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Understanding Communication

English word “Communication” derived from


•Latin noun “communis” +
•Latin verb “ communicare”
•Which means ‘to make common’
Communication simply put is
•2 or more people coming together to share, to commune
•Communication not just an actor process but a social and cultural ‘togetherness’
Communication as a Social Science
•Communication Science or Communication Studies – involved with popular
cultures, people as communicators
•Studies of propaganda by social scientists resulted in interest among govts and
academicians
•Government funds for communication research
•Business & industry promoted media research
Communication Studies influenced by
•Research, rapid growth of press, cinema, radio, TV
•Owes origin to US 1930s –Institute of Propaganda Research established for
influencing public opinion
•In UK & France – roots in literary and linguistic studies
•In Germany – trace to Institute of Social Research & Freudian psychoanalysis

•India – established with govt’s need for propagating family planning, social
development and national integration
•The Indian Institute of Mass Communication 1965
•Ministry of Information & Broadcasting – training & conduct research
•University depts joined in
Need for Communication
•Strong in Human beings
•Basic need as in eating, sleeping etc
•Both social & individual need
Communication involves
•Active interaction with environments – physical, biological & social
•When we acknowledge this, we adapt to the environment
•The basic need for communication can be traced to the process of mankind’s
evolution from lower species (animals sensory faculty to find food, protect )
•Lack of communication (& Excommunication”) or ‘sensory overload’ can be
disorienting – can lead to anxiety, apathy, impaired judgement, hallucinations,
schizophrenia
•Sensory overload – info explosion – satellite TV, internet etc
Communication & Language
•Sensory Communication was not enough
•Hence evolution of symbolic Communication called ‘language’
•Non-verbal gestures to verbal, then to written, printed word
•Language intertwined with culture

Communication as Information
•Communication not just sending and receiving info
•It is the whole experience – a human relationship
•Significant info can bring about a Communication relationship
Right to Communicate
•Right to Info declared fundamental right -United Nations Charter and Freedom
of Information Bill May 1997 (India)
Defining Communication
•Interaction, interchange, transaction, dialogue, sharing, communion and
commonness
•Communication is a process which increases commonality – but also requires
elements of commonality for it to occur at all – Denis McQuail

•Human Communication is a clash of symbols and covers a multitude of signs. It


is more than media and message, information and persuasion; it also meets a
deeper need and serves a higher purpose. Whether clear or garbled, tumultuous
or silent, deliberate or inadvertent, communication is the ground of meeting and
the foundation of the community. It is, in short, the essential human connection. –
Ashley Montagu and Floyd Mason

•Interaction within a culture is governed not so much by language, but by ‘body


synthesizers’ set in motion almost immediately after birth and thereafter
conditioned by culture. Communication, therefore, is not a matter of isolated
entities sending discrete messages back and forth, but a process of mutual
participation in a common structure of rhythmic patterns by all members of a
culture. – W S Cardon
Types of Communication
•Intrapersonal
•Interpersonal (Face-to-face)
•Transpersonal
•Mass
Intrapersonal Communication

•Individual reflection, contemplation, meditation


•Transcendental meditation – is example of this
Interpersonal (face-to-face) Communication
•Direct face-to-face between 2 persons
•Dialogue, conversation
•More persuasive, influential
•Privacy, personal space
•Different in different cultures
•Can be focused or unfocused interactions
3 Stages of Interpersonal Communication
•The Phatic Stage (warming up, hi hello stage)
•The Personal Stage (more personal element)
•The Intimate Stage (for friends, relatives, degree of intimacy, reveal innermost
thoughts and feelings)
Transpersonal Communication
•Conversing with divine, with spirits, ancestors
•Vital experience in religious and monastic, ashram life
Group Communication
•The larger the group, the less personal and intimate in possibility of exchange
•Degree of directness and intimacy depends on size of group, the place where it
meets, rel’ship of members to one another, and to group leader
•So mutual participation & understanding may suffer
•More complex than Interpersonal Communication

•Feedback in key word


•In Interpersonal communication feedback is instant, but not in group
communication
•Face-to-face communication more persuasive and influential
Mass Communication
•Group communication has now been extended by tools of mass communication
: books, press, cinema, radio, TV, internet, mobile
•Generally identified with modern MASS MEDIA
Power of media
•Media and Law?
•Media and Celebrities?
•Media and Cinema?
•Mass Media and the Consumer?
•Mass Media and Politics?
•Mass Media and education?
•Mass Media & Health?
•Media and Sports?
Interactive communication
•Via new media – video, cable, tele-shopping, video-on-demand, teletext,
computers, internet – termed ‘interactive communications’
•Telecommunications-based services –telephones, pagers, cellular also
‘interactive’

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