What is Communication?
Please get ready to take notes.
Quotes about communication:
• “Communication is the vehicle which allows
humans to recall the past, think in the present, and
plan for the future.” Roy Berko
• “Good communication is as stimulating as black
coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” Anne
Morrow Lindbergh
• “The most basic and powerful way to connect to
another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the
most important thing we ever give each other is our
attention. A loving silence often has far more power
to heal and to connect than the most wellintentioned words.” Rachel Naomi Remen
Quotes cont’d.
• “The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption
that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to
change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or
eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional
context in which the message is being heard. People can only
hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not
likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choices
words lose their power when they are used to overpower.
Attitudes are the real figures of speech.” Edwin H. Friedman
• “The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we
communicate.” Joseph Priestley
• “Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't
start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.” Kin
Hubbard
Communication is:
• The deliberate or accidental transfer
of meaning;
• That which occurs when someone
observes or experiences behavior and
attributes meaning to it;
• A process;
• Our link to the rest of humanity.
3 Models for Communication
– Communication as Action
– Communication as Transaction
– Communication as Interaction
Communication as Action
• Meaning sent or transferred from sender to
receiver; Linear input/output
• 5 parts: sender, message, channel, receiver,
and noise
Noise
Noise
Sender
Noise
Message
Channel
Message
Receiver
What are these parts?
• Sender: originator of an idea
• Message: written, spoken (verbal), & unspoken (nonverbal)
elements of communication to which we assign meaning
• Channel: how the message is sent; verbal or nonverbal
• Receiver: person or persons to whom the message is
addressed
• Noise:anything that prevents effective communication at
any time. EX: poor sound system, small VA’s, lose signal on
cell
Noise
Noise
Sender
Noise
Message
Channel
Message
Receiver
Encode & Decode
• Encode: a process of translating ideas,
feelings, and thoughts into symbols
• Decode: a process of translating
incoming information into
understandable concepts
What’s wrong with this model?
• We don’t simply send a message and stop
communicating. Often we get a message
back; this is called feedback.
Noise
Noise
Sender
Noise
Message
Channel
Message
Receiver
Communication as Transaction
• Shannon-Weaver model (1948)
• Back and forth, like a Ping-Pong game; we talk, we listen,
we talk, we listen
• Adds feedback and context
Noise
Context
Noise
Sender
Noise
Message
Channel
Feedback
Message
Receiver
What are these added parts?
• Feedback: verbal or nonverbal responses to a message
• Context:physical, social (relationships), psychological,
and time element in which communication takes place.
PSPT
Noise
Context
Noise
Sender
Noise
Message
Channel
Feedback
Message
Receiver
Communication as Interaction
• Simultaneous; even as we talk we are reacting
• Most accurate to our communication process
• intercultural
Context
Noise
Sender/
Receiver
Noise
Message / Feedback
Noise
Sender/
Receiver
Frank Dance’s model
• Spiral, helix
• Evolves or progresses in a person from
birth to the present moment.
• Current behavior is affected by past
experiences and future behavior is
effected by current impacts.
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Review
• Com. as Action:
linear, from sender
to receiver
• Com. as
Transaction:
receiver responds
to the sender
through feedback
• Com. as
Interaction:
simultaneously
interactive
•
•
•
Assignment
You may work by yourself or with up to two other
people.
Be sure to incorporate all the parts of the models.
Choose one of the following:
1. Create a scene of communication and label the
parts. (First you will need to draw the scene where
the communication situation is taking place, then
label the parts.)
2. Draw a cartoon that uses communication and label
the parts.
3. Create a math equation for all three communication
processes.
4. Act out a scene of communication and label the
parts during the scene.