The Communication Age- CHAPTER 1
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WE CREATE OUR REALITY
Communication Age
- An age in which communication, technology, and media coverage and deeply
permeate daily life.
Convergence
- The ways in which the many forms of technologically mediated and
communication overlap and intersect in our daily lives.
 Example: When you continue a conversation with a friend in
person that you both started on Twitter.
Permeate
- Saturate or infuse
Digital Natives
- People for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born.
Digital Immigrants
- People for whom digital technologies were adopted and learn later in life.
Metaverse
- Virtual counterpart to the physical universe.
Augmented Realities
- Blend of physical and virtual realities. We exist in multiple places
simultaneously.
 Example: You may physically be in on place, but if you are active
on twitter or facebook then virtually you are in another place. So
you exist in multiple places at once.
BENEFITS OF COMMUNICATION
Able to establish relationships through ideas then communicate them.
Benefits:
- Develop positive self-concept
- Employers seek out good communicators
- Increase your ability to evaluate media critically
- Build healthy, vibrant communities
- Engage in democratic citizenship
- Drive social change and reform
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
The collaborative process of using messages to create and participate in social
reality.
Creative connectivity
- A simultaneous experience of self and other.
- Exchanging gifts (yourself) and services.
First it’s a process with no clear beginning or end
Collaborative
- Requires others.
Message
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- Common use of symbols signs and gestures.
Creative
- Creates and shapes reality
Participatory
- Take part in social reality
Communication must be HUMAN
Language is critical to humanity
CONTEXTS OF COMMUNICATION
Face-to-face communication
- Situations in which the participants who are physically or bodily present speak
directly to one another during the interaction.
Mediated Communication
- Communication or messages that are transmitted through some type of
medium.
Interpersonal Communication
- Communication with or between persons
- Occurs between people who approach one another as individuals in a
relationship (personal/ intimate relationship or impersonal/public relationship)
Small Group Communication
- The communication among the members of a small group of people working
together to achieve a common goal or purpose.
- They contain at least three members
 Examples: Families, organizations, classrooms, and athletic teams
Public Communication
- Situation in which a person in which a person delivers a message to an
audience.
Mass Communication
- Message transmitted by electronic and print media to large audience that are
distant and undifferentiated.
 Examples: Forms of mass communication TV shows, newspapers,
books, webpages, magazines, recorded music, and web videos.
COMMUNICATION METAPHORS
Communication as Transmission
- A linear, one- way transfer of information.
- A source sends a message through a channel or a medium to a receiver in an
environment of noise that serves as interference with effective transmission of
a message.
 Example: If you (the source) are running late to dinner with a
friend you may text them (the receiver) “running late, be there in
15”
Communication as Interaction
- Interaction metaphor
 Communication as a two-way process of reciprocal action.
- Feedback
 A receiver’s response to a sender’s message.
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Senders are able to adapt their messages in real time to increase
chances of communication success.
- Field of Experience
 The attitudes, perceptions, and backgrounds each of us brings to
communication.
Communication as Transaction
- Transaction metaphor
 Communication was introduced to acknowledge that people are
connected through communication and that they accomplish
something that is beyond (trans-) merely relaying messages back and
forth.
Communication as Social Construction
- Social Construction Metaphor
 Expands upon that idea that communication influences
communicators.
Metaphors Matter
- The evolution of the metaphors represents an unfolding of communication
potential.
COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE
The ability to communicate in a personally effective yet socially appropriate
manner.
Requires using messages that strike a delicate balance between pursuing one’s
own goals and meeting the needs and expectations of others.
COMMUNICATION ETHICS
Ethics
- A code of conducts based on respect for yourself, others, and your
surroundings.
Ethical Communication
- Enhances well-being of individuals and society.
- Evaluating the ethics of an interaction often depends on an understanding of
how communication is viewed and what it is being used to accomplished.
CONNECTING AND ENGAGING IN COMMUNICATION
Connecting
- Refers to the power of communication to link and relate us to people, groups,
communities, social institutions, and cultures.
Engaging
- Refers to the act of sharing in the activities of the group.