Fundamentals of Communication

• Communication is the process of exchanging ideas, facts, feelings, or impressions to reach a shared understanding.
• The word "communication" comes from the Latin term "communis" meaning "common".
• Communication involves a deliberate attempt to share information, ideas, and attitudes.

Factors of the Communication Process

• Sender: Initiates communication and is responsible for the message's encoding.
• Purpose: Communication always has a specific aim or objective.
• Encoding: This is the process of converting thoughts into symbolic form.
• Message: Encoded data expressing the sender's intentions.
• Medium: Selection of a communication channel or method.
• Decoding: The receiver assigns meaning to the message.

Internal vs External Communication Barriers

• Barriers are obstacles that hinder the effective exchange of information.
• Internal barriers correspond to hindrances inside a person, including their thinking and attitude.
• External barriers correspond to hindrances outside of a person, including people and the environment.

Ways of Communicating

• Verbal: Can include casual chatting or formal presentations.
• Non-verbal communication: For example, facial expressions and eye contact.
• Written: Communication via emails and letters.
• Visual: For example, drawings and illustrations

Spoken vs Written Communication

• Spoken: Involves speaking and listening skills.
• Spoken: More informal and may contain repetition and incomplete sentences.
• Written: Relies on writing and reading.
• Written: Uses headings and layouts, and is grammatically correct.

Types of Communication

• Intrapersonal communication involves communication within oneself.
• Interpersonal communication is communication between people who lives mutually affect one another.
• Mass communication is a communication transmitted to multiple people through print and/or electronic media.

Perception Process

• Selecting Information: Paying attention to salient information.
• Salience: Something attracts our attention in a particular context.
• Organizing Information: Sorting and categorizing information based on cognitive patterns.
• Interpreting Information: Assigning meaning to experiences using mental structures known as schemata.
• Schemata are like databases of stored, related information used to interpret new experiences.

Perceptual Differences

• Perceptual barriers disrupt information processing and prevent accurate perception of others.
• One such barrier are personal experiences
• Beliefs can also be fundamental barriers, guiding how people view the world.

Self Concept

• Self-concept refers to the overall idea of who a person thinks they are.
• Begins in early childhood and continues to be shaped through experiences and interactions.
• Self-concept tends to be more malleable in younger years while going through self-discovery and identity formation.

Hierarchy of Self Concept

• Self-Identity: The most basic level, recognition of physical and psychological features.
• Self-Esteem: The second level, evaluation of one's worth and value as a person.
• Self-Actualization: The highest level, pursuit of one's full potential and personal growth.

Improving Self Concept

• Avoid Relying on Rigid Schemas: Schemas are sets of information that guide interactions, but can lead to overlooking new information.
• Beware of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Irrational beliefs can trigger behaviors that reinforce those beliefs.

The Power of Language

• Language Definition: A formal system of gestures, signs, sounds, and symbols used to communicate thought.
• Approximately six thousand language schemes in use.
• English: Most widely spoken language, with 1.5 billion speakers.
• Language is vital for enabling human communication and interaction with one another.

Denotative vs Connotative Meaning

• Denotative Meaning: Specific meaning associated with a word (dictionary definition).
• Connotative Meaning: Idea suggested by or associated with a word.

Elements of Language

• There are five basic language components (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics).
• Phonology: Patterns of basic speech units and pronunciation rules.
• Morphology: Study of the smallest units of meaning (morphemes).
• Syntax: How individual words combine to create sentences.
• Semantics: How a language conveys meaning.
• Pragmatics: Ways speech community members achieve goals using language.

Language-Based Communication Barriers and How To Overcome Them

• Language barriers arise from different languages and dialects.
• Overcoming them: Use plain language and visual methods.

Effective use of Language

• Language must Be appropriate for the speaker and the audience.
• It also must be appropriate for the subject matter.
• Concrete Language: Helps audiences visualize specific realities.
• Simile: Comparing two unlike things (e.g., "Love is like a battlefield").
• Metaphor: Applying a term or phrase in a non-literal way to suggest resemblance (e.g., "Love is a battlefield").

Elements Of Rhythm

• Rhythm: Variance of sound.
• Parallelism: Presenting ideas in a grammatically parallel fashion.
• Repetition: Repeating key messages.
• Alliteration: Repeating consonants at the beginning of words.
• Assonance: Repeating vowel sounds.

Use Inclusive Language

• Inclusive Language: Language that avoids privileging one group over others.

Non-Verbal Communication

• Defined: Generating meaning using behaviors other than words.
• Includes vocal elements (paralanguage) and nonvocal elements (body language). Oral communication relies on one channel (sound), nonverbal relies on more senses.

Non Verbal Communication Forms

• Kinesics: Study of hand, arm, body, and face movements
• Gestures: They include adaptors, emblems, and illustrators.

Head Movements and Posture

• They acknowledge others and communicate interest.
• A head nod is a universal sign of acknowledgment.
• Four human postures: Standing, sitting, squatting, and lying down.

Forms of Non Verbal Communication

• Eye Contact is critical during communication to regulate interaction and communicate information. Pupil Dilation: Expansion and contraction of the pupil, a biometric form of measurement reflecting interest, stress, and cognitive activity. Facial Expressions: Indicate emotions. Haptics: Communicating through touch.

Elements of Vocality

• Vocalics: Vocalized but nonverbal parts of a message, like pitch, volume, and rate. Vocal pitch helps convey meaning and the intensity of a message.

Element of Proxemics (Space)

• Proxemics: Study of how space and distance influence communication.

• Public Space: (12+ feet) Formal, non-intimate communication.

• Social Space: (4-12 feet) Casual or professional interactions.

• Personal Space: (1.5-4 feet) Close acquaintances and friends.

• Intimate Space: (0-1.5 feet) Close friends, family, and romantic partners.

• Chronemics: Study of how time affects communication.

• Biological time: Rhythms of living things.

• Cultural time: How a group views time.

Non-Verbal Communication Functions

• Convey meaning by reinforcing, substituting, or contradicting verbal communication.
• Helps to regulate conversational flow.
• Affects relationships through cues, intimacy behaviors, and expressions of emotion.
• Expresses our identities through artifacts and nonverbal signals.

Interpersonal Communication Defined

• Exchanging feelings through verbal messages and non-verbal messages.
• Involves tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and body language.

Living In Groups

• Can adapt to stress and have satisfaction.
• Individuals with high interpersonal abilities have stress resistance for interpersonal communications.

Hierarchy of Needs

• Physiological Needs: Basic needs like food, water, shelter, and sleep. Without basics, one cannot move to higher forms.
• Safety Needs: Safety and security in life.
• Love and Belonging Needs: Emotional connections, relationships, and social interactions.
• Esteem Needs: Self-esteem, self-respect, and the respect of others.

Self-Disclosure

• Defined: Purposeful disclosure of personal information to another person.
• Social penetration theory: As we get acquainted with one another.
• This results in a reciprocal process of self-disclosure that affects relationships.
• Social comparison theory: We evaluate ourselves based on how we compare with others.

Johari Window

• The upper-left pane contains open information.
• The bottom-left pane contains hidden information.
• The upper-right pane contains information known to others but not to us.
• The bottom-right pane represents our unknown area.

Communicating in Relationships

• Involves observations, thoughts, and feelings, with observations and thoughts leading feelings and needs.
• Self-disclosure is circular.
• Involves process and reaction.
• Communication can be used to help you communicate better with romantic partners.

Friendships

• Characterized by voluntary relationships of mutual equals that influence one another.
• Reciprocal: Involves between solid relationships
• Associative: Mutualy pleasing with little commitment
• Receptive: relationship of hierarchy

Use LARA In Communication

• L (Listen): listen without bias
• A (Affirm): Acknowledge what they say
• R (Respond): Answer and state thoughts without confrontation.
• A (Add): Contribute in a constructive way.

Mass Communication Defined

• Defined: Transfer of messages through technology to a large audience.
• Sender involved in a large media organization.
• Public messages.
• Varied audience.

Characteristics Of Traditional Media Organizations

• Refers to media and broadcasts.
• One way communication.
• Print, book, television and radio media.

Traditional Media Outlets such as Newspapers and Magazines are more credible

• In contrast to platforms such as social media.
• Print: Printed on paper. Television: Uses moving images and sound. Radio: Carries audio signals over long distances.

Emerging trends in Social Media

• Involves multiple platforms.
• Platforms range from TV, Web and social media.
• Fast paced with competition.
• Supremacy in social media
• Anti social elements spread hate.