The Communication

Process
The Meaning of Communication
• Communication: The art and process of creating and
sharing ideas.

• Communication involves the sharing of ideas,

thoughts, and feelings between two or more people,
with the goal that the receiver should understand
the sender’s intended message.
Why do people
communicate?
• People communicate (messages) to achieve the following
main objectives:
to influence change: motivate, persuade, market,
entertain, inspire, negotiation
to empower people: educate, inform, provide awareness
Maintenance of situation: acknowledging receipt of
messages, greetings
How do Humans Communicate
Two major ways that people communicate are:
Verbal communication
Non-verbal communication

NB: Refer to Listening Skills topic in LDC 31101 to refresh your minds
 Verbal/Oral Communication

• This refers to the exchange of verbal messages/spoken

words between sender and receiver.
• Oral communication is facilitated by use of non-verbal
communication.
Non-verbal communication
• Communicating through signs and symbols.
• Non-verbal communication can go without verbal communication,
while verbal communication cannot go without non-verbal
communication.
How Does Communication Take
Place?
• Communication can take place between or among people.
• Within oneself.
• With people from various cultures.
Interpersonal Communication
• This is communication between individuals, typically in a face-to-face
setting.
• If it is between two people it is called Dyadic.
• If it involves a number of people, it is called Small group.
• Interpersonal Communication involves body language, words and
tone of voice.
• In order to understand the message, a listener should interpret all the
three elements.
Intrapersonal Communication
• This is communication within an individual, or the internal
use of language or thought.
• When reading a book one may use his/her background
knowledge to interpret a text (inferencing), beyond the
explicit statements provided by the author (See Reading
Skills Topic in LDC 31101).
• It may also involve reading aloud and talking to oneself.
Intercultural Communication
• This is communication between people of different cultures.
• In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different
countries and cultures act, communicate and perceive the world
around them.
• In order to send, receive and understand the message, you need to
know or learn their beliefs, values, norms, emotional attitudes;
without which the communication may fail.
Technologies for Communication
Technologies for
Communication

• Informational databases
• Electronic mail systems
• Voice mail systems
• Fax machine systems
• Cellular phone systems
Advantages of Communication Technologies

• Fast, immediate access to information

• Immediate access to people in power
• Instant information exchange across distance
• Makes schedules & office hours irrelevant
• May equalize group power and participation
Disadvantages of Communication
Technologies
• Communication can become more impersonal—interaction with a
machine
• Interpersonal skills may diminish—less tact, less graciousness
• Non-verbal cues lacking
• Alters social context
• Easy to become overwhelmed with information- information overload
 The Communication Process
• The communication process is a simple model that demonstrates all
the factors that can affect communication (this includes noise).
• Communication is effective if the message that is received is the same
one that is sent.
The Communication Process and the Key Elements:

1. Sender – The communicator or sender is the person who is sending the

message.
• There are two factors that will determine how effective the communicator
will be.
The first factor is the communicator’s attitude. It must be positive.
The second factor is the communicator’s selection of meaningful symbols
(for example language, gestures), or selecting the right symbols depending
on your audience and the right environment.
• The sender initiates the communication process.
• When the sender has decided on a meaning, he or she encodes a message,
and selects a channel /medium for transmitting the message to a receiver.
• To encode is to put a message into words or images.
2. Channel: The manner in which the encoded message is transmitted.
• The sender chooses the medium through which he wants to convey
the message to the receiver.
• The message may be transmitted orally, non-verbally or in writing.
• The medium of communication includes telephone, post, fax, e-mail,
face to face, memo, etc.
• Choice of both medium and channel depends on: importance of
message, needs and ability of receiver, amount and speed of feedback
required, necessity of permanent record, cost of channel and
formality or informality required.
3. Message – A communication in writing, in speech, or by signals.
• The message is the information that the sender wants to transmit.
The medium is the means of communication, such as print,
speech/conversations, electrical, and digital etc.
4. Receiver – The receiver is simply the person receiving the message.
• The receiver decodes or makes sense or meaning of the message, or
understands and translates it into meaning.
• Decoding is the process of concerting the symbols encoded by the
sender. After decoding the message is received by the receiver.
• The receiver is also a communicator. How can that be? (When
receiver responds, they are then the communicator).
• They communicate to the sender through response, verbal or non-
verbal.
• Communication is only successful when the reaction of the receiver is
that which the sender intended.
• Effective communication takes place with shared meaning and
understanding.
• Thus, in the feedback loop, the receiver becomes the sender and the
sender becomes the receiver.
The Communication Process
Loop

Figure 1: The Communication Process loop

5. Feedback – Feedback is that reaction I just mentioned.
• It can be a verbal or nonverbal reaction or response.
• It can be external feedback (something we see) or internal feedback
(something we can’t see), such as self-examination or reflection.
• It is the feedback that allows the communicator to adjust his message
and be more effective.
• Without feedback, there would be no way of knowing if meaning had
been shared or if understanding had taken place.
6. Noise Any disturbance/interruption in the communication process.
E.g. psychological noise, physical noise, physiological, cultural,
syntactical, semantic noise, organisational noise.
• The types of noise are the reasons why communication may fail.
• They are commonly referred to as barriers to Communication.
Barriers to Communication
Organisational Noise/barriers
• Bureaucracy – many levels in the organisational
structure delays or distorts messages/information
• Lack of Communication policy: CP guides who,
where, when and how information should be
delivered; affects flow of information within and
outside organisation
• Staff located in different buildings
• Lack of web page, or any point of contact
Psychological Noise/barriers
• Perceptual biases; prejudice
• stereotypes
• Emotional interference sad, happy, angry, excited;
• Relationship among communicators
Cultural Noise/barriers
• Ethnocentric thinking- unconscious use of our
culture as a universal yardstick – eating with hands
presumed as arrogance/no manners
• Stereotypes: when we assume that the other person
has certain characteristics based on the group to
which they belong
• Non-verbal communication-dressing, gestures-hand
shake/clapping, hugs; eye contact; space – proximity,
Physical/Environmental
Noise/barriers
• Obstacles in the communication process that include time,
space, climate place
• Time: slow internet, no electric power
• Space: Proximity between communicators
• Climate: temperatures
• Place: lighting, surrounding noise, dust
Physiological noise
• Physical maladies that prevent effective communication:
Visual/hearing impairment, hunger, fatigue, headaches.
Semantic noise
• Use of technical words, jargons; gender biased forms
e.g. salesman, waitress.
Syntactical noise
• Poor grammar, ineffective sentences, lack of clarity. Lack
of parallel structures, dangling modifiers, subject-verb
agreement, run-ons
 Models of the
communication process
Models of the communication process

• A model in its most common usage, is an abstract representation of

an item or a concept—a car, a plane, or a building—or a part of
something, such as a tire, a wing, or a room.
• Models are created in order to view, manipulate, or test the thing
they represent without having to build the real thing.
• People use models and modeling every day to improve their work and
their world.
• Communication models serve to clarify the nature of communication.
• We will look at the classic communication models.
1. The Active Model /or sometimes it is referred to as Transmissive
Model (Shannon's Information Theory Model) -a model which reduces
communication to a process of transmitting information.
2. The Interactive Model- an Intermediary Model (Cybernetic Model) -
sometimes referred to as Gatekeeper Model or The Two-Step flow that
includes feedback.
3. Transactive/Transactional Model- a model that acknowledges
neither creators nor consumers of messages, labeling them both as
communicators who both create and consume messages.
1. Shannon's model of the communication process (active
model/transmissive model)

• Shannon's (1948) model of the communication process provided, for

the first time, a general model of the communication process that
could be treated as the common ground of such diverse disciplines as
journalism, rhetoric, linguistics, and speech and hearing sciences.
• Part of its success is due to its structuralist reduction of
communication to a set of basic constituents that not only explain
how communication happens, but why communication sometimes
fails.
• Shannon's model, as shown in Figure 2 (next slide), breaks the process
of communication down into eight discrete components:
Figure 2: Shannon's (1948) Model of the communication process
1. An information source. Presumably a person who creates a message.
2. The message, which is both sent by the information source and
received by the destination.
3. A transmitter. For Shannon's immediate conception, it is a telephone
instrument that captures an audio signal, converts it into an electronic
signal, and amplifies it for transmission through the telephone network.
• This conception resembled Alexander Bell’s original sketches of the
working of a telephone.
Alexander Bell (1876) drawing of the
workings of a telephone from his
original sketches

• Bell's sketch visibly contains an information source and destination,

transmitters and receivers, a channel, a signal, and an implied message
(the information source is talking)
• Transmission is readily generalized within Shannon's information
theory to encompass a wide range of transmitters.
• The simplest transmission system associated with face-to-face
communication has at least two layers of transmission:
• The first layer, the mouth (sound) and body (gesture) create and
modulate a signal.
• The second layer, (which might also be described as a channel), is
built of the air (sound) and light (gesture)-(through which a gesture
passes) that enable the transmission of those signals from one person
to another.
• Another transmission system, for example, a television broadcast-
would obviously include many more layers of transmission, with the
addition of cameras and microphones, editing and filtering systems, a
national signal distribution network (often satellite), and a local radio
wave broadcast antenna.
Figure 3: Television broadcast- transmission system
4. The signal, which flows through a channel. There may be multiple
parallel signals, as is the case in face-to-face interaction where sound
and gesture involve different signal systems that depend on different
channels and modes of transmission. There may be multiple serial
signals, with sound and/or gesture turned into electronic signals, radio
waves, or words and pictures in a book.

5. A carrier or channel (which is represented by the small unlabeled

box in the middle of the model). The most commonly used channels
include air, light, electricity, radio waves, paper, and postal systems.
Note that there may be multiple channels associated with the multiple
layers of transmission, as described above.
6. Noise, is in the form of secondary signals that obscure or confuse the
signal carried.
• Given Shannon's focus on telephone transmission, carriers, and
reception, noise is restricted to the noise that obscures some portion
of the signal within the channel.
• This, however, is a fairly restrictive notion of noise, by current
standards, and a somewhat misleading one.
• Today we use noise more as a symbol for problems associated with
effective listening.
7. A receiver. In Shannon's conception, it is the receiving telephone
instrument.
• In face to face communication, a set of ears (sound) and eyes (gesture).
• In television, several layers of receiver, including an antenna and a
television set.
8. A destination. Presumably a person who consumes and processes the
message.
• Like all models, this is a simple idea of the reality it attempts to
reproduce.
• The reality of most communication systems is more complex. Most
information sources (and destinations) act as both sources and
destinations.
Strengths of Shannon’s Model

• Particular models are useful for some purposes and less useful for others. Like
any process of mediation/ negotiation, models foreground some features and
backgrounds others.
• The strengths of Shannon and Weaver's model are:
• It identifies the most important components of communication and their
general relationship to one another.
• Simplicity (straight forwardness).
• Generality (generalization) - the way that a majority looks at the
communication process. It reflects real world pictures of the designs of new
communication systems.
• It also drew serious academic attention to human communication and
'information theory', leading to further theory and research.
• Such advantages made this model attractive to several academic disciplines.
Weaknesses of the Transmission Model of Communication

Linearity
• The transmission model fixes and separates the roles of 'sender' and
'receiver'. But communication between two people involves
simultaneous 'sending' and 'receiving' (not only talking, but also 'body
language' and so on).

• In Shannon and Weaver's model the source is seen as the active

decision-maker who determines the meaning of the message; the
destination is the passive target.
• It is a linear, one-way model, ascribing a secondary role to the
'receiver', who is seen as absorbing information. However,
communication is not a one-way street. Even when we are simply
listening to the radio, reading a book or watching TV we are far more
interpretively active than we normally realize.
• There is no provision in the model for feedback (reaction from the
receiver). Feedback enables speakers to adjust their performance to
the needs and responses of their audience.
Context
• There is no mention in the transmission model of the importance of
context: situational, social, institutional, political, cultural and historical.

• Meaning cannot be independent of such contexts. Whilst recorded texts

(such as letters in relation to interpersonal communication and
newspapers, films, radio and television programs in relation to mass
communication) allow texts to be physically separated from their
contexts of production, this is not to say that meaning can be 'context-
free'.
• Whilst it is true that meaning is not wholly 'determined' by contexts of
'production' or 'reception' (texts do not mean simply what either their
producers or their interpreters choose for them to mean), meanings
may nevertheless be radically inflected (modulated) by particular
contexts of 'writing' and 'reading' in space and time. The 'same' text
can be interpreted quite differently within different contexts.

• Social contexts have a key influence on what are perceived as

appropriate forms, styles and contents. Regarding situational context,
it makes a lot of difference, for example, if the sender is an
opinionated taxi-driver who drives aggressively and the receiver is a
passenger in the back seat whose primary concern is to arrive at the
destination in one piece.
Relationships
• In the transmission model the participants are treated as isolated
individuals.
• Contemporary communication theorists treat communication as a
shared social system.
• We are all social beings, and our communicative acts cannot be said
to represent the expression of purely individual thoughts and feelings.
• Such thoughts and feelings are socio-culturally patterned.
Transmission models of communication reduce human
communication to the transmission of messages, whereas, as the
linguists tell us, there is more to communication than this.
Content and meaning
• Insofar as content has any place (typically framed as 'the message'),
transmission models tend to equate content and meaning, whereas there
may be varying degrees of divergence between the 'intended meaning' and
the meanings generated by interpreters.
• The important point here is that meaning-making is not central in
transmission models.
• It is widely assumed that meaning is contained in the 'message' rather than
in its interpretation.
• But there is no single, fixed meaning in any message. We bring varying
attitudes, expectations and understandings to communicative situations.
• Even if the receiver sees or hears exactly the same message which the
sender sent, the sense which the receiver makes of it may be quite
different from the sender's intention. The same 'message' may represent
2. Interactive Model (Intermediary)

• This model is frequently depicted in mass communication and it focuses on the

important role that intermediaries often play in the communication process.
• In mass communication they associate editors, who decide what stories will fit
in a newspaper or news broadcast, with this intermediary or gatekeeper role.
• There are, however, many intermediary roles associated with communication.
• Many of these intermediaries have the ability to decide what messages others
see, the context in which they are seen, and when they see them.
• They often have the ability, moreover, to change messages or to prevent them
from reaching an audience (destination).
• In extreme variations we refer to such gatekeepers as censors. These include
editors, reviewers, moderators (internet discussion groups).
• The interactive model, elaborates Shannon's model with the cybernetic concept
of feedback without changing any other element of Shannon's model.
• The key concept associated with this elaboration is that destinations provide
feedback on the messages they receive such that the information sources can
adapt their messages, in real time.
• This is an important elaboration, and as generally depicted, a radically
oversimplified one.
• The reasons being that:
Feedback is a message (or a set of messages).
The source of feedback is an information source.
The consumer of feedback is a destination.
Feedback is transmitted, received, and potentially disruptable via noise sources.
• However, none of these are visible in the typical depiction of the
interactive model.
• This however, does not diminish the importance of feedback or the
usefulness of elaborating Shannon's model to include it.
• People really do adapt their messages based on the feedback they
receive.
• It is useful, however, to note that the interactive model depicts
feedback at a much higher level of abstraction (image, not in reality)
than it does messages. That is it does not consider feedback as
independent of its associations.
Figure 4: An Interactive Model
3. Transactional Model

• This difference in the level of abstraction is addressed in the transactional

model of communication, a variant (variation) of which is shown in Figure
5.
• This model acknowledges neither creators nor consumers of messages,
preferring to label the people associated with the model as
communicators who both create and consume messages.
• The model presumes additional symmetries (balances) as well, with each
participant creating messages that are received by the other
communicator.
• This is, in many ways, an excellent model of the face-to-face interactive
process which extends readily to any interactive medium that provides
users with symmetrical interfaces for creation and consumption of
messages, including letters, electronic mail, telephone, etc.
• It is, however, a distinctly interpersonal model that implies equality
between communicators that often doesn't exist, even in interpersonal
contexts.
• The caller, for example, in most telephone conversations has the initial
upper hand in setting the direction and tone of a telephone call than the
receiver of the call (Hopper, 1992).
• In face-to-face head-complement interactions, the boss (head) has
considerably more freedom (in terms of message choice, media choice,
ability to frame meaning, ability to set the rules of interaction) and power
to allocate message bandwidth than does the employee (complement).
• The model certainly does not apply in mass media contexts. E.g. Radio,
movies, magazines, etc.
Figure 5: A Transactional Model
Summary on central ideas of the Models

• The Active model is Self-Action or One-Way Communication. It is

focused on getting the message to the receiver. Self-action treats
communication as a manipulation (exploitation) of others. It is very
message centered. There is no way to know if the meaning is shared
between the sender and the receiver.

• The Interactive is Interactional or Two-Way Communication. This

approach recognizes the role of the receiver as a communicator
through feedback. It is message centered and is a very simplistic view
of the communication process. Feedback allows senders to see if their
message got across.
• The Transactional Model -This approach focuses on meaning and
sharing by accounting for all other factors in the communication
process.
• It is concerned with the barriers that might affect the communication.
Transaction is best described as effective communication. This is when
the communication process is applied and carried out completely.
• The sender gives a message that is passed on to the receiver. In
return, the receiver can give clear feedback that allows the sender to
know whether or not the message was perceived as intended.
• If the message wasn’t received as intended, then the sender will
continue the communication process again in order to ensure
effective communication.
Communication as a Two-Way Process
 Communication is a Two-Way Process

• The information goes out to a person on the other end. There is a sender and a
receiver.
• Effective communication is getting your message across to the receiver.
• It is the sender’s responsibility to make sure that the receiver gets the message
and that the message received is the one sent.
• Communication cannot occur in isolation, both sender and receiver have to
participate in the communication process to achieve effective communication
and understanding of the message.
• Communicating is not an isolated series of one skill, it involves several skills.
• E.g. Speaking involves not only getting your message across but also being able
to listen and understand what others are saying (active listening) and observing
the verbal and nonverbal clues in order to monitor the effectiveness of your
message.
Effective Communication
Effective Communication
• Sharing of meaning and understanding between the person sending
the message and the person receiving the message.
• Communication requires a vast repertoire of skills for processing of
shared message.
• These include, speaking, reading, listening, writing, questioning,
analysing, gesturing and evaluating.
1. Completeness
• Completeness of message :Readers or listeners desire
complete information.
• For example: information papers on notice boards, radio
announcements, posters, newspaper articles and
advertisements need to be complete.
• Additional message can be costly.
• Complete messages can help avert (prevent) costly lawsuit
that may result if important information is missing.
• One way to make your message complete is to ask the five
W’s: Who? What? When? Why? Where?
• These are useful when you write requests, announcements
or other information messages.
• For instance, if you want to call for a meeting, make clear
What the meeting is about; Where it will take place; When
it will take place and Who should attend.
• Bottom line is, all your messages need to answer these
five W’s.
 2. Conciseness
• This means conveying the message by using fewest
words.
• Conciseness is the prerequisite to effective business
communication as you know all businessmen (any kind
of business, including office work) have very limited
time.
• Hence concise messages save time for both parties
involved in the communication.
How to Achieve Conciseness
• Avoid wordy expressions. For example,
“at this time”-now
“last but not least”-finally
“in view of the fact that”-because
• Hint: look for one word to replace phrases
• Stick to the purpose of the message:
Delete irrelevant words.
Avoid unnecessary repetition (tautology), e.g. (“lets work
together, everyone as a team”)
• Use pronouns, abbreviations or short names to avoid
wordiness.
• Avoid long introductions.
• Avoid unnecessary explanations.
3. Consideration
• This means to consider the receiver’s
interest/intention.
• It is very important in effective communication to
always keep in mind your target audience when
writing your message or when making an oral
presentation.
Three ways to indicate
consideration
• Focus on “you” instead of “I”, “me”, “mine” or “we”
Example 1:
To help us retrieve your student number, submit your person details.
Consider:
Your student number can be retrieved promptly if you submit your personal
details.

Example 2:
Our organisation will give K100, 000 if you find him.
Consider:
You will be granted K100,000 upon finding him.
• Show audience benefit and evoke interest of the
receiver.
• Emphasise positive, pleasant facts.

e.g. “It is impossible to repair your computer today.”

Consider: Your computer will be ready by …..

e.g. “We will disconnect your electricity supply if you

do not pay your overdue bill within 3 days.”
Consider: Paying your overdue bill within three days
will prevent you from disconnection.
 4. Concreteness
• This means being specific, definite and vivid rather than vague
and general.
• Misunderstanding of words creates problems for both the
sender and the receiver.
(a) Use facts and figures:
For example: Mary passed her degree extremely well.
Consider:
Mary passed her Bachelors Degree in Agriculture with a GPA of
3.45.
Practice! Use facts and figures

1. Many people came to a meeting.

2. The sample comprised mostly women.
3. Submit the report as soon as possible.
(b) Use active voice
• When the subject performs the action described by
the verb, the verb is said to be in the active voice.
• Usually the active voice puts the verb up front. "The
financial officer reported to the Board."
• In this example, the subject is the financial officer
who did the reporting; the verb "reported" is active,
it is up front in the sentence.
Active Voice is more:
1. Specific. "The dean decided" is more explicit than
"A decision has been made by the Dean.”
2. Personal. "You will note" is both personal and
specific; "It will be noted" is impersonal.”
3. Concise. The passive requires more words and thus
slows both writing and reading. Compare "Figures
show" with "It is shown by figures."
(c) Choose vivid, image building words
• Being exact, using concrete nouns

For example:
Use: First year students instead of students,
or Mathematics instead of subjects.
5. Clarity
• This is using words that are familiar to the message receiver.
(a) Choose precise words.
(b) Use familiar words.
(c) Construct effective sentences: Avoid long sentences, repetition,
unparallel, run-ons and dangling modifier senetences and use
active voice.
(d) Construct effective paragraphs: Not too long, should have one
main idea that supports the message.
• Achieve appropriate readability and listen ability.

• Include examples, illustrations and other visual aids.

6. Courtesy
• Courtesy means being aware of the perspectives of others and also
their feelings.
• How to generate a courteous tone:
(a) Be sincerely tactful or thoughtful.
(b) Use expressions that show respect of others.
(c) Choose non discriminatory expressions.
For example:
• Tactless expression: It’s your fault you did not read my
latest email.
Use instead: Internet technology is not always perfect,
let me try again.
• You have failed to pay your dues.
Use instead: We have not received your subscription
madam/Ms/chairperson.
• Check for race and ethnic labels; disability; gender; sexual
orientation, etc.
• For example: Avoid use of words such as, Manpower, manmade,
housewife, policeman, spokesman, fore fathers, business man, when
referring to both women and men/ human beings, etc.
• Writers who send courteous messages of deserved congratulations,
appreciation, condolence, etc., help to build good will which is more
valuable.
7. Correctness
• This means writing messages with
proper grammar, punctuation and
spellings.

• To write correct messages: Check the

accuracy of figures, facts and words.