(343)FROM THE ECOLOGY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORCHESTRAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION: THE INCLUSION OF THE MEDIUM-MESSAGE AXIOM

摘要

The contributions of the biologist, anthropologist and communication theorist Gregory Bateson (1904-1980)form the nucleus of the cross-disciplinary theoretical principles which led to the founding of theweb of thought spun by Watzlawick, Weakland, Beavin, Fish, Jackson, Erickson, Foster, Haley andSatir, amongst others. These authors were united by a common theoretical standpoint whichforegrounded the ecology of the human spirit and saw communication as process, a system oftransactional interaction. They were also similarly influenced by cybernetics, systems theory andconstructivism. Energised by the clash of the ideas in their exchanges, they constructed the orchestraltheory of communication, formalised by Paul Watzlawick, Donald Jackson and Janet Beavin. Today,Watzlawick (1967)is regarded as a seminal publication in the annals of interpersonal communicationstudies.Moving beyond the confines of the original object of study - face-to-face communication - this theoryhas been increasingly applied to the analysis of institutionally mediated communication and to theunderstanding of the construction of learning and change in organisations. However, in currentcircumstances, its set of axiomatic principles would benefit from the inclusion of a medium-messageaxiom to allow a fuller understanding of the realities of the mediated communication process that theprocess contains. This paper proposes the inclusion of this new axiom, medium-message; a proposalwhich is based on the work of Gregory Bateson, the ecology of the human spirit, the orchestral theoryof communication and the thinking of the Media Ecology Association. It aims to help build a moreprofound insight into the realities of the process of human communication.