The Definition of Communication

Question 1

• is a social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment

Answer 1

COMMUNICATION

Question 2

5 Key Words

Answer 2

1. Social
2. Process
3. Symbols
4. Meaning
5. Environment

Question 3

• We mean to suggest that it involves people and interactions, whether face-to-face or online.
• This necessarily includes two people, who act as senders and receivers.

Answer 3

Social

Question 4

• Means that it is ongoing and unending.
• Communication is also dynamic, complex, and continually changing.
• Communication, therefore, can be considered a process that changes over time and among interactants.

Answer 4

Process

Question 5

• Is an arbitrary label or representation of phenomena.
• Words are symbols for concepts and things – for example, the word love represents the idea of love; the word chair represents a thing we sit on.

Answer 5

Symbols

Question 6

Types of Symbols

Answer 6

Concrete Symbols
Abstract Symbols

Question 7

the symbol represents an object

Answer 7

Concrete symbols

Question 8

the symbol stands for a thought or idea

Answer 8

Abstract symbols

Question 9

• Is what people extract from a message.
• Messages can have more than one meaning and even multiple layers of meaning.

Answer 9

Meaning

Question 10

• Is the situation or context in which communication occurs.
• The environment includes a number of elements, including time, place, historical period, relationship, and a speaker’s and listener’s cultural backgrounds.
• The environment can also be mediated.
• By that, we mean that communication can take place with technological assistance. It’s highly likely that all of you have communicated in some sort of mediated environment; namely through email, chat rooms, or social networking sites.

Answer 10

Environment

Question 11

Elements of the Communication Process

Answer 11

1. Source
2. Encoding
3. Message
4. Channels
5. Decoding
6. Receiver
7. Feedback
8. Noise

Question 12

• Initiates the process by a having a thought or an idea that he or she wishes to transmit to some other entity.
• The source may or may not have knowledge about the receiver of the message.
• Sources can be a single individuals, groups, or even organizations.

Answer 12

Source

Question 13

• Refers to the activities that a source goes through to translate thoughts and ideas into a form that may be perceived by the senses.
• When you have something to say, your brain and your tongue work together to form words and spoken sentences.
• When you write a letter, your brain and your fingers cooperate to produce patterns of ink or some other substance that can be seen on paper.
• In face-to-face conversation, the speaker encodes thoughts into words.

Answer 13

Encoding

Question 14

• Is the actual physical product that the source encodes.
• When you talk, your speech is the message.
• When you write a letter, what you put on the paper is the message.
• When a TV network presents “Ang Probinsiyano”, the program is the message.

Answer 14

Message

Question 15

• Are the ways the message travels to the receiver.
• Sound waves carry spoken words; light waves carry visual messages.
• Some messages use more than one channel to travel to the receiver.

Answer 15

Channel

Question 16

• Is the target of the message – its ultimate goal.
• The receiver can be a single person, a group, an institution, or even a large, anonymous collection of people.
• The receiver can be determined by the source, as in telephone call, or they can self-select themselves into the audience, as with the audience for a TV show.

Answer 16

Receiver

Question 16

• Is the opposite of the encoding process.
• It consists of activities that translate or interpret physical messages into a form that has eventual meaning for a receiver.
• If you’re playing the radio while decoding these lines, you are decoding two messages simultaneously – one aural, one visual.
• Both human and machines can be thought of decoders. The radio is a decoder, so is a DVD playback unit; so is a film projector.
• A single communication event can involve many stages of decoding. A reporter attends a city council meeting and takes notes on a laptop (decoding), and then writes a story and sends it to an editor who reads (decoding) and edits it. Eventually, it is published and read by an audience (decoding).

Answer 16

Decoding

Question 17

• Refers to the responses of the receiver that shape and alter the subsequent messages of the source.
• This represents a reversal of the flow of communication.
• The original source becomes the receiver; the original receiver becomes the new source.
• Feedback is useful to the source because it allows the source to answer the question.

Answer 17

Feedback

Question 18

• Anything that interferes with the delivery of the message.

Answer 18

Noise

Question 19

3 Types of Noise

Answer 19

1. Semantic
2. Mechanical
3. Environmental

Question 20

• Occurs when different people have different meanings for different words and phrases or when the arrangement of words confuses the meaning.

Answer 20

Semantic

Question 21

• This type of noise occurs when there is a problem with a machine that is being used to assist communication. A TV set with snowy picture, a pen running out of ink, and static-filled radio are all examples of mechanical noise.

Answer 21

Mechanical

Question 22

• This type refers to sources of noise that are external to the communication process but that nonetheless interfere with it. Some environmental noise might be introduced by the source or the receiver; for example, you might try to talk to somebody who keeps on drumming her or his fingers on the table.

Answer 22

Environmental