MKTG3033 Chap.1 Strategic Communication as Two-Way Meaning Making
Strategic Communication as Two-Way Meaning Making
Week 1 opens with a reading by Jim Macnamara that separates three ideas people usually blur: speaking, information and communication. Communication, on this view, is the meaning formed in the receiver, so organisations cannot simply send it.
The chapter works through the IP-IT model of four communication purposes, inform, persuade, interact and transact, explains why engineering models of transmission mislead campaign planners, and compares the labels stakeholders, publics and audiences. It ends with practice on judging when a campaign has genuinely listened. The ideas here return in the evaluation chapter, where outputs and outcomes are measured.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Speaking, information and communication as separate ideas
- 02
Why content counts only as output
- 03
The IP-IT model of four purposes
- 04
Speaking-to-listening ratios and transactional communication
- 05
Stakeholders, publics and audiences compared
- 06
The talking and listening self-test
Worked example · free
Choosing the right IP-IT purpose for two council messages
- +1The evacuation warning is informing: one-way, urgent and authoritative, because residents need instructions, not a debate.
- +1Even a warning needs some listening, such as checking that residents received and understood it through calls or reports.
- +1The park redesign affects people who will live with it, so it suits interacting or transacting through consultation or co-design.
- +1For that exchange to be credible, the council must show residents which suggestions changed the design, moving well beyond a 90/10 speaking-to-listening split.
Key terms
- Transmission model
- A picture of communication as a sender moving a message along a channel to a receiver, criticised for assuming reception is automatic.
- Program logic
- A planning model that separates outputs, what is produced, from outcomes and impact, what changes as a result.
- Communication switch
- Macnamara’s term for selecting the communication mode that suits the purpose and context of an engagement.
- Stakeholder
- Anyone, person or group, who can influence, or be influenced by, whether an organisation reaches its objectives.
Strategic Communication as Two-Way Meaning Making FAQ
Why does the course say speaking is not communication?
Speaking produces words, images or video, but meaning only forms when someone receives and processes them. People can decode a message differently, ignore it or understand it and still disagree. The Week 1 reading therefore judges communication by what arrives in other minds, which is why campaign plans must include ways of hearing back.
What are the four purposes in the IP-IT model?
Inform, persuade, interact and transact. Informing and persuading are mostly one-way and suit warnings, education and selling. Interacting is two-way dialogue, often with one side holding more influence. Transacting is an exchange of ideas and knowledge that can reach collaboration, co-design and co-creation with the people affected.
Is persuasion considered unethical in strategic communication?
No. The reading accepts persuasion as legitimate for road safety, public health and marketing. Its critique is that persuasion still depends on the target listening, and that organisations claiming dialogue while only broadcasting are not communicating transactionally. Evaluate whether a campaign’s chosen purpose matches what its situation requires.
How is communication different from communications?
Macnamara keeps the singular for human meaning making and reserves the plural for telecommunications and transmission technology. Planning around the plural invites technological determinism, the hope that a new platform will persuade on its own. The distinction matters in essays and exams because it signals that you judge campaigns by reception and response, not by channel count.
What do van Ruler’s terms omnidirectional and diachronic mean?
Omnidirectional communication flows among many parties at once rather than back and forth between two. Diachronic communication unfolds over time in a continuing loop of presenting and negotiating meanings instead of a single exchange. Both terms help you critique a campaign plan that treats its audience as one target reached by one burst of messages.
What is the talking and listening test?
A self-administered test from the Week 1 reading. For several weeks you talk constantly with colleagues, family and friends and reflect on your relationships; for the next weeks you listen attentively and responsively and reflect again. The predicted contrast illustrates why organisations that only broadcast lose attention and trust.
Exam move
Learn the four IP-IT purposes as a ladder and practise placing real campaigns on it: a road safety advertisement, a council consultation, a brand’s customer forum. For each, note what listening the organisation built in and whether it matches the purpose claimed.
Memorise the speaking-to-listening yardsticks of 90/10 and 70/30, the difference between outputs and outcomes, and Macnamara’s reasons for preferring the term stakeholders. These ideas reappear in the evaluation chapter, so link them now. As a quick self-test, explain to a friend why a dashboard of posts published says little about whether a campaign communicated, and name the evidence you would collect instead.
Link each purpose to one real organisation you know.
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