Communication

This word came from a Latin word communis meaning common. To be common means to come together or to communeto share something in common. It means of coming together, sharing a common frame of reference or a common field of experience.

Communication skills The ability to speak and listen effectivelyare the top factors in helping college graduates find jobs in an increasing competitive workplace, ranking higher than technical competence, work experience and specific degree earned.

The Components of Communication:

Models of Communication Process

All communication models contain common elements in that there must be a sender, encoding on the part of the sender, a message, a channel through which the message travels, a receiver, decoding on the part of the receiver and, in many situations, feedback.

Linear Model The linear model views communication as a one-way or linear process in which the speaker speaks and the listener listens. It was explained by Harold Laswell. Laswells (1948) model was based on the five questions below, which effectively describe how communication works:

Shannon and Weavers (1949) model includes noise or interference that distorts understanding between the speaker and the listener. Figure 1.3 shows a linear model of communication:

Figure 1.3: A linear model of communication Source: Wood, J. T. (2009). Communication in our lives (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth

Interactive Model The main flaw in the linear model is that it depicts communication as a one-way process where speakers only speak and never listen. It also implies that listeners listen and never speak or send messages. Schramm (1955) in Wood (2009) came out with a more interactive model that saw the receiver or listener providing feedback to the sender or speaker. The speaker or sender of the message also listens to the feedback given by the receiver or listener. Both the speaker and the listener take turns to speak and listen to each other. Feedback is given either verbally or non-verbally, or in both ways. This model also indicates that the speaker and listener communicate better if they have common fields of experience, or fields which overlap (please refer to Figure 1.4):

Figure 1.4: An interactive model of communication Source: Wood, J. T. (2009). Communication in our lives (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: ThomsonWadsworth

Transactional Model The main drawback in the interactive model is that it does not indicate that communicators can both send and receive messages simultaneously. This model also fails to show that communication is a dynamic process which changes over time. The transactional model shows that the elements in communication are interdependent. Each person in the communication act is both a speaker and a listener, and can be simultaneously sending and receiving messages. There are three implications in the transactional model:

i.

Transactional means that communication is an ongoing and continuously changing process. You are changing, the people with whom you arecommunicatingare changing, and your environment is also continually changing as well. In any transactional process, each element exists in relation to all the other elements. There is this interdependence where there can be no source without a receiver and no message without a source.

ii.

iii.

Each person in the communication process reacts depending on factors such as their background, prior experiences, attitudes, cultural beliefs and self-esteem.

Figure 1.5 shows a transactional model of communication that takes into account noise or interference in communication as well as the time factor. The outer lines of the model indicate that communication happens within systems that both communicators share (e.g., a common campus, hometown, and culture) or personal systems (e.g., family, religion, friends, etc). It also takes into account changes that happen in the communicators fields of personal and common experiences. The model also labels each communicator as both sender as well as receiver simultaneously.

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Figure 1.5: A transactional model of communication Source: Wood, J. T. (2009). Communication our lives (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: ThomsonWadsworth.

Communication Models:
To explain how and why communication takes place. Aristotles Model

Here, Aristotle speaks of a communication process composed of a speaker, a message, and a listener. Note he points out that the person at the end of the communication process holds the key to whether or not communication takes place.

Schramms Model Developed by Wilbur Schramm He notes that communication always requires three elements the source, the message and the destination.

If the sources and destinations fields of experience overlap, communication can take place. If there is no overlap, or only a small area in common, communication is difficult, if not impossible.

Berlos Model While the Aristotle model of communication puts the speaker in the central position and suggests that the speaker is the one who drives the entire communication, the Berlos model of communication takes into account the emotional aspect of the message. Berlos model of communication operates on the SMCR model.

In the SMCR model: S - Stands for Source M - Message C - Channel R - Receiver

Types of Communication:
Intrapersonal Communication This is your knowledge of and communication with yourself; it involves thinking, remembering, and feeling --all the things you do internally. It is the most basic because it involves a single individual communicating with him or herself. It involves images rather than words

Intrapersonal Communication Model

It is language use or thought internal to the communicator. It emphasizes how our mind works in communication. Thinking, rationalizing, reflecting are examples of interpersonal communication.

Interpersonal Communication This second type of communication refers to interaction between two people or relatively small group; it determines our relationships with others and simultaneously, determines who we are. It is defined as interaction between two or more individual both speaks and listens. It can mean as the ability to relate to people in written as well as verbal communication. Eye contact, body movement and hand gestures are also part of interpersonal communication. The most common function of interpersonal communication are listening, talking and conflict resolutions.

Public Communication This type of communication involves one-to-many situation in which a speaker presents a message to an audience; at this level, one engages primarily in a monologue rather than a dialogue. It can be characterized as the sending of the messages or copies of the same message by one or more transmitters to a large number of receivers or groups of receivers. Two classifications of public communication: public speaking and mass communication.

Public speaking involves a speaker or speakers transmitting a speech to a live audience. Receiver responses to the message are often limited to nonverbal forms such as laughter, applause, facial expressions and body movements.

Mass communication refers to the transmission of message to many different audiences that remain essentially unknown to the transmitter and unknown to each other; It includes the transmission of messages via radio, television, and the motion pictures.

HAPTICS Haptic communication is a form of nonverbal communication and the way by which people and other animals communicate via touching. Touch, or the haptic sense, is extremely important for humans; as well as providing information about surfaces and textures it is a component of nonverbal communication in interpersonal relationships, and vital in conveying physical intimacy. PROXEMICS
Proxemic communication is communicating with others by virtue of the relative positioning of your bodies.

Geographic territory There are different parts of the world where people act differently. The primary territory of a person is their personal area, which may be a house, a bedroom, a den or study, where they feel most at home. Here, they can be themselves and be relaxed. Secondary territory is where they also feel comfortable. This may be neutral places such as bars and restaurants or other private places such as at a friend's house or a club. Public territory is not owned by us or people we trust, but it is neutral. This includes streets, parks and other public places. There may be threat or safety here, depending on the place and the time. Interaction territory is a temporary private space where I am having a conversation with others. This may be in a caf or even moving along a corridor. It is assumed I can communicate with relative privacy within this space.

Personal space The personal space around my body includes a number of concentric circles where the closer areas are reserved for more trusted people. If you are closer to me, you may attack me, so I will seek to keep close areas safer by forbidding all but approved friends. Hall (1966) found four key zones: Intimate: touching to 10 inches. For close friends and family. Casual-personal: 18 inches to four feet: Informal conversation with friends. Social-consultative: four to twelve feet: formal transactions. Public: Addressing groups of people.

Note that this distance can vary significantly. Extraverts, for example, may have smaller distances whilst introverts may prefer to keep their distance. People who live in towns and cities are used to squeezing closer to people so have smaller spaces, whilst country people stand so far apart they have to lean forwards to shake hands.

Also the distance varies greatly with nationality. For example the casual-personal distance may be: North America: 18 inches Western Europe: 14 to 16 inches Japan: 36 inches Middle East: 8 to 12 inches For close conversation, an appropriate proximity needs to be sustained. If the distance is too far, then the person may be seen as 'stand-offish' or distant (perhaps insultingly so).

Body angling Bodies may be angled with other people ranging from side-to-side to face-to-face. Direct face-to-face can be confrontational or intimate and so many conversations are held with people sitting or standing at an angle to one another. When side-by-side, people face the same way and hence it is difficult to see the other's face. This is done as a practical step when walking or may be deliberately used to 'face the same problem'.

PARALANGUAGE Paralanguage refers to the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion. Paralanguage may be expressed consciously or unconsciously, and it includes the pitch, volume, and, in some cases, intonation of speech. Sometimes the definition is restricted to vocally-produced sounds. The study is known as paralinguistics.