WEEK 1: COMMUNICATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY relationship between these elements…it helps in explaining by providing in a

simplified way information which would otherwise be complicated or ambiguous.

Introduction:

• Communication – a skill that’s probably the most vital of all. The ability to
communicate well is a vital contributor to being a good student, employee, and ARISTOTLE’S MODEL OF COMMUNICATION:
citizen.
• Aristotle, writing 300 years before the birth of Christ, provided an explanation of oral
• Many research studies have suggested that being able to express yourself well and communication that is still worthy of attention. He called the study of
to comprehend with equal clarity what others are expressing, is a crucially important communication, “rhetoric” and spoke of three elements within the process.
thing. A proficiency at interpersonal communication is certainly coupled with
• Rhetoric falls into three divisions, determined by three classes of listeners to
physical and mental health, socially desirable behavior, educational attainment, and
speeches. Among the three elements in speech- making- speaker, subject, and
the ability of an individual to get employment.
person addressed- it is the last one, the listener, who determines the speech’s end
• It is a mistake to believe that communication is a simple process. Although people and object.
communicate with one another every day, the real question is whether the ideas one
• Here, Aristotle speaks of a communication process composed of a speaker, a
has expressed are truly understood by another. Communication breakdowns happen
message, and a listener. Note, he points out that the person at the end of the
in every part of the globe, and these have led to plethora of problems. Effective
communication process holds the key to whether or not communication takes place.
communication can breach peace, spark revolutions, and affect change in
Aristotle explains that the speakers should adjust their messages according to their
government. However, to communicate properly, one cannot simply strive to
audience and the occasion to achieve a particular effect.
express oneself and leave understanding to fate; one must also learn how to organize
one’s thought, control one’s emotions, use one’s words to articulate concepts and
arguments, and express oneself in the best way possible.

• The art of one’s communication reflects the art of one’s thinking. According to James
Berlin (1982), one of the major proponents of The New Rhetoric, in teaching writing,
we are not simply offering training in a useful technical skill that is meant as a simple
complement to the more important studies of other areas. We are teaching a way of
experiencing the world, a way of ordering and making sense of it.

• This is also true when it comes to all the language skills essential in communication,
whether this is in writing, reading, listening, or speaking. These are tools that help us
analyze, critique, and negotiate with the world. To construct ideas and bring people
to believe in one’s vision, it is important to be able to communicate in an effective,
articulate manner. On a personal level, honing one’s communication skills can also
• Let us apply this to a modern example. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on
bring about success to one’s personal and professional life.
December 7, 1941, the US President Franklin Roosevelt delivered a stirring speech to
• To lead nations or corporations, communication skills are essential. To work declare war on Japan on December 8. The speaker, in this case, was US President
smoothly as a team, communication is indispensable. And to create a vision that Roosevelt and his speech was crafted especially for the occasion, filled with strong
people will believe in, one needs to learn how to communicate purposefully in words that were crisp and straight to the point. The occasion was the President’s
today’s society. response to the attack on Pearl Harbor; the main audience was the US Congress; and
the effect was to persuade members of Congress to declare war on Japan, which
Different Models of Communication: they did, with only one dissenting vote. These components of speaker, speech,
occasion, audience and effect should be considered when communicating one’s
• One way of thinking about communication process is by looking at the different
message.
communication models available. According to Denis Mc Mcquail and Sven Windahl
(2013), in their book Communication Models for the Study of Mass Communications,
“a model seeks to show the main elements of any structure or process and the
OSGOOD-SCHRAMM MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
• In this model pay attention to the role of the interpreter. Encoding and decoding are
not automatic processes both go through the filter of the interpreter. Therefore, the
message may succeed or fail, based on the interpreter’s appreciation of the message.
There are times when the sender and receiver may apply different meanings to the
same message, and this is termed “semantic noise”. His second model, on the other
hand, builds this theory about the interpreter into the different fields of experience
of the sender and the receiver.
• For the message to reach the receiver, there must be a common field of experience
between the sender and the receiver. Although the receiver might not fully
appreciate all the nuances of the message, as there are parts of the sender’s
experience that the receiver has no knowledge of, the receiver may still understand
the core meaning of core meaning of the message. According to Snesha Mishra
(2017), this field of experience may constitute “culture, social background, beliefs,
experiences, values, and rules. In this model, if the encoder’s and decoder’s field of
experience overlap, communication can take place. If there is no overlap, or if only a
small area in common, communication is difficult, if not impossible.
SHANNON-WEAVER MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
• This model was created by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver. According to the
Website Communication Theory Org. in 1948, Shannon and;
• Weaver wrote an article in the Bell System Technological Journal entitled
“Mathematical Theory of Communication”. According to Flores (2016), this is also
often called the ‘The Telephone Model”, since it was developed because of the
technology of the telephone and the experience of “noise” coming from the
switchboard.
• The sender would be the person giving the message, while the encoder would be the
transmitter which converts the message into signals. Let us use the modern example
of the mobile phone. With this, the encoder would be the cell phone, and the sender,
of course, would be the person calling. The decoder on the other hand, would be the
reception place of the signal which converts signals into message, which is why in
modern parlance, when there is no signal there is difficulty in decoding the message.
The receiver would be the destination of the message by the sender which would be
the person who is being called – and when there are problems, or “noise” that
interferes with the message, then the receiver would give feedback, which is usually
phrased as “choppy”, when the message cannot be heard because of the signal. The
messages are transferred through the use of a channel; in the case of the telephone,
the channel would be the cables, while in the case of the cellphone, the channel
would be radio frequencies. This model can also be used in other situations, and can
tell us how the message may sometime get lost because of the noise, which can be
physical or psychological and how feedback is an essential component of
communication to ensure that the message is successfully received.
EUGENE WHITE’S STAGES OF ORAL COMMUNICATION
• According to White, it is possible to begin at any of the stages outlined in his model.
People are under the mistaken impression that when we communicate, we usually
start with thinking, but that is not necessarily the case. Since it is a circular model, it
means that oral communication is a continuous process with no real beginning or
end. The most important contribution from White’s model is the concept of
feedback, which can only be processed by the speaker if he or she has been
monitoring the audience or the listener. Hence, the speaker must also pay attention
to the listener’s verbal and non- verbal cues.
LINEAR MODEL
• The Linear model is applied in mass communication like television, radio, etc. This
model is not applicable in general human communication as general human
communication has to have feedback and responses.
TRANSACTIONAL MODEL
• It is based on the premise that individuals are simultaneously engaging in the sending
and receiving of messages (Barlund 2008). This is an excellent model during face- to
– face interaction which allows the interlocutors to be creators and consumers of
messages simultaneously. As shown in the figure below, when the sender delivers
the message, it will pass through a channel (verbal, aural, visual) before reaching the
receiver. As message reaches the receiver, a feedback will be sent to the original
sender. In this case, the former receiver becomes the sender; the former sender
becomes the receiver. The communication cycle continues until naturally or
forcefully terminated. However, the success of communication may be interfered by
different forms of barriers in different stages. It depends on the interlocutors on how
they will overcome such barriers.
• In conclusion, communication is not a simple process that starts with the speaker
and ends with the listener- there are many factors that should be considered. When
it comes to the message, how the message is organized and what field of experience
it comes from should be taken into consideration. When comes to the sender, the
best communication is the one that involves feedback. Furthermore, there are
several kinds of “noise” that may severely affect the reception of the message and
thus, should be avoided. Cultural differences technology and interpretation need to
be considered as well. To be a good communicator, one needs to pay attention to
how people are responding to the message, and adjust accordingly, rather than
being preoccupied with simply expressing oneself.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY (WEEK 1):
• Why do you think communication skills are considered to be essential in being
good citizens?