Meldea DPM

Communication: Critical Analysis

In the organization I am working with, the most used communication is through

correspondence and electronic mail (emails). In government offices, the main paradigm
in our field of interest can be found in the theory of communication where formality
and protocol are emphasized in every written text and required format. Communication
in general is strongly interactive, as very much affected by the disparate situations of
sending and receiving yet as by no means completely determined by them. In its easiest
form, a written communication is a simplified form of answering the basic 5 W’s and 1
H, sending to the reader or receiver a systematic set of information and objective.

Government service is also public service and communication recipients are either
the people or the government. To the people, communication is a service and
commitment. And to the government, it’s a responsibility and duty. And this form of
communication is not just a form of compliance and extending messages in its most
formal requirement, but rather a tradition that any government office has been keeping
for life. From this point of view, communication is the process of sharing the
significance by means of signs and texts. Of course, a sign is anything that can stand for
something else. The words are signs we call symbols. And so, written communication,
as a tradition, has bridged the gap of misunderstandings brought about by unclear and
ambiguous thoughts, expectations and even symbols that were not even defined. I
therefore regard communication as the creation and enactment of the social reality,
wherein the premises of my idea of its being a tradition refer to every individual’s talk
and ideas that produce and reproduce culture.

Communication always involves people, not one but more, and the social
psychology presents communication according to the social interaction and influence.
Yes, social interaction is correlated to individual’s traits, attitudes, emotions, and
cognitive processes. Influence appear among mas media on a larger scale than among
individuals, so the tradition being cultivated in the form of communication being used
became unnoticed. The social groups have started started to call for more effective
form of communication, yet written communication was considered as the most
effective form of communication and documentation for a very long time. Even in the
emergence of electronic mails, communication sent via emails are still being printed for
the purpose of hard copy compiling and communication documentation.

Not every individual can write communication. The basic idea of a communication
is that a person send meaning and not just text. I said meaning because a good
communication has its own way of communicating with the receiver or the reader. That
once the receiver reads the communication, there is understanding of the meaning of
its context as a whole. Tradition conceptualizes communication as the experience of
self and other in dialogue. Written communication has the tradition with philosophical
roots that has the authenticity of our original ways of experiencing self and others.
Problems that appear may be referred to as subjectivity and inter-subjectivity
understanding.

The barriers that have appeared in communication started from the consequence
of self-unawareness, non-acceptance of difference or other strategic agendas. This can
be interpreted through the intentional analysis of the person’s everyday life standpoint
that is living it. Thus the influence of social media has invaded every person, every office
and every home’s communication privacy. Communication in this form of social media
interaction becomes a reflective challenge of injust discourse, and implicit assumptions
are discussed behind the discourse.

The critical theories and concept sustain that power structure in society prevent
real communication by a systematic exclusion of the other voices heard, and the voices
of less powerful groups. It is actually connected to the study of ideology and culture. It
has denounced in the contemporary society the control of language to preserve power
imbalances, the influence of mass media and social media in the reproduction of the
dominant ideology and the uncritical reliance in scientific methods and empirical
findings. The art of communication can be achieved through practice and criticism on
the basis of systematic principles for obtaining good abilities and justifications in
different particular situations. In the classic acceptance, the rhetoric is considered the
art that uses all the possible ways of persuasion for building arguments, organizing
ideas, using language and delivery of public speaking.
Most of the representative of critical theory agree on all or a good part of the
standards of interpretative theory like a new and unique understanding of the people,
values clarification by recognition, identification and expose ideology behind the
messages. The aesthetic attraction can capture people’s imagination, whereas it is not
only the content, but also the style presentation that matters. Although the artistic
attraction depends on the receiver’s eyes, the clarity and artistic creativity satisfy this
requirement. But then, there remains unjust practices of communication which create
or keep going the power imbalances in the political, economic and religious life of
society.