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Meetings, Conferences, Workshops

1996 Sense-Making Workshop

Workshop Abstracts

by

 

Paul Nelissen
University of Nijmegen
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
p.nelissen@maw.kun.nl

COPYRIGHT AND CITATION INFORMATION:
© Nelissen, Paul, 1996. Cite as: Nelissen, Paul (1996). The social character of sense-making: Social influences on situation movement state. Paper presented at International Communication Association annual meeting, Chicago, Illinois, May 23. Available at: http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/meet/m96nelissen.html

ESSENCE OF PROJECT:
In our research program 'Media Use as Social Action', we investigate communication phenomena using a social action model of mass communication. Audiences (and communicators) are engaged in communication processes on the basis of their own objectives, intentions and interests. Differences between people's uses of media and media messages can only be explained when people's motives and goals are taken into account. Audience activity form the base for the interpretation of reality and, thus, the interpretation of media content: information does not exist outside people's mind and situation. We use an interpretative paradigm for human action and consider people's action as a manifestation of internal motives based on subjective meanings. Media and media messages belong to people's social world. They have to compete with other objects for attention. Other competing objects in everyday life are, for instance, significant others. Bearing this in mind it becomes obvious that there are tight connections between the "Media Use as Social Action' approach and Sense-Making as Theory and Methodology. In the two studies that I want to present and discuss, we actually used the time line interview. I have chosen these studies to illustrate the use (and importance) of Sense-Making assumptions and concepts in applied research projects. In the first study we investigated the effectiveness of a telephone information service for the visually handicapped. The second one dealt with the opportunities of a (mobile) youths information service in a rural Christian Reformed community. In both case studies we came across the importance of social interaction with regard to individual's information needs and uses. Significant others play an important role in different situation movement states. They not only provide answers to questions, they also influence the identification or construction of gaps.

REASONS I TOOK THIS ROAD:
The traditional ways to look into information seeking strategies are not satisfying at all (as Dervin has pointed out several times). These studies neglect the importance of people's situation. In fact they are only focused on individual, 'cross situational' predictors of information needs and uses (i.e. Atkin, 1974, Donohew & Tipton, 1974; Moschis, 1980). Once you see the world from the respondent's point of view (actor perspective), it becomes obvious that these cross situational characteristics only play a minor role. Information needs and uses can only be explained by looking at the (social- cultural) context in which they are experienced (or constructed).

THE BEST OF WHAT I HAVE ACHIEVED IS:
* using fundamental, theoretical perspectives in applied research (as it is the only way to tackle policy issues).
* looking for alternatives for the mainstream mass communication research.

WHAT HAS BEEN PARTICULARLY HELPFUL:
* Sense-Making approach - Symbolic Interactionism (Mead, Blumer) - Sociology of knowledge (Schutz, Berger & Luckman)

WHAT I HAVE STRUGGLED WITH IN THIS PROJECT:
* More in general, I struggle with the acceptance (or better ignorance) of Sense-Making and other audience-centered approaches by the scientific community. Students and practitioners often ask: "If the Sense-Making approach is such a brilliant method for making communications effective and efficient, why is it not used more widely?"

* We want to investigate media use in everyday life. Researchers, using an interpretative methodology, tend to focus on more or less deviant and extreme situations. Sense-Making projects for instance often investigate problematic situations in which respondents are able to reconstruct their time line. People's acting in everyday life, however, is 'non problematic' and 'non reflexive'. Furthermore, we cannot observe the internal acts. The validity and reliability of results are often questionable.

* Situations (time-space contexts) can often be characterized as 'gapless'. It's hard to determine whether gaps don't exist or people can't remember (and reproduce) them.

WHAT WOULD HELP NOW IS
Further discussion, empirical evidence, scientific support.

ABSTRACT:
In two different case studies we investigated the relevance of significant others in people's everyday life. They seem to play an important role in bridging gaps but also in defining them, compared to other information sources, including mass media. We evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of two information services. In the first project, we investigated a telephone information service for the visually disabled. In the second study, we tried to explain the lack of success of a mobile youths information service in a rural Christian community. These services had in common that they were hardly used by the target audiences. In both cases social influences on people's movement state seem to be a good explanation for the lack of success.

* The telephone interactive information service: The objective of the infoline was to rapidly provide concrete and practical information like services for the visually handicapped, employment information and general service-oriented information. We conducted an inventory of the questions the visually handicapped have in their everyday lives, and the information sources they consult to attend these questions. Questions or gaps are seen as problems which must be solved in order to allow everyday actions to proceed as desired. The question was to what extend the infoline service could provide an adequate alternative to the manner in which information was collected before the introduction of the service. Two groups of the visually handicapped and two groups of questions were identified. Members of the group which became blind at a young age have completed the acceptance process of their physical condition. The questions posed by this group are mainly of an instrumental nature. The telephone infoline was nevertheless not used because it failed to provide anything new to the already-existing sources of information this group consulted.

The second group, which was formed by elderly respondents who became visually impaired later in life, experienced a form of social isolation which increasingly limits their ability to function in everyday life. Their instrumental questions are put on hold. In other words: before these people can define instrumental gaps (about practical matters such as train schedules, availability of aids for the visually handicapped and sales at the supermarket), they have to overcome their perceived fundamental gap (social isolation as a frozen time-space moment). As the telephone information service only provides practical information it was not used by this group either.

* The mobile youths information service. Welfare organizations within a rural Christian community weren't consulted as much as they expected by adolescents. They thought "If these young people don't come to us, we go to them" (like Moses and the Mountain). The organizations tried to inform their target group, using a buss, filled with leaflets, brochures on different issues. The bus covered the whole rural area. Unfortunately hardly any youngster mounted the infobus.

After investigating questions and information uses in everyday life, we again found out that the information service was not seen as an alternative. The social ties within the community were very strong and influential. The social interactions within the community were based on consensus and cohesion. Individual questions (or gaps) were limited to those which are in accordance with the perceived community agenda and (more important) those which can be answered by experts within or very close to the social network. The employees working on the bus project had no connections with opinion leaders and were not aware of the community agenda.