Understanding the Invisible Aspects of Human Communication - Prof. Estlein, Study notes of Communication

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Communication 101

Spring 2012

Complexities of human

communication

Remember  According to the system theory, communication is

the process through which humans and animals process

messages so that they can adapt to and cope with the demands

and challenges presented to them by creating appropriate

messages.

Visible aspects of communication

• (^) People -speakers, listeners, readers, observers, etc. People are visible in the communication process
• (^) Symbols
  • (^) Characters, letters, numbers, words, objects, people, or actions that stand for or represent something. <3 (a heart) , TREE (each letter represents a sound & together it makes up the word tree )
  • Symbols are very powerful, and seem real
  • (^) Words are symbols and the meaning of the symbols lies in people
  • (^) The symbol itself is visible but the meaning of it is arbitrary.
• (^) Technology
  • (^) Permanence (=time) <ex : photos, it stays long after the communication process happened > and portability (=space)
  • (^) Enables communication to go beyond time and space.

Invisible aspects of communication

• (^) Meaning
• (^) Learning
• (^) Subjectivity
• (^) Negotiation
• (^) Culture
• (^) Interacting Contexts and Levels
• (^) Self-Reference
• (^) Self-Reflexivity
• (^) Ethics
• (^) Inevitability

• (^) Learning
  • (^) We go to school, our parents teach us, society.
  • (^) Communication and symbol interpretation are learned and acquired.
  • (^) First-order information processing event  experiencing yourself (ex: touching a hot stove and you get burned so you wouldn’t touch it again)
  • (^) Second-order information processing event
    • learning through socialization
    • Ex: cultural norms, conventions 7 Invisible Aspects of Communication

Invisible Aspects of Communication

• (^) Subjectivity
  • individual/unique understandings of things
  • related to experience

We understand things differently because we learned

differently ex: we all went to different schools, different

culture.

• implies that no two attach precisely the same

meaning to the messages around us.

Invisible Aspects of Communication

• (^) Interacting contexts and levels
  • individuals  relationships  groups  organizations  societies and cultures…
  • influence one another. We interact differently with different people. Communication is context dependent. Each interaction shapes our future interaction with others because it influences our perception and thoughts.
• (^) Self-reference
  • The process of attaching the meanings that we learn to the symbols that we use ( we interpret symbols constantly in interaction with others)

Invisible Aspects of Communication

• (^) Self-reflexivity (self-consciousness)
  • allows us to view ourselves as a part of, and apart from our environment. Ex: if you feel like something is wrong with your behavior then you’d change it.
• (^) Ethics
  • choices about what to say and how to say it, about when to speak and when to be silent, and whether to be forthright or evasive.
• (^) Inevitability
  • We cannot not communication. Communication is inevitable. Whatever we do is a communication.