- Fantasy themes indexed by a symbolic cue (agreed upon trigger). Could be a code word, phrase ("we are Marshall"), gesture
- Fantasy Type: cluster of related fantasy themes; surface and re-surface. Well worn symbolic paths. We are Marshall: speech part of a larger "We will persevere" or "We are resilient" fantasy type.
Critique:
- Bormann claims the theory is both objective and interpretive
- Sharing group fantasies--> symbolic convergence true for all. However, fantasies social constructed
- Objective Criteria:
- explanation, prediction
- Interpretive Criteria:
- clarifies people's values (what about hate groups?)
- New understanding of people: new focus on symbolic language.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/536145
- Symbolic convergence theory not confined to small groups
- Worked into speeches, picked up by mass media, spread across larger publics
- Rhetorical community can share a rhetorical vision
- Fantasy Theme
Analysis: Detect rhetorical visions
The Core: Dramatizing Message
The Process: When dramatizing messages convert into a fantasy...
Imaginative language by a group member (pun, wordplay, metaphor, analogy, anecdote, allegory, fable, narrative, etc) that describes past, future, or outside events; creative interpretation of there-and-then. (They are interpretive!!)
" A symbolic explosion in the form of a chain reaction" occurs "in which members join in until the entire group comes alive."
Must paint a vivid picture or call to mind an image
This is called the "fantasy chaining process" - as people start to partake in "drama"
Review: Some definitions...
- Tempo in the convo picks up
- People grow excited
- Tone changes from quiet and tense to lively and animated
Fantasy: the creative and imaginative shard interpretation of events that fulfills a group's psychological and rhetorical needs
Fantasy theme: content of that fantasy chained out within a group; SCT's BASIC UNIT OF ANALYSIS
Meanings, Motives, Emotions
Actions
Fantasy Chain Reactions: Unpredictable Symbolic Explosions
No more skimpy shorts...
Fantasy Chaining= Symbolic explosion of lively agreement; the Group's response to dramatization
Most dramatizations fall on deaf ears...
Rather, this term refers to things embraced, and thus "true," for the entire group
Can end in awkward silence, quick change of subject, direct opposition
- SCT researchers have little success in predicting when fantasy "chains out"
- When a group is frustrated
- When members have rhetorical skill
- Still, fantasy chains have a
life of their own. SCT only
predict convergence
when chaining
out process occurs
Symbolic Convergence Theory
Dramatizing a
significant type
of communication
in small groups
So...what is symbolic convergence?
I , me, and mine become us, we, and ours
"Sharing group fantasies
creates symbolic convergence."
Group members exchange
fantasies in order to be cohesive.
Two or more private worlds come more closely toward one another or overlap= group consciousness/ cohesiveness
Symbolic Convergence Theory
Ernest Bormann