1.2: What Is Communication?
Read this section, which describes the communication process, including its eight essential elements: source, message, channel, receiver, feedback, environment, context, and interference. This section also reviews communication models based on transactions and shared meaning. After you read, attempt exercises at the end of the section.
This video describes the categories of communication as parts of a pyramid-shaped structure of communication science. Why is it important to appreciate communication science? This video shows that "institutional communication", which is another way of describing business communication, is near the top of the pyramid. Why is institutional communication at a higher level than group communication, but lower than societal communication?
The Shannon and Weaver model of communication is probably the best known of all communication models. This video demonstrates the two reasons behind its popularity: (1) it identifies the most important components of any communication process, and (2) it diagrams how those components interact. What does this mean for you, and how you can become a more effective communicator? You can answer this question and appreciate Shannon and Weaver's model by considering any instance of communication between yourself and any other being capable of communication (including non-humans). Use the model to identify all of the elements you, as a communicator, need to respond to communicate effectively in that instance. For example, think about how you would tell a dog or cat that you approved of its behavior. Think specifically about how you would have to adjust each of the components in Shannon and Weaver's model to ensure that the dog or cat understood you. Next, think about how you would respond differently to those components if you needed to communicate the same kind of approval to a human being, perhaps a co-worker or trainee. Finally, consider a scenario in which you had to communicate disapproval to an already hostile individual. Which elements in the model would you have to modify? These questions illustrate how Shannon and Weaver's model increases your awareness of communication situations and enables you to "first seek to understand, then seek to be understood".
This video reinforces the importance of understanding communication, covering the subject in greater depth than previous videos. Both the lecturer's comments and the slideshow are dense with information, so be sure to take notes. Pay attention to the slide that diagrams a model of communication that is slightly different from the Shannon and Weaver model. Many models exist to explain the communication process, although most are very similar, and nearly all of them include at least some of the components in Shannon and Weaver's model.