SCT offers an explanation for the appearance of a group's cohesiveness, consisting of shared emotions, motives, and meanings.
Through SCT, individuals can build a community or a group consciousness which grows stronger if they share a cluster of fantasy themes.
[1] Symbolic convergence theory provides a description of the dynamic tendencies within systems of social interaction that cause communicative practices and forms to evolve.
SCT explains that meanings, emotions, values, and the motives for action are in the communication contexts by people trying to make sense out of a common experience.
[6] Bormann and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota introduced SCT as a framework for discovering, describing, and explaining the dynamic process by which humans come to share symbolic reality.
[9] SCT has a three-part structure: Dramatizing messages involve members introducing brief examples of humor, wordplay, and figures of speech (metaphor, simile) or elaborate analogies, fables, narratives, stories, or other creative expressions.
Dramatized messages help the speaker and listener make sense of a confusing situation or clarify an uncertain future.
Unlike the traditional ideas of what fantasy means, Bormann uses the word to refer to "the creative and imaginative interpretation of events that fulfills a psychological or rhetorical need.
[11] Bormann sees these fantasy themes fulfilling a psychological or rhetorical need through creative and organized interpretations of events.
The newspapers picked this up and ran headlines such as "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary."
National newspapers were two to one in favor of dropping Nixon from the ticket after this, and his only hope was to find a way to regain public trust and support.
[14] A saga is the telling and re-telling of the accomplishments and events in the life of an individual, group, organization, or larger entity such as a nation.
"[13] Symbolic convergence theorists argue that the Soviet Union had difficulty maintaining the cohesion of the fifteen republics due to the weakening of the communist rhetorical vision and dwindling sagas.
[13] Some terms that portray a shared group consciousness are common ground, mutual understanding, created social reality, meeting of minds, and empathic communication.
[13] The lack of a rhetorical vision reality link, with no clear observational impressions of the facts, may lead to disprovable fantasies characterized by rumor, innuendo, gossip, and even paranoia.
[13] Fantasy theme artistry is the rhetorical ability to present situations in a form that appears attractive to people so that they will share them.
With the Truman Doctrine speech, emerging fantasies of Red Fascism (e.g., communism vs. democracy), Power Politics (e.g., containment strategy), and the Hot War vision (e.g., make the world safe for democracy), crystallized into the yet unknown concept of "the Cold War.
The principle of critical mass, when a rhetorical vision begins a period of rapid growth, is central to consciousness-raising.
The principle of shielding asserts that visions often remain fundamentally unchanged by containing motivation to quash counter messages.
Another possible reason for the decline is explained by the principle of exploding free speech where a deluge of counter-rhetoric follows a significant period of censorship.
Therefore, one set of studies written by Bormann and others recommended that rhetorical visions can encompass the gamut of shared consciousness from all parts of the political, social, artistic, military, economic, and cultural spectrum.
Reporting and repeating keywords, images, or phrases in the media helps create specific political fantasy themes among the electorate.
There are relevant cases[25] consolidating the SCT theory-method-message complex combining with the strategic planning process and other implications.
In 2003 Joshua Gunn delivered a sophisticated criticism of what he considered Bormann's outdated conception of SCT involving a humanist construct of conscious human actors working with an agency.
[31] These stories, or fantasies, can help businesses, corporations, or politicians direct positive and negative feedback to those in power.
When power, sexism, role conflict, social rejection, and other touchy topics come into play, group members often find the direct confrontation of such issues unsettling.
By being able to predict voting behaviors, political representatives could carefully craft their messages for different groups of people before giving their speeches and lectures to best benefit themselves.
Dramatism provides groups of individuals with conceptual tools to build a convergent social perception of reality.