LESSON 7: Communication for various purposes

INTRODUCTION 

When people communicate with each other, they exchange various forms of meaning, such as
ideas and information, through a common system of symbols. Typical communications can
include writing in a diary, watching television, talking with friends, and speaking on the
telephone. It has been estimated that people spend more time communicating than they spend on
any other complex activity in life. Human communication takes place on many levels, from the
simplest interpersonal and small-group exchanges among friends to mass communication, as
experienced in public speeches, magazines, or news broadcasts.

Communication is not limited to exchanges between people. It also refers to activities that do not
involve people—for example, the word communication may be used to describe the ways that
animals relate to each other. Similarly, it is often said that electronic devices communicate with
each other. All such communication happens because participants in the process share an
understanding of certain symbols and exchange them in a systematic or orderly way.

THE USE OF SYMBOLS

Unlike things, feelings and ideas are difficult to exchange. People wishing to exchange physical
objects may simply hand them to each other. Feelings and ideas, however, are without physical
substance. They cannot be handed directly to another person. Rather, they must be exchanged
through the use of symbols—things that represent or stand for other things. Language is
therefore a system of symbols that are either written or spoken.

SOUND PATTERNS AS SYMBOLS

In oral, or spoken, communication sound patterns are used to stand for other things. The secret to
learning an oral language is to discover which sound patterns are associated with which
meanings. Very young children often point at objects as they say “Dat?” They have learned that
the word dat, which is their way of asking the name of something, causes older children and
adults to help them learn the sound patterns that stand for objects they wish to identify. As
children start to associate sounds with meanings, they are acquiring language.

Oral communication, however, involves more than just language. In the above example, young
children learn to use intonation—a higher pitch at the end of the sound “dat”—to show that these
sounds are intended as a question. When people use such a vocal characteristic to help clarify the
intent of the sound patterns being used, they are said to be using paralanguage. Since “para”
stands for besides, or in addition to, paralanguage may be defined as the vocal characteristics—
rate, pitch, loudness, and so on—that accompany sound patterns and help to indicate meaning.
For example, a change of meaning has occurred if the child shouts “dat” with no elevation in
pitch. “Dat” now is being used to stand for “Give me that.”

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

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Sound patterns may also be accompanied by nonverbal symbols. When people speak, they use
facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact to make their meanings clear. When a child says
“dat” (meaning “give me that”), he or she is likely to look at and point to the object in question.
If the child’s request is not answered, an expression on the child’s face will indicate
disappointment that “dat” has not been provided.

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In addition to enhancing sound patterns or language, nonverbal symbols may also be used by
themselves. When members of a winning sports team wave their hands high in the air, lift their
best player above their shoulders, or dash around the playing field hugging each other, the
spectators know that the athletes are proud of their victory. In baseball, the catcher makes signals
to help the pitcher decide what type of pitch he should throw. Many other gestures convey
meaning without requiring conversation. People who have serious hearing problems, or who
cannot communicate through sound patterns, become unusually skillful in signing—the use of
hand signals—to indicate their meaning. They also clarify meaning or enhance signing through
eye contact and facial expression. (See also deafness; American Sign Language.)
VISUAL AND GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION

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Nonverbal communication may also involve the use of objects or designs rather than gestures,
facial expressions, or movements. Traffic lights and highway road signs are examples. So too are
religious symbols, national flags, and corporate brand names and logos. Symbols are the basis of
written communication. It is important to recognize, however, that human communication begins
with oral language. Starting with those early ways of asking “What is that?” children develop a
varied vocabulary. They continue to rely on spoken language several years before they learn to
read and write. Still, nearly one fifth of all the people in the world over the age of 15 are illiterate
—incapable of reading or writing. No matter what their reading abilities may be, all people use
language, paralanguage, and nonverbal symbols to communicate with others.

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Just as humans use spoken language in their earliest communication, so cultures, too, begin with
oral languages. Only later did humans seek to represent the language of their group, tribe, or
region with written symbols. One of the earliest examples of public writing is seen in the ancient
Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, a set of rules etched into rock in roughly 1750 BC. Many
societies, however, do not have written languages. Of the approximately 2,800 languages in the
world, fewer than half have been transcribed into written symbols. The cultural heritage of these
societies is passed on to succeeding generations through oral communication. In North America
there were once 300 Indian languages. Many of these languages have been lost forever because
those who spoke them died before the languages could be transcribed.

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A written language uses printed symbols to stand for sound patterns. In English the 26 letters of
the alphabet are the main symbols used to represent sounds. As there are approximately 47
sounds in the English language, however, the letters of the alphabet used alone cannot represent
all of the sounds. Consequently, various groupings of letters are used to represent some sounds.
For example, the letters t and h are used to represent the first sound in the word “thinking.” Some
letters and combinations of letters may stand for more than one sound. In the English language,
all of the vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) stand for more than one sound.

In addition to using letters to represent sounds, a written language contains punctuation marks
that express the things we normally hear when a question is asked or a demand is stated. Such
intonations are known as paralanguage. For example, a period and a comma in writing are
equivalent to a pause in speech, while a question mark is expressed through a change in
inflection, or pitch, and an exclamation point can be heard as increased volume and intensity.

Nonverbal aspects of oral communication have no direct counterpart in written language. Charts,
graphs, pictures, and drawings, however, may be used to help the reader understand the printed
text. Pictures and other illustrations may hold meaning for people who speak different languages
and who come from different cultures. Some fast-food restaurants in China and other countries
display their menu choices with color pictures, thereby permitting people to select a meal
without requiring literacy in the local language.

Most forms of human communication, however, require that people share the same symbol
systems. The meaning of language, paralanguage, and nonverbal symbols must be understood. In
addition, people must share the same knowledge of what in a language can be used properly
under various social situations. This varies from one culture to another. So, when learning a
second language, it is also important to learn about the people who use that language.

COMMUNICATION MEDIA

Each medium of communication, collectively known as the media, represents a means through
which messages are encoded or transported between people. There are only five possible ways
that messages may enter human consciousness: through sound, sight, touch, smell, and taste.

PRIMITIVE MEANS

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In earliest times people came together in groups to avoid loneliness, to help each other hunt and
gather food, and to protect themselves from ever-present dangers. In order to live and work
cooperatively, they needed to find ways to communicate with each other. They were largely
limited to things that could be heard, seen, or felt. They used sounds, gestures, and touch as
symbols. A grunting sound might have indicated that a rock was too heavy to lift alone, or a
gesture might have stood for “come here” or “get back.” Over time a language developed that
stood for the objects and actions needed for survival in a hunting society.
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Primitive people also expressed their feelings through art and dance. Some of the earliest
surviving examples of art are the cave paintings in Lascaux, France, which were drawn some
27,000 years ago and depict animals of the time. It is not known whether these pictures were
created for the purpose of religious ceremony, dramatic storytelling, or even the simple tallying
of hunters’ conquests, but they show that primitive people had both a need and a talent for self-
expression.

Human communication developed to serve many purposes. As societies advanced, people

learned to grow crops, organize groups for fishing or hunting, and raise animals, they needed
symbols to stand for new objects and actions required by such activities. Also, as people did
different kinds of work, they needed to trade products with one another. In order to keep records
of their transactions, they made notches on sticks and scratches on stones or shells. The Inca
Indians recorded information on quipu—a set of knotted strings. Such primitive devices
represented the first attempt of humans to record information visually.

Primitive peoples were limited in their ability to communicate across distances. Smoke signals,
drums, and fires were used to stretch the boundaries of human sight and sound. Nighttime
bonfires were used in early societies as beacons to guide ships at sea. Later, lighthouses were
built to extend the range of fire signals. The marble Pharos at Alexandria, Egypt, one of the
Seven Wonders of the World, was an early attempt to reach out to those at sea. On land,
communication at distances greater than the limits of sight or sound was no faster than the speed
of the swiftest runner.

WRITING

Although oral language was a major achievement for humanity, it had limitations. It was an
imperfect means for transporting messages over distance and time. A message sent to far places
or passed to succeeding generations was only as accurate as the memory of the runner or the
tribal elder. With the invention of writing, ideas could be recorded, copied, and sent by several
runners to people in distant places. Ideas could also be passed on with little or no distortion to
succeeding generations.

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The first forms of writing were little more than crude pictures strung together in messages called
pictographs. Each picture stood for a simple idea. With time pictures were combined to represent
more complex ideas. These combinations, called ideographs, expanded the variety of ideas that
could be represented. The Chinese ideograph for wife, for example, consisted of the pictures for
woman and broom. Even later ideographs came to represent sounds, and the forerunner of
modern alphabets was born.

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The invention of alphabets enabled people to send signal messages by torches. Using this
technique, the Greeks organized their alphabet in five rows with five letters in each row. By
lighting torches in one rack to indicate row and torches in a second rack to indicate the letter in
the row, they could spell out messages. Navy signalmen indicate letters of the alphabet with flags
and by blinking lights that stand for letters.
Emile Serafis
With the invention of writing, people sought materials on which symbols could be written. In
early times symbols were recorded on flat stones, bark, and animal skins. Some symbol systems
were adapted for the materials on which symbols were recorded. The Babylonians wrote on clay
tablets and large flat stones. The Egyptians wrote on a fabric made from the papyrus plant, and
the Greeks wrote on parchment made by treating the skins of sheep and goats. Eventually paper,
invented in China, was used to record symbols throughout the civilized world.

Writing represented a major breakthrough in the way that messages were encoded. It did not,
however, change the way that messages were transmitted. Any written message still had to be
transported by conventional means. In roughly 550 BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia sent messages
across the land by relays of men on horseback much as Pony Express riders carried messages
cross-country in the American West.

One of the great contributions of the Roman Empire was a network of roads from Rome to the
far reaches of the empire. In addition to transporting armies, these roads were used to send
messages by horseback or horse-drawn chariots. The network of Roman roads is sometimes
credited with promoting the spread of Christianity in the early years of the church; the same
roads that carried the Roman armies were also traveled by Paul and his emissaries bearing letters
to the churches at Corinth, Thessalonica, and Philippi. But it still took weeks and sometimes
months for people and messages to travel between places.

PRINTING

Writing enabled people to record ideas on a single surface, but it did not provide the basis for
making multiple, inexpensive copies of materials. Additional copies of writings required long
and tedious work by scribes, people who copied documents by hand. Consequently, the writings
of earlier times were not available to most people and, given the lack of reading materials, most
people had no reason to learn how to read.
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The origin of printing dates back as far as the 2nd century AD. By inking covered marble surfaces
and placing paper on them, the Chinese were able to “print” designs and writing. By perhaps the
year 500, wood blocks were being used in some parts of Asia to reproduce writing and
illustrations. In block printing, each page of a book requires its own specially carved block. By
contrast, movable type consists of individual pieces of type, each with a single raised character,
that can be rearranged and reused to print different texts. Movable type was first used in China in
the 11th century and was applied more extensively in Korea during the early 15th century.

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The modern era of printing began in the 1450s when German inventor Johannes
Gutenberg created a printing press that used movable metal type. This invention made it possible
for printers to produce thousands of copies in less time than it had taken a scribe to produce one.
It was the first time in history that large numbers of people could have access to written
materials. Soon the art of engraving made it possible to print publications that featured pictures
as well as words. The single invention of printing encouraged more and more people to learn to
read, especially as reading became the primary means of learning.

While printing made written materials available to more people, societies had yet to establish a
means of distributing any kind of publication. It was still necessary to send printed messages by
traditional forms of transportation. For most of the history of humankind, the printed message
could be transported with no greater speed than that of the fastest person, animal (such as a
carrier pigeon), or sailing ship.

Then in the 1700s the development of steam engines added speed to transportation, making it
possible to send printed messages across continents by steam-powered trains and across oceans
by steam-powered ships. Equally important, steam-driven presses caused greater numbers
of books, pamphlets, and journals to be printed more quickly and affordably than ever
before. Newspapers and magazines consequently grew in number and circulation, especially as
people came to depend on them for news, information, and entertainment.

ELECTRIC MEDIA

In the early 1800s inventors made great progress in sending symbols via electrical impulses over
wires. By 1832 Samuel F.B. Morse had invented the telegraph. In the years immediately
following he perfected a dot-dash system for encoding and decoding telegraph messages. By
1844 Morse’s telegraph spanned the 37-mile (60-kilometer) distance between Washington, D.C.,
and Baltimore, Md. The Western Union Telegraph Company was established in 1851. Soon
wires crisscrossed the United States and cables were laid beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The
telegraph had, at long last, freed long-distance communication from its dependence upon
transportation. Messages could be transmitted instantly across great distances. In some cases
news from across the world could be published in newspapers on the day it happened.

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In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was awarded patents for his telephone, a device by which the
voice could be transported over electrical currents carried by wires. By 1880 about 30,000
telephones were in operation in the United States. The electronic revolution in communication
had begun.

BROADCAST MEDIA

Electronic advances in the 1900s made it possible to transmit messages without the use of wires.
In broadcasting, messages are encoded on electromagnetic waves that travel through space. By
1901 coded messages were sent across the Atlantic Ocean via wireless telegraph (early radio).
When Lee De Forest patented a vacuum tube in 1906, music or voice could be encoded on
electromagnetic waves. Radio as it is known today became possible. By 1920 radio receivers
began to appear in homes across America and throughout the world.

Television broadcasting is similar to radio broadcasting except that more signal space—called

bandwidth—is needed to carry the complex video signal with the audio signal. Although
television was demonstrated as early as 1926 and was used experimentally in the 1930s, the
popular use of television did not begin until the late 1940s because of the intervention of World
War II. Color television emerged in the mid-1950s and became dominant over black-and-white
television in the late 1960s.

DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

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Instantaneous communication of text, audio, and video information became a reality when digital
technology made it possible to compress, store, and transmit large volumes of data efficiently.
This development increased the speed and reduced the cost of distance communication for
offices and homes. Business teleconferences with people in faraway cities became affordable and
routine. Friends increasingly keep in touch with instant messaging or send each other pictures
through their telephones. Computers link offices, families, and friends through e-mail, Web sites,
and intranets. Electronic fund transfers give banks and businesses great flexibility in managing
money. (See also facsimile; office equipment; digital sampling.)

New technologies have created opportunities in the entertainment industry as well. Increasing
numbers of households receive their television programming through coaxial cable or satellite
signals. The many methods of recording television programs for later playback increase both the
quantity and variety of materials people may view in their homes. The actual content of
entertainment also changed as computer animation created entirely new styles and visual effects
in cartoons and films.

Computers are an increasingly important part of the communication process. Large computers in

central locations store enormous amounts of information and permit other computers to use it if
desired. Internet connections permit people to see information from a library or other program
source.

No matter what technical advances in communication may occur in the future, the actual
meaning of any communication will still exist only in the minds of people. Technology is a
means of helping people to share ideas and feelings, but it will never replace the fundamental
human need to exchange and interpret information.

PURPOSES

Communication serves five major purposes: to inform, to express feelings, to imagine, to

influence, and to meet social expectations. Each of these purposes is reflected in a form of
communication.

INFORMATIVE COMMUNICATION

When people share knowledge about the world in which they live, they are participating in the
process of informative communication. Informative messages attempt to present an objective—
that is, truthful and unbiased—view of the topics being considered. For example, if a sports fan
reads accounts of a baseball game in two different newspapers, it is reasonable to expect that the
reports will agree on all the significant details and facts of the game: the final score, the winning
team, hits, runs, errors, and other happenings.

Informative communication is an important part of life. Young people are exposed to informative
messages throughout their school years; it is the main type of communication at all educational
levels. As students mature, they are expected to grow in their ability to understand and create
informative messages. When reading or listening to such messages, students are expected to
recognize the subject or purpose, identify the main points, pick out important details, summarize
information, make some assumptions, ask relevant questions, and draw additional conclusions.

The working world depends on informative communication. Nations such as the United States
were once called industrial societies, as most people worked in industries that manufactured
products. Today these nations are often called information societies, as an increasing number of
careers involve the processing of information rather than the fabrication of products. People who
work with things rather than ideas, however, also must use such job-related informative
messages as parts manuals, job descriptions, catalogs, inventory reports, instructions, warranties,
contracts, and invoices.

Young people and adults also use information away from school and work. They seek
information about the weather, sporting events, available entertainment, or local, national, and
international news. People need information in order to conduct their lives intelligently.
Fortunately information has never been more available than at the present time. Much can be
learned simply by consulting reputable Web sites. Libraries remain among the best sources for
information, and free public libraries are available in most parts of the world. The reference
sections of libraries contain materials such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, dictionaries of
geographical places, biographical dictionaries, printed or online indexes such as The Reader’s
Guide to Periodical Literature, almanacs, and handbooks and manuals on how to make things.

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General-interest publications also contribute to informative communication. Magazines, books,
and newspapers provide information for general audiences and for people with special interests.
Many of these periodical publications may be received through subscriptions or purchased in
bookstores, drugstores, newsstands, and supermarkets.

Technological developments have changed the way people receive daily news. Just as radio
broadcasts replaced newspapers as the main carrier of breaking news, so television news eclipsed
radio. Television has become one of the most important sources of news information in the
United States. In the early 21st century, however, people were just as likely to turn to multiple
sources for their news. Newspapers, magazines, Internet news sites, radio, and television in
combination provide humans with more information than they have ever before encountered.

Information is rapidly becoming even more available because of these advances in technology.
Personal computers, cable television, DVDs, and video recording devices are finding their way
into more and more homes, classrooms, and businesses. Computers have already dramatically
changed the storage, analysis, and retrieval of information by students, teachers, businesses, and
governmental agencies. Individuals can receive such items as sports scores, weather reports, and
stock prices through their cell phones.

AFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Affective communication is the process through which people express feelings about things,

themselves, and others. Expressions of positive and negative feelings about places, objects,
events, policies, and ideas are called opinions. Expressions of feelings about oneself are known
as self-disclosures. Expression of both positive and negative feelings about others is vital to
maintaining close relationships. Expressions of positive feelings let friends and loved ones know
that they are valued. Expressions of negative feelings serve as a safety valve in a relationship.
Affective communication also contributes to the formation of self-concept—what one thinks of
oneself. Through affective exchanges children form opinions about themselves. As students
attend school, interactions with teachers and other students continue to influence their self-
concepts.

Affective communication is of major importance throughout life. Employers value employees

who get along well with other people, who take criticism well, and who are open and honest in
their relationships with others. Affective communication is also important to a happy family life.
Psychologists and family therapists stress the importance of open communication in the home.
Members of supportive families feel free to talk about positive feelings of love, joy, and
appreciation as well as negative feelings of anger, fear, and disappointment.

Affective communication skills are of central importance in certain careers. Psychologists,

psychiatrists, therapists, physicians, and nurses all need to see the world from the perspective of
their patients. But affective communication skills are equally important to most others, including
teachers, judges, police officers, religious leaders, school principals, and bank tellers.

IMAGINATIVE COMMUNICATION

Imaginative communication may be defined as the process through which invented situations are
created and, in most cases, shared. Whenever people invent jokes or stories, speculate,
daydream, or make believe, they are engaged in imaginative communication. People also engage
in imaginative communication when they appreciate fictional messages found in books,
magazines, newspapers, films, television dramas, plays, and conversations.

Imaginative communication plays a major role in the lives of all people. Preschool children
watch television cartoons and “read” picture books. They appreciate stories read to them by older
children and adults. They play “house,” “store,” and “school” and create imaginary castles and
mountain roads in their sandboxes.

In elementary school, children encounter an increasing number of imaginative messages as they

learn to read and explore literature. Through writing activities children create their own
literature. Using the works of others as models, students create poems, stories, plays, and
cartoons as they express their individual creativity. Creative dramatics and role-playing enable
students to re-create history or understand present events. In their free time elementary and
middle school students continue to enjoy television cartoons and dramatic programming and may
develop an interest in sports programming.
Secondary school students are introduced to important literary works and, in some schools, to
quality films and media programs. In many high schools, however, students receive little
encouragement to create imaginative messages of their own. Gifted students find a creative outlet
in debating, drama, journalism, creative writing, and media activities. The vast majority of
students, though, are merely exposed to the imaginings of others through literature. In their free
time secondary school students enjoy televised sports, drama, and cartoons. Their interest in
music and films usually grows dramatically during this period of their lives.

PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION

Persuasive communication may be defined as the process through which people attempt to
influence the beliefs or actions of others. In many cases persuasive communication involves
people who are important to each other—parents influence children, children influence parents,
and friends influence each other. Persuasive communication such as advertising frequently
involves strangers. Those involved in designing ads or producing commercials will attempt to
“know” the target audience, but this is generally limited to a few important details about
potential customers, such as where they live or how much money they are expected to spend on
certain items in a given year.

People begin to influence others early in life. Preschool children learn that they can influence
other children and adults by crying, smiling, whining, pointing, tugging, and, eventually, talking.
By the time children enter school, they use a variety of strategies to influence others.

During elementary school years children grow in their ability to adapt persuasive messages to the
people they wish to influence. Research has shown that kindergartners and children in the first
grade tend to use the same strategies when trying to influence different people. Children in
grades two and three adapt their persuasive messages by adding words like “may I” and “please.”
Children who are in the fourth and fifth grades begin to adapt their messages to specific people.
For example, they begin to use strategies when trying to gain favors from teachers that differ
from those they use in trying to gain favors from friends.

By the time most students are in the sixth grade, they can adapt their persuasive messages to
specific listener characteristics. In one study, most 12-year-olds used different strategies when
trying to get a ball back from the yard of an angry-appearing man than they did when addressing
a pleasant-appearing man.

In high school, students continue to grow in the number and sophistication of persuasive
strategies used. The average high school senior, for example, anticipates and responds to
arguments that disagree with his or her own. High school seniors, however, still have much to
learn about influencing others and responding critically to attempts to influence them. Since
persuasive communication is complex, learning about it is a lifelong process. Much of that
learning can begin by participating on school debate teams and studying rhetoric.

Persuasive communication plays a central role in a number of professions. Lawyers,

salespersons, advertising specialists, public relations experts, and politicians must use persuasive
communication. While persuasive communication may not be the central ingredient in many
careers, most people need to be able to influence others in work-related settings.

The most prominent form of persuasive communication in contemporary life is advertising.

Consumers are confronted by advertisements from a variety of directions. While newspapers are
thought of as informative sources, local, national, and classified advertising take up about 65
percent of their average total space. In many magazines 45 to 50 percent of the space is given to
advertising. As people drive to and from work, radio advertising rides with them. The roadsides
are filled with billboards, neon signs, or banners in store windows that compete with traffic for
attention. After arriving home and sorting through the advertisements in the day’s mail, people
view numerous commercials on prime-time television and attempt to filter e-mail advertisements
(known as “spam”) from the e-mails they wish to read.

RITUALISTIC COMMUNICATION

Ritualistic communication is the process through which people meet social expectations. The
word ritual comes from the Latin ritualis, meaning “pertaining to rites.” At one time rites were
seen as acts of religious or public ceremony. People were expected to perform the rites in a
certain way. People still have strong expectations about how others should act in a wide range of
social situations.

Ritualistic communication is important because people who violate the rules and customs of
social interaction may have difficulty relating well to others. They can also be seen as weakening
the unity of the social group. Children who do not recognize when other children are “kidding,”
or overreact when other children are “teasing,” have difficulty adjusting to school life. Teenagers
who have difficulty in engaging in light banter and responding to put-downs are considered by
their peers to be odd. Adults who seem too stiff and formal or too loose and informal have
difficulty in relating to other adults.

Social expectations differ greatly across different cultures. In some cultures men are expected to
embrace one another and kiss each other on the cheek. In other cultures such behavior is
considered peculiar. In American culture most people feel free to express many of their feelings
openly. In some Asian cultures the open expression of feelings causes embarrassment or shame.
There are many different kinds of social rituals. In modern life people are expected to engage in
such everyday speech acts as greeting one another, small talk, leave-taking, teasing, and joking.
It is also expected that people use social amenities, or polite expressions, when relating to each
other. People are expected to use such polite expressions as “May I please...,” “Yes, you may,”
“Thank you,” “You’re welcome,” “May I be excused,” and “Pardon me.”

People are also expected to introduce others gracefully, use telephone etiquette, demonstrate
good table manners, and write thank-you notes. In conversation it is expected that individuals
take turns, change topics skillfully, and demonstrate interest in the ideas that are expressed by
others. In group discussions, participants are expected to share leadership roles, meet the
emotional needs of other group members, follow agendas, and compromise.

In written communication people are also expected to conform to social expectations. Personal
letters, business letters, letters to editors, limericks, sonnets, ballads, haikus, invitations,
responses to invitations, short stories, novels, and editorials are all governed by rules or
expectations.

CONTEXTS

Communication contexts consist of a blend of the audience being addressed and the social
settings in which communication occurs. While audiences and settings may be discussed
separately, they may also be discussed together.

INTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Intrapersonal communication involves communication with oneself. People normally

communicate with themselves when they are alone in private or semiprivate places. When people
talk to themselves aloud in crowded, public places, others find such behavior strange.

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People communicate with themselves for a variety of purposes. They inform themselves by
making grocery lists and by jotting notes of upcoming events on calendars. Before writing
essays, they may inform themselves about how to proceed by making outlines. People also
express feelings to themselves. Diary writing, for example, grows out of the human need to
express feelings to oneself. People also address imaginative messages to themselves. They
daydream and fantasize for pleasure. Students doodle creatively as they sit in class. Some people
write poetry or prose that they never intend to share. Finally, people engage in ritualistic
communication with themselves. Silent prayers and devotions often involve memorized rituals.
Many athletes do this as they prepare for a game or contest. Some basketball players, for
example, will go through a routine as they get ready to shoot a free throw.

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Interpersonal communication involves one-to-one exchanges between people. It is the most

important and frequent context for communication. It is important because it is essential to
forming and maintaining significant relationships between individuals.

Two types of interpersonal communication exist. The first is impersonal in nature. When people
react to each other according to the role they are playing, the context is impersonal. For example,
in the relationship between a customer and a clerk, the customer may say “I’d like this item,” and
the clerk may say “That will be 79 cents.” The most important type of interpersonal context,
however, is personal in nature. When people react to one another as unique human beings with
special needs and interests, a personal context exists and close relationships may develop. Such
things as attraction, self-disclosure, and trust seem to play important roles in establishing and
maintaining long-term social relationships.

While most interpersonal communication involves face-to-face exchanges, telephone calls, e-

mails, and letters are also forms of interpersonal communication. When friends and loved ones
are separated by space, they still feel the need to communicate with each other. People use
personal language and paralinguistic cues to convey friendship or affirm their feelings across
distances.

SMALL GROUP COMMUNICATION

Small group communication involves give-and-take exchanges between a relatively small

number of people. A small group involves at least three but has no precise upper limit. The
important thing is not how many people are involved but whether the people are aware of each
other as individuals and are able to participate in the discussion.

The first small group in which most people communicate is the family. Family communication
often occurs around the dinner table, in the living room, and in the car. As children mature they
become members of other small groups: peer play groups, church or synagogue classes, and day-
care center or preschool groups. When children enter school they become members of classes.
As they progress through school they communicate in an ever-increasing number of groups:
scouting, dance classes, musical groups, athletic teams, and school clubs.

As adults people begin families of their own, become members of groups of people who work
together, form friendship groups, join recreational and athletic teams, and become active in
community groups. Throughout life people continue to participate in small-group contexts.

Scholars often classify groups by function. Examples of functional groups include those that are
organized for the purposes of learning, socializing, therapy, problem-solving, political action,
and worship groups. Given the variety of functions, effective participation in groups requires a
variety of skills. In family and therapy groups, for example, effective communication might be
judged by a participant’s willingness to show empathy toward others. In learning groups, people
draw upon an array of skills needed for posing questions, sending and receiving information, and
interpreting the concepts being discussed.

As group members, participants must learn to help others accomplish the group’s purpose or
function. Their behaviors toward this end are called task roles. But people must also help each
other to feel good about group membership and participation. Their behaviors toward these ends
are called group maintenance or social roles. In addition, group members must become aware of
individual actions that interfere with effective group functioning. Good group members are team
players—they sacrifice self-interests for the welfare of the group.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Many small groups are also part of a larger group called an organization. An organization is,
simply, a body of people organized for some specific purpose. Among the major organizations in
society are churches, temples, schools, colleges and universities, businesses, corporations,
libraries, military services, service organizations, and city, county, state, and national
governments.

Because organizations are complex, it is important for each to establish a formal communication
network. The communication network in a business or public agency is often drawn up in an
organization chart that identifies the titles of people who hold positions in the organization and
indicates who reports to whom. While the organization chart identifies the path formal
communications will travel, it is understood that informal communication networks will develop
without conforming to any chart. These two types of communication networks thereby provide
for both formal and informal exchanges of ideas.
It is important in organizations that communication networks provide for a two-way flow of
information. It must flow from a company president’s office to all of the individuals and groups
who need that information. But it should also flow in the other direction. Workers are more
satisfied when they feel that their ideas are being heard by persons higher in the organization
chart.

Organizational communication is also important because conflicts inevitably arise between

individuals and groups. Engineers in a company, for example, may produce product designs that
shop foremen consider too difficult to make. When such differences arise, the communication
network must provide for conflict resolution—a system through which workers can settle their
differences.

PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

Public communication involves face-to-face exchanges between people in situations where

speaker and listener roles are relatively fixed. A lecture, a theatrical production, a concert, a
religious service, a political debate, a court trial, and a legislative hearing are all instances of
public communication.

Since public communication is essentially a one-way process, those who play speaker roles have
a special responsibility. Speakers need to prepare carefully for such occasions. The message
must be clearly organized. Audiences in public communication contexts expect competent
speakers who are well-informed and articulate.

MASS COMMUNICATION

Mass communication may be defined simply as messages transmitted through electronic or print
media and directed at great numbers of people. Many features of mass communication
distinguish it from other forms of communication. Mass communication messages are prepared
by groups of people working for an organization, be they a staff working for a newspaper or a
group of volunteers writing a press release for a service organization. A local television evening
news program, for example, involves the three or four people who are seen at the news desk, but
it also involves many people who are never seen on camera—camera operators, script writers,
engineers, business managers, and many others. Mass communication is also directed to a
relatively large and anonymous audience—“to whom it may concern.” The message must appeal
to a large number of people, or those producing it will not remain in business. Because of the
expense of communicating to large audiences, nearly all forms of mass communication depend
on some source of funding, be it through subscription, advertising revenue, or charitable support.
Finally, the source of the message is remote—separated from the audience by time or space. As a
consequence, those being addressed do not attend to the message as intently as do those in the
company of the message source. For example, television viewers generally feel free to talk to
each other, leave the room to get a snack, change channels, or fall asleep.

The fact that mass communication is a business in America has important implications. The mass
media are in competition with each other for sales dollars, advertising revenue, or both. With
advances in technology the number of alternatives is increasing. People have a greater variety of
communication products from which to choose. Cable television, videotapes, and subscription
television programming, for instance, offer an increasing number of options to television
viewers. As some people turn away from regular network and local-station programming,
advertisers may be unwilling to pay the prices asked for advertising time. In the past, competitive
pressures caused magazine publishers, film producers, and radio stations to aim their messages
toward specific audiences. Television is the latest example of the general disintegration of a mass
media audience in favor of a number of smaller, more focused audiences comprising people who
share common interests.

COMMUNICATION AS A PROCESS

It is important to understand communication as a process—a series of ongoing events that

include sending, receiving, and interpreting a message. It is a mistake to think of communication
as a thing. Books, encyclopedias, CDs and phonograph records, DVDs, and magazines are
indeed things. But each of these things is, by itself, not communication. Each represents, rather, a
message that is but one part of the whole communication process. This process begins when a
person feels a need to communicate. For example, a student may feel that his or her hair looks
messy after gym class. To check it out, the student encodes, or places into sound patterns, a
message: “Does my hair look messy?” Person two hears the sounds and decodes, or assigns
meanings to, the message: “Chris is worrying about messy hair again.” The friend then encodes a
response into sound patterns: “Your hair looks great, Chris. Stop worrying.” Chris hears the
sounds and decodes their meaning: “Oh, great. Pat thinks my hair doesn’t look messy.” This
illustration shows how the communication process works for one person-to-person exchange
involving a single idea or feeling. In ordinary conversation the communication process is
unlikely to stop with a single exchange.

In the preceding illustration the communication process was interactive—person one and person
two exchanged ideas directly. Still, not all communication is interactive. For example, in some
cases communication is a one-way process. Radio and television programs, newspapers, films,
and magazines are usually one-way messages created by teams of people. In all of these cases, a
great deal of communication has taken place between people as they planned for, encoded,
revised, and edited the message that is read, seen, or heard by listeners, readers, or viewers these
people will never meet.The ideas conveyed in a one-way message seldom remain solely in the
mind of the receiver. Students use information from encyclopedias to create their own oral and
written messages. People often encode messages about other messages as they talk with or write
to others about things they have seen or read or heard. Consequently, a single communication
process is often linked with other communication processes.

References:

AGEE, WARREN KENDALL, AND OTHERS. Introduction to Mass Communications, 12th ed.

(Longman, 1997).BETTINGHAUS, E.P., AND CODY, M.J. Persuasive Communication, 5th ed.

(Harcourt Brace College, 1994).JOHANNESEN, R.L. Ethics in Human Communication, 5th ed.

(Waveland Press, 2002).KENT, DEBORAH. American Sign Language 

(Watts, 2003).LANGS, ROBERT. Unconscious Communication in Everyday Life (Jason Aronson,

1993).MATTERN, JOANNE. From Radio to the Wireless Web 

(Enslow, 2002).NELSON, R.L. Communication Then and Now (Lerner, 2003).PLATT,

RICHARD. Communication: From Hieroglyphs to Hyperlink 

(Kingfisher, 2004).SAMOYAULT, TIPHAINE. Give Me a Sign! What Pictograms Tell Us Without

Words (Viking, 1997).STREISSGUTH, THOMAS. Communications: Sending the Message (Oliver,
1997).WILLIAMS, BRIAN. Communications (Heinemann Library, 2002).