Overview Human Communication Notes PDF

Overview: Human communication (Professor Saviour Chircop) “Communication is giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek...

Overview: Human communication (Professor Saviour Chircop) “Communication is giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions.” www.communicationtheory.org Communication is a staple component in our lives. Because it is so transparent (i.e., we engage in communication without much awareness), we fail to give it due attention. We often assume that communication is an automatic process and that our communication is fine. Yet, a scrutiny of this basic life ingredient can render our own communication more beneficial and fruitful to ourselves and others. Shannon and Weaver (1949) define human communication as “all the procedures by which one mind influences another”. Others describe communication as “giving, receiving, or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions. (Communicationtheory.org, 2016). The first definition offers a general description of the subject while the second definition points to the multiple functions of communication in our life. To study human communication (as opposed to many other forms of communication like plant-life communication and human-machine communication) one normally distinguishes among intrapersonal, interpersonal, mass communication, organizational, intercultural, etc. These are all facets of the same field of study but splitting up the area can help us develop specific knowledge and skills respective to each of the areas. Intrapersonal communication normally involves listening to messages provided by one’s organism. Hunger pains are my body’s message that it needs nutrition. My own body signals sleep deprivation. If I listen to my own organism, I can become aware of the dangers around me. Similarly, I can also become aware of apathy, lethargy, or anger within me. Should I choose to ignore these internal messages, I risk my own survival. Psychology specializes in this area of expertise and demonstrates how such internal dynamics often condition our day-to-day perception and behaviours. Interpersonal communication involves my interaction with other persons within a small group context. It is here that one learns to express and trust oneself, that one looks for support, learns language skills, expresses empathy, and experiences acceptance of and by others. Normally one can qualify interpersonal communication into categories including verbal and non-verbal communication. The latter is evident through paralinguistic and bodily gestures. Skills required to be able to communicate within a small group context include active listening, giving, and receiving feedback, assertiveness, teamwork, conflict resolution and leadership. Over the years, communication patterns have been expressed in the form of communication models. Communication models do not teach us how to communicate but attempt to explain, often in visual diagrams, what happens when we do. The basic communication model (often known as a mathematical model) dating back from the 1930s includes a source, a receiver, a message, and some form of feedback. Over the years the basic model has been elaborated by different scholars. The need for an area of commonality (field of experience) between source and receiver together with a notion of encoder/decoder were highlighted and added to the model. Harold Laswell (1948), taking a different departure point, provided the famous definition: who, says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect. Sources of communication come in different formats. Obviously, one immediately thinks of verbal encounters we normally share. They catalyse our communication flows. However other communication sources include billboards, brand logos, shop windows, buildings, a silent person, etc. In my mind every ‘picture’ tells a story. Confronted by a source we normally check the message for understandability (clarity), accuracy, believability (credible) and usefulness (relevance). On the receiver side we have issues like perception and awareness. A receiver is bound to put any new information or message in the context of prior learning and check a message for understanding and dissonance. Berlo (1960) enriched the previous models by attempting to deconstruct each of the elements in communication flows into their sub-components thus allowing for further specialized research. His model integrates together the sensorial, social, and cognitive dimensions of the communication flow. In the late 60s and 70s researchers added further emphasis on the cultural dimension of any communication process. All communication occurs within a specific cultural setting that influences the types of messages (including symbols, beliefs), their interpretation and flow. In contrast to interpersonal communication, the traditional mass media (print, film, radio & TV) operate on a different scale. Here communication flows as ‘one-to- many’ with limited immediate feedback and the business model involved is targeting the household. Within this framework, economic issues are brought to the forefront since the capital investment involved in running and sustaining such systems of communication flow is high. However, compared to interpersonal communication, a media-based method offers better efficiency in terms of reach but far less direct personal contact. At a later stage time-shift was added to these media vehicles making immediate feedback less possible but content more readily available. Today, more and more communication happen through social media. Within this setup communication flows are targeted toward individuals who, often, respond through the use of technology. Messages (text, static images, audio, video clips, etc.) are constructed and posted by many sources throughout the network. All receivers can provide feedback through their actions. The systems are built to store all responses that can then become the source of heuristics and algorithms to generate further use of the social media. Users of social media, often think (mistakenly!) that unlike the mass media, social media are not controlled by institutional and business interests! However, this is not the case. One special case of contemporary communication is video games. Games harbouring an exponential number of permutations are embedded within computer programmes challenging individual players to engage individually or collectively to accomplish tasks as directed by the software. The relationship among users is often adversarial and motivation to participate relies on the competitive nature of participants. The flow is largely automated, and responses are embedded within the communication system itself. Although participants use the same computer games, the experience generated is somewhat unique each time a game is played: the experience is unique since it emerges as players delve into new or different decision-making processes. In contrast to traditional media, users of video games become active catalysts of events. The reduced costs and miniaturization of devices has made everyone on the network a potential message producer. This gives rise to different types of User Generated Content (UGC). Productions are uploaded onto digital platforms that use such content for the further propagation of the platforms themselves. Brands have taken to these dissemination systems by riding on influencers. Organizational communication is somewhat different from individual communication. In this context the social ‘actor’ is an organization: a group of persons bound together by some common, often hierarchical, arrangement directed at a common task. The entity, as a single voice, communicates both externally and internally. External communication ties the organization to other organisations: be they regulators, suppliers, or even competitors (inter-organizational). The organization’s marketing department is normally tasked with facilitating the communication flow to and from the end-users. Internal communication is targeted at keeping the whole organization (employees and management) functioning together and reaching the firm’s desired ends. Our cultural upbringing influences everything we do: the way we greet each other, the way we operate, the rhythms we adopt, the speed of our communication, interpretation of symbols and colours, etc. As globalization continues to reach new heights, the study of intercultural communication has come to the forefront. This specialized area of communication scholarship attempts to make us all aware of our cultural differences and proposes solutions to overcome conflicts or misunderstandings resulting from such differences. Any individual or organization that operates across different cultural settings needs to attend to such differences that can potentially become a barrier to a healthy communication flow. Often, such differences can be turned around to become assets within global organizations. Sports communication has often been used as an example of globalization before the term appeared on the political scene. Another area of specialized communication becoming ever more prominent is health communication. Dealing with a dynamic pandemic had shown us how such communication is riddled with difficulties. Issues of explaining complex information and credibility have become major concerns in this special area of communication. Given our current medical understanding that persons need to participate in their own health regimen, it has become extremely important to find efficient ways to communicate the required information enabling persons to take an active role in their health management.