Chapter one COMM Notes

Definition of Communication

• Communication is defined as the process of generating meaning by sending and receiving verbal and nonverbal symbols and signs influenced by multiple contexts.

• There have been more than 126 published definitions of communication in the last 100 years.

Forms of Communication

• Forms of communication vary in terms of participants, channels used, and contexts.

Intrapersonal Communication

• Communication with oneself using internal vocalization or reflective thinking.

• Triggered by internal or external stimuli, taking place only inside our heads.

• Serves social functions, helps maintain social adjustment, builds self-concept, and processes emotions.

• Breakdown associated with mental illness.

• Least amount of formal study.

Interpersonal Communication

• Communication between people whose lives mutually influence one another.

• Builds, maintains, and ends our relationships.

• Occurs in various contexts, including interpersonal, intercultural, organizational, health, and computer-mediated communication.

• Can be planned or unplanned, but is more structured and goal-oriented than intrapersonal communication.

• Fulfills instrumental and relational needs.

Group Communication

• Communication among three or more people interacting to achieve a shared goal.

• More intentional and formal than interpersonal communication.

• Often task focused, with members working together for an explicit purpose.

• Can be complicated due to more communicators and potential interpersonal conflicts.

Public Communication

• A sender-focused form of communication where one person conveys information to an audience.

• More consistently intentional, formal, and goal-oriented than interpersonal or group communication.

• Similar to conversations but more formal.

Mass Communication

• Transmitted to many people through print or electronic media.

• Requires technology such as newspapers, magazines, television, websites, blogs, and social media.

• Messages are intentionally transmitted, but the goals of the message creator vary.

• Lacks personal connection and immediate feedback loop.

• New media technologies are making feedback more immediate.

Three Models of Communication

Transmission Model

• Describes communication as linear, one-way process where sender intentionally transmits a message to a receiver.

• Focuses on the sender and the message, with the receiver as an endpoint.

• Emphasizes clarity and effectiveness acknowledges barriers to effective communication.

  • Noise interferes with messages.

  • Environmental Noise: Physical noise in a communication encounter.

  • Semantic Noise: Occurs in the encoding and decoding process when participants do not understand a symbol.

• Well suited for computer-mediated communication (CMC).

Interaction Model

• Communication as a process, participants alternate positions in communication.

  • Physical Context: Includes environmental factor in a communication encounter.

  • Psychological Context: Includes the mental and emotional factors in a communication encounter.

Transaction Model

• Communication helps us create relationships, from intercultural alliances shape our self-concepts, and engage with others in dialogue to create communities.

  • Instead of labeling participants as senders and receivers, the people in a communication encounter are referred to as communicators.

  • Social Context: Refers to the stated rules or unstated norms that guide communication.

  • Relational Context: Includes the previous interpersonal history and type of relationship we have with a person.

  • Cultural Context: Includes various aspects of identities such as race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, and ability.

Communication Principles

Communication Meets Needs

• Physical needs:- keep our bodies and minds functioning (e.g., asking for shelter).

  • There are also strong ties between the social function of communication and our physical and psychological health (e.g., prolonged isolation can severely damage persons).

• Instrumental needs:- Help us get things done in our day-to-day lives and achieve short- and long-term goals (e.g., communication that meets our instrumental needs helps us “get things done.”).

• Relational needs:- Help us maintain social bonds and interpersonal relationships (e.g., from spending time together, to checking in with relational partners by text, social media, or face-to-face, to celebrating accomplishments, to providing support during difficult times, communication forms the building blocks of our relationships).

• Identity needs:- include our need to present ourselves to others and be thought of in particular and desired ways (e.g., communication allows us to present ourselves to others in particular ways).

Communication Is a Process

• We communicate using several channels and send and get messages simultaneously

• Some scholars definitions of communication stating that messages must be intended for other for a message to count as communication.

• Communication messages vary in terms of the amount of conscious thought that goes in their creation

• communication is irreversible.

• Communication is unrepeatable.

Communication Is Guided by Culture and Context

• Western culture tend to put more value on senders than receivers and on the content rather then context of a message.

• A key principle of communication is that is its symbolic.

• communication systems use relative to context and culture in what one s communicating and many culture have distinct languages consisting of symbol.

• There are also are some communication pattern shared by very large numbers of people and some that is particular to a dyad.