Communication Process and Components

Communication Process and Components

• Definition: The exchange of information between individuals using symbols, signs, or behavior.
• Key Components:
  • Participants: Senders and receivers who encode and decode messages.
  • Context: The setting in which communication occurs, with several types:
    • Physical Context: Location and environmental factors like temperature, lighting, noise levels, time, and distance.
    • Social Context: Nature of relationships between participants, such as friends, associates, authorities, acquaintances, and family members.
    • Historical Context: Previous communication episodes that provide background.
    • Psychological Context: Moods and feelings of participants.
    • Cultural Context: Values, beliefs, orientations, and underlying assumptions of participants.
  • Message: Encoded and decoded information, which can be verbal or non-verbal.
    • Encoding: The process of putting thoughts together.
    • Decoding: The process of interpreting the message.
  • Channels: Sensory routes traveled by the message.
  • Feedback: Reactions and responses to a message indicating its reception.
  • Noise: Any stimulus hindering the sharing of meaning, including:
    • External Noise: Environmental distractions.
    • Internal Noise: Thoughts or feelings of participants.
    • Semantic Noise: Misinterpretation of words or meanings.

Models of Communication

• Aristotle's Model: Emphasizes the speaker (source), the speech (message), and the audience (receiver).
• Shannon & Weaver's Model: Focuses on the transmission of information from a source through a channel to a receiver, with noise as potential interference.
• Berlo's Model: Includes the source, encoding, message, channel, decoding, and receiver, with factors influencing each element.
• Schramm's Model: Emphasizes the shared field of experience between the sender and receiver as crucial for effective communication.
• Helical Model: Depicts communication as a dynamic, evolving process that builds upon previous interactions.

Modes of Communication

• Verbal Communication: Uses spoken or written words.
• Non-Verbal Communication: Includes body language and the sound of voice, categorized as:
  • Kinesics: Body movements (e.g., gestures, facial expressions).
  • Proxemics: Use of space.
  • Chronemics: Use of time.
  • Haptics: Use of touch.
  • Oculesics: Use of eye contact.

Levels of Communication

• Intrapersonal Communication: Self-talk or cognitive communication within an individual.
• Interpersonal Communication: Communication between two individuals.
• Small Group Communication: Communication between three to twenty people for a specific purpose.
• Public Communication: A speaker addressing an audience.

Functions of Communication

• Meeting needs.
• Influencing others.
• Developing relationships.
• Exchanging information.
• Fulfilling social obligations.
• Enhancing or maintaining self-identity.

Misconceptions about Communication

• Communication can solve all problems.
• The more we communicate, the better.
• Communication can breakdown.
• Meanings are in words.
• Communication is a natural ability.

Principles of Communication

• Communication is purposive.
• Communication is continuous.
• Communication messages vary in conscious encoding.
• Communication is relational.