Overview

The purpose of this lesson is to understand what communication is and the eight essential components of communication.

Read

Communication is the conveying of messages by exchanging thoughts or information via speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior. Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiver may not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication.

Directions

Read the following text about the components of communication.
Then, go to the next page to take the reading comprehension quiz.

Read: Eight Essential Components of Communication

In order to better understand the communication process, we can break it down into a series of eight essential components:

Source
Message
Channel
Receiver
Feedback
Environment
Context
Interference

Each of these eight components serves an integral function in the overall process. Let’s explore them one by one.

Source

The source imagines, creates, and sends the message. The source begins by first determining the message—what to say and how to say it.

The second step involves encoding the message by choosing just the right order or the perfect words to convey the intended meaning.

The third step is to present or send the information to the receiver or audience. This message can be conveyed through his or her tone of voice, body language, and choice of clothing.

Finally, by watching for the audience’s reaction, the source perceives how well they received the message and responds with clarification or supporting information.

Message

The message is the meaning produced by the source for the receiver or audience. When you speak to a person your message may be the words you choose that will convey your meaning. But that is just the beginning. The words are brought together with grammar and organization. You may choose to save your most important point for last. The message also consists of the way you say it—in a speech, with your tone of voice, your body language, and your appearance—and in a report, with your writing style, punctuation, and the headings and formatting you choose. In addition, part of the message may be the environment or context you present it in and the noise that might make your message hard to hear or see.

Imagine, for example, that you are presenting in front of your class and are aware there is the Super Bowl game tonight. Your audience might have a hard time settling down, but you may choose to open with, “I understand there is an important game tonight.” In this way, by expressing verbally something that most people in your audience are aware of and interested in, you might grasp and focus their attention.

Channel

There are different ways for a message to travel between the source and the receiver and this is called the channel. For example, think of your television. How many channels do you have on your television? Each channel takes up some space, even in a digital world, in the cable or in the signal that brings the message of each channel to your home. Television combines an audio signal you hear with a visual signal you see. Together they convey the message to the receiver or audience.

Turn off the volume on your television. Can you still understand what is happening? Many times you can, because the body language conveys part of the message of the show. Now turn up the volume but turn around so that you cannot see the television. You can still hear the dialogue and follow the story line.

Similarly, when you speak or write, you are using a channel to convey your message. Spoken channels include face-to-face conversations, speeches, telephone conversations and voice mail messages, radio, public address systems, and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). Written channels include letters, memorandums, purchase orders, invoices, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, e-mail, text messages, tweets, and so forth.

Receiver

As a receiver you listen, see, touch, smell, and/or taste to receive a message and interpret the message from the source intentionally and unintentionally. To better understand this component, think of a receiver on a football team. The quarterback throws the football (message) to a receiver, who must see and interpret where to catch the ball. The quarterback may intend for the receiver to “catch” his message in one way, but the receiver may see things differently and miss the football (the intended meaning) altogether.

Feedback

When you respond to the source, intentionally or unintentionally, you are giving feedback. Feedback is composed of messages the receiver sends back to the source. Verbal or nonverbal, all these feedback signals allow the source to see how well, how accurately (or how poorly and inaccurately) the message was received. Feedback also provides an opportunity for the receiver or audience to ask for clarification, to agree or disagree, or to indicate that the source could make the message more interesting. As the amount of feedback increases, the accuracy of communication also increases.

For example, suppose you are downstairs and your children are upstairs. You would like to tell them dinner is ready. You yell upstairs for them to come down and hear no reply. You might assume that this means they understood, are wanting to eat, and will be down shortly, but you also may think they didn't hear you, or they aren't hungry and choose to skip dinner. So you shout louder! If you followed up your first, "Dinner is ready" message with a request for feedback ("Say I'll be right down, or I'm not hungry if you heard me") you might have an opportunity to clarify your message, and to find out if they are hungry and coming down for dinner.

Environment

The environment is the space where you send and receive messages. If you glance around your room, your environment can include the tables, chairs, lighting, and the computer you are using. The room itself is an example of the environment.

The environment can also include factors like formal dress, that may indicate whether a discussion is open and caring or more professional and formal. People may be more likely to have an intimate conversation when they are physically close to each other, and less likely when they can only see each other from across the room. In that case, they may text each other, itself an intimate form of communication. The choice to text is influenced by the environment.

Context

A presentation or discussion does not take place as an isolated event. Context is the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. For example, when you came to class, you came from somewhere. So did the person seated next to you, as did the instructor.

The degree to which the environment is formal or informal depends on the contextual expectations for communication held by the participants. The person sitting next to you may be used to informal communication with instructors, but this particular instructor may be used to verbal and nonverbal displays of respect in the academic environment. You may be used to formal interactions with instructors as well, and find your classmate’s question of “Hey Teacher, do we have homework today?” as rude and inconsiderate when they see it as normal. The nonverbal response from the instructor will certainly give you a clue about how they perceive the interaction, both the word choices and how they were said.

Context is all about what people expect from each other, and we often create those expectations out of environmental cues. Traditional gatherings like weddings or quinceañeras are often formal events. There is a time for quiet social greetings, a time for silence as the bride walks down the aisle, or the father may have the first dance with his daughter as she is transformed from a girl to womanhood in the eyes of her community. In either celebration, there may come a time for rambunctious celebration and dancing. You may be called upon to give a toast, and the wedding or quinceañera context will influence your presentation, timing, and effectiveness.

Context is all about what people expect from each other. In a business meeting, who speaks first? That probably has some relation to the position and role each person has outside the meeting. Context plays a very important role in communication, particularly across cultures.

Interference

Interference, also called noise, can come from any source and has the ability to block or change the intended meaning of the message. For example, if you drove a car to work or school, chances are you were surrounded by noise. Car horns, billboards, or perhaps the radio in your car interrupted your thoughts or your conversation with a passenger.

Psychological noise is what happens when your thoughts occupy your attention while you are hearing, or reading, a message. Imagine that you are studying for your first test and you are nervous about the grade you will receive. As thoughts of doubt creep into your mind, they interfere with your reading of classroom notes and the study guide.

Interference can come from other sources, too. Perhaps you are hungry, and your attention to your current situation interferes with your ability to listen. Maybe the classroom is hot and stuffy. If you were a member of an audience listening to a guest speaker, how could this impact your ability to listen and participate?

Noise interferes with normal encoding and decoding of the message carried by the channel between source and receiver. Not all noise is bad, but noise interferes with the communication process. For example, your cell phone ringtone may be a welcome noise to you, but it may interrupt the communication process in class and bother your classmates.

Summary

The communication process involves understanding, sharing, and meaning, and it consists of eight essential elements: source, message, channel, receiver, feedback, environment, context, and interference.

Content Source: Boundless. Defining Communication.Boundless Management Boundless, 26 May. 2016.
Images Conversation, Watching TV, and Flag Football by Pixabay are in the Public Domain, CC0.