Communication

basics
Harari
• Sceletons, siblings
• Thinking
• Cooking
• Replacement theory
 Communication: The birth
3
of the human society
(Harari: Sapiens)
2 million years ago – what would one
experience
Whera have all the other Homo species
disapperead?
Homo neanderthalensis (Europe, West
Asia), Homo erectus (Asia), Homo
soloensis, Homo floresiensis
(Indonesia), Homo denisova (Siberia),
Homo rudolfensis, Homo ergaster,
Homo sapiens (East-Africa)
For one million years do not hunt for
bigger animals, 100 years ago – the
top of the foof chain
 The cognitive
revolution 4
n

n
The gossip: the
fictitious language
n
5
n

n
The cognitive revolution
Cognitive level Ability Outcome

There were lions at Bigger amount of Planning and executing more

the river yeaterday. information about the complex actions.
environment.

Gossip Bigger amount of Bigger and more complex

information about the human communities.
relations.

language Providing information about Possibility for cooperation

imagined things (tribal between huge groups of
gosts/spirits, nations, people. New social
companies, human rights) behaviour.

6
Function of communication
• Undersatanding
• Meaning
• Sharing
8 components of communication
• Source – imagines, creates than sends the message
• Message – stimulus or meaning produced by the source for the receiver
• Channel – way in which the message travels
• Receiver – gets the message, interprets – intended and no-intended
interpretation
• Feedback – messages the receiver sends back
• Environment – the athmosphere in which one sends and receives
• Context – setting, scene nad expectations of the involved sides
• Interferencs – blocks/changes/infuences the source’s intended meaning
5 types of communication context
• Intrapersonal
• Interpersonal
• Group
• Public
• Mass
Communication models
• Everything is communication : we are humans because
communicate- and vice versa - Harari
• Why models? - specific concepts and steps within the process of
communication, define communication, and apply communication
concepts.
• three main models of communication: transmission, interaction, and
transaction models.
• 2 participants 1 content
• Three additional models: ritual, publicity, receptive – more focused on
the environment of the communicative act (media and marketing)
1. the transmission model
Transmission model
• a linear, one-way process - sender intentionally transmits a message
to a receiver
• Receiver is more an object tan a partner
• 1949 – radio, newspapers, tv – verbal and visual messages
• This is the „Hello-model”
• What is noise? – environmental and semantic
• Not complex model, but basic – text message
2 Interactional Model of communication
Interactional model
• participants alternate positions as sender and receiver
• generate meaning by sending messages and receiving feedback
• two sender-receivers who exchange messages
• less message focused and more interaction focused.
• E.g. messenger: reactions not always follow statements
• physical and psychological context : temperature, space etc. Vs.
Emotional context . E.g. you are in love and don’t care
3 The transactional model
Transactional model
• communication is more than sending and receiving messages
• Communication is part of our social reality – not only understand but
create and change them by communication
• we communicate to create relationships, form intercultural alliances,
shape our self-concepts, and engage with others in dialogue to create
communities
• No sender-receiver – just communicators : dating a new partner;
business partner etc.– adapting content during sending; fortune-teller
• CONTEXT: social, relational, cultural (race, gender, ethnicity, sex.
orientation, class) – dominant vs. marginalised identities
Intercult communication
• https://study.com/academy/lesson/intercultural-communication-
definition-model-strategies.html
4 the ritual model
James Carey
• The ritual view of communication is a representation of
shared beliefs within a community." – J. C. (1992)
• A Ritual view of communication suggests we
communicate, not just to pass information, but more
importantly, as a way to maintain our communities.
• The Ritual Model of Communication suggests that
connecting with others is more important than what we
might connect about.
• Communication as Culture
• • “Communication is a symbolic process whereby REALITY
is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed”.
• • “social life is more than power and trade ... It also
includes the sharing of this that experience, the religious
ideas, personal values and the sentiments, and intellectual
notions -- a ritual border”
 Assumptions- Relationship between
communication and reality: Ritual model
• Reality is not given, not humanly existent, independent of
language and toward which language mirrors.
• Reality is brought into existence, produced by
communication, by the construction, apprehension, and
utilization of symbolic forms.
• Reality is not a mere function of symbolic forms, but is
produces by humans that focus existence in specific terms.
• Reality is not there to discover in any significant detail.
Types of rites
• https://study.com/academy/lesson/rituals-definition-types-
challenges.html
 Religious rituals - ÉMILE DURKHEIM (1858—1917)
• DURKHEIM uses the term in religious context
• Today we use it in a much wilder sense – each society has
its rituals since it needs common values – secular rites.
• Connects rituals with the collective identity
• The tools of the ritual: repetition, theatricality, stylisation
and organised character of the events (planning)
• The ritual helps differentiating between Good and Evil,
Order and Chaos, Pure and Impure, Normal and Deviation
etc.
• the ritual creates and maintains values
 Social – political rituals (Steven Lukes)
• elections, parliamentary celebration, national commemorations…
• They follow rules
• symbolic
• not directly instrumental
• not rational
• expressive
• integrative

• Politictal ritual is expression of power:

• attempt at practicing power
• Power belongs to the instance which defines the difference between „normal”
and „deviant”
• defines what is legitimate and what is illegitimate – defines written and
customary regulations
 Rituals in the society
Every society is ritualised:
ï This provides the cohesion of the society
ï Expression of solidarity and collective identity;
ï In everyday life good and bad thing are present in the same time – rituals
help in finding order in this unceratinty

The typical ritual:

• Seeks not the conflict but the harmony
• Seeks integration as opposed to integration

Rituals were controlled by the church in older times, later the science and
arts, today it is mostly the domain of the media

Ritual is not directly instrumental: it does not directly lead to the goal.
However iderectly reduces uncertainty, leads to consesus:
- RainDance ritual as an example – Malinowski, functionalism 24
 Rituals in the society
• Ritual is a collective act based on common system of signs
(language, symbols, moral order
• Ritual is an expression od social contacts (subordination etc.)
• Ritual is not about the existing but about the expected and
desired- the ideal social system
example: the political ceremonies celebrate values in which
nobody believes
the ritual uses symbols (outfit, visual signs, gestures – shaking
hands) – often they are polysemantic
e.g., e flag or a uniform can mean many different things
Ritual is formalised: follows a scenario/tradition 25
 Ritual and society
• ritual is repetitive, regular: a day in the calendar or a period of
time (anniversary)
• The ritual is communication without information – except for the
participation in it – this also has some informative value.
What is not a ritual?
• Washing teeth, buying a newspaper in the morning – these are
just habits since no symbolic effect on the everyday life, no ethics
in them
Example: is comment communication a transaction or a ritual?
26
5 Publicity models
Reception model
Example
Reception
model of mass
communication
https://www.all
sides.com/med
ia-bias/media-
bias-ratings
Future 4C
• communication
• creativity
• cooperation
• critical thinking