifying the information that the actor is presenting.  This notion brings to my mind the idea that you learn more when you listen than when you are speaking.  Goffman explains that there is an asymmetry, or absence of symmetry, that occurs during communication.  Either the listener (audience) or the speaker controls the interaction.

            As social beings, humans are constantly communicating; either to one another individually or to an audience.  The more informed we are, as teachers, about the process of communication the better equipped we will be to teach our students how to communicate: orally or non-verbally (writing).