Symbolic Convergence Theory

Symbolic convergence theory is a general theory of communication created by Ernest Bormann that explains the process by which content themes that emerge in rhetoric function dramatically to connect audiences with messages. It explains how worldviews are created symbolically that catch up and involve often large groups of people. Symbolic [Page 944]convergence theory is based on two major assumptions. The first is that communication creates reality, which means that symbolic forms are not imitations but as Ernst Cassirer calls them, organs of reality. Symbols have the capacity to give form and law to a chaotic and disorderly sensory world and thus create reality. The second assumption is not only that symbols create reality for individuals, but also that there can be overlap among individuals' meanings, creating a shared reality or shared subjective meanings.

Symbolic convergence theory is rooted in the work of social psychologist Robert Bales and his Harvard University colleagues, who identified the process of fantasizing or dramatizing in small groups, in which imaginative themes chain out verbally and nonverbally from person to person in a group. Bormann adapted Bales' observations about fantasizing in small groups to create a method of rhetorical analysis—fantasy-theme criticism—and the theory of symbolic convergence.

The basic construct in the theory is the fantasy theme. Fantasy is an imaginative interpretation of events in the past, an envisioning of events in the future, or a depiction of present events removed in time and space from the actual events. Fantasy themes tell a story about a group's experience that creates reality for those who participate in those themes.

Fantasy themes consist of three main types: character themes, setting themes, and action themes. Character themes depict who the characters are in a drama—heroes or villains, for example. Setting themes describe the milieu or scene in which the characters are situated—a particular time and place—and the action themes describe plot lines or what the characters are doing. Bormann, for example, described how Electric Tom became an unfortunate character theme during the presidential election of 1972. It referenced Thomas Eagleton, the first Democratic vice presidential nominee chosen by George McGovern, who was forced to withdraw from the ticket when it became known that he had had electric shock therapy to battle severe depression.

Another example of a fantasy theme comes from radio station WKOR of Starkville, Mississippi, which prides itself as being one of the South's finest sounding radio stations. It was one of the first top-40-formatted stations in the state. A devoted fan of WKOR can say, “Louis King's discovery,” and every person in the WKOR family will instantly understand the reference or the character theme—Louis King—and the action theme—his realization that Starkville could have a second radio station if it were on 980 KHz and daytime only.

Together, a particular combination of fantasy themes constitutes a rhetorical vision, the world-view or the interpretation of reality that results from the combination of the various themes. A rhetorical vision is the composite drama created by the setting, character, and action fantasy themes by which the group makes sense of its world. Once shared consciousness is created in the form of a rhetorical vision, it can be propagated, with more and more conversions made possible by communication that continues to chain out into a larger public, catching up more and more people who tap into the fantasy themes of the vision.

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