Metacommunication in Gregory Bates\' \"A

Metacommunication

In Gregory Bates' "A theory of play and fantasy," he emphasized the importance of the concept "metacommunication" in studying interactions and their meanings between or among communicators within a specific social context. Bates explicated in his essay how metacommunication occurs in an interaction, which he identified and termed as "play." He defined metacommunication as "exchanging of signals which would carry the message 'this is play'," which meant that it is the understanding of meanings implicit within each communication act or play. In effect, metacommunication is present when the communicators are able to understand the meaning of a play or communication act in a particular social context. Inability to distinguish the true meaning of this communication act -- that is, failure to achieve understanding and generate the meaning of the play -- means that metacommunication is absent and was not achieved by the communicators.

Metacommunication is vital because it allows observers and communicators participating in a communication act distinguish the kind of play or interaction taking place. Observers can only understand whether communicators are arguing or joking only if they are aware of the context or situation from which the interaction took place. If an argument ensued as a result of a misunderstanding from a communicator's joke, then clearly, there had been a lack of metacommunication between them: the recipient of the joke clearly took it from an altogether different context, offending the other communicator, thereby eliciting feelings of anger from him/her. What this example illustrates is that it is important for communicators and observers to identify the "rules" or the communication styles of each communicator in order to determine whether they are still joking or embarking towards a heated argument due to a misunderstanding.

Utilizing Bates' discussion on metacommunication, this concept is better explained when illustrated in the context of sharing dirty jokes. Dirty jokes are often considered in the society as taboo and expressed only in private; if these dirty jokes are ever expressed in the public, it would be in the form of a comedy show or sitcom. Nevertheless, society is generally not tolerant to the habit of sharing dirty jokes. In fact, in order to be 'successfully' expressed and shared, be it in private or public venues, dirty jokes must be 'metacommunicated.' This means that the communicator who shares the dirty joke must be aware of the current situation and the kind of people (communicators) who would be the recipients of the dirty joke.