Purposive Communication

Communication Process, Principles and Ethics

Communication is inevitable. Our need for self-expression leads us to communicate not only our
thoughts but also our feelings. Communication may be done verbally or non-verbally.

Communication is understood as the process of meaning-making through a channel or a medium. It

comes from the Latin Communicares, meaning to share or to make ideas common. The connection that
encompasses interaction among partakers is at the center of your learning of communication.

Everyone needs to relate with somebody to share feelings ,ideas, needs and information or just to
establish and maintain relationships.

At home, in a community, in school or in workplace a person has to engage in communication. Without

effective communication, a relationship can break,a community will ruled with conflict and chaos, the
workplace may not achieve industrial peace resulting to low production

The Components of the Communication Process.

Understanding the communication process may help you become a better communicator:

1. Source
The sender carefully crafts the message. The sender may be anyone, an author of a
book, a public speaker in a special occasion or even a traffic enforcer.
2. Message
The message is the reason behind any [Link] is the meaning shared between the
sender and the receiver. Message take many forms. They could mean poems,songs,
essays, news articles, road signs and even symbols.
3. Channel
The channel is the means by which a message is conveyed. When we answer a phone
call, the phone is the channel. On the other hand, when your parents receive a
notification of your absences from school, the channel is a letter. It is the responsibility
of both the sender and the receiver to choose the best channel for interaction.
4. Receiver
The receiver is the person who receives the transmitted message. The receiver may be
part of an audience in a public speaking event, a reader of a letter or a driver who reads
road signs. The receiver is expected to listen or read carefully, to be aware of different
kinds of sender to jot down information when needed, to provide response and to ask
questions for clarification.
5. Feedback
Is essential to confirm recipient understanding. Feedbacks, like messages, are expressed
in varied forms. A simple nod for a question of verification is considered a feedback.
Thus, feedbacks may be written , spoken or acted out.
 6. Environment
The place, the feeling, the mood, the mindset and the condition of both sender and
receiver are called the environment. The environment may involve the physical set-up
of a location where communication takes place, the space occupied by both the sender
and the receiver, including the objects surrounding the sender and receiver.

7. Context
It involves the expectations of the sender and the receiver and the common or shared
understanding through the environmental signal s.
8. Interference
It is also known as barrier or block that prevents effective communication to take place.

Kinds of Interference

1. Psychological barriers are thoughts that hamper the message to be interpreted correctly by
the receiver.
2. Physical barriers include competing stimulus, weather and climate, health and ignorance of
the medium.
3. Linguistic and cultural barriers pertains to the language and its cultural environment. Words
may mean another in different cultures.
4. Mechanical barriers are those raised by the channels employed for interpersonal, group or
mass communication. These include cellphones, laptops and other gadgets used in
communication.

The Nine Principles of Effective Communication

Michael Osborn92009) claims that communication must meet certain standards for effective
communication to take place.

1. Clarity
Clarity Makes speeches understandable. Fuzzy language is absolutely forbidden, as are
jargons, clichés expressions, euphemisms and doublespeak language.
2. Concreteness
It reduces misunderstandings. Messages must be supported by facts such as research
data, statistics or figures. To achieve concreteness, abstract words must be avoided.
3. Courtesy
It builds goodwill. It involves being polite in terms of approach and manner of
addressing an individual.
4. Correctness
Glaring mistakes in grammar obscures the meaning of a sentence. Also, the misuse of
language can damage your credibility.
5. Consideration
Messages must be geared towards the audience. The sender must consider the
recipient’s profession, level of education, race, ethnicity, hobbies, interests, passions,
advocacies and age when drafting or delivering a message.
6. Creativity
 Creativity in communication means having the ability to craft interesting messages in
terms of sentence structure and word choice.
7. Conciseness
Simplicity and directness help you to be concise. Avoid using lengthy expressions and
words that may confuse the recipient.
8. Cultural Sensitivity
Today, with the increasing emphasis on empowering diverse cultures, lifestyles and
races and the pursuit for gender equality, cultural sensitivity becomes an important
standard for effective communication.
9. Captivating
You must strive to make messages interesting to command more attention and better
responses.

Ethical Considerations in Communication

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that focuses on issues of right and wrong in human
affairs.
Ethical Communicators:
1. Respect audience.
2. Consider the result of communication
3. Value truth
4. Use information correctly
5. Do not falsify information.

Activity:

1. Illustrate the communication process through a diagram

2. In what instances were the miscommunication and successful communication?
3. Give concrete communication situations when the following types of noise is evident.
Explain how such noise disrupts the communication act and suggest steps to lessen or eradicate
this effect.
a. Internal noise
b. External noise
 Types of communication

Communication may be classified into two types based on two factors. One is based on the size of the
receiver of the message and the other is based on the medium used.

1. Intrapersonal communication-is the communication you have with yourself. It involves your
active internal involvement in the processing of the message thus becoming the sender and
receiver in continuing feedback loop.
2. Interpersonal communication-it occurs between people usually in a informal setting .It offers the
greatest opportunity for feedback because of the person s involved in the conversation have
the most opportunity to check if the message is perceived correctly.
3. Small group communication – occurs when a small group of people meet to discuss certain
matters. Messages are usually more structured as he group meet for a specific purpose such as
solving a problem or working for a project.
4. Public Communication- involves a sender conveying a message to a large [Link] channel
used are more complex with the speaker /sender using visual aids while the opportunity for
feedback is very limited.
5. Mass Communication-is communication transmitted by different media formats. message is
disseminated to a huge, anonymous audience with whom the speaker has little or no
connection.

Medium Used

Based on the medium used to convey the message, there are two types of communication:

Verbal and non-verbal

Verbal Communication-refers to the use of words in relaying a message either in oral or written
[Link] communication is the process of giving information through a spoken [Link] verbal
communication takes into consideration several factors :

Volume of the voice

Pitch
Rate
Pauses
Articulation and enunciation
Pronunciation
Inflection.
Nonverbal communication.
Communication is not only carried out through verbal means, but also through the use of our bodies
and faces or visual cues or sources.

These includes:

Personal appearance- it refers to how one appears before one speaks and how one approaches the
podium.

Eye contact-is another component of non-verbal delivery which refers to our visual contact with our
audiences.

Facial expression-refers to the movement of the eye, eye brows, and mouth.

Posture- refers to the way speakers carries his or her body in front of an audience.

Gestures-are movements, usually the hands but sometimes of the entire body, that expresses meaning
and emotion or offer clarity to a message.

Proxemics- refers to the distance or space that a speaker maintains between through the use space or
proxemics.

Nonverbal communication forms part of suprasegmental cues that enhance the delivery of the message
and understanding of the audience.

MODELS OF COMMUNCATION

Communication is a process, and the formal description of this process is called model.

Aristotle linear process- transmit message from the sender to receiver

The linear Communication Model viewed communication as one way process whose success
depends upon the receiver of the message .This model implies that whatever message is sent by the
speaker or sender ideally is the one that should be received by the [Link]
communication then is understand as the condition of being able to fully decode whatever is
conveyed by the originator of the message.
Schramm’s Model

Schramm's Model of Communication Wilbur L. Schramm was a forefather in the development of a

basic model of communication. His model is a derivation of the Shannon-Weaver transmission
model of communication. The Shannon-Weaver model proposed six elements of communication:

source

encoder

message

channel

decoder

receiver

Wilbur Schramm's 1954 model expands on this thinking by emphasizing the process of encoding
and decoding the message. Schramm envisioned this process as a two-way circular communication
between the sender and receiver. Where the Shannon-Weaver model is a more mathematical and
technological one, Schramm incorporates the study of human behavior in the communication
[Link] addition to the six elements above, Schramm has included these concepts: Feedback -
information that comes back from the receiver to the sender and tells him how well he is doing.
Diagram of Schramm's feedback loop
 Field of Experience -an individual's beliefs, values, experiences and learned meanings both as an
individual or part of a group. Diagram of Schramm's field of experience Dr. Schramm suggests that
the message can be complicated by different meanings learned by different people. Meanings can
be denotative or connotative. Denotative meanings are common or dictionary meanings and can be
roughly the same for most people. Connotative meanings are emotional or evaluative and based on
personal experience. A message can also have surface and latent meanings. Other characteristics of
messages that impact communication between two individuals are: intonations and pitch patterns,
accents, facial expressions, quality of voice, and gestures. The successful transmission of a message
depends on whether this message will be accepted over all the competing messages. Schramm's
model of communication also allows for the process of interpreting the message. This process is
influenced by the presence of both physical(phone, tv, sirens, etc.) and semantic(distractions, age,
attitudes, etc.) noise. Dr. Schramm believed that all of these elements were important functions of
communication in society. He felt that people in a society need information on their environment
and methods of communicating in order to make decisions. Most importantly we need "places to
store the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of a society and this is why we have libraries"
(Schramm, 1963, pg. 14). Within a library, all of these elements of Wilbur Schramm's communication
model are useful in addressing problems with conducting a reference interview.

Berlo’s Model

S - Source
The source in other words also called the sender is the one from whom the thought originates. He is the
one who transfers the information to the receiver after carefully putting his thoughts into words.

How does the source or the sender transfer his information to the recipient ?

It is done with the help of communication skills, Attitude, Knowledge, Social System and Culture.
  Communication Skills

An individual must possess excellent communication skills to make his communication effective
and create an impact among the listeners. The speaker must know where to take pauses, where
to repeat the sentences, how to speak a particular sentence, how to pronounce a word and so on.
The speaker must not go on and on. He should also make a point to cross check with the
recipients and listen to their queries as well. An individual must take care of his accent while
communicating. A bad accent leads to a boring conversation.

 Attitude

It is rightly said that if one has the right attitude, the whole world is at his feet. There is actually no
stopping for the person if he has the right attitude. A person might be a very good speaker but if
he doesn’t have the right attitude, he would never emerge as a winner. The sender must have the
right attitude to create a long lasting impression on the listeners. An individual must be an MBA
from a reputed institute, but he would be lost in the crowd without the right attitude.

 Knowledge

Here knowledge is not related to the educational qualification of the speaker or the number of
degrees he has in his portfolio. Knowledge is actually the clarity of the information which the
speaker wants to convey to the second party. One must be thorough in what he is speaking with
complete in-depth knowledge of the subject. Remember questions can pop up anytime and you
have to be ready with your answers. You need to be totally familiar with what you are speaking.
Before delivering any speech, read as much you can and prepare the subject completely without
ignoring even the smallest detail.

 Social System

Imagine a politician delivering a speech where he proposes to construct a temple in a Muslim

dominated area. What would be the reaction of the listeners ? They would obviously be not
interested. Was there any problem in the communication skills of the leader or he didn’t have the
right attitude ? The displeasure of the listeners was simply because the speaker ignored the
social set up of the place where he was communicating. He forgot the sentiments, cultural beliefs,
religious feelings of the second party. Had it been a Hindu dominated society, his speech would
have been very impressive.

 Culture

Culture refers to the cultural background of the community or the listeners where the speaker is
communicating or delivering his speech.

M - Message
When an individual converts his thoughts into words, a message is created. The process is also called
as Encoding.

Any message further comprises of the following elements:

 Content
 One cannot show his grey matter to others to let him know what he is thinking. A thought has to
be put into words and content has to be prepared. Content is actually the matter or the script of
the conversation. It is in simpler words, the backbone of any communication.

Ted to Jenny -“I am really exhausted today, let’s plan for the movie tomorrow evening”.

Whatever Ted has communicated with Jenny is actually the content of the message. It is very
important for the speaker to carefully choose the words and take good care of the content of the
speech. The content has to be sensible, accurate, crisp, related to the thought to hit the listeners
bang on and create an immediate impact.

 Element

It has been observed that speech alone cannot bring a difference in the communication. Keep on
constantly speaking and the listeners will definitely lose interest after some time. The speech
must be coupled with lots of hand movements, gestures, postures, facial expressions, body
movements to capture the attention of the listeners and make the speech impressive. Hand
movements, gestures, postures, facial expressions, body movements, gestures all come under
the elements of the message.

 Treatment

Treatment is actually the way one treats his message and is conveys to the listeners. One must
understand the importance of the message and must know how to handle it. If a boss wants to
fire any of his employees, he has to be authoritative and can’t express his message in a casual
way. This is referred to as the treatment of the message. One must understand how to present
his message so that the message is conveyed in the most accurate form.

 Structure

A message cannot be expressed in one go. It has to be properly structured in order to convey the
message in the most desired form.

 Code

Enter a wrong code and the locks will never open. Enter a wrong password, you will not be able
to open your email account. In the same way the code has to be correct in the communication.
Your body movements, your language, your expressions, your gestures are actually the codes of
the message and have to be accurate otherwise the message gets distorted and the recipient will
never be able to decode the correct information.

C - Channel
Channel - Channel actually refers to the medium how the information flows from the sender to the
receiver.

How does one know what the other person is speaking ? - Through Hearing.

How does one know whether the pasta he has ordered is made in white sauce or not ? -
Through Tasting.

How does one know that there is a diversion ahead or it’s a no parking zone? - Through Seeing.
How will an individual come to know that the food is fresh or stale ? How do we find out the fragrance of a
perfume ? - Through Smelling.

How will you find out whether the milk is hot or not ? - Through Touching.

All the five senses are the channels which help human beings to communicate with each other.

R - Receiver
When the message reaches the receiver, he tries to understand what the listener actually wants to
convey and then responds accordingly. This is also called as decoding.

The receiver should be on the same platform as the speaker for smooth flow of information and better
understanding of the message. He should possess good communication skills to understand what the
speaker is trying to convey. He should have the right attitude to understand the message in a positive
way. His knowledge should also be at par with the listener and must know about the subject. He should
also be from the same social and cultural background just like the speaker.

There are several loopholes in the Berlo’s model of communication. According to the berlo’s model of
communication, the speaker and the listener must be on a common ground for smooth conversion which
is sometimes not practical in the real scenario.

Activity

[Link] are nonverbal cues an important source of the meaning of a message?

[Link] do you know that a message is correctly interpreted by the receiver?

3. Which work best for mass communication?