Communication Defined and Process

Communication Defined

• Communication: Process where meaning is exchanged between people in a systematic fashion.
• Communication involves interpreting and creating meaning using symbols.
• Communication is a process.

Communication Process Components

• Context: Influences communication and includes physical, social, historical, cultural, and psychological factors.
  • Physical context: Where communication takes place
  • Social context: Existing relationships between communicators
  • Historical Context: Previous communication between communicators
  • Psychological Context: The emotional state of communicators involved
  • Cultural Context: Beliefs, values, norms shared within a large group of people
• Participants: Individuals involved in communication, sender and receiver.
• Messages: Information exchanged during communication, encoded and decoded.
• Channels: Route and means of message delivery.
  • Face-to-face communication uses two basic channels: sound (verbal symbols) and light (non-verbal cues)
• Noise: Interference in communication.
  • External noise: Distractions from the environment.
  • Internal noise: Thoughts and feelings interfering with understanding
  • Semantic noise: Unintended meanings of symbols that hinder comprehension
• Feedback: Responses or reactions to a message, indicating how the message was received and understood.

Levels of Communication

• Verbal communication: Communication using words, spoken, written, or signed.
• Non-verbal communication: Communication without language using body language, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, posture, and touch.
  • Voice pitch, tone, and volume also convey meaning.
• Intrapersonal communication: Communication within oneself, also known as cognitive or personal communication or "self-talk".
• Interpersonal communication: Communication between two persons establishing a communicative relationship.
• Public communication: A speaker communicating with an audience.

Functions of Communication

• To fulfill needs
• To enhance or maintain a sense of self
• To fulfill social obligations
• To develop relationships
• To exchange information
• To influence others

Principles of Communication

• Purposive: Communication has a goal, intended to be trivial or significant. Successfully achieving the purpose determines success.
• Continuous: Communication persists constantly, even silence communicates.
• Relational: Building, maintaining, and dissolving relationships are influenced by communication.
• Messages vary in conscious encoding: Communication can be spontaneous, based on learned scripts, or constructed from an understanding of the situation
• Ethical implications: Communication must adhere to ethical principles.
• Learned: Effective communication is a skill that is learned through practice and development.

Communication Ethics

• Unethical communication involves using language that degrades or injures others through exaggeration, false statements, and name-calling.
• Ethical communicators speak sincerely, do not deliberately mislead, avoid knowingly spreading falsehoods, and present the truth transparently.

Explore the fundamental concepts of communication, including its definition and essential components. This quiz delves into the various contexts that influence communication and the roles of participants in the exchange of messages.