Communication and Mass Communication

Contents

1.      Communication

2.      Features of communications

3.      Purposes of communication

4.      Importance of Communication

5.      Non-verbal communication

6.      Importance of Non-Verbal Communication

7.      Elements of Communication Process

8.     Mass Communication

COMMUNICATION

Human beings communicate with each other through speech and gestures, whereas animals, birds, insects and even plants communicate through Sounds. Sense organs and Movements.

The word COMMUNICATION is derived from the Latin word 'Communis' which means to make common, to transmit to impart or to share between two or more persons or groups.” Communication is the natural aspect of man's life. Communication is as old as human, human being himself starts communicating from birth. When a baby cries it is communicating its need for attention or milk, when it gurgles (happy) it is expressing its sense of satisfaction.

Man has always tried to share his thoughts, experiences and feelings with others. We achieve our goals according to our ability to communicate effectively. Communication is the basis of all Socio-economic, Political and Cultural activities. There can be no society without communication.

Definitions of Communication

According to W.H. Newman and C.F. Sumer Jr. the definition of communication are follow:

“Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons.”

According to Keith Davis the definition of communication are follow:

“Communication is the process of passing information and understanding - from one person to another.”

According to Peter Little the definition of communication are follow:

“Communication is the process by which information is transmitted between individuals or organizations so that an understanding response results.”

Explanation / Comment

Here Peter Little defines communication as:

1.     A Process

2.     Information transmitted between individuals and organizations,

3.     Ensures an understanding response from the receiver of the communication.

Thus: Communication is Transmission of information + Reception + understanding Response.

According to Koontz and 0' Donnell the definition of communication are follow:

“Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more people.”

Features of communications

(i) Communication is a two-way traffic.

(ii) It is a continuous and unending process.

(iii) It is a short-lived process and lasts till the other person understands the message.

(iv) The main purpose of communication is to make the message understandable to others.

(v) It aims at achieving the organizational objectives.

(vi) It dispels the misunderstanding between persons.

Purposes of communication

The main purpose of communication are :

(i) Conveying the right message to persons concerned.

(ii) Coordinating the efforts of all those who are engaged in the business.

(iii) Development of managerial skill and understanding.

(iv) Maintaining good industrial relations.

(v) Assessing the effectiveness of policies, practices, behaviour and procedures etc.

Importance of Communication

Communication plays an important role in our life. Through communication we learn manners, ethics and other behavioural norms and values.

1. Global Village :
It is due to the development of communication that world is shrunk into a village and has become a global village where everyone knows about others and the news of latest happenings spread throughout the world within a short span of time.

2. Human Nature :
Communication is the basic need of human beings as it is a part of human nature to communicate with others. So the communication process has been going on since man was not familiar with language. At that time, people used to communicate through signs, symbols, gestures and pictures etc.

3. Social Process :
Because man is a social animal, he can’t live alone apart from the society. So, man communicates with others to fulfil his basic need of communication and by social interaction he learns social norms, rules and culture of his society.

4. Symbol of Life :
Communication is the sign of human life existence as we are always involved in this process by walking, sleeping, sitting, crying and smiling etc. By all these actions, we communicate with others and make them to understand our mood and needs.

5. Exchange of Ideas :
By the process of communication, the transfer of meaningful words become information for us. Through communication, we transmit our information to others. Every new information becomes news for others. In the present age, all developed countries are trying to improve their mass media.

6. Awareness :
Through communication, man gets awareness, knowledge, information and education. Awareness about the latest technologies, discoveries, inventions comes through the process of communication. 

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

It involves those non-verbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source
(speaker) and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver (listener). Basically it is sending and receiving message in a variety of ways without the use of verbal codes (words). It is both intentional and unintentional. Most speakers/listeners are not conscious of this. It
includes but is not limited to :
l. Facial expression
2. Gestures
3. Eye contact and gaze
4. Body movement
5. Posture
6. General appearance and dress
7. Touch and smell
8. Para language

1. Facial Expression :
A facial expression results from one or more motions or positions of the muscles of the face.
Meaning attached to facial expressions are identical but differs from culture to culture. Majority opinion is that these do have similar meaning worldwide with respect to smiling, crying, showing anger, sorrow or disgust. However, it differs in many parts of the world.
For example,
1. Women smile more than men.
2. Too much smiling viewed in as a sign of silliness

2. Gestures :
Gestures are made with hands and arms. Some of these are culture specific, others are universal. Think of the gesture that is used to indicate that somebody may be crazy you do so by pointing the finger at the head or by tapping the head with it.
For example,
In US, index finger is used for pointing.
In Germany, little finger is used for pointing.
In Japan, entire hand is used for pointing.
Similarly another example of gesture is counting.
In Germany, thumb is used to count 1, while in Japan thumb is used to count 5.

3. Eye-Contact and Gaze :
Eye-contact and gaze indicates degree of attention or interest, influences attitude change or persuasion, regulates interacting, communication emotion, defines power and status and has a central role in meaning impressions of others.
For example,
In western culture, direct eye to eye contact is seen as positive sign while in Arabia it shows interest and helps.them understand truthfulness of the other person.
In Asia, direct eye to eye contact is avoided to show respect of elders.

4. Body Movement :
We send information on attitude towards person (facing or learning towards another) emotional status (tapping fingers, jiggling coins) and desire to control the environment (movement towards or away from a person).
We cannot categorize the body movement, it is more than 700,000 possible motions. To be aware of the body movement and position is a key ingredient in sending message.

5. Posture :
Posture involves the whole orientation of the body one can immediately recognize a casual posture. Relaxed, learning back with hands clasped behind the head indicates a very casual mood. If the body is rigid, erect with hands folds across the chest, it suggested aggression. We are also familiar with body posture with suggest dejection. Bowed down body as if something is weighing one down with head in hands shows dejection learning forward can suggest interest.

6. General Appearance and Dress :
All cultures are concerned for how they look and make judgments based on looks and dress. Appearance almost obsessed with dress and personal attractiveness consider differing cultural standards on what is attractive in dress and on what constitutes modesty. It is also used for the sign of status.

7. Touch and Smell :
Touch is basically concept of part of the body one may touch, what may not touch. Basic message of touch is to affect or control-protect, support, disapprove. It varies from place to place.
Smell is concept the body react with the environment to smell something.
For example,
If a person smell the smoke he immediately moves from that place to safe area.

8. Para Language :
The feature of emotion, voice quality and speaking style send different message to different tone.
For example,
In Arabian culture, the loudness indicates strength while softness indicates to weakness. Besides this, in Germany, softness indicates confidence and authority.

Importance of Non-Verbal Communication

Basically, it is one of the key aspects of communication (and especially important in a high-context culture).
It has multiple functions :
1. Use to repeat the verbal message, e.g.. point in a direction while stating direction.
2. Often used to accent a verbal message, e.g., verbal tone indicates the actual meaning of a specific word.
3. Often complement the verbal message but also may contradict a started positive message.
4. Regulate interaction it conveys when the other person should speak or not to speak.
5. May substitute for the verbal message, especially if it is blocked by noise interruption. For example, finger to lips indicates need for silence.

Elements of Communication Process

At a general level, communication events involve the following elements:
l. A Source
2. A Process of Encoding
3 . A Message
4. A Channel
5. A Process of Decoding
6. A Receiver
7. The Potential for Feedback
8. The Chance of Noise

1. A Source :
A source may be an individual (speaking, writing, gesturing, signing and drawing) or a communication organization (like television station, motion picture, studio, publishing house or newspaper organization).

2. A Process of Encoding :
Encoding refers to the activities that a source goes through to translate thoughts and ideas into a form that may be perceived by the sense. When you have something to say, your brain and your tongue Work together (usually) to form words and spoken sentences. Encoding, in a communication setting, can take place one or more times.
Example :
in a face-to-face conversation, the speaker encodes thoughts into words. Over the telephone, this phase is repeated, but the phone subsequently encodes sound waves into electrical energy. Some people are better encoders than others. in like manner, some machines are better encoders than others. Music recorded on a Rs. 60,000 audio console in a sound studio will probably sound better than that recorded on a pocket cassette recorder.

3. A Message :
Actual physical product that the source encodes, when we talk, our speech is the message. Anything, real or imagined, capable of eliciting one or more responses directly or indirectly from a human, sub-human receiver in a time-free context, is called message.
Example :
When we write a letter at home, what We put on the paper is the message. When a television network presents a “special announcement” it is also a message.

4. A Channel :
Channels refer to the ways in which the message travels to the receiver. Sound waves carry spoken words, light waves carry visual messages. Some messages use more than one channel to travel to the receiver. Radio signals travel by electromagnetic radiation until they are transformed by receiving sets into sound waves that travel through the air to our ears.

5. A Process of Decoding :
The decoding process is the opposite of the encoding process. it consists of activities that translate or interpret physical messages into a form that has eventual meaning for a receiver.
Explanation :
As you read these lines, you are decoding a message. If you are playing the Radio while decoding these lines, you are decoding two messages simultaneously-one aural, one visual. Both humans and machines can be thought of as decoders. A single communication event can involve many stages of decoding. A newspaper reporter sits in on a city council meeting and takes notes (decoding), he phones in a story to the writer desk where another reporter writes or types the story as it is read (decoding). This story is then read by an editor (decoding).
Examples :
The Radio is a decoder, so is a video-tape playback unit, so is the telephone (one end encodes and the other end decodes), so is a film projector.

6. A Receiver :
The receiver is the target of the message-its ultimate goal. The receiver can be a single person, a group, an institution, or even a large, anonymous collection of people. in today‘s environment, people are more often the receivers of communication messages than the sources. Most of us see billboards than we put up and listen to more Radio programmes than we broadcast. The receivers of the message can be determined by the
source, as in a telephone call, or they can self-select themselves into the audience, as with the audience for a T.V. show. It should also be clear that in some, situations, the source and the receiver can be in each other’s immediate presence while in other situations. they can be separated by both space and time.

7. The Potential for Feedback :
Feedback refers to those responses of the receiver that shape of the subsequent messages of the source. Feedback represents a reversal of the flow of communication. The original source becomes the receiver, the original receiver beet the new source.
(a) Positive Feedback :
Positive feedback from the receiver usually encourages the communication behaviour in progress.
(b) Negative Feedback :
Negative feedback usually attempts to change the communication or even to terminate it.

8. The Chance of Noise :
The last factor in the communication process is noise. According to the communication scholars, “Noise is anything that interferes with the delivery of the message. There are three different types of noise :
(a) Semantic noise
(b) Mechanical noise
(c) Environmental noise

Mass Communication

What is Mass Communication, Definition of mass communication Normally, transmission of messages to many persons at a time is called Mass Communication. But in complete sense, mass communication can be defined as the process through which a message is circulated extensively among the people who are far away from the sender. Meaning of mass communication, Characteristics of Mass Communication, Features of Mass Communication below here-

According to Metha, “Mass Communication is concerned with transmitting information, thoughts and opinions, entertainments etc at a time to a large number of audiences of different characteristics.”

According to Agge, Ault and Emery, “Mass Communication is process of sending a message, thought and attitude through some media to a large number of heterogeneous audiences.”

Dominick says, “Mass Communication refers to the process by which a complex organization with the aid of one or more machines produces and transmits public messages that are directed at large, heterogeneous and scattered audiences.” 

From the above definitions and discussion, we can define Mass Communication as the process of sending messages to a large number of heterogeneous audiences at a time by using some media.

Characteristics or Features of Mass Communication

Mass Communication has all the features of general communication. In addition, it offers some unique characteristics because of its specialty in nature. The characteristics of mass communication are discussed below:

§  Large Number of Audience: The foremost feature of mass communication is that it has large number of audience. No other communication gets as many receivers as it gets.

§  Heterogeneous Audience: Mass Communication is not only composed of a large number of audiences but also aims to heterogeneous audience. The heterogeneity here means that the audience may belong to different races, groups, section, cultures etc.

§  Scattered Audience: The audiences of Mass Communication are not organized in a certain area rather they are highly scattered in different geographical areas. The receivers of message of mass communication may stay any place of the country and even any place of the world.

§  Wide Area: The area of Mass Communication is wider than any other communication systems. In case of mass communication system, the message is structured, formal and standardized and that’s why it has acceptance all over the world.

§  Use of Channel: Mass Communication system uses various types of mass media channels such as-radio, television, newspapers, magazines etc.

§  Use of Common Message: Another unique characteristic of mass communication is that it sends the same message simultaneously to a large number of audiences staying far away from each other. If the audiences have the proper access to the media used by the sender they can easily get message wherever they stay in the world.

§  No Direct Feedback: Mass Communication does not produce any direct feedback. The reaction of audience cannot be known quickly here.

§  Outward Flow: The flow of message in mass communication is outward, not inward. The basic objective of mass communication is also to send message to the people outside the organization who say far away.

§  Use of Technology: Mass Communication system uses modern technology in the process of production and dissemination of the message to be sent.