While we have freedom of speech, the Supreme Court allows society to regulate our speech based on contextual factors such as time, place, and manner (TPM). What
does it mean to say communication is "contextual"? Include examples based
on location, occasion, time, and number of participants.
Everything in life has context and disregarding this crucial fact leads to many unneccessary misunderstandings. Media loves to twist things around so the context is lost causing great amounts of upheaval and anger. This is akin to lying.
ReplyDeleteThe Contextual part of communication requires us to be aware of the context within which the subject matter is being discussed, the surroundings of both points of view. Communication context involves the whole situation, background, or environment relevant to a particular event, personality, creation, or concept. One must consider the context of the words, the sentence, the paragraph, the chapter, the plot, the subject, the issue at hand or the true meaning, feeling, flavor of the communication is not fully understood. Determining the context of a particular instance of communication involves considering the cultural, historical, psychological, social and physical factors at play.
Religious books, ie the Bible, The Quaran, the Book of Mormon, The Tanakh, are often taken out of context and one small passage will be used to persecute someones beliefs when the information being communicated is completely wrong because context is not being factored in.
Political speeches are also often taken out of context. A recent example that comes to mind is when Hillary Clinton said "What difference does it make..." in regards to the deaths in Benghazi. When taken in context her statement was reasonable, empassioned and sincere. When taken out of context, which was immediatly done by many news medias, it seemed cold and uncaring.
How we behave in a particular location or event is based on our society’s standards of behavior. Time and the amount of people we are around are also significant factors. Contextual communication is based on the factors of time, location, occasion, and the number of people.
ReplyDeleteIn most courtrooms it is expected that everyone in the courtroom will only speak when the judge allows it. Speaking out or shouting is not acceptable. There is even a standard of dress. At most weddings in the US, the guests are expected to stand for the bride when she walks down the aisle. Talking while the ceremony is underway is not acceptable either.
I work in a 24-hour senior living facility. As part of the on-call management team, I don’t look forward to being called on my days off or in the middle of the night. How I speak could be affected by the time of day they call.
How I interact with my husband is one thing but when we get around his family, I change to adjust to the group. We put on masks when we get around certain people.
Even though we have the freedom of speech does not mean that it is acceptable to be disrespectful or unkind. For example, there is a church group that goes to the funerals of soldiers to protest. Just because they have the right to do that under the law does not mean that it is morally correct.