UCU100 ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION – MADAM ANN WAHITO (MUT)

Essential Components or Elements of Communication

Source/sender:

This is the creator of the message. He/she performs four roles:

a. Determines the meaning of what is to be communicated. The choice of words, tone of

voice and other non-verbal behaviours will help indicate the meaning to those with whom

he wants to communicate.

b. Encodes the message. In other words, translates the thoughts or feelings into words,

sounds and physical expressions which make up the actual message that is to be sent e.g.

one can express the same message in different ways (I love you); (Nakupenda).

c. Sending – voice and body are now used to express the intended message accurately

d. Reacting – he/she must interpret the receiver’s response to the message. In most

communication situations, this happens simultaneously with the response e.g. the person

he/she is talking to will also be sending messages e.g. nodding, smiling, eye contact as

he/she speaks.

Receiver:

He analyses and interprets messages therefore translating them into meaning. This process is

called decoding. When you are involved in communication you are simultaneously a receiver

and a source. As you listen to someone else, you react with body movements or facial

expressions and therefore you also send a message to the other person. The receiver has

several roles:

a. To receive hear see touch smell or taste the message

b. To attend to the message

c. To interpret and analyse the message

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d. To store and recall the message

e. To respond to the source

The message:

This is made of ideas and feelings that the sender/receiver wants to share. It is the content of

the interaction. All our communication messages are made up of two kinds of symbols

(something that stands for something else) a) verbal and b) non verbal

a) Verbal symbols are those words in our language that stand for a particular thing or idea.

They are limited and complicated e.g the word chair is a concrete symbol. When we hear it

however, we might have a different impression of it e.g it could be a sofa, a classroom seat, a

lawn chair etc. Words which stand for ideas or feelings are abstract symbols e.g hungry, hurt,

home etc. How we understand them will be determined by our experience.

b) Non-verbal symbols are anything that we communicate without using words e.g gestures,

facial expressions, vocal tones, appearance etc.

Each message is unique even if the same message is created over and over again, it would be

different each time e.g. if you read an item in a newspaper cartoon, its different from if it’s

on the newspaper headlines.

Code – the systematic arrangement of symbols used by the source / receiver to create

meaning in the mind of another person. This may be in the form of the language you choose

to communicate, the actual words and phrases and also the non-verbal form used. Encoding

is putting the ideas and thoughts into a code, while decoding is interpreting and making sense

of those ideas.

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Channel:

This is the means by which messages flow between the source and the receiver. It is also

called the medium of transmission. It may be in the form of sound waves (in oral-auditory

messages) or light waves (in visual communication). We also receive communication by

smelling, touching and tasting. All the five senses are very important for communication. In

face to face communication, the primary channels are sound and light: we listen to and look

at each other. Other channels are books, films, videotapes, television sets, computers, radios,

newspapers etc.

Feedback:

This is the response to a message that the receiver sends back to the source. It enables a

sender to know if the message has been received and understood as intended. The receiver

has the responsibility to attend to, decode and determine a message’s intended meaning.

He/she also has to provide feedback that will let the sender know that the message has been

received and understood. The fewer the people involved in a communication event, the

greater the opportunity for feedback eg. two people in a face to face interaction versus a

speaker in a hall.

Interference/noise:

This is anything that changes the meaning of an intended message or reduces the clarity of a

message.

a. It can be external and physical (from the environment) e.g. noise caused by a door

slamming; a room that is cold, too hot or filled with smoke; or even a speaker wearing

too much make-up or jewellery, talking too fast, too slow etc.

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b. It can also be internal or psychological (in a person’s mind) e.g. the thoughts going on in

a person’s mind can interfere with the reception or creation of a message. When the

thoughts are focussed on something else, it interferes with the communication. It can

also stem from beliefs or prejudices e.g. If you believe a woman cannot be a manager,

then you will miss her message.

c. Semantic noise – use of expressions that are unknown, or too complex or even

unacceptable to the receiver. They include language differences, inattention and

misunderstanding caused by different interpretations of a word or an expression e.g.

people will tune out a speaker who uses profanity because the words are offensive to

them.

Environment/Setting/Context

This refers to the psychological and physical surroundings in which communication occurs.

It includes the attitudes, feelings, perceptions and relationship of the communication as well

as the characteristics of the location in which communication takes place e.g. size, colour,

arrangement, decoration and temperature of a room. The environment affects the nature and

quality of the communication e.g. it is much easier to carry on an intimate conversation in a

private, quiet and comfortable setting than in a public, noisy and uncomfortable setting.

Communication does not occur in a vacuum. It can be in informal and formal settings such as

between friends, between business partners, between a teacher and students etc. The number

of people, the types of communication and the situation in which the communication occurs

are all related to the context. Each context affects what we say and how we say it.

Madam Ann Wahito - 0727201017

Notes prepared for; Muranga University of Technology

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1ST YEAR 1ST SEMESTER SEPTEMBER 2020

Assignment 1:

Describe a communication situation with all the elements of communication. (15m)

Send this assignment to ann.wahito@mut.ac.ke on or before Wed, 7th October 2020.

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