Communication: 

The term Communication is derived from the Latin word “communis”, meaning “common.” Broadly, communication is the transmission of ideas, information, emotions, and skills through symbols, words, pictures, figures, graphs, etc.

Communication can occur even without using words. Our four senses—audio, visual, touch, and smell—can also serve as channels for communication.

Different Definitions of Communication:

1. Leagan’s Definition: Communication is the process by which two or more people exchange ideas, facts, feelings, or impressions in a way that leads to common understanding of the meaning, intent, and use of messages.
2. Rogers & Shoemaker (1971): Communication is the process by which a message is transferred from a source to a receiver.
3. Van den Ban & Howkins (1988): Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages through a channel that establishes common meaning between a source and a receiver.

Nature of Communication:

• Dynamic: Communication is an ongoing, ever-changing process.
• Reciprocal and Alternating: Involves two-way interaction.
• Social Process: Communication occurs in a social context.
• Interdependent: The level of interdependence varies from situation to situation.
• Faithful Performance: Fidelity may vary from one situation to another.
• Phases of Communication: Every communication act involves expression, interpretation, and response.
• Feedback: Feedback is vital in determining the success of communication.
• Multiple Levels: Communication can occur at many levels and for many different reasons, among various people and in many ways.
• Imperfect Communication: Perfect communication is seldom achieved.

Flow of Communication in an Organization:

1. Downward Communication: Takes place from top officials to lower-level functionaries.
2. Upward Communication: Takes place when messages are conveyed from subordinates to their superiors.
3. Horizontal Communication: Takes place between individuals at the same hierarchical level.

Purpose of Communication:

• According to Aristotle, the prime goal of communication is persuasion.
• Communication also serves these purposes:
  • Informative: Providing factual knowledge.
  • Persuasive: Appealing to emotions.
  • Entertainment: Providing enjoyment or relief.
• Schramm (1968): The purpose of communication is to offer both immediate and delayed rewards.
• Festinger (1957): The purpose of communication can be consummatory (satisfaction) or instrumental (goal-driven).
• Berlo (1960): The sole purpose of communication is to influence behavior. Communication should be behavior-centered.

Functions of Communication:

1. Information Function: Provides the essential information needed for adjusting to the environment.
2. Command/Instructive Function: Communication initiated by those in hierarchical authority to guide or instruct subordinates (more common in formal organizations).
3. Influence/Persuasive Function: Aims to change the behavior of people, particularly in fields like extension work where influencing behavior is key.
4. Integrative Function: Helps maintain stability and identity in individuals, society, or organizations.

Levels of Communication (Thayer):

1. Intrapersonal Communication: Communication with oneself, e.g., reading a newspaper.
2. Interpersonal Communication: Direct, face-to-face communication with immediate feedback.
3. Interorganizational Communication: Communication between two or more organizations, e.g., communication between MANAGE and IARI.
4. Organizational Communication: Internal communication within an organization.

Communication Effectiveness:

• Effectiveness of Communication Encounter: Measures the comprehension and common understanding between the communicator and the receiver.
• Effectiveness of Communication Performance: Measures the success of communication based on the subsequent behavior of the receiver.

Communication Effectiveness Criteria (CVU):

1. Comprehensive (Clearness): The message should be clear and understandable.
2. Validity (Consonance, Credibility, Congruity): The message should be credible, and its meaning should align with the intended purpose.
3. Utility (Relevance): The message should be relevant and useful to the receiver.

The art of communication is listening.

Models of Communication

• Aristotle Model of Communication:
  • The first basic persuasive model of communication.
  • It involves three key elements:
    1. Speaker – Who speaks.
    2. Speech – The message being produced.
    3. Audience – Who listens.

• Rudimentary Model of Communication:
  • Focuses on five questions:
    1. Who says (the speaker),
    2. What (the message),
    3. In which channel (medium),
    4. To whom (audience),
    5. Under what circumstances (context),
    6. With what effect (impact).
  • It’s a simple, one-way communication model, used in political communication, propaganda, and political symbolism.

• Schramm’s Model of Communication:
  • Components: Source → Encoder → Signal → Decoder → Receiver.
  • The source encodes the message as a signal, which is decoded by the receiver.
  • Relevant for mass media, where communication flows in a structured manner.

• Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication (Information Theory):
  • Involves five elements: Source, Transmitter, Signal, Receiver, Destination.
  • Noise is a key component that disrupts communication (e.g., interference in radio/TV).
  • Addresses three levels of communication problems:
    1. Technical – Accurate transmission of information.
    2. Semantic – Interpretation of the meaning.
    3. Influential – Impact on the receiver’s behavior.

• Berlo’s Model of Communication (1960):
  • Six components: Source, Code, Encoding, Channel, Decoding, Receiver.
  • Berlo emphasizes behavior and suggests the process involves creating a message, encoding it, transmitting it via channels, and decoding it in a manner understood by the audience.

• Leagan’s Model of Communication (1963):
  • Includes six components: Communicator, Message, Channel, Treatment, Audience, Audience Response.
  • Designed to drive change, this model focuses on sending useful messages through appropriate channels to desired audiences, resulting in targeted responses.
  • Ideal for field extension work.

• Rogers and Shoemaker Model of Communication:
  • Five components: Source → Message → Channel → Receiver → Effect.
  • Effective in mass media and newspapers, focusing on how information flows through channels to receivers and influences them.

Communication Theories

1. Linguistic Theory (Williams): Focuses on spoken language and the idea that meanings are in people, not words.
2. Psycholinguistic Theory: Explains how coding behavior works in communication, complementing linguistic theory.
3. Theory of Mass Communication (Defleur): Studies the effects of mass media on society and individuals.
4. Balance Theory of Communication (Heiher): Explores how people maintain psychological balance through communication.
5. Role-Taking Theory (George Mead): Discusses how people learn to understand others’ perspectives through communication.
6. Medium is the Message (McLuhan): Argues that the medium through which communication occurs is just as important as the message itself.
7. Key Communicator Concept (Lazarsfeld): Identifies influential individuals (key communicators) in a community who play a significant role in the spread of messages.

Elements of Communication

• Communicator: The sender or source of the message, such as an extension agent or researcher.
  • Credibility is key, as trustworthiness and competence influence message acceptance.

• Message or Content: The information that is conveyed. Important characteristics include timeliness, specificity, and credibility.
• Channel: The medium through which the message travels (e.g., spoken, written, mass media). Channels can be categorized into:
  • • Personal Localite: Local channels, such as community leaders.
    • Personal Cosmopolite: Outside channels, like extension agents.
    • Impersonal Cosmopolite: Mass media, like radio or TV.
• Treatment and Presentation: Refers to how the message is processed and presented to make it clear, understandable, and relevant to the audience.
• Audience: The receivers of the message. Audience segmentation involves identifying subgroups within the audience for tailored messages.
• Audience Response: The ultimate goal of communication: to provoke a reaction from the audience. Feedback loops are crucial to ensure the message has the desired effect.

Feedback

• Feedback is essential in communication, particularly in extension work. It allows for responses from the audience, which helps in refining and improving future messages.
• Action-reaction interdependence describes the process of feedback, where the audience’s reactions influence the sender’s subsequent communication.

Types of Communication Flow Models:

1. Hypodermic Needle Model: Mass media directly influences a passive audience, assuming an immediate and powerful effect.
2. Two-Step Flow Model: Information flows from mass media to key communicators and then to the audience, popularized in the 1940s.
3. One-Step Flow Model: A direct communication flow from mass media to the audience, with less intermediary influence.
4. Multi-Step Flow Model: Information flows through multiple steps, involving various intermediaries before reaching the audience.

Message Distortion

• Systematic Distortion: Changes to the message that occur in a structured way without loss of information.
• Fog Distortion: Significant loss of message clarity or information.
• Mirage Distortion: Addition of irrelevant or distracting information along with the main message.

Key Terminologies:

• Frame of Reference: This refers to the set of beliefs, experiences, and values that individuals possess, both personally and as part of a social group. It influences how messages are interpreted.
• Perception (by Gibson): The process by which an individual interacts with and interprets the environment, forming their understanding of the world.
• Fidelity: Refers to the faithful performance of the communication process, ensuring that all elements of communication (sender, message, channel, receiver) work effectively. Noise and fidelity are inversely related—reducing noise increases fidelity, and vice versa.
• Communication Gap: This is the difference between the message intended by the communicator and the message received by the audience. It can be of two types:
  • The message doesn’t reach the intended audience.
  • The message reaches the audience but doesn’t produce the desired impact.
• Time Lag: Refers to the delay or gap in the communication process, particularly in receiving feedback or understanding the impact of a message.
• Empathy: The ability to understand and accept another person’s perspective, thoughts, and feelings, enabling effective communication.
• Homophily and Heterophily (Lazarsfeld & Merton):
  • Homophily: The degree to which individuals are similar to each other in attributes like beliefs, education, and social status.
  • Heterophily: The degree to which individuals differ from each other in these attributes. Communication between dissimilar individuals may lead to cognitive dissonance.
• Propaganda: The deliberate manipulation of beliefs, values, and behavior using various forms of communication like words, gestures, and images.
• Publicity vs. Propaganda:
  • Publicity: Based on truth.
  • Propaganda: Often distorts or suppresses the truth.
• Channel Capacity: The maximum amount of information that can be transmitted through a communication channel in a given time. It is calculated as:
  • Channel Capacity = Bandwidth × Time
• Redundancy: Refers to the amount of information that can be added or omitted in a communication channel without affecting the overall message (in a noiseless channel).
• Communication Competency: The ability to process information and predict or explain human behavior effectively.
• Entropy: Refers to the level of uncertainty or unpredictability in a message or communication system.
• Semantics: The study of meanings of words and their relationships.
• Syntax: The rules governing the order of words in a sentence.
• Morphemes: The smallest meaningful unit in language.
• Antics: Uncoordinated or awkward verbal responses.
• Kinesis: Awkward non-verbal behaviors, particularly body movements.

• Non-Verbal Communication Types:
• Haptic: Communication through touch.
• Vocalic: Communication through voice (e.g., tone, pitch, volume).
• Oculesics: Communication through eye behavior (e.g., eye contact).

Body Types:

• Ectomorph: A body type characterized by a thin and delicate build.
• Endomorph: A body type characterized by a short, plump build.
• Mesomorph: A body type characterized by muscularity.

Proxemics: The study of how people use and perceive physical space in communication. Different types of personal space distances include:

• Intimate Distance: 0–18 inches (for close relationships).
• Personal Distance: 18 inches to 4 feet (conversations with friends or associates).
• Social Distance: 4 to 8 feet (formal settings, new acquaintances).
• Public Distance: More than 8 feet (used in speeches, lectures, or public speaking).