Communication is the process of exchanging information, usually via a common protocol. "Communication studies" is the academic discipline focused on communication forms, processes and meanings, including speech, interpersonal and organizational communication. "Mass communication" is a more specialized academic discipline focused on the institutions, practice and effects of journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations and related mediated communication directed at a large, undifferentiated or segmented audience.
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Examples of human communication are the sharing of knowledge and experiences, the giving or receiving of orders and cooperation. Common forms of human communication include body language, sign language, speaking, writing, gestures, and broadcasting. Communication can be interactive, transactive, intentional, or unintentional; it can also be verbal or nonverbal. Surprisingly, only 7 to 11% of all communication is verbal, the rest being non-verbal and its aspects. Communication varies considerably in form and style when considering scale. Internal communication, within oneself, is intrapersonal while communication between two individuals is interpersonal. Interpersonal communication in the form of conversation plays an important role in learning. At larger scales of communication both the system of communication and media of communication change. Small-group communication takes place in settings of between three and 12 individuals creating a different set of interactions than large groups such as organizational communication in settings like companies or communities. At the largest scales mass communication describes communication to huge numbers of individuals through mass media. Communication also has a time component, being either synchronous or asynchronous.
There are a number of theories of communication that attempt to explain human communication, and various theories relating to human communication draw upon different core philosophies.
For instance, some theories presuppose communication as a five-step process that entails a sender's creation (or encoding) of a message, and the message's transmission through a channel to another individual, organization or a group of people. This message is received and then interpreted. Finally this message is responded to, which completes the process of communication. This model of the communication process is based on a model of signal transmission known as the Shannon-Weaver model.
Yet another communication model can be seen in the work of Roman Jakobson. Six elements and their correlative functions comprise this particular model.
The root of communication by artificial means, i.e. not using biologically immediate means like vocalization (or speech when occurring between humans), is generally believed to be the art of writing that most probably goes back to the more ancient arts of drawing and painting.
Nowadays, the use of technology to aid and enhance distance communications, telecommunications in short, is usually taken to represent communication technology in general.
In telecommunications, the first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast occurred on July 25, 1920.
As the technology evolved, communication protocol also had to evolve; for example, Thomas Edison had to discover that hello was the least ambiguous greeting by voice over a distance; previous greetings such as hail tended to be lost or garbled in the transmission.
As regards human communication these diverse fields can be divided into those which cultivate a thoughtful exchange between a small number of people (debate, talk radio, e-mail, personal letters) on the one hand; and those which disseminate broadly a simple message (Public relations, television, cinema).
Our indebtedness to the Ancient Romans in the field of communication does not end with the Latin root "communicare". They devised what might be described as the first real mail or postal system in order to centralize control of the empire from Rome. This allowed Rome to gather knowledge about events in its many widespread provinces.
As the Romans well knew, communication is as much about taking in towards the centre as it is about putting out towards the extremes.
In virtual management an important issue is computer-mediated communication.
The view people take toward communication is changing, as new technologies change the way they communicate and organize. In fact, it is the changing technology of communication that tends to make the most frequent and widespread changes in a society - take for example the rise of web cam chat and other network-based visual communications between distant parties. The latest trend in communication, decentralized personal networking, is termed smartmobbing.
The introduction of an important new communication technology creates a new civilization, according to a book titled "Five Epochs of Civilization" by William McGaughey (Thistlerose, 2000). Ideographic writing produced the first civilization; alphabetic writing, the second; printing, the third; electronic recording and broadcasting, the fourth; and computer communication, the fifth. These successive world civilizations are also associated with the institutional mix of society. World history is told accordingly.
The following factors may be barriers in human communication:
[1] Dance, Frank. "The 'concept' of communication. Journal of Communication, 20, 201-210 (1970).