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- Text Comparison—theories covered in A First Look and ten other textbooks
- Theory Overview—abstract of each chapter
- Self-Help Quizzes—for student preparation
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- Key Names—important names and terms in each chapter
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- Essay Questions—for student prepatation
- Suggested Movie Clips—tie-in movie scenese to theories
- Links—web resources related to each chapter
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Instructors can get additional
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TEXT COMPARISON
SUGGESTED MOVIE CLIPS
New to Theory Resources?
Find out more in this
short video overview (3:01).
CHANGE TO View by Theory
Suggested Movie Clips
10th Edition
10th Edition
Some of the suggested clips come from references in the Instructors Manual, others have been added to the website (only chapters with suggested clips are shown below).
NOTE: Movie Clips and Links have been replaced with Pop Culture Connections with Edition 11. If you change to Edition 11, you will be taken to the Pop Culture Connections page.
List mode: Normal (click on theory name to show detail) | Show All details (Or click on a theory name to collapse the list)
Chapter 3—Weighing the Words
Movie:
The Cider House Rules
Running Time:
2:40
Cue Point:
1:41:30 Homer looking at list of rules; "You reading the rules...?"
Application:
Groups with power have vested interest in not seeing social inequity that benefits them at the expense of others.
Chapter 5—Symbolic Interactionism
Movie:
Nell
Running Time:
4:15
Cue Point:
30:45 Jerry enters Nell's cabin
Application:
Subjective self (I) and objective self (me); also contrasts scientific and interpretive research.
Chapter 6—Coordinated Management of Meaning
Movie:
Life is Beautiful
Running Time:
8:20
Cue Point:
1:00:40 Train pulls into Auswitch death camp
Application:
Persons-in-conversation create their own social reality.
Movie:
P.S. I Love You
Running Time:
6:10
Cue Point:
01:05, Scene 1 Gerry is chasing Holly as they emerge from a subway station.
Application:
Returning from an evening with his in-laws, Gerry wants to know why Holly is mad at him. Using CMM’s Hierarchical-Serpentine Model, analyze the sequence of their conversation. Then, note how the “logical force” of what each person says escalates their fight.
Movie:
Lars and the Real Girl
Running Time:
2:31
Cue Point:
37:19 "We don't want to have anything to do with her!" Gus’s brother Lars has the delusion that “Bianca,” a blow-up, plastic love doll, is his paralyzed friend. Lars’ doctor, encourages Gus, and Gus’s wife Karen to respond to Bianca as if she is a real girl. They seek help from others in their church.
Application:
This clip and the entire movie is a fanciful, yet powerful example of CMM’s core thesis that persons-in-conversation co-create their own social realities, and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create.
Chapter 7—Expectancy Violations Theory
Movie:
Drumline
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
1:06 Red band starts its drum routine
Application:
Negative effect when violation valence and communicator reward valence are both negative.
Movie:
The Band's Visit
Running Time:
3:55
Cue Point:
55:00, Scene 20 A woman is seen gazing down at the dance floor – no dialogue.
Application:
A member of the Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra is giving relational advice to a friend on a date. As the coach encourages the student toward closer proximity, analyze the woman’s expectancies, violation valence, and communicator reward valence.
Chapter 8—Social Penetration Theory
Movie:
Shrek
Running Time:
3:30
Cue Point:
26:15 "For your information there's a lot more to ogres than people think."
Application:
Personality structure is like an onion.
Chapter 9—Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Movie:
My Big Fat Greek Weding
Running Time:
6:05
Cue Point:
1:04:10 Mother on phone: "Hello"
Application:
High uncertainty (and anxiety) when groom's parrents come to dinner with bride's family makes for low verbal communication, nonverbal warmth, self-disclosure, liking, and perceived similarity.
Movie:
Mean Girls
Running Time:
4:00
Cue Point:
1:25:00 Cady walks toward school entrance. "But my family is totally normal . . ."
Application:
Cady’s first day at an American high school illustrates URT’s eight predictions about uncertainty reduction—or the lack of it—during initial interactions.
Chapter 10—Social Information Processing Theory
Movie:
You've Got Mail
Running Time:
4:40
Cue Point:
1:50 Morning routine (first scene of people)
Application:
Possibility of intimacy on the Internet.
Chapter 11—Relational Dialectics THeory
Movie:
Children of a Lesser God
Running Time:
2:40
Cue Point:
1:28:30 Lying on the couch, James turns on the light
Application:
Dealing with the connectedness-separateness dialectic.
Movie:
Bend It Like Beckham
Running Time:
5:30
Cue Point:
1:36:00, Scene 29 Jess talking to friend Tony
Application:
Illustrates integration-separation dialectic and expression-nonexpression dialectics between Jess and her family and between Jess and Joe--her romantic interest.
Movie:
Knocked Up
Running Time:
1:40
Cue Point:
1:17:30, Scene 11 Pete is trying to explain to Debbie why he lied to her.
Application:
Caught spending time with his friends and not his family, Pete struggles to defend his need for independence. The clip portrays the ever-present connection-autonomy dialectic. How would Baxter suggest they respond to these contradictory forces?
Chapter 12—Communication Privacy Management Theory
Movie:
Almost Famous
Running Time:
5;45
Cue Point:
1:35:45 "Hey, why didn't you come back to the party last night? Bob Dylan showed up." Second-tier rock band on airplane about to go through severe turbulence.
Application:
Fear of imminent crash breaches privacy boundaries and whats blurted out creates relational turbulence. Afterward, band leader legitimatizes teen reporter's ownership of this previously private information
Chapter 14—Social Judgment Theory
Movie:
Invictus
Running Time:
7:40
Cue Point:
27:55, Scene 6 South African President Nelson Mandela hurries to speak to South Africa’s National Sports Council.
Application:
Mandela envisions rugby as a national symbol of unity – except the Sports Council wants to eliminate the team. Facing a highly ego-involved audience, Mandela uses his credibility and audience analysis to expand the Council’s latitude of acceptance.
Chapter 15—Elaboration Likelihood Model
Movie:
Footloose
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
1:15:20 "Mr. McCormick has a right to be heard."
Application:
Motivation and ability of an audience to scrutinize a message through the central route.
Chapter 16—Cognitive Dissonance
Movie:
Thank You For Smoking
Running Time:
5:25
Cue Point:
45:00 "Pearl, we've got company."
Application:
Maximum justification ($1,000,000) gains the Marlboro Man's public compliance to not speak out against smoking, but doesn't change his inner anti-smoking attitude. What incentive would also bring about attitude change?
Movie:
Up in the Air
Running Time:
4:40
Cue Point:
1:20:10, Scene 13 Ryan’s future brother-in-law (Jim) is having cold feet on his wedding day.
Application:
Not believing what he is actually saying, Ryan illustrates Festinger’s counterattitudinal advocacy when he persuades Jim to accept the sanctity of marriage. Ryan convinces himself to believe in marriage, and changes his attitude to match his behavior.
Chapter 17—Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making
Movie:
Apollo 13
Running Time:
5:40
Cue Point:
1:37:00 Space flight director picks up chalk
Application:
Three of the four requisite functions of effective group decision making.
Chapter 18—Symbolic Convergence Theory
Movie:
Nine to Five
Running Time:
12:35
Cue Point:
34:25:00 "I don't think I could ever carry a gun."
Application:
Viewing their male boss as a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot, Jane Fonda, Dolly Partin, and Lily Tomlin create a group consciousness and cohesiveness with their fantasy chain of how they would like to kill the man.
Chapter 19—Cultural Approach to Organizations
Movie:
Office Space
Running Time:
3:15
Cue Point:
03:10 Hand hesitates on doorknob before entering
Application:
Verbal and nonverbal expressions of a negative workplace culture.
Movie:
Morning Glory
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
15:30, Scene 4 Recently hired Executive Producer Becky Fuller has a tour of her new job.
Application:
The organizational culture of Daybreak, a television morning show, is ripe with stories that convey symbolic meanings. This segment has a series of collegial stories that show how things really work in this dysfunctional media organization.
Chapter 21—Critical Theory of Communication in Organizations
Movie:
Erin Brokovitch
Running Time:
3:10
Cue Point:
1:54:45 Erin and man talking in bar
Application:
Effects of Managerialism on stakeholders.
Movie:
The Devil Wears Prada
Running Time:
7:20
Cue Point:
27:20 Andy's dinner with her dad in a restaurant
Application:
Two types of managerial control--Andy's consent to her editor's demands for what Andy believes is in her own best interest; Miranda's strategy of demanding total compliance from her assistant.
Movie:
The Company Men
Running Time:
5:40
Cue Point:
1:25:20, Scene 13 Gene is talking to fired marketing director, Bobby.
Application:
Gene’s initial comments show that corporate colonization of executives’ lives has occurred through “consent.” In the final dialogue, Gene advocates for worker “participation” in corporate decision-making.
Chapter 22—The Rhetoric
Movie:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Running Time:
7:10
Cue Point:
1:31:25 Atticus Finch stands to give closing defense in Southern courthouse
Application:
Using all possible means of persuasion in forensic rhetoric.
Movie:
The King's Speech
Running Time:
4:15
Cue Point:
34:25, Scene 7 Prince Albert has come to the office of Lionel Logue to improve his public speaking skills.
Application:
Speech therapist Lionel Logue attempts to cure the King of his “bloody stammer.” Evaluate Logue’s methods designed to improve Albert's rhetorical skills, specifically Aristotle’s Canon of Delivery. Decide how these strategies might be effective.
Chapter 23—Dramatism
Movie:
Gone Girl
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
1:50;50 “Good evening. I’m Sharon Schaffer. Tonight, a husband breaks his silence, not just on her disappearance, but on his infidelity and all those shocking rumors.”
Application:
An example of mortification. In an effort to purge guilt (and have his wife return), husband publicly confuses sin and asks for forgiveness. (We see cuts of his wife’s reactions as she watches.)
Chapter 24—Narrative Paradigm
Movie:
Smoke
Running Time:
11:30
Cue Point:
1:30:35 Augie begins to tell his Christmas story
Application:
Issues of narrative coherence and narrative fidelity.
Movie:
Get Low
Running Time:
6:40
Cue Point:
1:24:00, Scene 15 Felix Bush has just been introduced by his longtime friend, the Reverend Charlie Jackson.
Application:
Hermit Felix Bush has lived a story of self-imposed isolation. Bush wants to set the record straight at his own living funeral. Decide if the narrative he is about to tell – judged by coherence and fidelity - redeems his relationship with the audience.
Chapter 27—Cultural Studies
Movie:
Insider
Running Time:
8:00
Cue Point:
1:39:40 "Shall I send for coffee?"
Application:
Media decisions made by corporations and powerful managers to the detriment of the public.
Chapter 30—Agenda-Setting Theory
Movie:
Wagging the Dog
Running Time:
6:45
Cue Point:
29:25, Scene 8 Producer's question: "How many kittens do we have?"
Application:
An outrageous framing of news by creating a salience of specific attributes; also suggests that it might be the White House sets the agenda for the media agenda setters.
Movie:
Fair Game
Running Time:
6:25
Cue Point:
54:25, Scene 10 Retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson is watching President Bush give the State of the Union address.
Application:
Responding to what he believes is false information justifying the War in Iraq, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson (who is the husband of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame) writes an Op-Ed article in The New York Times. Note how the Whitehouse “gatekeepers” of news shape the media agenda, with the expectation that press and broadcast outlets will set the public agenda.
Chapter 31—Genderlect Styles
Movie:
When Harry Met Sally
Running Time:
2:30
Cue Point:
0:08:20 Harry gazing at Sally and she asks "What?"
Application:
Genderlect differences regarding cross-sex relationships.
Chapter 32—Standpoint Theory
Movie:
White Man's Burden
Running Time:
1:50
Cue Point:
0:00 Clinking glass to get attention: "I'd like to propose a toast."
Application:
How a role reversal can achieve a less partial view of social reality.
Movie:
Mean Girls
Running Time:
2:20
Cue Point:
7:06:00 Referring to Cady’s parents who decided she should go to a public high school when the family moved back from Africa, Janice asks her, “Why didn’t they just keep home-schooling you?"
Application:
The marginalized standpoint of students Janice and Damian give them a less partial view of their high school society than that of the Plastics and members of other powerful groups.
Chapter 33—Muted Group Theory
Movie:
The Little Mermaid
Running Time:
4:55
Cue Point:
38:50 Sea-witch: "You're hear because you have an eye for..."
Application:
A woman's bargaingiving up her voice in order to establish the relationship she wants.
Movie:
North Country
Running Time:
3:32
Cue Point:
27:00 “I think you are one of my girls, right?” Josie and a dozen other girls have government mandated jobs at a taconite mine in the Minnesota Iron Range. They are constantly slurred and sexually harassed by male workers and management who don’t want them there.
Application:
The scenes in this clip show at least three different attempts by males to mute women. Josie later files the first successful class-action suit in America that legally defines sexual harassment. (Based on true story.)
Chapter 35—Face-Negotiation Theory
Movie:
The Joy Luck Club
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
40:45 Coming up the stairs to the dinner party
Application:
Cultural differences between giving-face and saving-face.
Chapter 36—Co-Cultural Theory
Movie:
Hidden Figures
Running Time:
4:25
Cue Point:
1:00:05 "Wow. Where is she?" In early 1960’s segregated South, African American mathematical genius Katherine Johnson—who is working on the trajectory of America’s first orbital space flight—confronts the Director of NASA.
Application:
Co-cultural group member aggressively responds to the white male head of the space program in order to seek accommodation for herself and other black workers. Speculate as to why her communication orientation was effective—in this particular situation.
You can access Movie Clips for a particular chapter in several ways:
- Switch to View by Theory, then select the desired theory/chapter from the drop-down list at the top of the page. Look in the list of available resources.
- To quickly find a theory by chapter number, use the Table of Contents and link from there. It will take you directly to the theory with available options highlighted.
- You can also use the Theory List, which will take you directly to the theory with available options highlighted.
Resources
by Type
Instructors can get
additional resources.
Read more
MOVIE CLIPS
New to Theory
Resources?
Find out more
in this short
video overview
(3:01).
CHANGE TO View by Theory
Suggested Movie Clips
10th Edition
10th Edition
Some of the suggested clips come from references in the Instructors Manual, others have been added to the website (only chapters with suggested clips are shown below).
NOTE: Movie Clips and Links have been replaced with Pop Culture Connections with Edition 11. If you change to Edition 11, you will be taken to the Pop Culture Connections page.
List mode: Normal (click on theory name to show detail) | Show All details (Or click on a theory name to collapse the list)
Chapter 3—Weighing the Words
Movie:
The Cider House Rules
Running Time:
2:40
Cue Point:
1:41:30 Homer looking at list of rules; "You reading the rules...?"
Application:
Groups with power have vested interest in not seeing social inequity that benefits them at the expense of others.
Chapter 5—Symbolic Interactionism
Movie:
Nell
Running Time:
4:15
Cue Point:
30:45 Jerry enters Nell's cabin
Application:
Subjective self (I) and objective self (me); also contrasts scientific and interpretive research.
Chapter 6—Coordinated Management of Meaning
Movie:
Life is Beautiful
Running Time:
8:20
Cue Point:
1:00:40 Train pulls into Auswitch death camp
Application:
Persons-in-conversation create their own social reality.
Movie:
P.S. I Love You
Running Time:
6:10
Cue Point:
01:05, Scene 1 Gerry is chasing Holly as they emerge from a subway station.
Application:
Returning from an evening with his in-laws, Gerry wants to know why Holly is mad at him. Using CMM’s Hierarchical-Serpentine Model, analyze the sequence of their conversation. Then, note how the “logical force” of what each person says escalates their fight.
Movie:
Lars and the Real Girl
Running Time:
2:31
Cue Point:
37:19 "We don't want to have anything to do with her!" Gus’s brother Lars has the delusion that “Bianca,” a blow-up, plastic love doll, is his paralyzed friend. Lars’ doctor, encourages Gus, and Gus’s wife Karen to respond to Bianca as if she is a real girl. They seek help from others in their church.
Application:
This clip and the entire movie is a fanciful, yet powerful example of CMM’s core thesis that persons-in-conversation co-create their own social realities, and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create.
Chapter 7—Expectancy Violations Theory
Movie:
Drumline
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
1:06 Red band starts its drum routine
Application:
Negative effect when violation valence and communicator reward valence are both negative.
Movie:
The Band's Visit
Running Time:
3:55
Cue Point:
55:00, Scene 20 A woman is seen gazing down at the dance floor – no dialogue.
Application:
A member of the Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra is giving relational advice to a friend on a date. As the coach encourages the student toward closer proximity, analyze the woman’s expectancies, violation valence, and communicator reward valence.
Chapter 8—Social Penetration Theory
Movie:
Shrek
Running Time:
3:30
Cue Point:
26:15 "For your information there's a lot more to ogres than people think."
Application:
Personality structure is like an onion.
Chapter 9—Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Movie:
My Big Fat Greek Weding
Running Time:
6:05
Cue Point:
1:04:10 Mother on phone: "Hello"
Application:
High uncertainty (and anxiety) when groom's parrents come to dinner with bride's family makes for low verbal communication, nonverbal warmth, self-disclosure, liking, and perceived similarity.
Movie:
Mean Girls
Running Time:
4:00
Cue Point:
1:25:00 Cady walks toward school entrance. "But my family is totally normal . . ."
Application:
Cady’s first day at an American high school illustrates URT’s eight predictions about uncertainty reduction—or the lack of it—during initial interactions.
Chapter 10—Social Information Processing Theory
Movie:
You've Got Mail
Running Time:
4:40
Cue Point:
1:50 Morning routine (first scene of people)
Application:
Possibility of intimacy on the Internet.
Chapter 11—Relational Dialectics THeory
Movie:
Children of a Lesser God
Running Time:
2:40
Cue Point:
1:28:30 Lying on the couch, James turns on the light
Application:
Dealing with the connectedness-separateness dialectic.
Movie:
Bend It Like Beckham
Running Time:
5:30
Cue Point:
1:36:00, Scene 29 Jess talking to friend Tony
Application:
Illustrates integration-separation dialectic and expression-nonexpression dialectics between Jess and her family and between Jess and Joe--her romantic interest.
Movie:
Knocked Up
Running Time:
1:40
Cue Point:
1:17:30, Scene 11 Pete is trying to explain to Debbie why he lied to her.
Application:
Caught spending time with his friends and not his family, Pete struggles to defend his need for independence. The clip portrays the ever-present connection-autonomy dialectic. How would Baxter suggest they respond to these contradictory forces?
Chapter 12—Communication Privacy Management Theory
Movie:
Almost Famous
Running Time:
5;45
Cue Point:
1:35:45 "Hey, why didn't you come back to the party last night? Bob Dylan showed up." Second-tier rock band on airplane about to go through severe turbulence.
Application:
Fear of imminent crash breaches privacy boundaries and whats blurted out creates relational turbulence. Afterward, band leader legitimatizes teen reporter's ownership of this previously private information
Chapter 14—Social Judgment Theory
Movie:
Invictus
Running Time:
7:40
Cue Point:
27:55, Scene 6 South African President Nelson Mandela hurries to speak to South Africa’s National Sports Council.
Application:
Mandela envisions rugby as a national symbol of unity – except the Sports Council wants to eliminate the team. Facing a highly ego-involved audience, Mandela uses his credibility and audience analysis to expand the Council’s latitude of acceptance.
Chapter 15—Elaboration Likelihood Model
Movie:
Footloose
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
1:15:20 "Mr. McCormick has a right to be heard."
Application:
Motivation and ability of an audience to scrutinize a message through the central route.
Chapter 16—Cognitive Dissonance
Movie:
Thank You For Smoking
Running Time:
5:25
Cue Point:
45:00 "Pearl, we've got company."
Application:
Maximum justification ($1,000,000) gains the Marlboro Man's public compliance to not speak out against smoking, but doesn't change his inner anti-smoking attitude. What incentive would also bring about attitude change?
Movie:
Up in the Air
Running Time:
4:40
Cue Point:
1:20:10, Scene 13 Ryan’s future brother-in-law (Jim) is having cold feet on his wedding day.
Application:
Not believing what he is actually saying, Ryan illustrates Festinger’s counterattitudinal advocacy when he persuades Jim to accept the sanctity of marriage. Ryan convinces himself to believe in marriage, and changes his attitude to match his behavior.
Chapter 17—Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making
Movie:
Apollo 13
Running Time:
5:40
Cue Point:
1:37:00 Space flight director picks up chalk
Application:
Three of the four requisite functions of effective group decision making.
Chapter 18—Symbolic Convergence Theory
Movie:
Nine to Five
Running Time:
12:35
Cue Point:
34:25:00 "I don't think I could ever carry a gun."
Application:
Viewing their male boss as a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot, Jane Fonda, Dolly Partin, and Lily Tomlin create a group consciousness and cohesiveness with their fantasy chain of how they would like to kill the man.
Chapter 19—Cultural Approach to Organizations
Movie:
Office Space
Running Time:
3:15
Cue Point:
03:10 Hand hesitates on doorknob before entering
Application:
Verbal and nonverbal expressions of a negative workplace culture.
Movie:
Morning Glory
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
15:30, Scene 4 Recently hired Executive Producer Becky Fuller has a tour of her new job.
Application:
The organizational culture of Daybreak, a television morning show, is ripe with stories that convey symbolic meanings. This segment has a series of collegial stories that show how things really work in this dysfunctional media organization.
Chapter 21—Critical Theory of Communication in Organizations
Movie:
Erin Brokovitch
Running Time:
3:10
Cue Point:
1:54:45 Erin and man talking in bar
Application:
Effects of Managerialism on stakeholders.
Movie:
The Devil Wears Prada
Running Time:
7:20
Cue Point:
27:20 Andy's dinner with her dad in a restaurant
Application:
Two types of managerial control--Andy's consent to her editor's demands for what Andy believes is in her own best interest; Miranda's strategy of demanding total compliance from her assistant.
Movie:
The Company Men
Running Time:
5:40
Cue Point:
1:25:20, Scene 13 Gene is talking to fired marketing director, Bobby.
Application:
Gene’s initial comments show that corporate colonization of executives’ lives has occurred through “consent.” In the final dialogue, Gene advocates for worker “participation” in corporate decision-making.
Chapter 22—The Rhetoric
Movie:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Running Time:
7:10
Cue Point:
1:31:25 Atticus Finch stands to give closing defense in Southern courthouse
Application:
Using all possible means of persuasion in forensic rhetoric.
Movie:
The King's Speech
Running Time:
4:15
Cue Point:
34:25, Scene 7 Prince Albert has come to the office of Lionel Logue to improve his public speaking skills.
Application:
Speech therapist Lionel Logue attempts to cure the King of his “bloody stammer.” Evaluate Logue’s methods designed to improve Albert's rhetorical skills, specifically Aristotle’s Canon of Delivery. Decide how these strategies might be effective.
Chapter 23—Dramatism
Movie:
Gone Girl
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
1:50;50 “Good evening. I’m Sharon Schaffer. Tonight, a husband breaks his silence, not just on her disappearance, but on his infidelity and all those shocking rumors.”
Application:
An example of mortification. In an effort to purge guilt (and have his wife return), husband publicly confuses sin and asks for forgiveness. (We see cuts of his wife’s reactions as she watches.)
Chapter 24—Narrative Paradigm
Movie:
Smoke
Running Time:
11:30
Cue Point:
1:30:35 Augie begins to tell his Christmas story
Application:
Issues of narrative coherence and narrative fidelity.
Movie:
Get Low
Running Time:
6:40
Cue Point:
1:24:00, Scene 15 Felix Bush has just been introduced by his longtime friend, the Reverend Charlie Jackson.
Application:
Hermit Felix Bush has lived a story of self-imposed isolation. Bush wants to set the record straight at his own living funeral. Decide if the narrative he is about to tell – judged by coherence and fidelity - redeems his relationship with the audience.
Chapter 27—Cultural Studies
Movie:
Insider
Running Time:
8:00
Cue Point:
1:39:40 "Shall I send for coffee?"
Application:
Media decisions made by corporations and powerful managers to the detriment of the public.
Chapter 30—Agenda-Setting Theory
Movie:
Wagging the Dog
Running Time:
6:45
Cue Point:
29:25, Scene 8 Producer's question: "How many kittens do we have?"
Application:
An outrageous framing of news by creating a salience of specific attributes; also suggests that it might be the White House sets the agenda for the media agenda setters.
Movie:
Fair Game
Running Time:
6:25
Cue Point:
54:25, Scene 10 Retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson is watching President Bush give the State of the Union address.
Application:
Responding to what he believes is false information justifying the War in Iraq, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson (who is the husband of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame) writes an Op-Ed article in The New York Times. Note how the Whitehouse “gatekeepers” of news shape the media agenda, with the expectation that press and broadcast outlets will set the public agenda.
Chapter 31—Genderlect Styles
Movie:
When Harry Met Sally
Running Time:
2:30
Cue Point:
0:08:20 Harry gazing at Sally and she asks "What?"
Application:
Genderlect differences regarding cross-sex relationships.
Chapter 32—Standpoint Theory
Movie:
White Man's Burden
Running Time:
1:50
Cue Point:
0:00 Clinking glass to get attention: "I'd like to propose a toast."
Application:
How a role reversal can achieve a less partial view of social reality.
Movie:
Mean Girls
Running Time:
2:20
Cue Point:
7:06:00 Referring to Cady’s parents who decided she should go to a public high school when the family moved back from Africa, Janice asks her, “Why didn’t they just keep home-schooling you?"
Application:
The marginalized standpoint of students Janice and Damian give them a less partial view of their high school society than that of the Plastics and members of other powerful groups.
Chapter 33—Muted Group Theory
Movie:
The Little Mermaid
Running Time:
4:55
Cue Point:
38:50 Sea-witch: "You're hear because you have an eye for..."
Application:
A woman's bargaingiving up her voice in order to establish the relationship she wants.
Movie:
North Country
Running Time:
3:32
Cue Point:
27:00 “I think you are one of my girls, right?” Josie and a dozen other girls have government mandated jobs at a taconite mine in the Minnesota Iron Range. They are constantly slurred and sexually harassed by male workers and management who don’t want them there.
Application:
The scenes in this clip show at least three different attempts by males to mute women. Josie later files the first successful class-action suit in America that legally defines sexual harassment. (Based on true story.)
Chapter 35—Face-Negotiation Theory
Movie:
The Joy Luck Club
Running Time:
3:00
Cue Point:
40:45 Coming up the stairs to the dinner party
Application:
Cultural differences between giving-face and saving-face.
Chapter 36—Co-Cultural Theory
Movie:
Hidden Figures
Running Time:
4:25
Cue Point:
1:00:05 "Wow. Where is she?" In early 1960’s segregated South, African American mathematical genius Katherine Johnson—who is working on the trajectory of America’s first orbital space flight—confronts the Director of NASA.
Application:
Co-cultural group member aggressively responds to the white male head of the space program in order to seek accommodation for herself and other black workers. Speculate as to why her communication orientation was effective—in this particular situation.
You can access Movie Clips for a particular chapter in several ways:
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- To quickly find a theory by chapter number, use the Table of Contents and link from there. It will take you directly to the theory with available options highlighted.
- You can also use the Theory List, which will take you directly to the theory with available options highlighted.