Ethnography of Communication in High School Film Analysis
This paper applies the ethnography of communication (EOC) framework to Frederick Wiseman's 1968 documentary film High School, focusing on a scene involving a student, a school counselor, and the student's mother. Using dialogue extracted from the film as primary data, the paper examines the interaction through three theoretical lenses: Rules Theory (Shimanoff, 1980), Social Identity Theory (Knippenberg & Hogg, 2004), and Speech Codes Theory (Gudykunst, 2005). Each framework is used to explore how culture, group norms, and social context shape the tone, language, and meaning of communication among participants in a school setting.
- Introduction to Ethnography of Communication: Defines EOC and its core analytical concepts
- Film Overview and Selected Text: Introduces the film and transcribed dialogue scene
- Rules Theory and Language Norms: Applies Rules Theory to student rule-breaking behavior
- Social Identity Theory and Student Communication: Links student dialect and tone to group identity
- Speech Codes Theory and Cultural Context: Examines broken speech codes and cultural penalties
- Conclusion: Synthesizes how culture shapes communication methods
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds abstract communication theories in concrete, transcribed dialogue from a real film, making each theoretical application traceable and verifiable.
- Each theory section follows a consistent three-part structure — definition, data application, and cultural-language relationship — giving the paper a clear, repeatable analytical rhythm.
- The choice of a documentary film as an ethnographic source is appropriate and methodologically sound, since Wiseman's observational style captures naturalistic speech within an institutional setting.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates textual evidence mapping: rather than summarizing theory in the abstract, it selects specific lines of dialogue and matches them directly to theoretical constructs. This technique — quoting the same exchange multiple times across different theoretical lenses — effectively shows how a single communicative event can be read through several analytical frameworks simultaneously.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a definition of EOC and states its objective, then introduces the film and the specific scene under analysis. Three body sections each present a named theory, a source citation, a brief explanation, a data application using quoted dialogue, and a reflection on the culture-language relationship. A brief conclusion synthesizes the findings. This parallel structure across all three theory sections is the paper's defining organizational feature.
Introduction to Ethnography of Communication
The ethnography of communication (EOC) is the analysis of communication within a culture and the speech practices of various communities. The EOC refers to discourse analysis in linguistics, drawing on the anthropological tradition of investigating how speech is used, interpreted, and assigned meaning within human groups or particular communities. Two important concepts in ethnographic communication analysis are the normative and the cultural, which are used to examine language, cultural norms, and situational context as they influence communication among people.
The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the concept of ethnography of communication using the film titled High School, directed by Frederick Wiseman.
Film Overview and Selected Text
High School is an American documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman in 1968. It is an ethnographic film depicting events at Northeast High School. After its production, the film was distributed on DVD through Zipporah Films and rented to colleges, high schools, and libraries on five-year term leases.
The intent of this study is to present text from the film for cultural and normative analysis of communication. A particular scene in the film captures a conversation among three participants: a student, a school counselor, and the student's mother. All three were seated in the counselor's office, and based on the tone of their conversation, it is evident that the student had been reprimanded for misbehaving and the school counselor had called in the mother for a conference. The following ethnographic text describes the episode:
Student: All of us were just messing around. We locked her up in the closet and threw her a book...
Counselor: I must admit that the teacher was not doing the best that she ought to be. What is your contribution?
Student: She is just messing around similar with everybody else.
Mom: Well, can you tell me the meaning of "messing around"? This is what I have been trying to figure out... Almost every time you keep saying "messing around" — what does messing around actually mean?
Student: I admit, we were talking, laughing.
Mom: Just plain talking and laughing isn't offensive.
Student: Uhm, well, we threw a book around or something...
Mom: You threw a book around. OK...
Student: Mom (pause), not just me.
Mom: Whoever was involved?
Student: Yeah, I know I did. I must admit I talked back a lot.
Mom: Did you actually talk back to your teacher?
Student: Yeah. (pause)
Mom: And this is what you are calling "messing around"? Isn't that more disrespectful?
Student: What I did — I know I was more disrespectful. What the rest, what I, and what everybody else did was also just messing around.
Mom (later): You know, to be disrespectful is one of the worst things you can do in the manner of speech or in the way you talk.
Rules Theory and Language Norms
Theory: Rules Theory
Rules theory describes the behaviors that are preferred, prohibited, or obligated in a given communicative context. Typically, rules facilitate an effective process of communication and make symbolic interaction meaningful. However, rules vary across cultures, communities, languages, time periods, and contexts. Although there are many varieties of rules theories in the communication field, they share common concerns with meaning, pronunciation, grammar, and use. According to rules theory, customs, conventions, taboos, prohibitions, principles, guidelines, and norms are all central concepts (Shimanoff, 1980). For example, it is a general norm that students do not come late to class, and that students should respect their teachers and avoid speaking disrespectfully to them.
Application of Data to Rules Theory
Different scenes in the High School film relate to rules theory. In the school setting, it is evident that there are rules all students are expected to follow, and failure to observe those rules leads to punishment. From the data extracted from the film, the student has broken school rules by using disrespectful language toward her teacher, prompting the counselor to call her mother in for a conference. The following exchanges demonstrate the student's rule-breaking behavior:
Student: All of us were just messing around. We locked her up in the closet and threw her a book...
Mom: Well, can you tell me the meaning of "messing around"? This is what I have been trying to figure out... Almost every time you keep saying "messing around" — what does messing around actually consist of?
Student: Uhm, well, we threw a book around or something...
Mom: You threw a book around. OK...
The data shows that the student broke school rules by throwing a book at the teacher. Furthermore, the student's use of the phrase "messing around" reflects a dismissive, informal register that violates the communicative norms of the school environment, as further revealed in the following exchange:
Student: Yeah, I know I did. I must admit I talked back a lot.
Mom: Did you actually talk back to your teacher?
Student: Yeah. (pause)
Mom: And this is what you are calling "messing around"? Isn't that more disrespectful?
Student: What I did — I know I was more disrespectful. What the rest, what I, and what everybody else did was also just messing around.
Theoretical Relationship between Culture and Language
The rules theory analysis reveals that language and culture influence the tone of human communication. The environment and cultural background of an individual shape his or her communicative register. As revealed in the data extracted from the film, the student employs informal language in a formal school setting, suggesting that the school has not fully succeeded in cultivating the use of formal language among its students.
Conclusion
This paper analyzed the concept of ethnography of communication using the film High School, directed by Frederick Wiseman. The study applied three theoretical frameworks — Rules Theory, Social Identity Theory, and Speech Codes Theory — to dialogue extracted from the film. The outcome of the analysis reveals that culture is the critical factor influencing an individual's method of communication. Across all three frameworks, the data consistently shows that the student's informal language and behavior reflect the cultural norms of her peer group, while the school and the student's mother represent institutional and familial efforts to enforce more formal communicative standards.
References
Gudykunst, W. B. (2005). Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 55–68). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Knippenberg, D. V., & Hogg, M. A. (2004). Leadership and power: Identity processes in groups and organizations (pp. 210–223). London: Sage.
Shimanoff, S. B. (1980). Communication rules: Theory and research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.