LESSON 2.5 Communication Interferences:
Barriers
Interferences in Communication : Barriers
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
 Obstacles or difficulties that may arise during the
communicative process. These obstacles can obstruct it, slow it
down or make it less effective in some way.
 They are obstacles in the process that can distort the process, bias
the message, give it an incorrect meaning or reduce its clarity and
sharpness.
 They may be related to the members of the process (transmitter or
receiver, for example, if one is deaf and the other speaks to him/her)
or to the code (if they do not speak the same language) or even to
the context in which the communicative act takes place (if two
people try to talk to each other over loud music).
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
Types:
• Physical. Circumstances that make communication difficult, such as
environmental noise, physical obstacles (glass, walls, curtains).
• Semantic. These have to do with the code, that is, the language in
which the meanings of words, gestures or other types of signs (in
non-verbal communication) are inscribed. It may have to do with
dialectal or linguistic differences.
• Physiological. Linked to anatomical configuration.
• Psychological. They reflect the mental or emotional condition of one
of the participants, which could sabotage the transmission of the
message.
• Administrative. These have to do with the channels through which
the message is transmitted in a communicative process, as well as
with the organizational structures or the planning of a communication
act.
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
• Attitudes: They represent the way a person behaves under certain
circumstances or events, i.e., they show the individual's disposition towards
events.
Example:
An example applied to sales can be found in those situations in which the customer, due
to bad past experiences, is alert or defensive towards the salesperson because he/she
fears that the latter is misleading him/her with the sole intention of selling him/her the
product. In this case it will be more difficult to achieve effective communication than if the
customer is relaxed and trusts the sales agent.
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
• Mood: Affects both transmitter and receiver. It has to do with
pessimism and optimism. In case the transmitter is not in a good
mood, he may transmit a pessimistic message that does not
correspond to reality; if the receiver is sad, he will probably receive a
different and less favorable message than the one being sent by the
transmitter; however, if he is happy, he will modify his way of
understanding the message and will see it in a more optimistic way.
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
• Perceptions. They refer to the way of perceiving reality, they are
closely related to attitudes and mood.
• Example: Prejudging by inappropriate clothing, or creating a distorted
image of someone presented to us by a person we do not trust.
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
• Personality traits: As with the previous elements, this aspect can
also affect the interpretation of the message. Knowing the receiver's
personality traits will greatly facilitate communication since the
message can be adapted in such a way that it is better assimilated
by the receiver. Personality traits are: shyness, loquacity,
extroversion...
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
• Educational background: if the transmitter and receiver have
different background education, i.e. different degrees of education
and knowledge, they may not understand each other because they
use different terminologies.
• Example: Epidemiologists explaining COVID vaccine technologies in
the news.
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
https://www.ted.com/talks/melissa_marshall_talk_nerdy_to_me?language=es
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
How to detect communication barriers?
• Sometimes the interferences that occur in a communicative process
are subtle, while others are more evident.
• Some elements that we can consider when detecting these barriers
are: the frequency of silences in the communicative act, the
appearance or not (and its frequency) of unfinished sentences, the
tone of voice, the non-verbal language, the way of expressing
oneself...
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70K0OjKA4Po
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Interferences in Communication : Barriers
Strategies to avoid communication barriers
• Linguistic awareness. Knowing how to express oneself adequately.
• Create an appropriate communicative moment. Avoid rushing,
choose the moment.
• Paying proper attention.
• Make sure that the codes are common. Verify before sending the
message that the receiver uses the same code and the same
senses.
• Control emotions. Many times, emotionality can rush things and
make us say something different from what we want to say.
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Interferences in Communication: Barriers
Phatic function of language
• The so-called phatic function of language is useful when dealing with
communicative barriers. It occurs when we use expressions or
sounds that have no meaning of their own, but play the role of
verifying whether the communicative channel is open and whether
we can begin to transmit or receive.
• A clear example of this is the " aló?" or "hello?" used to answer
the telephone.
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Interferences in Communication: Barriers
The phatic function is the part of
communication which keeps open the line of
communication itself; it is the means by which
two or more speakers reassure themselves
that not only are they being listened to, but
they are also being understood.
FUENTE: OXFORD
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Interferences in Communication: Barriers
• Communication feedback
• Another important concept in communication, which allows the cycle
to continue and verify its effectiveness, is feedback: the exchange,
however brief, of the roles of transmitter and receiver, which confirms
that the messages are being fully understood.
• In many cases this requires clear signals of attention such as a
nod, a key word ("ok", "got it", "clear" or similar), or other clear
feedback marks.
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Interferences in Communication: Barriers
• Relevance of content
• The receiver will find it difficult to fix his attention and keep the
channel open for those messages that do not seem relevant, i.e.
necessary within the flow of communication, which follows a logical
order.
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Interferences in Communication: Barriers
https://youtu.be/YMyofREc5Jk
https://youtu.be/OhkvCkvkvvY More of lost in translation
https://youtu.be/wype23qBoeM
lost in translation
https://youtu.be/YMyofREc5Jkhttps://youtu.be/YMyofREc5
Jk
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Interferences in Communication: Barriers
The case of Nestlé: Communication failure in social media.
•
Green Peace published a report saying that Nestlé uses palm oil from Indonesia to
make its products and its supplier, Sinar Mas, is breaking Indonesian laws by
deforesting the rainforest and destroying the habitat of a protected species such as
orangutans.
•
Nestlé denied the accusation and said that its supplier is Cargil, but Sinar Mas is, in
turn, Cargil's supplier. Environmentalists launched a campaign on Youtube, Twitter
and Facebook inviting internet users to use a modified Kit-Kat logo with the word
"killer".
•
The crisis: Nestlé got Youtube to remove the video alleging misuse of its trademark
and published on its Facebook page a post telling its fans that if they published any
modification of its logo they would delete the publication.
•
This censorship did not go down well and led to a barrage of critics that went viral.
•
Nestlé had to rectify and try to calm down the networks but the damage had already
been done.
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If there is bad communication,
there will be bad results.
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