Fantasy Theme Analysis
- A type of rhetorical criticism used to detect fantasy themes and rhetorical visions; the interpretive methodology of The Symbolic Convergence Theory.
Rhetorical Vision
Corporate Strategic Planning
- SCT concerns itself in a corporate setting with the following:
a)Corporate Positioning
b)Market Segmentation
c) Advertising/Sales Messaging Testing
- A composite drama that catches up large groups of people into a common symbolic reality.
Fantasy Theme
- The content of the fantasy that has chained out within a group; SCT’s basic unit of analysis.
Fantasy Chains
- A symbolic explosion of lively agreement within a group in response to a member’s dramatizing messages.
- What this means is if someone can explain a situation well enough that you can form images of the event in your mind.
Symbolic Convergence Theory
Ernest Bormann’s Theory
- Social Psychologist from Harvard, Robert Bales worked on understanding and categorizing comments made in small-group settings. He discovered that dramatizing was a significant type of communicate that fostered cohesiveness. The basis of his research was called zero-history problem-solving group paring.
- University of Minnesota communication professor Ernest Bormann picked on Bales’ findings and and conducted a more extensive study on not just symbolism groups use, but other aspects such as, leadership emergence, decision making, norms, and cohesiveness. This is where he developed Symbolic Convergence Theory.
Video
Fantasy
- The creative and imaginative shared interpretation of events that fulfills a group’s psychological or rhetorical needs.
- This describes a person or a group’s imaginative process. The larger the person’s or group’s imagination, the better the description will be for the group as a whole to understand.
- Bormann referred to this term for dramatizing messages for a group and for children’s literature or fantasies held within a person (i.e. sexual desires).
What is Symbolic Convergence Theory?
- Two or more private symbol world's incline toward each others, come more closely together, or even overlap; group consciousness, cohesiveness.
- This is how people are able to convey their experiences and make them relatable to others by the use of language, non verbals, wordplay, metaphors, etc.
- Can you recall a time where you were able to vividly describe a scenario that a friend or family member could picture the event in their mind. That's Symbolic Convergence Theory in a nutshell!
Symbolic Convergence
- Two or more private symbol worlds incline toward each others, come more closely together, or even overlap; group consciousness, cohesiveness.
Omar Zeidan, Jazmyne Robinson, Alexa Paredes, Anthony Morales
Fantasy Typer
- A cluster of related fantasy themes; greater abstractions incorporating several concrete fantasy themes that exist when shared meaning is taken for granted.
- Example: The group understands that smoking cigarettes is terrible for the body, but some of the members have not smoked before.
Symbolic Cue
- An agreed- upon trigger that sets off group members to respond as they did when they first shared the fantasy