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Communication 465: Conversational Interaction Wayne A. Beach Professor, School of Communication COM 201A; 619-594-4948 Office Hours: T, 1:30-2:00 & Th, 1:30-3:00 (and by appointment) [email protected] Adjunct Professor, Department of Surgery Member, Moores Cancer Center University of California, San Diego http://psfa.sdsu.edu/faculty.php School of Communication Website: http://communication.sdsu.edu/ http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/apr/10/cancer-play-reality-theatre/ http://www.ucsd.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=25956 Learning Objectives The six learning objectives for this class are: 1) To introduce students to the research method “Conversation Analysis (CA)”: A resource for observing, describing, and explaining the detailed organization of everyday communication in systematic and powerful ways. 2) To illustrate how CA might be employed to closely examine diverse ordinary conversations comprising daily living. 3) To better understand a primary social problem in contemporary society – how family members communicate about cancer on the telephone, in their home environments – which is exceedingly common, yet largely taken for granted as a set of interactional practices and achievements. 4) To increase knowledge about how basic knowledge about family cancer phone calls might become integrated with the Arts – a project entitled Conversations about Cancer (CAC), including a theatrical production entitled When Cancer Calls... – and how basic research can receive national funding to make a positive change in the world. 1 5) To enhance skills for disseminating When Cancer Calls…, and for assessing the impacts these performances (both live and through DVD screenings) might have on diverse audiences. 6) To envision possible educational applications of CAC for improving communication skills among cancer patients, family members, and medical professionals. Examples of Special Class Activities · Describing and discussing the fundamental assumptions of Conversation Analysis (CA) as one of the most prominent social scientific methodologies · Listening to and analyzing actual family phone call recordings and transcriptions · Inviting to class any family members, friends, or health professionals whose lives have been impacted by cancer (or other health challenges) · Viewing and responding to excerpts from a nationally disseminated video production, When Cancer Calls…, which is adapted from real phone conversations in the Malignancy phone call corpus. Course Background and Description The materials for this class are comprised of a sampling of phone calls in the San Diego Conversation Library (SDCL) entitled "The Malignancy Series" – a corpus of 61 recorded and transcribed conversations, over a 13 month period, involving family members who have been informed that their mother's tumor has been diagnosed as "malignant". The calls begin with dad "delivering the news" to son and ongoing conversations with other family members (including the mom/patient), friends, and service providers as the cancer develops. This study is the first natural history, in the social and medical sciences, of a family talking through cancer from initial diagnosis until death of a loved one. This investigation was initially funded by the American Cancer Society under the title “Conversations about cancer: Understanding how families talk through illness” (#ROG-98-172-01). Two subsequent and ongoing projects, “Conversations about cancer: A theatrical production” (# 1R41CA144235- 01A1; #2 R42 CA144235-02) have been funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute. After more than a decade of research on these materials, a book emerged entitled A Natural History of Family Cancer: Interactional Resources for Managing Illness (Hampton Press, 2009): 2 The book was awarded the 2010-2011 Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association (Health Communication Division), as well as the 2010-2011 Outstanding Scholarship Award (Language & Social Interaction Division). Book Description A family. A phone call. A diagnosis...One family's journey through cancer. Family members and cancer patients routinely talk about and through cancer on the telephone. Yet little is known about the social organization of these conversations and how cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis impact everyday living. The culmination of a decade of research, this volume offers close examination of the first natural history of one family's 13 month journey through a wife/mother/sister's terminal cancer. Analysis of these family phone recordings (and transcriptions) offers primal insights about the fundamental importance of communication, and how family members rely on one another when navigating through complex social, emotional, technical, and biomedical concerns associated with cancer: Updating and assessing emerging news, being stoic, claiming and defending knowledge, reporting and responding to ongoing troubles, making airline reservations, adjusting to stable yet ambiguous health circumstances, displaying frustration, commiserating, maintaining a `state of readiness', evaluating doctors and medical care, telling and retelling stories, being humorous and playful, and constructing hope as an alternative to despair. These interactions reveal no small measures of personal challenges, emotional turmoil, humorous exchanges, endearing actions, and resolute efforts to remain hopeful in the progressive face of bad cancer news. Moments such as these are extraordinary and mundane...foreign yet strikingly familiar to all who have encountered them when matters of illness, disease, life, and death move to the forefront and require our attention. Readers will not only gain enhanced 3 understandings of ordinary human interactions, but a deep appreciation for managing the trials, tribulations, hopes and triumphs of cancer ± and all human illness journeys shaped by communication in everyday life. Conversations about Cancer (CAC): When Cancer Calls¼ Basic communication research has identified a major social problem: Communicating about cancer from diagnosis through death of a loved one. Over the past decade, an investigation into how family members talk through cancer on the telephone has been transformed into a theatrical production entitled Conversations about Cancer (CAC): All dialogue in When Cancer Calls¼ is drawn from naturally occurring (transcribed) interactions between family members as they navigate their way through the trials, tribulations, hopes and triumphs of a cancer journey. This dramatic performance explicitly acknowledges the power of the arts as an exceptional learning tool for extending empirical research, exploring ordinary family life, and exposing often taken-for-granted conceptions of health and illness. We assesses the feasibility of educating and impacting cancer patients, family members, and medical professionals who viewed When Cancer Calls¼ as a live performance and through DVD screenings. Pre-post survey measures were created to solicit audience feedback, talkback sessions occurred following viewings, and selected audience members participated in focus-group meetings. Survey results are reported that demonstrate unequivocal and positive impacts for changing opinions about the perceived importance, and attributed significance, of family communication in the midst of cancer. Implications are raised about ongoing efforts to design and implement a national effectiveness trial, and future applications of the CAC program for advancing research, education, and training across diverse academic and health care professions. 4 Three Phases for this Course The semester will be organized into three class phases. An overview of each phase is described below. (See also `Grading & Evaluationº, below.) All paper handouts are listed under Assignments on Blackboard. 1. Overview of CA: Sample Analysis of Family Phone Calls & Transcriptions While some class activities will involve lectures and discussions on extant literature, primary attention will be given to “informal data/listening sessions” – repeated, rigorous, and grounded attempts to identify and substantiate patterns of human conduct-in-interaction. Analysis of naturally occurring phone calls, through repeated listenings and in unison with transcriptions, yields a rich understanding of the primary interactional patterns employed by family members when working through the trials and tribulations of cancer – and a host of other interesting phenomena. Emphasis will be given to close examinations of single instances as well as analysis of "collections" of interactional phenomena. (See Appendix A – Transcription Symbols, and Appendix B – Adjacency Pairs). Group Project #1 will focus on analyzing selected moments from these cancer calls, and writing a paper identifying communication patterns and findings (see below). 2. Analyzing How Family Members Tell and Receive ‘Stories’ Storytelling is one of the most prominent activities in everyday living. We will examine how stories are organized in interaction, and apply these learnings to a series of stories during the family phone calls. Group Project #2 will integrate key literature and quotes on storytelling when analyzing selected moments between family members. 3. More Key Social Actions: ‘Sharing Commiserative Space’, Hope, and Other Practices More and related key social actions, including how family members commiserate and share hope with one another, will be closely examined. Group Project #3 will provide groups with several research options. 5 Blackboard & Text(s)

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