Page 189 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

PHATIC COMMUNICATION

with influencing and changing the attitudes of the public in relation to
issues such as health and safety. In Australia in the 1980s, the actor Yul
Brynner, who was suffering the effects of throat cancer, urged
individuals to give up smoking, knowing that by the time people saw
the ad he would be dead. DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach (1989: 214) call
this ‘social learning theory’, whereby the use of a well-known public
figure is thought to encourage behavioural modification.
Within this genre, however, it is the Threat (Hovland et al., 1961:
60) or the Fear Appeal (Severin and Tankard, 2001: 159) that is most
apparent. Advertising that discourages drink driving, speeding or
unsafe sex will often employ this technique. Here, the persuasive
address is aided by the depiction or description of the unfavourable
consequences that will result should the receiver fail to adhere to the
communicated information.
By examining the techniques of persuasive communication, what
motivates nominated groups and individuals becomes apparent. How
receivers choose which information to process will depend on the
discourses, ideologies and values that are contained within these
communications.
See also: Discourse, Ideology

Further reading: Ross (1990); Severin and Tankard (2001)

PHATIC COMMUNICATION

Communication designed to open or maintain contact between
addresser and addressee. Its classic form is the greeting: ‘Hello; G’day;
Hi!’ Phatic communication was identified by Roman Jakobson as one
of the six functions of language. It is content-free: when someone
passes you in the corridor and inquires ‘Howare you?’, it would be a
breach of manners to take the question as having content and actually
to tell them what a bad day you’ve had.
Phatic communication is used ‘ideologically’ by broadcasting
organisations. News anchors will say ‘Good evening’ to a camera,
but (hopefully) be heard by viewers as establishing communication.
The more populist and entertainment-oriented the show, the more it
will distend phatic communication. Some weather people include
more phatic communication in their updates than information about
the weather – a truism made lethal by Nicole Kidman as the not-so-
airhead weather-girl Suzanne Stone Maretto in the 1995 film To Die
For. Game show hosts will engage in phatic communication with both

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