1.1 COMMUNICATION 1 Dalton E. McFarland, American expert on business management, defines communication as the process of meaningful interaction among human beings. Give your own personal definition of communication. Think of a real-life example for each of these purposes. WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? Definition Communication is strongly linked to all other human activities: it overcomes the gap between individuals and groups through information, be it factual, emotional, social, or personal. It helps people understand, bringing people closer and creating clarity of thoughts and expression. Over the course of the years, people have learned to communicate to exchange information through a common system of symbols, signs, or sets of behaviour. Elements in the process of communication Sender: the creator of the message that needs to be transmitted. Message: the heart of communication, the content the sender wants to convey. Encoding: the process of converting messages into communication symbols such as words, pictures, gestures, symbols, etc. Encoding translates the internal thought of the sender into a language which can be understandable. Channel(s): the way the message is carried through. Receiver: the person or group the message is addressed to. Decoding: the process of translating the encoded message back into comprehensible language. Feedback: the receiver s response, which confirms that the intended recipient has got the message. Name five different channels you can think of in under 30 seconds. to influence (e.g. advertising); Noise Sometimes, communication can be hindered by different barriers (also called noise ) which could give rise to miscommunication and make it more difficult or even impossible. These may be: to meet social expectations; linguistic, visual, to express feelings. semantic, physical, cultural, physiological, emotional, psychological. Purposes of communication The five major purposes for communication are: to share knowledge; ONLINE RESOURCES Great communicators to address to: indirizzare to convey: trasmettere to hinder: ostacolare to overcome: superare stuttering: balbuzie 14 to imagine unreal situations or stories; The process of communication The process of communication refers to the transmission of information in the form of a message from the sender, through a selected channel, to the receiver, overcoming barriers. The process of communication is a cyclic one as it begins with the sender and ends with the sender again in the form of feedback; it is a continuous and dynamic interaction. CommuniCation anD PSyCHoLogy