Lesson 3
The Process of Communication
Contents: Introduction, Communication process, Basic elements involved in
communication process- Sender, Encoding, Message, Channel, Receiver,
Decoding, Feedback, Barriers, Context or Situation.
Learning Objectives:
To learn about the flow of communication
To get familiar with the basic elements of communication process
To know what are the barriers and disturbances in communication process
To know different techniques to reduce the disturbances for effective
communication.
Communication Process
There have been several attempts by scholars to explain the process of communication.
Depending on their background and objectives, different scholars have viewed the
process of communication differently and have developed different models.
You may have formed the impression that communication is difficult, if not impossible,
to study and understand. If it is ongoing, how do we stop it? If it has no beginning or end,
how do we get hold of it? Although the task is difficult, it is possible.
Communication establishes relationships and makes organizing possible. Every message
has a purpose or objective. The sender intends -- whether consciously or unconsciously --
to accomplish something by communicating. In organizational contexts, messages
typically have a definite objective: to motivate, to inform, to teach, to persuade, to
entertain, or to inspire. This definite purpose is, in fact, one of the principal differences
between casual conversation and managerial communication. Effective communication in
the organization centers on well-defined objectives that support the organization's goals
and mission. Communication is the process of passing information and understanding
from one person to another. The communication process is a system that involves an
interrelated, interdependent group of elements working together as a whole to achieve a
desired outcome or goal. We can study communication in much the same way we study
biological systems within our own bodies.
We can determine the elements involved (circulatory and digestive systems, for
example), analyze how those elements affect one another, and thus determine the nature
of the process as a whole. Applying this approach to the communication process, we find
eight elements (1) a source/encoder of communication, which sends (2) a message (3)
through a channel to (4) a receiver/decoder, which (5) responds via feedback with (6)
possibilities of communication breakdowns (Barrier) in each stage of communication.
However, these elements must be understood and analyzed in relation to (7) the situation
or context, and (8) the system (such as relationship), which is created and maintained at
some level by the communicators.
The Source/Encoder
The sender begins the communication process by forming the ideas, intentions and
feelings that will be transmitted. As the sender, you are required to filter out the details
that are unimportant and focus your energy on the most relevant information. The source,
or encoder, makes the decision to communicate. The source also determines what the
purpose of the message will be to inform, persuade, or entertain. You may ask how the
message gets from the source to the receiver. First, the source must encode, or create, a
message. That is, the information that the source wishes to convey must be put into a
form that can be sent to the receiver. The source generates a message through his or her
past experiences, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. Every ounce of your being may tell
you that you are in love, but until you code those feelings into a form that can be sent to
the person you love, communication cannot take place.
Message
The second element of the communication process is the message, or that information
which is being communicated. The source encodes an idea and then determines whether
or not to inform, persuade, or entertain. After deciding what message to send, the source
uses symbols to get the message across to others. These symbols stand for other things.
The eagle, the flag, and Uncle Sam are all symbols of the United States, for example. But
the most important symbols are words, which can represent objects, ideas, and feelings.
These words permit us to share our thoughts with other members of our species.
Important as words are to us, they can be tricky. We must remember that words are
symbols. They represent things, but are not the things themselves. That lanky, bearded
old man we call Uncle Sam represents the United States, but he is not the United States­­
in fact, he doesn't even exist. The letters a-p-p-l-e p-i-e represents an All-American
pastry, but they are not an apple pie.
To increase the likelihood of successful communication, the source must try to encode in
a way that the receiver understands, so that the receiver can properly decode (interpret)
the message. For example, many American tourists in Paris have discovered that even
though their command of French is minimal, it is sometimes easier to communicate in
halting French than in English. Some Parisians, despite their fluent knowledge of
English, refuse to decode an "inferior" tongue.
Channel
Channels are the means (that is, pathways or devices) by which messages are
communicated. Channels may be described and analyzed in two different ways. The first
involves the form in which messages are sent to receivers. Forms include both verbal and
nonverbal channels of communication. We use our five senses to receive messages from
others. We may hear a call-in talk show on the radio, watch a soccer match on television,
smell fresh break baking as we drive past the local bread industry, taste the flavors in a
fresh cappuccino, or hug a friend to console him when his dog died.
Channels may also be described according to the manner of presentation employed in
communication. The source may speak face-to-face with the receiver, use a public
address system to talk with a hundred listeners, or talk over radio or television to million
of receivers. Each of these examples would demand different manners of presentation.
Depending on the situation, the source would concentrate on verbal and/or nonverbal
channels of communication. If the speaker were on radio, physical appearance wouldn't
matter, but if he or she were performing on a cable network program or before a live
audience, personal appearance could easily influence the reception of the message. For
example, when we go to watch a circus, we expect the clowns to have painted faces and
appropriate costumes. If they were dressed in regular street clothes, their performance
wouldn't be as effective. Whatever channels of communication are used, the source must
learn to adapt the message to make use of the most appropriate channels available for the
situation.
Receiver/Decoder
The person (or persons) who attends to the source's message is the receiver. The act of
interpreting messages is called decoding. Receivers decode messages based on past
experiences, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. We receive messages through all our
senses, but most often we decode messages by listening or seeing. We first have a
physiological reception of stimuli (a noise causes sound waves to hit our eardrum or a
movement catches our eye). We then pay attention to both the verbal and nonverbal
stimuli and reduce all the stimuli bombarding us to one or two we can cope with more
easily. Next, we try to understand the stimuli and interpret them into messages (we decide
that the noise is a telephone bell or that the movement is a friend waving to us across
campus). Finally, we store this information for later use so that next time we will be able
to respond to the stimuli more quickly. It is important to remember that receivers make
immediate decisions about what they will respond to in a given situation. During a
lecture, an audience member may decide to take a nap. During an argument with your
boyfriend or spouse, you may listen only to negative comments. During a crowded party
you may watch the nonverbal behaviors of your date (yawning, standing off in a corner
alone, and so on) to decide when it's time to leave. As sources of communication, we
need to learn to analyze our prospective receives to determine which communication
messages will be most effective.
Of course, all of us are both encoders and decoders; that is, we are capable of both
transmitting and receiving messages. When we receive a message, we must interpret it
and then encode a response. The response may be silent, noisy, or somewhere in between,
depending upon the situation and the existence of any barriers to communication.
Feedback
Another element in the communication process is feedback. Each party in an interaction
continuously sends messages back to the other. This return process is called feedback.
Feedback tells the source how the receiver has interpreted each message. For example, if
at the airport you ask your departing friend about his itinerary, and he replies that he
didn't pack one, you know your message has not been understood. This kind of feedback,
which conveys lack of understanding, is known as negative feedback. Positive feedback,
on the other hand, indicates that the receiver has understood the source's message. It does
not necessarily mean that he or she agrees with the source, just that the message was
interpreted accurately. Feedback can also be ambiguous, not clearly positive or negative.
"I see" and "mm-hmm" can be examples of ambiguous feedback. The effective
communicator is always sensitive to feedback and constantly modifies his or her
messages as a result of the feedback received. After a discreet pause, for example, you
might ask your friend not about his "itinerary" but about the cities he plans to visit.
Feedback doesn't have to come from others. We can and do get feedback from our own
messages. The fact that we can hear the words we speak and see the sentences we write
sometimes lets us correct our own mistakes.
Barriers/Noise
The human communication system can be compared with a radio or telephone circuit.
Just as in radio transmissions, where distortion can occur at any point along the circuit
(channel), there can be similar barriers in human communication. The source's
information may be insufficient or unclear. Or the message can be ineffectively or
inaccurately encoded. The wrong channel of communication may be used. The message
may not be decoded the way it was encoded. Finally, the receiver may not equipped to
handle the decoded message in such a way as to produce the response (feedback)
expected by the source.
'Barriers' are any obstacles or difficulties that come in the way of communication. They
may be physical, mechanical, psychological cultural or linguistic in nature. In business
communication, for instance, the major obstacles arise because of the set-up of an
organisation - the organizational barriers. The size of an organisation the physical
distance between employees of an organisation, the specialization of jobs and activities,
and the power and status relationships, are the main organizational barriers. Besides, then
are the barriers, raised by interpersonal relationships between individual and groups, the
prejudices of both individuals and groups and the channels they use to communicate.
Barriers to communication also occur if the sender and receiver are not on the same
"wavelength." This is as true in human communication as it is in radio transmission. On
the human level, being on the same wavelength involves shared experiences. That is, the
source can encode only in terms of the experiences he or she has had. This is why two
people from completely different cultures may find it difficult, if not impossible, to
communicate.
In the 'jargon' of communication, all barriers whatever their natural are clubbed under a
common label- 'noise'. A term from modem physics it denotes not only atmospheric or
channel disturbance, but all barriers that distort communications in any manner.
Physical Barriers
Four main kinds of distractions act as 'physical barriers' to the communication process.
These are:
(1) The Competing Stimulus in the form of another conversation going on within hearing
distance, or loud music or traffic noise in the background. The cawing of crows or a plane
passing overhead can, for example, drown out messages altogether.
(2) Environmental Stress: A high temperature and humidity, poor ventilation, vibrations
felt, a strong glare - all can contribute to distortions in the sending and receiving of
messages.
(3) Subjective Stress: Sleeplessness, ill health, the effects of drugs and mood variations
give rise to forms of subjective stress that often lead to great difficulties in listening and
interpretation.
(4) Ignorance of the Medium: The various media for communication are: oral, written,
audio, visual and audiovisual. The use of a medium with which the communicators are
not familiar would turn the medium itself into a barrier.
Psychological Barriers
Each of us has a certain `frame of reference', a kind of window through which we look
out at the world, at people, and events and situations. A frame of reference is a system of
standards and values, usually implicit, underlying and to some extent controlling an
action, or the expression of any belief, attitude or idea. No two individuals possess
exactly similar frames of reference, even if they are identical twins. To a large extent our
experiences, particularly our childhood experiences, and the cultural environment we
have grown up in influence our frames of reference.
Linguistics and Cultural Barriers
A language is the expression of the thoughts and experiences of people in terms of their
cultural environment. When the same language is made use of in a different culture, it
takes on another colour, another meaning.
Mechanical Barriers
Mechanical barriers are those raised by the channels employed for interpersonal, group or
mass communication. Channels become barrier when the message is interfered with by
some disturbance, which (1) increased the difficulty in reception or (2) prevented some
elements of the message reaching its destination or both. The absence communication
facilities too would be a mechanical barrier.
This type of barrier includes any disturbance, which interferes with the fidelity of the
physical transmission of the message. A telephone that is in poor working order, making
demands on the yelling ability of Sender and Receiver, is a mechanical barrier in
interpersonal communication. So also is 'cross-talk' often heard over an `intercom' link in
an office, or during long-distance calls. In Group Communication, a rundown or
'whistling microphone, and wrong placement of loudspeakers are disturbances which are
mechanical in nature. (the communicator who stands too close or too far from the mike is
another matter). In mass communication, mechanical barriers would include such
disturbances as static on the radio, smeared ink in a newspaper, a rolling screen on
television, a barely readable point-size, or a film projector or video that does not function
perfectly.
Review questions
Identify and discuss the basic elements of communication process?
Describe how the whole process of communication gets disturbed if any of the
elements is changed or tampered?
Exercise
Construct a diagrammatic model of the essential elements and processes involved
in one of the following communication situations. The model's primary function
should be to describe what elements are involved and what processes are
operative in the specific situation chosen. It may be useful to define the situation
chosen in more detail before constructing the model.
Communication situation:
ˇ Sitting silently in a bus.
ˇ Watching TV commercial
ˇ Conversing with a very close friend.
ˇ Delivering a lecture to a class.
ˇ Persuading an angry crowd to disband.
ˇ Reading a newspaper.
ˇ Telephonic conversation with bank representative.
ˇ Window Shopping.
Suggested Readings
Sarah Trenholm: Thinking Through Communication, Second Edition, Allyn and
Bacon
Julia T Wood: Communication Mosaics, Second Edition, Wadsworth
DeFleur/ Kearney/ Plax: Fundamentals of Human Communication, Mayfield
Publishing Company
Keval J kumar: Mass Communication in India, Jaico Publishing House
C S Rayudu: Communication, Himalaya Publishing House
Matthukutty M Monipally: Business Communication Strategies,
Barker/ Gaut: Communication,