The coordinated management of meaning theory was created on the premise that our social realities have direct effect in the physical world, as every conversation and interaction lives on and influences our lives. The theory has application as a practical, interpretive, and critical theory. Taking a closer look at the coordinated management of meaning theory as an interpretive theory, we understand that, “persons-in-conversation co-construct their own social realities and are simultaneously shaped by the worlds they create.”

An example of this from media can be found in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character lived a double life his entire life. Whilst living with his mother, he lived an upper middle-class life, however when he would stay at his dad’s in South Boston on the weekends, he would change the way he spoke and participate in illicit activities. In doing this, Leo’s character shapes the world around him by changing the content of his conversations and in turn changing his lifestyle. Although scenes of DiCaprio doing this are only discussed in the movie and never shown, it can be assumed that conversations in South Boston about gang life and drugs produced a very different reality than his conversations about boarding school and upper-middle class life that he had when living in the suburbs with his mother.

Here, this aspect of DiCaprio’s character’s life is discussed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqWJho4zSFc