Intellectual property
types were then organised into four main
categories relating to socio-emotional and task
behaviour, as illustrated in the diagram on the
following page.
An example here might be:
Speaker 1 How do we all feel about these
proposals? (8)
Speaker 2 They are far too complex. Can
anyone explain them? (11)
Bales argued that IPA tracked not just the
patterns of group interaction, but also the rela-
tionship between communicative acts and roles.
For example, if an individual scores highly in the
task categories, and especially in types 4–6, it
may be evidence that they are the task leader of
the group. He also identifi ed common problems
encountered within groups – communication,
evaluation, control, decision-making, tension
reduction, and reintegration – and argued that
IPA can monitor the way in which these are dealt
with by the group.
▶Robert F. Bales, Interaction Process Analysis: A
Method for the Study of Small Groups (Chicago
University Press, 1950).
Interactive television Allows viewers to
respond to programmes in ways ranging from
seeking further programme information to
making contact with programme-makers or
providing instant feedback to questions put to
them. Th e familiar red button invites the viewer
into more specialized scenarios, many of which
end up as marketing ploys. Early predictions for
interactive TV suggested a new age of instant
public response, of quick-fi re referendums, of
election and other polls ‘going electronic’.
Th e greater potential for interactivity of the
Internet may have checked if not stalled the use
of TV as an interactive device – unless of course
the TV and computer are one and the same as
typifi ed by the multi-functional mobile phone
(see mobilization). However, for the majority
of users the sophisticated mobile serves as an
entertainment centre, interactivity focusing on
the personal and the popular rather than issues
of social or political concern. See reality tv.
Intercultural communication See communi-
cation: intercultural communication.
Internal credits See sponsorship of broad-
cast programmes (uk).
Internalization See identification.
Internationalization of Media Studies See
media studies: the internationalization
of media studies.
International Commission for the Study of
Communication Problems Report, 1980
See mcbride commission.Intellectual property See culture: copy-
righting culture; text: integrity of the
text.
Intensity Some news stories receive much
more concentrated, more intense, coverage by
the media than others, and tend to dominate or
stifl e competing stories. Intensity, if appropriate
in terms of timing, and if given the promise of
frequency, abetted by consistency of coverage,
equals infl uence, at least in the sense of making
audiences aware.
General elections provide useful illustrations
of the intensity of media coverage. National
attention is focused on the event (usually more
on personalities than issues) and the legitimacy
of the event is given substance and fl avour. In
contrast, local elections derive neither substance
nor fl avour from the media, who largely ignore
them. See displacement effect; effects of
the mass media; news values.
Interaction Th e reciprocal action and commu-
nication, verbal or non-verbal, between two or
more individuals, or two or more social groups.
Successful negotiation of social interaction
requires considerable mastery of the verbal and
non-verbal communication deemed appropri-
ate to the social situation and the social roles
being performed. As Judy Gahagan comments
in Social Interaction and its Management
(Methuen, 1984), ‘Th e mere presence of others
introduces a degree of control over our demean-
our that we do not display when we are alone ...
Th is control over demeanour suggests we follow
quite strict sets of rules of conduct.’ Most of
these rules however are unwritten and learned,
often unconsciously, through the process of
socialization.
There are arguably more ritual and rules
involved in our everyday social interaction than
we realise. Gahagan notes that ‘we are in fact
quite unaware of their existence until some-
one does something “odd”’. See impression
management; interpersonal communica-
tion; self-monitoring; self-presentation.
★Interaction Process Analysis, 1950 Robert
F. Bales devised an infl uential scheme for the
recording and analysis of interaction within
groups, known as Interaction Process Analysis
or IPA. The aim of IPA is to track the acts
of communication that take place within an
observed group discussion; the assumption
being that group discussion is typically focused
on the completion of some kind of task. Bales
and his fellow researchers identifi ed twelve main
types of communicative acts that commonly
occur during group interaction. These twelve