Communication: What is communication?

### **What is Communication?** Communication is the exchange of message meaning within a person and between people \[1\]. It is a continuous process that occurs in various contexts and uses cultural symbols \[1\]. It is a process that purposefully uses spoken, nonverbal, and visual symbols \[1\]. T...

### **What is Communication?** Communication is the exchange of message meaning within a person and between people \[1\]. It is a continuous process that occurs in various contexts and uses cultural symbols \[1\]. It is a process that purposefully uses spoken, nonverbal, and visual symbols \[1\]. The ideal communication experience is high fidelity, which is the achievement of mutual understanding \[2\]. ### **Why Study Communication?** To articulate ideas verbally and nonverbally \[1\] To develop confidence \[1\] To attain personal and professional goals \[1\] To maintain relationships \[1\] To become an audience centred communicator \[1\] To listen appropriately \[1\] To become an ethical communicator \[1\] To recognise how context effects communication \[1\] To understand how channels (the means by which messages and feedback are transmitted between speaker and audience) affect messages \[1\]. ### **How to Communicate Effectively:** Consider your goal and audience \[3\]. Create a thoughtful message \[3\]. Communicate clearly and directly \[3\]. Follow up to ensure understanding \[3\]. ### **Skills for Communication Competency:** State ideas clearly (be precise and concise) \[3\]. Communicate ethically (don't try to offend/misdirect) \[3\]. Know when it is appropriate to communicate \[3\]. Choose an appropriate and effective message organisation \[3\]. Demonstrate credibility \[3\]. Identify and manage misunderstanding, manage conflict \[3\]. Be openminded, ask questions and listen attentively \[3\]. ### **Barriers to Communication:** **Ethnocentrism:** Judging other cultures primarily from the viewpoint of one\'s own culture, often reflecting an attitude of superiority \[2\]. **Culture Shock:** Discomfort created when placed in an unfamiliar environment \[4\]. **Groupthink:** The desire for unanimity discourages group members from taking a realistic look at a group task or problem \[4\]. Formal Organisational Structures \[4\] Cultural diversity / Neurodiversity / Equality Concerns \[4\] Intense political, financial and time pressures, competing managerial priorities and demands \[4\] Age and technological competency gaps \[4\] ### **Types of Communication:** Intrapersonal \[2\] Interpersonal \[2\] Dyadic (One to One) \[2\] Group \[2\] Public \[2\] Organisational \[2\] Mass (Behavioural, Attitudinal, Emotional, Phycological, Cognitive, Belief effects) \[2\] ### **History of Communication:** Verbal \-\-- Written \-\-- Audiovisual \-\-- Online \-\-- Mobile \[2\] ### **Frame of Reference:** An individual's worldview based on background, age, education, gender, values, politics, economic status, culture, occupation, health, and ethnicity that influences sending and receiving messages \[5\]. ### **Models of Communication:** **Linear Communication Model:** A one-way process in which a sender intentionally transmits a message to a receiver via a channel \[6\]. One way, with no feedback, is used for mass communication \[6\]. **Interactive Communication Model:** A two-way process in which the receiver transmits feedback to the sender, alternating roles \[6\]. **Transactional Communication Model:** A communication situation in which messages flow in two directions simultaneously, with the speaker and the audience both acting as senders and receivers \[6\]. ### **Intrapersonal Communication:** **Goals:** Build self-awareness, achieve or maintain social relationships and facilitate behaviours \[6\]. Increases the knowledge of self and others \[6\]. ### **Interpersonal Communication:** **Goals:** Inclusion, affection, sociability, team working, to exercise control \[7\]. It's affected by contexts and norms (implicit/explicit rules of behaviour) \[7\]. ### **Emotional Intelligence:** The ability to be self-aware, manage emotions (self-regulation), motivate yourself, recognise emotions in others (empathy), handle relationships (Goleman) \[7\]. The ability of an individual to monitor her or his own and other's feeling and emotions and to use the information to guide thoughts and actions \[7\]. ### **Social Intelligence:** The ability to understand group dynamics, understand how information is flowing, manage communications in a group, understand power dynamics and manage conflict \[8\]. ### **Networks:** **Definition:** A complex combination of communicative people who transmit and exchange information and ideas \[8\]. **Roles in Networks:** Brokers, Connectors, Energisers, Challengers \[8\]. **Networking:** The human process that creates and maintains relationships based on trust for the exchange of valuable knowledge and collaborative working \[8, 9\]. It facilitates outcomes such as professional achievement, information acquisition and identity development \[9\]. **Strength of Weak Ties:** Acquaintances and casual relationships can often be more useful for new information and opportunities than close ties \[8, 10\]. **Homophily:** The tendency for people to seek out or be attracted to those who are like themselves \[8\]. **Propinquity:** Being physically close to someone, e.g. work colleague \[8\]. **The Adjacent Possible:** Reaching into one's own network while hanging out at the edges of other networks to see what is happening beyond \[11\]. ### **Network Typologies:** Dense but not centralised \[11\] Centralised \[11\] Fragmented \[11\] Closed \[11\] ### **Mentoring:** Mentoring and mentoring relationships provide career support and psychological support \[9\]. ### **Interference/Noise:** Anything that modifies or disrupts a message as it transfers from a sender to a receiver \[12\]. ### **Context:** The specific environment or situation in which communication takes place \[12\]. ### **Feedback:** **Definition:** Verbal and nonverbal messages sent from a listener, or listeners, to speaker \[12, 13\]. It is a special type of message designed as a response to a received message \[14\]. It is one of the essential components in the model of communication \[13, 14\] and is constantly present and inherent in the communication process \[13, 14\]. It involves both verbal and non-verbal communication and enables us to gauge how the messages we sent were interpreted \[13, 14\]. **Good feedback** builds trust and encourages people to change. It should offer a solution \[15\]. However, it must focus on something that they can change \[15\]. **Good feedback should be:**Descriptive \[15\] Desired \[15\] Helpful \[15\] Relevant \[15\] Concrete & Specific \[15\] Timely \[15\] Face to Face (where possible) \[15\] Sensitive \[15\] Giving and receiving effective feedback is a key function of management and performance development \[16\]. ### **Triggers that make us Reject Feedback:** **Truth Triggers:** We don't believe that it's true/fair \[13, 14\]. **Relationship Triggers:** We don't accept feedback from someone we don't respect/trust/like \[13, 14\]. **Identity Triggers:** We reject feedback that threatens our identity \[13, 14\]. ### **Positive Feedback/Praise:** Taking the opportunity to express appreciation of a job well done, in the hope of inspiring an individual to do many more jobs even better \[15, 17\]. ### **Constructive Feedback:** The supportive act intended to deal with under-performance in a positive way and to develop performance to a higher level \[18, 19\]. ### **To give Constructive Feedback:** Ask if you can give feedback \[20, 21\]. Talk about the current behaviour \[20, 21\]. Discuss the effects of the current behaviour \[20, 21\]. Identify desired behaviour \[20, 21\]. ### **When Receiving Feedback:** Try to understand the other person's objective \[16, 22\]. Take time to process it and then follow up on it \[16, 22\]. Accept and make use of the feedback \[16, 22\]. Understand that the most important things we learn in life come from our most painful experiences \[16, 22\]. ### **Encoding:** Converting the intended message into symbols, signs, images and languages \[12\]. ### **Mass Media Theories:** **Self-Disclosure:** The choice an individual makes on how much to disclose to others and the way he or she chooses to disclose \[23\]. **Social Cognitive Theory:** Acquisition of knowledge and development of behaviours from observation \[23\]. **Cultivation Theory:** Individuals receiving most of their information from mediated sources rather than through direct experience \[23\]. **Agenda-Setting Theory:** Theory that explores how the mass media sets the agenda for what people should care about \[23\]. **Uses and Gratifications Theory:** A theory that explores how individuals seek media outlets that satisfy personal needs \[24\]. **Social Comparison Theory:** Theory that explores how we use media to create benchmarks in comparing our lives to others \[24\]. ### **Perception:** **Definition:** The process of selecting, organising, and interpreting information \[24\]. **Perceptual Differences:**Physiological (height, weight, alertness)/ Psychological (emotions, attitudes, mood) \[24\]. Social (gender, status) / Cultural (ethnic background, cultural norms) \[24\]. Experiential (past events, false memories) \[24\]. **The Perceptual Process:Select Info:** Things that stimulate and satisfy your needs/expectations \[25\]. **Organise it in terms of proximity, similarity and difference** \[25\]. **Interpret Info:** Assigning meaning to experience \[25\]. **Schemata:** stored, related information that we use to interpret new experiences \[25\]. **Perceptual Errors:** Misjudgements an individual makes about people, situations, or important topics \[25\]. ### **Types of Perceptual Errors:** **Halo Effect:** The tendency for an impression created in one instance to influence opinion in another instance \[25\]. **Recency:** The tendency for the most recent information to dominate perceptions \[26\]. The opposite is the primacy effect \[26\]. First impressions can be another error \[26\]. **Stereotyping:** The tendency for people to apply generalisations to an individual member of a group based on their assumptions and beliefs about a group of people \[26, 27\]. **Attribution Theory:** Theory in which individuals base their interpretation of other's behaviour on the way they think or behave \[26\]. **Internal Attribution:** Also known as dispositional attribution, the behaviour as being caused by something inside the person \[26\]. **External Attribution:** Also known as situational attribution, the cause of the behaviour stemming from the situation, not the person \[28\]. **Stable Attribution:** Inference of a behaviour that is due to unchanging, permanent factors \[28\]. **Unstable Attribution:** Inference of a behaviour that is due to unstable, temporary factors \[28\]. **Fundamental Attribution Error:** The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behaviour of others \[28\]. **Actor-Observer Difference:** An individual (actor) relying on external factors to explain his or her own actions, which likely differs from the perspective of others (observers) \[29\]. **Self-Serving Bias:** Selective perception: The tendency to filter what you see and hear to suit your own needs \[29\]. Perceptual defence \[29\]. ### **Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and Self-Image:** **Self-Concept:** The way an individual views herself or himself based on the context or situation \[29\]. **Self-Esteem:** The perception of oneself and others contextually based on confidence and abilities \[29\]. **Self-Image:** An individual\'s subjective perception of oneself \[30\]. **Reflected Appraisals:** The way an individual perceives herself or himself based on how others see her or him \[30\]. **Self-Discrepancy Theory:** The beliefs about and expectations for actual and potential selves that do not always match up to what individuals experience \[30\]. **Actual Self:** The attributes that an individual or someone else believes the individual possesses \[30\]. **Ideal Self:** The attributes an individual or someone else would like the individual to have \[30\]. **Ought Self:** The attributes an individual or someone else believes the individual should possess \[31\]. ### **Conflict:** **Definition:** When someone perceives that someone else has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first person cares about \[32\]. Can cost time, energy and talent \[32\]. **Workplace variables that can cause conflict:**Personality \[32\] Personal and Professional Relationships \[32\] Cultural Differences \[32\] Working Environments / Change \[32\] Demands of the Workplace / Poorly Defined Responsibilities \[32\] Competition / Limited Resources / Human Drive for Success \[32\] Clash of Values, Goals and Priorities \[32\] ### **To handle conflict better:** We can identify patterns and triggers like demands, cumulative annoyances and rejection and by learning to respond mindfully rather than reflexively \[33\]. Factors affecting conflict styles include self-concept, gender, expectations, situation, power, practice, communication skills and life experience \[33\]. ### **Conflict Modes (Thomas-Kilmann):** **Avoider:** Giving up on the goal and the relationship \[33\]. **Competitor:** Lots of emphasis on goal, none on the relationship \[33\]. **Compromiser** \[33\]. **Accommodator:** Lots of emphasis on relationships, none on goal \[33\]. **Collaborator:** Values goal and relationship, finds a win-win solution \[33\]. ### **Benefits of Dealing with Conflict:** Stronger relationships \[34\]. Increased self-respect \[34\]. Personal growth and development \[34\]. Improved efficiency and effectiveness \[34\]. ### **Stages in the Conflict Process:** Conflict Situation \[34\]. Awareness of the Situation (Realisation) \[34\]. Manifestation \[34\]. Resolution/Suppression/Conflict \[34\]. After Effects \[34\]. ### **Conflict Management:** Separate people from problem \[34\]. Focus on interests, not positions \[34\]. Keep your emotions in check, don't get over emotional \[34\]. Stress equality and similarities \[34\]. Express interest in the other person's position \[34\]. Never humiliate \[34\]. ### **Conflict Resolution:** Find the source of the conflict and start there \[35\]. Recognise and accept the feelings of others \[35\]. Know when to cut your losses \[35\]. Devise options for mutual gain \[35\]. ### **Tosi, Rizzo, and Carroll (1986): Managing Conflict:** Establish Goals \[35\] Reduce Vagueness \[35\] Improve Policies, Procedures and Rules \[35\] Alter Communications \[35\] Change the Reward System \[35\] Move Staff \[35\] ### **Response Styles in Conflict:** Addresser \[35\]. Concealer \[35\]. Attacker \[35\]. ### **Types of Conflict:** **Functional:** Healthy disagreements vital for improvement and professional survival \[36\]. **Dysfunctional:** Conflict that impedes/prevents managers/employees from achieving the firm's business objectives \[36\]. ### **Types of Small Groups:** Activity Groups (Clubs) \[36\]. Personal Growth Groups (Fitness Groups) \[36\]. Educational Groups (Study Groups) \[36\]. Problem-Solving Groups (Committee) \[36\]. ### **Small groups can be:** Task-Oriented \[37\]. Relational-Oriented \[37\]. ### **Elements of a Team:** Size \[37\]. Roles \[37\]. Norms \[37\]. Cohesiveness \[37\]. ### **Reflective Thinking Process:** Identify the problem \[37\]. Analyse the problem \[37\]. Establish criteria for solutions \[37\]. Generate solutions \[37\]. Choose a solution \[37\]. ### **Functional Teams:** In functional teams, the task gets accomplished and the satisfaction of team members is high \[37\]. ### **How to create a more functional team:** Get to know the other members and their strengths \[37\]. Set ground rules \[37\]. Use a facilitator with norms (what are their responsibilities, how will they be chosen, will the position be rotated after time) \[38\]. Keep lines of communication open \[38\]. Know how to avoid/solve problems \[38\]. Set work, meeting, consideration and communication norms (when should these take place, how will they take place, what happens if someone doesn't contribute) \[38\]. ### **Facilitators:** Focus on the team and task \[38\]. Get participation from all members \[38\]. Keep the team on its agreed upon time frame \[38\]. Suggest alternative procedures if the team stalls \[38\]. Help team members confront problems \[38\]. Summarise and clarify the team's decisions \[38\]. ### **Problems in Teams:** Competitiveness among members \[39\]. The group avoids problems \[39\]. Members rotate the facilitator position \[39\]. Going off target \[39\]. Floundering \[39\]. Making decisions too quickly/not at all \[39\]. The group member who doesn't do their part/who does too much \[39\]. ### **Difficult Behaviours among Team Members:** Talking too much/little \[39\]. Arguments \[39\]. Complaining \[39\]. Ignoring/Ridiculing Members \[39\]. ### **Things to Consider when forming a Team:** Goals \[39\]. Expectations \[39\]. Planning \[39\]. ### **Types of Workplace Communication:** **Internal Communication:** That within an organisation \[40\]. Can be formal or informal \[36\]. **External Communication:** That between the organisation and others outside of it \[40\]. Usually formal \[36\]. ### **Formal Communication:** **Definition:** That offered in an official capacity by the professional involved \[40\]. It stems from the authority, accountability and responsibility of the professional involved \[40\]. Typically uses the official communication channels of an organisation \[40\]. **Examples:** Emails, meetings, performance reviews \[40\]. **Challenges:**It can slow decision making down \[40\]. Can cause confusion by overload or information drought \[40\]. Can alienate employees and make them feel irrelevant \[40\]. ### **Informal Communication:** **Definition:** More relational \[41\]. Not backed by pre-determined channels and can happen anywhere \[41\]. The main goal is to preserve and establish relationships with colleagues, superiors or subordinates \[41\]. It moves faster but without a paper trail or official documentation since it isn't defined by any channels \[41\]. **Examples:** Gossip, phone calls \[41\]. **Advantages:**Encourages a free exchange of ideas \[41\]. Employees feel connected and have a sense of belonging if included \[41\]. Increases morale \[41\]. Bridges gaps among departments \[41\]. Creates a friendly environment in an organisation \[41\]. **Disadvantages:** Difficult to control, it can contradict formal communications, and rumours can spread quickly \[42\]. ### **Grapevines:** **Definition:** Informal communication networks within an organization \[42\]. **Characteristics:**Faster than formal communication \[42\]. Can bypass people without restraint \[42\]. Can carry useful information \[42\]. Can supplement information being disseminated through formal communication networks \[42\]. Provide outlets for individuals' imaginations and apprehensions \[42\]. **Purposes:**Satisfy individuals' need to know what is going on \[42\]. Help people feel a sense of belonging \[42\]. Serve as an early warning system for organizational crises \[42\]. Help build teamwork, motivate people and create corporate identity \[42\]. ### **Managing Formal and Informal Communication:** Be intentional about how you share information \[43\]. Agree policies for what should be shared formally (minutes, invitations, etc.) \[43\]. Use informal for praise, feedback, redirection or for boosting morale \[43\]. ### **Non-Verbal Communication:** **Definition:** Any way one can express themselves apart from by words \[44\]. **Examples:** Facial expressions, dress, body movements, turning up on time \[44\]. **Significance:** They significantly impact someone's success in the workplace and how others perceive you \[45\]. **Non-verbal signals can be ambiguous** \[43\]. One of the key factors which influence an audience's attitudes \[43\]. When verbal and non-verbal signals contradict, we tend to trust the non-verbal signals \[43\]. It has a central role in human communication \[43\]. It is very dependent on context \[43\]. It consists of **kinesics (study of bodily movement)** and **proxemics (study of personal space and territory)** \[43\]. **Functions of Non-Verbal Communication:**Complementary to verbal communication \[44\]. Regulates/Modifies speech \[44\]. To substitute verbal communication (nodding) \[44\]. Accenting verbal communication \[44\]. It is key to self-awareness and emotional intelligence \[44\]. ### **We use non-verbal communication to:** Express our identities and emotions \[44\]. Regulate our interactions \[44\]. Indicate relational standing \[44\]. Express social status and power \[44\]. ### **Examples of Non-Verbal Communication:** **Eye contact:**Regulates flow of communication \[45\]. Monitors feedback \[45\]. Expresses emotions \[45\]. Communicates the nature of the relationship \[45\]. Posture and stance \[46\]. Gestures \[46\]. Facial Expressions \[46\]. Touch (Haptics) \[46\]. ### **Chronemics:** How people perceive and structure time in their dialogue and relationships with others. E.g. is a conversation spending time or wasting it \[46\]. ### **Issues with Non-Verbal Communication:** Often difficult to interpret \[46\]. Can be contradictory \[46\]. Some non-verbal cues are more important than others \[46\]. We aren't as skilled in reading NVC as we think \[46\]. ### **How We Communicate:** Verbal \[45\]. Prosodics (the rhythm, melody and intonation used in speech and language) \[45\]. Paralinguistics (vocal cues that are neither words nor silence) \[45\]. Kinesics (body language and gestures) \[45\]. Standing Features (E.g. piercings) \[45\]. ### **Professional Non-Verbal Communication:** Give the situation your full attention \[47\]. Face the person you're speaking to \[47\]. Don't multitask, it shows disinterest and disrespect \[47\]. ### **Dr. Albert Mehrabian's Elements of Communication:** 7% speaking \[47\]. 38% Voice and Tone \[47\]. 55% Body Language \[47\]. ### **Using the 3 channels in Presentations:** **Verbal:** Pitch, tone, structure, content, voice, pace, emphasis \[47\]. **Non-Verbal:** Body language, eye contact, posture, use of space \[47\]. **Audio-Visual:** Props, images, clips \[47\]. ### **Clothing and Non-Verbal Communication:** Clothing effects NVC as well. Categories of clothing include uniform, occupational dress, leisure clothing and costumes \[48\]. ### **Hall's 4 Zones of Proxemics:** Intimate Space (1.5 ft) \[48\]. Personal Space (4 ft) \[48\]. Social Space (12 ft) \[48\]. Public Space (25 ft) \[48\]. **Proxemics** involves territoriality and can differ between cultures \[48\]. ### **Semiotics:** **Definition:** The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation \[48\]. Semiotics takes culture and communication as objects of study \[48\]. **Signs are comprised by:Signifiers:** The word/picture. They can be: **Iconic:** Likeness to an object -- a photo \[48\]. **Indexical:** Cause and effect, e.g. smoke implies fire \[48\]. **Symbolic:** Something that is culturally learned, like a logo/symbol \[48\]. **Signified:** What the word/picture means \[49\]. It looks at all elements of a culture as if they were elements of a language \[49\]. Being able to read material culture in terms of its popular meanings is an indispensable social skill \[49\]. E.g. knowing that a red rose implies romance \[49\]. Meaning like this is constructed/produced, it isn't inherited \[49\]. Meaning depends on context, e.g. if the rose is in a garden, it usually doesn't imply love \[49\]. **Codes** have an identifiable communicative function \[49\]. They can be **broadcast codes**, which are familiar to many, or they can be **narrowcast codes**, aimed at a defined and limited audience \[49\]. Codes give us a framework in which signs make sense \[49\]. **Unlimited Semiosis:** The signified is endlessly commutable, functioning in its turn as a signifier for a further signified \[50\]. **Anchorage:** When text is used to focus on one of the meanings \[50\]. ### **Denotation and Connotation:** **Denotation:** Literal, obvious and commonly known definitions \[51\]. **Connotation:** Emotional associations connected with something than are not literal, e.g. break a leg \[51\]. ### **Language and Linguistics:** **Language:** A system of symbols, letters, words, phrases, sentences representing objects and ideas \[51\]. **Grammar:** Rules for language \[51\]. **Linguistics:** The scientific study language, specifically the form, meaning, and context of language \[51\]. Cultural influences are very important to language \[51\]. Some phrases may only exist is certain cultures \[51\]. Some words may have different meaning depending on the culture, e.g. chips \[51\]. **Syntax:** A subset of rules for arranging words and phrases into sentences \[52\]. Syntax should be as clear as possible to avoid misunderstanding \[52\]. **Semantics:** The study of linguistic meaning \[52\]. For example, words may have different meanings depending on the context \[52\]. **Pragmatics:** The study of how context contributes to meaning \[52\]. E.g. telling someone to shut up can have different meanings if you are surprised or angry with them \[52\]. ### **Things to avoid in Language:** Jargon \[52\]. Defamation \[52\]. Technical vocabulary when not suitable \[52\]. Language harmful to someone's reputation/image \[52\]. Biased/non-inclusive language \[52\]. Extremities \[52\]. Clichés \[52\]. Grammatical Errors \[52\]. ### **Types of Verbal Communication:** **Creative:** Focuses on imagination and figurative meanings, e.g. go at a turtle's pace \[53\]. **Instrumental:** Focuses on directives, e.g. stop \[53\]. **Analytical:** Involving critical thinking and problem-solving skills, e.g. doing a test \[53\]. **Social** \[53\]. ### **To improve Verbal Communication:** Use specific and concrete language \[53\]. Use omission of non-essential words, inversion (reversing the normal order of words) and suspension to maintain engagement \[53\]. Employ parallelism (using a similar grammatical structure for multiple sentences), repetition and alliteration to add emphasis \[53\]. Paraphrase what others are saying to show that you are listening and to avoid misunderstandings \[54\]. Take turns speaking \[54\]. ### **Elements of Persuasion:** **Logos:** Appeals to logic \[55\]. **Pathos:** Appeals to emotion \[55\]. **Ethos:** Appeals to credibility \[55\]. ### **Elements of an Argument:** **Claim:** The statement about a fact, value, or policy---the conclusion a speaker wants his or her audience to draw and accept \[55\]. **Evidence:** Material that supports or backs up a claim \[55\]. **Warrant:** The link between the evidence and the claim, used while reasoning \[55\]. **Authoritative Warrant:** A warrant that relies on the credibility, acceptability, or authority of the source to link the evidence to the claim \[55\]. **Substantive Warrant:** A warrant that uses the reliability and sometimes the quantity of the evidence to support the claim \[56\]. **Motivational Warrant:** A warrant that connects the evidence to the claim by appealing to audience members' values, needs, desires, emotions, and aspirations \[56\]. ### **Creating an Argument:** **Approach:** 1 or 2 sided? If 2, will it be refutational? \[56\]. **Order:** What is the quality of the evidence? What should go where? \[56\]. ### **Polysemy:** A word/image having numerous meanings is polysemantic \[56\]. ### **Stuart Hall -- Reception Theory:** **Dominant/Preferred Reading:** The interpretation that the producer of the text wants the audience to have \[57\]. **Oppositional Reading:** When the audience created their own meaning, ignoring the dominant meaning \[57\]. **Negotiated Reading:** The audience accepts the dominant or oppositional reading but still has their own opinions on it \[57\]. ### **Intertextuality:** The various links in form and content which bind one text to another text. Each text exists in relation to others \[57\]. E.g. memes \[57\]. The meaning of a text often owes more to other texts than to the author \[57\]. ### **Visual Communication and Literacy:** **Visual Communication:** A problem-solving practice which uses image and text to communicate an array of messages that can be personal, cultural or commercial \[58\]. The key elements are typography, illustration, photography, interactivity and the moving image \[58\]. **Visual Literacy:** The ability to both create and interpret visuals \[58\]. ### **When Encoding Visual Communication:** **Audience:** Who are they?, what do they know? \[58\]. **Purpose:** Why are you doing this?, what should be accomplished? \[58\]. **Context:** Communications environment, intertextuality, where and how will it be received \[59\]. ### **Purposes of Visuals:** To Clarify \[59\]. To Simplify \[59\]. To Reinforce \[59\]. To Attract \[59\]. To Impress \[59\]. To Unify \[59\]. ### **Visual Rhetoric:** **Definition:**The use of images as arguments \[60\]. The arrangement of elements on a page \[60\]. The use of typography \[60\]. The analysis of existing visuals and images \[60\]. **Functions:**Guides readers through documents \[60\]. Focuses attention \[60\]. Clusters visual and verbal elements \[60\]. Organises an overall page/screen design \[60\]. Shows the context of concepts \[60\]. Increase impact \[60\]. Manipulate \[60\]. It is applied consciously through **heuristics** (learned knowledge or stored memory that facilitates a relatively intuitive judgment process requiring minimal cognitive demand), or intuitively by what feels right \[60\]. ### **Principles of Visual Rhetoric:** Grouping \[61\]. Arrangement \[61\]. Emphasis \[61\]. Clarity \[61\]. ### **When Designing Visual Communications:** What\'s the objective? \[61\]. What is the level of hierarchy of the information? \[61\]. How do you want the eye to flow across it? \[61\]. Who are you communicating to? \[61\]. What is the tone of the message? \[61\]. Make use of the Golden Curve and the rule of thirds \[61\]. ### **Graphic Design:** A number of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation \[61\]. Layout, colour, image and typography \[61\]. ### **Typography:** Concerns the best fonts and sizes for the text \[62\]. Crucial to most design projects \[62\]. There are formal and informal fonts for different situations \[62\]. Text draws emphasis and attention to certain elements and allows sustained readability \[62\]. Font can build/harm your credibility, add to the context/purpose of the document and can imply cultural associations \[62\]. ### **Visuals can bridge the gap between words, especially when dealing with a diverse audience \[62\].** ### **Discourse Community:** A group of people who share assumptions about what channels, formats and styles to use, what topics to discuss and how to discuss them, and what constitutes evidence \[63\]. ### **Academic Writing:** Scholarly writing that aims to present an objective stance, clearly states