My Coordinated Management of Meaning will be a conversation between two of my friends who were discussing football. Both of them were supporting the team that had won the premier league. As they both were discussing the results, it was apparent they were excited about the result.
One of the phenomena in their conversation was speed. The exchange of words and information was so fast that an outsider would not have understood the meaning of any information that was passed either by word of mouth or by actions. The second phenomenon was transparency. In this conversation, very little could be hidden from their action and expression of joy throughout the entire time.
The Coordinated Management of Meaning between my two friends was quite easy to understand. For instance, when my friend wanted to explain how impressed he was by a certain move by a player that they both agreed had played well, all he needed to do was to show the move physically. That way, anyone watching from a distance can easily tell that the two fellows were discussing matters to do with football.
The decoding and exchange of information in this Coordinated Management of Meaning, therefore, assumed a rather fast motion compared to a normal chat in a normal conversations. The speed at which the exchange of information is happening in this conversation shows clearly that these two are very close friends. It is very easy to express emotions to show happiness or anger between the two fellows because they have a common language.
The use of signs that are used when two parties are conversing helps them communicate faster, and information is exchanged and decoded immediately. When describing the first score, for instance, my friend jumped up with raised hands and a smile on his face, then he took a small turn as if he was running in celebration.
That signified that there a score had been made. In the same way, a frustrated and long face was made when the two were expressing their displeasure with the referee’s decision to punish one of the players from their team. This was signified by a two fingers in the mouth and one hand raised. That meant that the referee was blowing the whistle while lifting a disciplinary card with the other hand.
In this conversation, one thing was very clear. The two were very explicit in showing their emotion, and it was very easy to tell the points of displeasure and the points where the two were satisfied. This conversation was very transparent that anyone would have easily decoded it. However, there were some signs that although they were transparent, they were also difficult to decode, but on general terms, the conversation was manlily filled with the physical exchange of information, so it was easy to tell.
This paper has discussed the logic behind the Coordinated Management of Meaning by applying the theory in a real-life situation. Identifying the different phenomena displayed in conversation clearly shows how the CMM affects our understanding of communication. Communication is mostly coordinate and managed by the individuals involved in a conversation.
The meaning of every form of conversation is therefore determined by the understanding of the parties involved, and it can be twisted to assume a different meaning to different people.