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LEARNING GUIDE 1: NATURE OF COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTION

Communication is a complex process and it is difficult to determine where or with

whom a communication encounter starts and ends. Models of communication simplify
the process by providing a visual representation of the various aspects of a
communication encounter. Some models explain communication in more detail than
others, but even the most complex model still doesn’t recreate what we experience in
even a moment of a communication encounter. Models still serve a valuable purpose for
students of communication because they allow us to see specific concepts and steps
within the process of communication, define communication, and apply communication
concepts. When you become aware of how communication functions, you can think
more deliberately through your communication encounters, which can help you better
prepare for future communication and learn from your previous communication. The
three models of communication we will discuss are the transmission, interaction, and
transaction models.

Although these models of communication differ, they contain some common

elements. The first two models that we will discuss, the transmission model and the
interaction model, include the following parts: participants, messages, encoding,
decoding, and channels. In communication models, the participants are the senders
and/or receivers of messages in a communication encounter. The message is the verbal
or nonverbal content being conveyed from sender to receiver.
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UNIT 1: COMMUNICATION PROCESSES, PRINCIPLES AND ETHICS

UNIT LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this learning guide, you should be able to:

1. Analyze the importance of communication.

 2. Compare and contrast the three models of communication.
3. Analyze the principles of communication.
4. Adopt the communication ethics in real-life situation.

Engage
Communication is a transaction in which the participants are mutually engaged in the
process of creating the same meaning. (Comeaux, 1996; Opina et al, 2016).

▪ BARRIERS
◦ Different cultures
◦ Different expectations
◦ Different experiences
◦ Different perspectives
◦ Different communication style

Generally, you can classify all the above barriers into ENVIRONMENT BARRIERS and
PERSONAL BARRIERS.

■ OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION

Recognizing that environment and personal barriers exist is the first step to effective communication.
By becoming cognizant of their existence, one can consciously minimize their impact. However,
positive actions are needed to overcome these barriers.

Using multiple channels to reinforce complex messages decreases the likelihood of misunderstanding.

Longest and coauthors (2000) provide us with several guidelines for overcoming barriers:

1. Environmental barriers are reduced if receivers and senders ensure that attention is given to their
messages and that adequate time is devoted to listening to what is being communicated.

2. A management philosophy that encourages the free flow of communication is constructive.

3. Reducing the number of links (levels in the organizational hierarchy or steps between the sender in
the healthcare organization and the receiver who is an external stakeholder) reduces
 opportunities for distortion.

4. The power/status barrier can be removed by consciously tailoring words and symbols so that
messages are understandable; reinforcing words with actions significantly improves
communication among different power/status levels.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS
◦ are the tools that we use to remove the barriers to effective COMMUNICATION

Overcoming Barriers to Communication

Barriers to Communication

Environmental Barriers

1. competition for time and attention
2. multiple levels of hierarchy
3. managerial philosophy
4. power/status relationships
5. organizational complexity
6. specific terminology

Personal Barriers
1. frame of reference
2. beliefs
3. values
4. prejudices
5. selective perception
6. jealousy
7. fear
8. evaluate the source (sender)
9. status quo
10. lack of empathy

Overcoming Barriers to Communication

1. devote adequate time and attention to listening
2. reduce the number of links or levels of hierarchy
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3. change philosophy to encourage the free flow of communication

4. consciously tailor words and symbols and reinforce words with actions so that messages are
understandable
5. use multiple channels of community to rein- force complex messages
6. consciously define and tailor words and symbols and reinforce words with actions so that
messages are understandable
1. consciously engage in efforts to be cognizant of other’s frame of reference and beliefs 2.
recognize that others will engage in selective perception, jealousy, fear, prejudices to help diminish
the barriers
3. engage in empathy

Source: Based on Longest, B.B., Rakich, J.S., & Darr, K. (2000). Managing health services organizations (4th ed.). Baltimore,
MD: Health Professions Press, Inc., pp. 808–810.

ACTIVITY 1. COMPLETE THE CYCLE. Explain what is it and how it becomes a

part of the process.

R
E DC

Fig. 1 Communication Process

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ACTIVITY 2. Brainstorm on the definition of communication.

Present the definition thru a CONCEPT MAP. Answer the following:
What is communication? Why communication is important? How do
you communicate? ALL answers must be in ONE WORD ONLY.

COMMUNICATION

Explore
 MODELS OF COMMUNICATION
1. LINEAR MODEL
2. INTERACTIVE MODEL
3. TRANSACTIONAL MODEL

Communication models are not complex enough to truly capture all that takes
place in a communication encounter, but they can help us examine the various steps in
the process in order to better understand our communication and the communication of
others.

The transmission model of communication describes communication as a

one-way, linear process in which a sender encodes a message and transmits it through
a channel to a receiver who decodes it. The transmission of the message may be
disrupted by environmental or semantic noise. This model is usually too simple to
capture F2F interactions but can be usefully applied to computer
mediated communication. In other words, linear model conveys directly what the
speaker would like to transmit to the listeners/audience while the receivers of the
message can automatically catch what has been transpired in the communication
process. The best example of linear model is watching television about news wherein
broadcasters can easily transmit information to the public. However, the public cannot
directly give feedback for certain exchange of ideas.

The interaction model of communication describes communication as a two way

process in which participants alternate positions as sender and receiver and generate
meaning by sending and receiving feedback within physical and psychological contexts.
This model captures the interactive aspects of communication but still doesn’t account
for how communication constructs our realities and is influenced by social and cultural
contexts. This model expedites relevant issues to be solved at once by both the sender
and the receiver. One example for this model is debate. It is considered as battle of
ideas because arguments can be clarified easily by both the speaker and listener
wherein any one can be sender and receiver at once.

The transaction model of communication describes communication as a process

in which communicators generate social realities within social, relational, and cultural
contexts. This model includes participants who are simultaneously senders and
receivers and accounts for how communication constructs our realities, relationships,
and communities. Thus, this model requires presentation of more vivid facts to
anticipate barters of agreement between parties or group of
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experts or planners who are considered too as senders and in return becomes
receivers. A businessman who explains about stock exchange and investment to a
group of businessmen is believed to be a sample of a transactional model of
communication if they will deliberate the pros and cons of of making venture through
investment.

1. Linear Model of Communication 2. Interaction Model of Communication

 3.
Transactional Model of Communication

Activity 3. COMPARISON AND CONTRAST

Using the three figures above, compare and contrast the
three models of communication based on your
understanding. Cite the advantages and disadvantages to
create comparison among the three models of
communication. Practical answer is encouraged.

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Explain
ACTIVITY 4. “Getting Plugged In”

Computer-Mediated Communication

When the first computers were created around World War II and the first
e-mails exchanged in the early 1960s, we took the first steps toward a
future filled with computer-mediated communication
(CMC) (Thurlow, Lengel, & Tomic, 2004). Those early steps turned into huge strides in the
late 1980s and early 1990s when personal computers started becoming regular features
in offices, classrooms, and homes. I remember getting our first home computer, a Tandy
from Radio Shack, in the early 1990s and then getting our first Internet connection at
home in about 1995. I set up my first e-mail account in 1996 and remember how novel
and exciting it was to send and receive e-mails. I wasn’t imagining a time when I would get
dozens of e-mails a day, much less be able to check them on my cell phone! Many of you
reading this book probably can’t remember a time without CMC. If that’s the case, then
you’re what some scholars have called “digital natives.” When you take a moment to think
about how, over the past twenty years, CMC has changed the way we teach and learn,
communicate at work, stay in touch with friends, initiate romantic relationships, search for
jobs, manage our money, get our news, and participate in our democracy, it really is
amazing to think that all that used to take place without computers. But the increasing use
of CMC has also raised some questions and concerns, even among those of you who are
digital natives. Almost half of the students in my latest communication research class
wanted to do their final research projects on something related to social media. Many of
them were interested in studying the effects of CMC on our personal lives and
relationships. This desire to study and question CMC may stem from an anxiety that
people have about the seeming loss or devaluing of face-to-face (F2F) communication.
Aside from concerns about the digital cocoons that many of us find ourselves in, CMC has
also raised concerns about privacy, cyberbullying, and lack of civility in online interactions.
We will continue to explore many of these issues in the “Getting Plugged In” feature box
included in each chapter, but the following questions will help you begin to see the
influence that CMC has in your daily communication.
In a typical day, what types of CMC do you use?

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◦ What are some ways that CMC reduces stress in your life? What are some ways that
CMC increases stress in your life? Overall, do you think CMC adds to or reduces
your stress more?

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◦ Do you think we, as a society, have less value for F2F communication than we used
to? Why or why not? Please relate your answer in this pandemic situation.

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Elaborate
PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION
1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

2. KNOW YOUR PURPOSE 3. KNOW YOUR TOPIC

4. ANTICIPATE OBJECTIONS 5. ACHIEVE CREDIBILITY TO YOUR AUDIENCE

6. PRESENT INFORMATION IN SEVERAL WAYS

COMMUNICATION ETHICS
⮚ Confucius penned ethics in 6th century
⮚ Aristotle deliberated the significance of ethos and personal attributes in communication like
honesty and credibility in 4th century
⮚ Scholars defined ETHICS as the examination on personal morals, values and choices
12 1 GOLDEN MEAN
ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

✔ ARISTOTLE – founder of Communication discipline

✔ ARISTOTLE – Ethics is embedded in the character
✔ ETHICS – are rules of behavior
 ✔ MORALITY – can be seen in moderation
✔ VIRTUE – is the man, the pathway of two extremes
✔ THE VIRTUE OF TEMPERANCE – mean between eating and drinking too little or
too much
✔ THE VIRTUE OF COURAGE – mean between extreme of fear and overconfidence
✔ THE VIRTUE OF TRUTHFULNESS – mean between false modesty and
boastfulness

2. The CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

✔ Highlighted by German Philosopher – IMMANUEL KANT
✔ Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it
should become a universal law.
✔ For truth is essential when people lie there is the tendency to harm someone. ✔
This principle is associated with the old testament’s TEN COMMANDMENTS.

3.UTILITARIANISM
✔ Philosophers JEREMY BENTHAM and JOHN STUART MILL put strong emphasis
on the consequences and outcomes of our actions.
✔ J. BENTHAM theorizes that by placing “HENDONISTIC CALCULUS” the degree of
pleasure an action establishes is matched against the degree of pain it produces.
✔ J. STUART MILL considers the base of “UTILITARIANISM” as actions are right in
proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrongs as they tend to produce
the reverse of happiness.
✔ MILL believed that happiness is the pleasure and the absence of pain including
intellectual gratification and principles.

4. JUSTICE AND THE VEIL OF IGNORANCE

✔ JOHN RAWLS (American Philosopher)
✔ ETHICS – is a principle of justice that utility by allowing people to free themselves
from bias and self-interest.
✔ RAWLS further tells that social position, education and many others are known as
ACCIDENTS OF BIRTH allowing people to put behind a curtain of ignorance.
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5. LYING AND INTERPRETATION

✔ It connotes that communication takes place to value a valid reason for the welfare
of not only one person but people in the environment.

6. SECRETS, DISCLOSURES, & PRIVACY

✔ Issues on disclosures of information
✔ Ethical issue on the right to privacy
 7. WHISTLEBLOWING
✔ Revealing of EVIDENCE or activity that is considered DISHONESTY, UNETHICAL,
FORBIDDEN with the organization.

These ethical principles are applicable in all situations where communication serves as
tool in transmitting information and ideas. However, appropriateness of what is right and not what
is wrong should be the focus of communication.
The GOLDEN MEAN will guide you to express yourself with humility. It is necessary to
communicate with unpretentiousness and modesty. Be true to yourself and to others as well. In
case of CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE, communicate accordingly based on what is TRUE and
capable of not hurting anyone. You will also be guided by UTILITARIANISM if your goal is for
positive results without bias to the person but for the purpose of certain objectives. However, if
your tendency is to play safe most of the time, JUSTICE AND VEIL OF IGNORANCE is your
guardian angel where you cannot do anything because of you stand where you are. In like
manner, LYING AND INTERPRETATION is necessary on case to case basis. If you think others
will benefit out of your lying, communication can be beneficial of not saying what is truth.
However, if there is only one who will be the direct beneficiary, giving your perspective is not the
solution to the problem. There are situations too in an organization that SECRETS,
DISCLOSURES AND PRIVACY are highly regarded especially if information are considered as
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL in nature and it should not be revealed at once because that will be
against the DATA PRIVACY ACT of 2012 or R.A. 10173. Finally, in the event that an organization
has an employee who are considered dishonest and corrupt, WHISTLEBLOWING can be done
by any employee with proper accountability and honesty to the organization.
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ACTIVITY 5. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

Read the following situations and explain the ethical principles which are
applicable in the circumstances.
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1.
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__ Evaluate
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: REFLECTION LOG

If you will compare communication to objects, what should it

be and why?

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Assignment
A. CREATE a HODGEPODGE (COLLAGE OF IDEAS) based
on the discussion. Hodgepodge can be a variety or collection of
ideas that can be added aside from what has been discussed for
 additional knowledge and information.
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B. Create a SELF-MADE MODEL OF COMMUNICATION

References:

Effective Communication Skills (2010) MTD Training & Ventus Publishing ApS Principles,
methods and theories of effective communication (PDF) Principles and Competencies in
Purposive Communication (2018) Great Books Trading