Communication Process and Its Elements

Sender: Sender, encoder or source is the one who

initiates the communication process. He may be an
editor, a reporter, a filmmaker, a teacher, a writer, a
speaker, a leader or anybody who takes the initiative
to start a dialogue. Before one speaks or writes, the
message is conceptualized first and then encoded. An
effective communication depends on the
communication skill, knowledge level, and attitude of
the communicator and how he desires to affect his
receiver.
Message: It is the sender’s intended meaning,
experience, idea, information, view, fact, feeling, etc.
to be communicated to recipient.
Channel: It is the vehicle or path through which a
message is carried from the communicator to the
receiver. Approach to defining a channel varies from
person to person. In this context we are focusing on
two channels: written and spoken. While medium
refers to the form of communication that is
communicated either spoken or written path.
Receiver/Decoder: The person who attends to the
source’s message is the receiver. The act of
interpreting messages is called decoding. Receivers
decode messages based on past experiences,
perceptions, thoughts, and feelings. We receive
messages through all senses, but most often we
decode messages by listening or seeing.
Feedback is the response or acknowledgement of
receiver to the communicator’s message. The
exchange is possible only if the receiver responds
Noise is an interruption that can creep in at any point
of the communication process and make it
ineffective.
Context: Context is everything. It shapes the
meaning in all communication. Without context you
can’t communicate effectively. When your message is
delivered in one context, but received in another, it
likely leads to miscommunication. Context includes
verbal context, setting and the relationship between
the communicators. Considering these areas we can
understand the proper meaning.
Verbal Context/Linguistic context: Linguistic context
or verbal context refers to the linguistic environment
in which a word is used within a text. As a matter of
fact, understanding the meaning of vocabulary items
using linguistic context may involve syntactic and
morphological interpretation of the elements within
a text. In other words, to determine the meaning of
an item, it is necessary to know whether the item is a
noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb, functioning
as a subject, a predicate or a complement. This
information gives important clues to the meaning of
the text. Consider the following examples.
1. He keeps his words. 2. Where did you keep my
books? 3. He has to keep his family.
Setting/Situational Context: It refers to time and
place and these two variables play a pivotal role in
determining the meaning. Consider a call for help
from drowning man and a call for help in the library.
Participants: Relationship between communicators
determines the interpretation of communicated
message. Individual perceptions shaped through
environment, experience, religion, culture, age and
gender play a role to decode the same message
differently.