Communication Privacy Management Theory

Welcome, all to another week of learning about communication theory. This week, the topic is Communication Privacy Management Theory and how we can see the theory is played out in the Star Wars franchise. The past theories that have been discussed in this blog have centered on developing or defining relationships. This particular theory is focusing on maintaining or managing relationships that are already established. I must admit, this happens to be one of my favorite theories thus far.

If one was to guess what Communication Privacy Management Theory was, he or she would be able to guess fairly accurate. The main idea centers around how we as humans deal with our personal privacy and how each person regulates their own definition of privacy. Just like how a cell phone updates us on the “privacy policies” (the one where you just click “I accept these rules” and move on…yeah those), we also have our own privacy policies. There are five general rules that are believed in this theory. First off is the right to privacy. Sandra Petronio, the creator of this theory believes that every person has a right to protect their own personal information as they see fit. Naturally, that would mean every person defines their “rules” differently. Which happens to be the second concept in the theory. Everyone follows their own set rules, but those rules can be affected by several factors. Those factors are the culture, gender, motivation, context, and the risk/benefit ratio (we will discuss those further later).

Another rule is when someone listens to another person’s private information, they are now accountable to keep the rules of privacy with the person that confided the information.

Let us say I am a very private person (which I just so happen to be…) and I mention to you that I secretly a multimillionaire, I expect you to keep that information to yourself. Even if you are a super outgoing and open person, upon hearing my information, you are socially required to follow my rules of privacy. Of course, there is room for negotiations but that normally falls in favor to the one who is confiding the information. Finally, if someone breaks the rules of someone else’s privacy, there will be a conflict in the relationship. Obviously, there will be issues if one gives out private information about another person. There are even laws in America that prevent this from happening. However, there are times where one may have to make a moral choice of keeping a secret to yourself or to give out the information for the greater good. Let us return to my previous analogy. You know that I am a multimillionaire, but I earned that money as a bounty hunter. Would you turn me into the police because my work is terrible, or would you respect our relationship and keep it to yourself? Hopefully, you have not had any situations to this degree, but you can see the picture.

Now, I wanted to spend some extra time explaining how our environment can affect us in how we manage our privacy. Culture just means that certain cultures deem different topics more or less private in a discussion. Gender is where someone may or may not be more open to talking about a private subject. It is generally accepted that most people are able to open up toward women than men. (score one for Moms). Motivations are pretty self-explanatory. Someone may be more motivated to share if it means they can earn someone else’s trust. The fourth rule is context. If you work together with someone and then realize that they are going to be killed by a black, creepy robot dude with a glowing sword, (it happens…) then you may find yourself more comfortable sharing private information. Finally, the last rule is the risk/benefits ratio. Similar to motivation, everyone weighs the benefits compared to the cost of giving away a piece of information. These examples are listed in the theory but there may be a mixture of the five ones that were shared.

The Star Wars movies give a good example of our environment causes someone to share private information differently. Now, I apologize in advance for the example I am using. I had desperately tried to avoid writing about this, but I could not think of a better example. However, Anakin Skywalker and Padmè Amidala give a great example of Communication Privacy Management. In Star Wars Attack of the Clones, Anakin goes on this miniature genocide on a group of people called Tusken Raiders. They kidnapped and murdered Anakin’s mother so in return, Anakin wiped out the entire village. Afterward, Anakin ends up confessing this to the young Padmè and she agrees to keep the secret. There are several reasons for why Anakin would tell his secret. The top two reasons I would suggest is a mixture of the constant of gender and context. Anakin is clearly in love with Padmè throughout the film, so it would be pretty easy to guess that he would want to reveal the truth to her. But it could also be the context. The emotional toll that murdering a bunch of people would affect a person pretty harshly (at least, I hope…). I would say both have some sort of sway on the situation in the movie. Another one is the moment where Anakin has fallen to the Darkside and is on a mission to go to the planet Mustafar. In the movie Revenge of the Sith, Obi-wan Kenobi goes to Padmè asking her for help on where Anakin had gone. Padmè was confronted with the decision of whether or not she should give up the information on where her husband had gone or stay loyal to him. Which of course she made the right decision in the end and helped Obi-Wan.

Relationships can be hard to maintain. Especially when people have all of their private information and rules that go with it. Star Wars time and time again shows that we can relate to its characters in every aspect of our lives. Managing the private parts of our lives are always going to be a challenge, but without opening ourselves up to other people, we will live a life of fear. Which we all are well aware, fear is a path to the Darkside.