Mira K DesaiAssociate Professor

University Department of Extension EducationS.N.D.T. Women’s University

Juhu Campus, Mumbai

Understanding Communication

Senses Used in Communication

Hearing Seeing Touching Tasting Smelling

SEEING

THINKING

UNDERSTANDINGWords have Meanings.

Meanings create world.

WATCHING LOOKING

Wonder is not that mankind comprehends

the world, but that the worldIs comprehensible.

Einstein

What is Communication?

Reality

Product

Facts, Opinions,

Emotions, Ideas…

Ideology Technology Process

Interaction Exchange

Communication is….. Sharing of facts, opinions, emotions, ideasInteraction and exchange with self and other or othersIt is ideology, technology and realityIt is a process as well as productIt is maintenance of reality and preservation of culture

Viewpoints to Communication

Rhetorical: is Practical art of discourse.Semiotic: is the mediation by signs.Phenomenological: is the experience of dialogue with others.Cybernetic: is the flow of information.Socio-psychological: is interaction of individuals.Socio-cultural: is the production and reproduction of the social order.Critical: is the process in which all assumptions can be challenged.

Scope of Communication

SOCIETY- Mass MASS- Many Groups

Institutional/OrganisationalGROUP- With a group of peopleINTRA GROUP- Within a group

INTER- Between two peopleINTRA- Self as communicator

Society

Nation

Culture

Environment

Community

Organisation

Family

Group

INDIVIDUAL

Communication ProcessesAnd Systems

Scope of CommunicationCommunication is not only about oneselfIt is about two people- InterpersonalThere is group communication where number of people interactMass is number of groups.Communication system and processes are as much about self as about society and culture.

Elements of Communication

= Noise

SENDER RECEIVERMESSAGECHANNEL

FEEDBACK

Context

Types of Communication

Intra-personal (self)Inter-personal (other)

Group (others)Mass (many groups)

Personal-InformalPublic-Formal

VocalNon-vocal

WrittenOral

DirectMediated

On-line

Off-line

Audio-visual AudioVisual

One-wayTwo-way

ParticipatoryUpward

DownwardHorizontal Vertical

Functions of Communication

InformationInstructionEntertainmentPersuasionDebate and discussionCultural promotionIntegration

CommunicationTransmission View

Communication links the ways messages are transmitted and received via technology with the composition of these messages (or more broadly, as communicative relationships), and with the analysis of the effects of these communicative acts.

Ritual viewCommunication is a

central daily ritual that helps form and sustain communities.

Transmisional View

Transmission ModelThe first major model for communication came in 1949 by Claude Elwood Shannon and Warren Weaver for Bell Laboratories.

Since they were engineers, their focus was on mechanical transmission. For the telephone the channel is a wire, the signal is an electrical current in it, and the transmitter and receiver are the telephone handsets. Noise would include crackling from the wire.

Ritualistic View

SENDER

(Artist)RECEIVER(viewer)

MEANING

Ascribed---------------------------Negotiated

Communication as Culture

James Carey in 1975 stated that communication is a symbolic process by which reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed.We produce reality by symbolic work and then continue to further this reality through processes of breaking and rebuilding.

Approaches to Communication

TRANSMISSION‘imparting,’ ‘sending,’ ‘transmitting,’ or ‘getting information to others”

‘not toward the extension of messages in space’

‘not the act of imparting information’

RITUAL’sharing’, ‘participation’, ‘association’, ‘fellowship’, and ‘the possession of a common faith’‘toward the maintenance of society in time’‘the representation of shared beliefs’

Transmission vesus Ritual

TRANSMISSIONTransportationSender & ReceiverSent & Received

Receiver ‘gets it’Accuracy of transmissionInfluence across space

RITUALCeremonyParticipantsCreated and

RecreatedShared experience

Sense of communityCommunity across time

Metaphor- Role of participants- Role of meaning- Success criterion- Basic function

Associated ScholarsTRANSMISSIONAristotleShannon and WeaverDavid BerloWilbur SchrammBarnlundMarshal McLuhan

RITUALJohn DeweyHarold InnisJames W. CarreyIen AngJohn Fiske

OTHER Scholars: Robert T. Craig, Jürgen Habermas , Jacques Derrida, Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Lippman….many more.

SELF & OTHER in Interpersonal Communication

Effective Self Communication

Effective FeedbackFocus on specific behavioursKeep it impersonalKeep it goal orientedMake it well timedEnsure understandingGive it direct towards behaviour that is controllable by the recipient

Process of ‘Listening’ HearingFocusing on the messageComprehending-Understanding-InterpretingAnalysing and EvaluatingResponding and NOT ReactingRemembering….remembering….remembering

ConclusionWe now know that communication is process as well as product.Communication is about individual self as well as society at large.Transmission school focus on transfer of information and accuracy of it.Ritual school focus on cultural and sociological processes with communication.

Some References:http://www3.niu.edu/acad/gunkel/coms465/carey.htmlhttp://voxygen.net/classes/contemporary-public-address/james-carey-communication-as-culture/http://counselme.truepath.com/Communic.htm