INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION
1.0 Objective of the lessons:
The Objective of this lesson is to assist you in understanding the Meaning and definition of communication.
Scope of Communication
Structure of the Lesson :
- Definition of Communication
- Concept of Communication
- Elements of Communication process
- Communication as information transmission
- Purpose of Communication
- Characteristics of good communication
- Scope of Communication
- Summary
- Technical Terms
- Model Questions
- Reference Books
Communication is a process by which information is exchanged between or among individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, and behavior It is a process that is similar to expressing feelings, con- versing, speaking, corresponding, writing, listening and exchanging, Communication can be defined as. “Any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person’s needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes.”
(National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons with Servere Disabilities, 1992, p.2) “Communication is a dynamic process that individuals use to exchange ideas, relate experiences, and share desires through speakings, writing, gestures or sign language”. Communication includes language, speech and hearing and hence, a communication impairment can be viewed as any impairment related to these three areas”.
Person-to-person communication is the exchange of information, ideas, and feelings among people. Com- munication takes place when you transmit a message from one person to another person or to a group of people. However, effective communicated requires more than just transmitting a message. The message must be clear, accurate, and above all, understood by the person or persons with whom you are communi- cating. Communication is thus the process of transmission of information of an originator to a receiver by means of the use of a message that goes from one to another across a channel. People communicate to satisfy needs in both their work and non-work lives. People want to be heard, to be appreciated and to be wanted.
They also want to accomplish tasks and to achieve goals. The major purpose of communication is to help people feel good about themselves and about their friends, groups, and organizations. For true communica- tion, there must be a transmission of thoughts, ideas and feelings from one mind to another.
Communication is a dynamic process, ongoing and ever changing, which involves five major elements. The five elements are the message, the sender, the transmission medium, the receiver, and feedback.
COMMUNICATION ELEMENTS
- The Message
A message is not only conveyed information, but the emotions that give the words meaning. Words alone do not establish the full meanings of the message. Nonverbal communications may give clues that the receiver can use to interpret verbal messages.
The message is what the sender attempts to transmit to his specified receivers. Every message has at least two major aspects: content and treatment. The content of the message includes the assertions, arguments, appeals, and themes which the sender transmits to the receivers. For instance, community leaders may wish to send a message to community organizations appealing for financial support for a new swimming pool. The content of the message may include the results of a survey showing the need for a new swimming pool, the proposed plan for the new pool, the costs involved, and the appeal for financial support.
The treatment of the message is the arrangement or ordering of the content by the sender. In the above example, the community leaders can arrange the content in many ways. The receiver is likely to be more receptive to the message, however, if the sender talks about the survey illustrating the needs prior to talking about the costs and making the appeal for financial support.
The selection of content and the treatment of the message depend upon our communication skills, attitudes, knowledge level, our position in social systems, and our culture. The selection of content and the treatment of the message we use also depend upon our audience an their communication skills, knowledge, attitudes, social position, and culture. A doctor, for example, would probably select different content and treat the message differently when talking about the same subject to two different audiences, i.e., his fellow doctors and a group of community leaders.
b. Sender and Sender’s Process
The sender is the source of communication. The sender starts the communication process by transmitting information to the receiver. Encoding the message, whether written or oral, is a process that requires four separate steps. The first step is to formulate the message, putting thoughts into words. The second step consists of passing the message through many psychological or internal communication barriers. Psycho- logical barriers stem from the sender’s existing knowledge, beliefs, biases, and feelings. The message, once filtered through these psychological barriers, is encoded for transmission. The encoding process ranges from simply
stringing words together, to actually putting the message into some form of code. Transmitting the message, whether in oral or written form, might appear to be the last step in the sender’s process, but a good communicatior immediately becomes the receiver and prepares to accept feedback for verification of mes- sage delivery.
c. Transmission Medium (Chandu)
The transmission medium is the pathway by which the message flows. It is the vehicle that carries the message from the sender to the receiver, and back. The medium can be electronic, written, verbal, or non- verbal.
Satellites are most important channels of communication today
The beginning of human communication through artificial channels, i.e. not vocalization or gestures, goes back to ancient cave paintings, drawn maps, and writing.
Our indebtedness to the Ancient Romans in the field of communication does not end with the Latin root “communicare”. They devised what might be described as the first real mail or postal system in order to centralize control of the empire from Rome. This allowed for personal letters and for Rome to gather knowledge about events in its many widespread provinces.
The adoption of a domain communication medium is imprtant enough that historians have folded civiliza- tion into ages” according to the medium most widely used. A book titled “Five Epochs of Civilization” by
William Mechaughey divides history into the following stages: Ideographic writing produced the first civilization; alphabetic writing the second; printing, the third; electronic recording and broadcasting, the fourth; and computer communication, the fifth. The media effects what people think about themselves and how they perceive people as well. What we think about self image and what others should look like comes from the media.
While it could be argued that these “Epochs” are just a historian’s construction, digital and computer communication shows concrete evidence of changing the way humans organize. The latest trend in communication, termed smartmobbing, involves ad-hoc organization through mobile devices, allowing for effective many-to-many communication and social networking.
Social scientists recognize two types of channels: (1) sensory channels based on the five senses of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, and (2) institutionalized means such as face-to-face conversation, printed materials, and the electronic media.
We use the institutionalized means to transmit most of our messages. Each institutionalized medium requires one or more of the sensory channels to carry the message from the sender to the receiver. For instance, when we use face-to-face conversation (an institutionalized medium) we make use of sight (gestures, expressions), sound (voice,other noises), and possibly touch, smell, or taste.
Social Scientists have generally found that the receiver’s attention is more likely to be gained if the sender uses a combination of institutional means using two or more sensory channels. Suppose, for example, someone tells your group that the quality of education in your community is not as good as the public is led to believe. If your group can discuss the problem face-to-face with school administrators during visits to the school (sight and sound) as well as hear about them through institutionalized means such as television and newspapers, they are more likely to pay attention to the message.
Face-to-face conversation has the greatest potential for getting the receiver’s attention. It should be the primary institutionalized means used by leaders in sending messages to their group members. However, leaders should supplement face-to-face conversation with other institutionalized means and sensory channels in their continuing effort to gain the attention of their group members.
d. Receiver
The receiver is the element in the communication process that interprets the meaning of the message. Only when the receiver has understood the message, can true communication take place. The receiver also goes through an internal set of processes related to incoming messages. Upon obtaining the mes- sage, the receiver decodes it through assimilation and interpretation. The receiving process is made up of the following steps: receive, decode, filter, and interpret, Receiving takes place when the receive first perceives the message, either by sight or hearing, During this process, the receiver filters the information through their own psychological barriers such as existing knowledge, attitude, beliefs, biases, and percep- tions. These barriers affect how well the message is understood, accepted and decoded. To decode a message effectively, the sender and receiver must be communicating in the same language, Language, in this sense, is not limited to formal language types (i.e., English, Spanish, etc.), but also includes the influences of technical knowledge, experience, and critical items called operational definitions. The words in the message must mean the same thing to the receiver and sender or there will be miscommunication.
The receiver in must attend to, interpret, and respond to the transmitted message. The goal of communi- cation is reached when the receiver accepts the sender’s message. Attention and comprehension are the means the receiver used to attain the goal of acceptance of the message.
Attention is the process by which the receiver tunes in on a message and listens to it, watches it, or reads it. The sender must consider his receiver and treat the message in such a way that the receiver’s attention is more easily gained and retained.
Comprehension implies understanding of the message by the receiver. Here again, the sender must consider his intended receiver and use message content and treatment that will enable the receiver to understand the message. Once the receiver has attended to the message and comprehended or under- stood the content, his next task is to accept the message on at least one of three levels: the cognitive, that is, the receiver accepts the message content as true; the affective, the receiver believes that the message is not only true but good; overt action, where the receiver believes the message is true, believes it is good,
takes the appropriate action. The sender can do much in deciding on his content and treatment of the message to gain the receiver’s.
attention and comprehension. However, he has the little control over the receiver’s acceptance of the message. One consideration required at this point is to note that receivers are more inclined to accept message contents which agree with their previous attitudes. The sender has a less difficult task if his message agrees with the receiver’s attitudes. If the receiver disagree with the sender’s message, accep- tance is less likely.
e. Feedback
Perhaps the greatest cause of ineffective communication is failure of the sender to request feedback from the receiver. Feedback is the element of communication that confirms the message has been received and understood. It completes the sender’s process by verifying the meaning has not changed. In most written forms of communication, some reply is required. It amy range from specific action to a simple receipt. Oral communication via electronic means usually requires only a verbal repeat of the message followed by “roger”, “understand”, or “aye-aye”.
In face-to-face oral communications, feedback can be more complex. One way to get feedback from face- to-face communication is to solicit questions from your receiver, or each person to who your message applies. Thus, feedback allows a listener to tell the speaker whether the message was understood. If it is done with care and consideration, it is an important tool for good communication. Feedback lest you describe your reaction instead of evaluating the other person’s performance. It is very helpful to be specific and address a behavior the listener can change
Thus, feedback is the sender’s way of determining the effectiveness of his message. During feedback the direction of the communication process is reversed. When providing feedback, the original receiver goes through the same process as did the original sender and the same factors influence him as they did the sender. The receiver may use the same channel for feedback as the sender used for the original mes- sage; this is usually the case in face-to-face conversation.
Or the receiver may take a different channel, as might be the case when you as a leader transmit a message to your group requesting action on a matter and the group acts or does not act in the way you asked. The group’s actions have them become the feedback. Another example might be the increased sales of a product due to radio and television advertising. The purchase of the product by the public provides feedback to the manufacturer on the effectiveness of the communicated message. In face-to- face conversation, feedback is more easily perceived. The sender can tell if the receivers are paying attention when he speaks to them. If a receiver falls asleep or looks at other things in the surrounding environment, the sender realizes that he does not have the receiver’s attention.
If the sender sees furrowed brows or questioning facial expressions in his receivers, he knows that they did not comprehend his message. However, the overt action taken by the receiver is the feedback that the sender uses to determine the amount of influence he has had with the receiver.
Feedback is an essential component of interpersonal communication. It makes communication more participative, gives more clarity to source message and enables the source to assess the impact of his message.
Source : www.rot13.or/…/cuc2001/slide3.html
d. Noise
Communication noise refers to influences on effective communication that influence the interpretation of conversations. While oftentimes looked over, communication noise can have a profound impact both on our perception of interactions with others and our analysis of our own communication proficiency. Noise can be of various types :
Psychological Noise
Psychological noise results from preconceived notions we bring to conversations, such as racial stereo-
types, reputations, biases, and assumptions. When we come into a conversation with idea about what the other person is going to say and why, we can easily become blinded to their original message. Most of the time psychological noise is impossible to free ourselves from, and we must simply strive to recognize that it exists and take those distractions into account when we converse with others.
Physical Noise
Physical noise is any external or environmental stimulus that distracts us from receiving the intended message sent by a communicator. Examples of physical noise include others talking in the background, background music, a startling noise, acknowledging someone outside of the conversation, an unconfortable room, or even noticing outfit that one finds distasteful.
Physiological Noise
Physiological noise is the bodily factors which influence communication. This includes the way these feelings and movements affect both the sender and the receiver. The sender may feel sick to his or hot stomach and have a racing heart caused by nervousness about a public speech or stress from work. The receiver may notice the sender sweating, twitching, or glancing away. All these noises affect the way the sender is able to effectively communicate as well as the way the receiver is able to effectively decode the message. The receiver may interpret these signs of nerves to the sender being dishonest without there being any verbal clue to indicate that the he or she is lying.
Semantic Noise
Of the various froms of noise, semantic noise may be the most common and difficult to define. It can best be described as particular diction or syntax that leads to confusion or misinterpretation of the intended message. One reason semantic noise is so widespread is how easily it can extend to written language.
For example, the reader may perceive this article to be correct if it is written well enough, though that has little to do with the content. However, a person using language this format in casual conversation may seem a bit strange. Semantic noise often takes the form of disrespectful or outdated terminology that offends a particular group or demographic. It also occurs with words or phrases that mean different things to different people. Indeed, semantic noise occurs to some extent or another in almost all forms of verbal communication.
Communication can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three level of semiotic rules: Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols), pragmatic concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users) and semantic study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent). Therefore, communication is a kind of social interaction where at least two interact- ing agents share a common set of signs and a common set of semiotic rules. (This commonly held rule ssentially ignores autocommunication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries r self-talk).
In a simplistic model, information or content (e.g. a message in natural language) is sent in some form (as spoken language) from a emisor/sender/encoder to a destination/decoder. In a slightly more complex form a sender and a receiver are linked reciprocally.
Communication is a success if both the sender and receiver perceive the message similarly
Source : Wikipedia
A particular instance of communication is called a speech act. A speech act typically follows a variation of logical means of delivery sometimes not well specified making others guess. The most common of these, and perhaps the best, is the dialogue. The dialogue is a form of communication where both the parties are involved in sending information. There are many other forms of communication but the reason the dia- logue is good is because the dialogue lends itself to plain sometimes complicated communication due to feedback. (Feedback being encoded information, either verbal or noverbal, sent back to the original sender (now the receiver) and then decoded.)
Codifying and decodifying of message is integral to the process of communication
Source : Wikipedia
In the presence of “communication noise” on the transmission channel (air, in this case) received and decoded content can become faulty in the sense that it will contain errors and thus probably not cause the desired effect.
Theories of coregulation describe communication as a creative and dynamic continuous process, rather than a discrete exchange of information. Verbal communication is when we communicate our message verbally to whoever is receiving the message. Symbolic communication are the things that we have given meaning to and that represent a certain idea we have in place, for example, the American flag is a symbol that represent freedom for the Americans themselves, or imperialism and evil for some other countries.
Put generally, communication is the exchange of information between members of a group of living beings that enables survival or imporved living conditions for the sender or receiver of the message or both. As expressed in the history of symbolic communication, the exchange of message change the a priori expec- tation of events.
Since the begining of time, the need to communicate emerge from a set of universal questions: Who am I? Who needs to know? Why do they need to know? How will they find out? How do I want them to re- spond? Individuals, communities and organizations express their individuality through their identity. On the continum from the cave paintings at Lascaux to digital messages transmitted via satellite, humanity continues to create an infinite sensory palette of visual and verbal expression.
As a process, communication has synonyms such as expressing feelings, conversing, speaking, corre- sponding, writing, listening and exchanging. Communication is often formed around the principles of respect, promises and the want for social improvement. People communicate to satisfy needs in both their work and non-work lives. People want to be heard, to be appreciated and to be wanted. They also want to accomplish tasks and to achieve goals. Obviously, then, a major purpose of communication is to help people feel good about themselves and about their friends, groups, and organizations. For these types of communication, there must be a transmission of thoughts, ideas and feelings from one mind to another.
Communication is not the mere sending and receiving of messages. It must be effective,i.e., the message must be understood by the audience for whom it is intended. Some of the characteristics of effective communication are :
Completenes (context)
- answer all questions asked
- give something extra, when desirable
- check for the five W’s and any other essentials
Concisenes (style)
- shorten or omit wordy expressions
- include only relevant statements
- avoid unnecessary repetition
Consideration (contex/delivery)
- focus “you” instead of “I” or “we”
- show reader benefit/interest in the reader
- emphasize the positive, pleasant facts
- apply integrity and ethics
Concreteness (style/sources)
- use specific and accurate words, facts and figures
- put action in your verbs
- choose vivid, image-building words
Clarity (organization/sources)
- choose short, familiar, conversational words
- construct effective sentences and paragraphs
- achiever appropriate readability (through headings and transitions) and listening ability
- include examples, illustrations, and other visual aids, when desirable
Courtesy (delivery)
- be sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and appreciative
- omit expressions that irritate, hurt, or belittle
- grant and apologize good-naturedly
Correctness (style)
- use the right level of language
- maintain acceptable writing mechanics
- choose nondiscriminatory expressions
- apply all the other pertinent “C” qualities
Source : (From Murphy and Hildebrandt’s Effective Business Communications, 1991)
Scope of communication means the extent to which communication process is defined. Communication may be limited to certain persons, topics, channels or situations. These elements thus define the limits of communication.
The communicator who is the source of the message often decides the scope of communication. The scope of communication may be also defined by the channel chosen. For e.g., in case of mass media like television the geographical scope of communication may extend across states, cultures and nations, whereas in the case of regional newspapers, the scope of communication may be limited to the particular region only. The communicator may also decide the target audience for communication. For e.g., a communicator designing a health message for family planning may limit the scope of communication to married couples only.
Communication is a process by which information is exchanged between or among individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, and behavior. It is a process that is similar to expressing feelings, conversing, speaking, corresponding, writing, listening and exchanging.
Communications is thus the process of transmission of information of an originator to a receiver by means of the use of a message that it goes from one to another across a channel. People communicate to satisfy needs in both their work and non-work lives. People want to be heard, to be appreciated and to be wanted. They also want to accomplish tasks and to achieve goals. The major purpose of communication is to help people feel good about themselves and about their friends, groups, and organizations. For true communi- cation, there must be a transmission of thoughts, ideas and feelings from one mind to another.
Communication is a dynamic process, ongoing and ever changing, which involves five major elements. The five elements are the message, the sender, the transmission medium, the receiver, and feedback.
Communication can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three levels of semiotic rules: Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols), pragmatic concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users) and semantic study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent). In a simplistic model, information or content (e.g. a message in natural language) is sent in some from (as spoken language) from a emisor/sender/encoder to a destination/ receiver/decoder. In a slightly more complex form a sender and a receiver are linked reciprocally. Theories of coregulation describe communication as a creative and dynamic continuous process, rather than a discrete exchange of information. Verbal communication is when we communicate our message verbally to whoever is receiving the message. Symbolic communications are the things that we have given mean- ing to and that represent a certain idea we have in place.
Communication is not the mere sending and receiving of messages. If must be effective. Characteristics of effective communication are : Completeness (context), Conciseness (style), Consideration (context/ delivery), Concreteness (style/sources), Clarity (organization/sources), Courtesy (delivery), Correctness(style).
Scope of communication means the extent to which communication process is defined. Communication may be limited to certain persons, topics, channels or situations. These elements thus define the limits of communication.
Communication : the exchange of information, ideas, and feelings. Elements of Communication : Sender, Message, Channel, Receiver, Noise. Sender : The originator of message/communication.
Message : The content of communication.
Channel : The medium through which communication occurs. Receiver : The receiver/audience of communication message. Noise : Disturbance in communication process.
Physical noise : External or environmental stimulus causing disturbance in communication process.
Psychological noise : Results from preconceived notions like racial stereotypes, reputations, biases, and assumptions.
Physiological noise : Bodily factors which influence communication.
Semantic noise : Particular diction or syntax that leads to confusion or misinterpretation of the intended message.
Feedback : Communication from receiver to source regarding message of the source.
Scope : Limitations to communication process.
- Define
- Explain the various elements in the communication
- What is the purpose of communication?
- What is noise? Explain the various types of
- Explain the importance of feedback in
- What is meant by ‘scope of communication?
