Definitions and Process of Communication

Definitions of Communication and Process of Communication:

Introduction:

The English word communication is derived from the Latin word Communis that means to transmit, to share, to impart. Communication is a two way process. It is a natural activity of all human beings to convey opinions, information, ideas, feelings, emotions to others by words spoken or written, by body language or signs.

Human beings cannot live in society without the help of communication. Communication is the very basic need of any organization and any individual. Communication has been defined by many theorists :

 (1)    According to W.H.Newman, Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons.

(2)      Allen Louis says "Communication is the sum of all the things one person does when he wants to create an understanding in the mind of another it involves a systematic and continuous process.

(3)       To quote Norman B. Sigband, Communication is the transmission and reception of ideas, feelings and attitudes both verbally and non-verbally

(4)      Dalton McFarland says, Communication may be broadly defined as the process of meaningful interaction among human beings.

(5)    George Vardman in his book `Effective communication of ideas' defines effective commnication as "Purposive interchange, resulting in workable understanding and agreement between the sender and the receiver of the message".

The Features of Communication:

1.     Communication is an exchange of ideas.

2.     Two or more parties are involved in it.

3.     It is a two-way process.

Communication involves the following process: (Diagram) 

(1)   Sender: The process of communication starts with a sender, the person who has an idea and wants to convey it to the receiver. In other words, we can say that the person with ideas to share is called sender. The formation of idea is the first step of communication. So, Communication process begins with the sender. The Sender is known as Tx.

 (2)  Encoding: The conversion of the idea in to message by verbal or nonverbal method is called encoding. While encoding a message, one needs to consider what will be interpretation of the message. This process of converting the thought of the sender into message is encoding.

 (3)  Message: It is an important part of communication. Message is the content that sender wants to convey. A message could be verbal or non-verbal. The thought, idea, emotion or anything that the sender wants to convey is called message.

 (4)  Channel: The way or the medium of sending the message is called channel. Medium or channel can be oral, written or it can be non-verbal.

(5)  Receiver: The receiver is the person who receives encoded message. In the best way, if it reaches to the receiver then there is no problem to the receiver to understand the massage properly. The Receiver is known as Rx

(7)   Decoding: It is a process where the received message is being understood. It is not necessary that the message reached to receiver will be understood by the receiver but decoding is a process which converts the message in to understanding. There are chances of misinterpretation of the massage.

(8)   Feedback: This is the last part of communication process. After receiving the message, the receiver reacts or responds to the sender. The response can be based on the perfect understanding of the message or it can be based on the misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the message. This reply from receiver to sender is called feedback. Feedback has its own importance as the success or failure of communication is decided by feedback only.