Discipline and Ideas in Applied Social Science

Intended Learning Outcomes

A. Define communication.

B. Describe the context and the basic concepts of communication.

C. Explain the goals of communication

Discussion
The Discipline of Communication deals with how humans use verbal and non-to another, from person to
grow verbal messages to create meaning in various contexts. This can be from one person community
setting to mass audiences across cultures using a variety of channels and media. This discipline is also
interested in the impact that communication has on human behavior. There is no way to enable others
to know what is going on in our minds our need to reach out and to be reached out to—unless
communication occurs between them and us. The discipline of communication is very broad.

It can include: the study of communication in interpersonal relationships, groups, organizations, and
across cultures; rhetorical theory and criticism; performance studies; argumentation and persuasion;
technologically mediated communication; and popular culture. Essentially, this discipline provides us
with understanding of how we construct the world of meanings and be able to both send and receive
the same. The dynamic process of sending and receiving information or messages, and the meanings
that they contain needs to be understood. In this way, we can further appreciate the process, the
content, and the effects of communication in all its various forms.

Definition of Communication

The processes that bond humans together are founded on communication. It is by communication that
one opens up to another and receives confirmation of some kind. Communication in this sense is
essentially transactional, giving and receiving content, which may take a wide variety of forms. What we
communicate is meaning but communication simultaneously involves the construction of meaning. It
constitutes both the construction of meaning and the exchange of meaning. Unlike other forms of
exchange, communication accounts for so many other elements, which make the study of
communication a fascinating task. The context, the culture, the relationship, the society, the message,
and the medium—all form part of the communication process. Communication involves acting on
information, responding to stimulus, a creative act, making sense of the world, assigning meaning to
experience and feelings, and can also be intentional as well as unintentional.

Alberts, Nakayama, and Martin (2007) defines communication as a "transactional process in

which people generate meaning through the exchange of verbal messages in specific contexts,
influenced by individual and societal forces and embedded in culture." Culture here is considered as the
provider of patterns of perceptions, values, and behavior that the group transmits and makes a shared
heritage. Context tends to be culturally defined so much that the individual is made to discern from the
given options available to society; hence, culture provides the strongest fabric to societal forces.
Therefore, the role of culture cannot be underestimated, "culture affects all or almost all
communication interaction" (Alberts, Nakayama, & Martin 2007).

The human communication factors include the important role of individual and societal forces,
contexts, and culture that shape and give coherence to the communication process. It is possible and
very common to analyze the communication process on the technical level, the semantic level, and the
pragmatic level. On the technical level, we can understand the message by ascertaining the extent to
which information or message is clearly or not clearly transmitted. On the semantic level, we can
understand the unity of communication by clarifying the extent to which the intended meaning of the
information or message being transmitted is understood or misunderstood by the receiver due to all
forms of noise. On the pragmatic level, we can understand a unit of communication by gauging the kind
and extent of the actual impact, effect, or outcome or result of the communication process including the
relationship field of experience and the sender-receiver dynamics.

Communication as a transaction, going by the above definition, requires a more comprehensive

consideration for the specific context, the individual and society forces, and the culture itself as
semantic unit. Simply put, when two or more persons interact, communication structure is created and
a system of relationships is formed, within a cultural context. That is what communication is and does.

Context and the Basic Concepts of Communication human communication

Context is among the most essential aspects in cessions of language and by and large, listeners
base. their interpretation. It is the context that gives meaning to the p and actions on their prior
knowledge and wide range of contextual information. Communication process. Even we 'n unless it is
contextualized. The context can be email, television, with a friend, with family, appreciate meaning
understand words in a language, it is difficult to fully m g a political campaign or a protest rally, a
celebration, or a religious or social event.

Many communication scholars and experts affirm that it is the context of what is done or said
that determines how that message is interpreted. Actions and words in themselves mean less outside of
context. Joking with a friend is considered normal but joking with a grieving person may be considered
being insensitive. Many conflicts, particularly in intercultural communication, tend to be associated with
context. Hence, intercultural communication researchers, using the concept of context to understand
people, have identified several "frames of reference" within which people construct and interpret
"reality" and communicate or interact with others.

A frame of reference is a lens through which reality is perceived and filtered to create meaning
or a standpoint formed through a complex set of criteria or assumed values against which
measurements, understanding, or judgments are made. The six commonly identified frames of
reference are psychological frame of reference, cultural frame of reference, social frame of reference,
spatial frame of reference, temporal frame of reference, and historical frame-of reference.

1. Psychological frame of reference may refer to a set of parameters that define one's mental
schema.

2. Cultural frame of reference may refer to a set of para cultural bias. meters that define one's

3. Social frame of reference may refer to a set of parameters that define one's social bias.

4. Spatial frame of reference may refer to a set of egocentric experience, environmental, and
geographical parameters that define one's interpretation of reality.

5. Temporal frame of reference may refer to a set of transient parameters, such as space and a
range of experience types that underlie immediate representations, which define one's interpretation of
reality.

6. Historical frame of reference may refer to a set of parameters that define one's historical bias.

Simply put, we make meaning of facts by placing them in some context, a frame of reference. Therefore,
the meanings we make of facts are determined more by our frame of reference than by the facts
themselves. Along this line of reasoning, all meanings are generated and constrained by the frames of
reference. These frames of reference shape the communicators actions and words.

Goals of Communication

Every day, we communicate with a variety of people, for a variety of reasons, in a variety of
ways. We have defined communication as a meaning-making system that follows the goal of conveying
the intended message from the sender to the receiver as accurately as possible. Communication
conveys messages to parties involved through the different mediums such as through speech, email,
letters, and so on. In this way, people who believe in a common cause can be linked together with a
view to strengthen their relationship. Communication also allows people with opposing views to
communicate with one another in order to better understand each other and connect. It also provides
opportunity for communicators to disseminate information, to transduce emotions and / or thoughts
from one to another. This, however, has the potential to either create harmony or result to dissonance
between the sender and receiver. Ultimately, the goal of all communication is to change behavior and
that is why people read new books or seek help to understand things or reality.

The aim is to create social and political change, say, by exposing the absurdities and injustices of
the courts, schools, prisons, and workhouses of the context. Communication can be deeply political in
intent or shaped by a social and political agenda: the desire to normalize certain kinds of human
behavior (and incidentally to demonize others), see the world in new ways, and act in new ways as a
consequence. Communication shapes the receiver's behavior in a way that is compatible both with their
own goals and the goals of the communicator. By helping people reach their behavioral goals, a
communicator wins their consent to behave in ways that favor his/her message too. Communication is
essential for everyday life. The goal is to make group life possible through socialization, enculturation,
intergenerational solidarity, nation building, and social change. In more s the goals of communication
specific terms, are: expressing one's needs and wants; transferring or conveying information;
establishing social closeness or sustaining relationships with others; and facilitating social etiquette, that
is, to conform to the social conventions of politeness. Ultimately, when two or more persons interact,
the communication structure is erected upon which a system of relationships is formed.

Basic Elements of the Communication Process

Communication, as a process where people share information, feelings, and ideas, consists of four basic
elements: the message, the medium, the sender, and the reliever. Basically, communication happens
when a message is conveyed. In the process, there is the means by which such message is conveyed, the
generator and communicator of the message, and the recipient to whom that message is intended.
However, due to the complexity of the communication process, these elements may be modified and
detailed in several ways. Alberts et al. (2007) present six basic elements of communication: the setting,
participants, message creation, channels, noise, and feedback to explain how communication interaction
unfolds. Other writers put it as follows: sender-receiver, message, channel, noise, feedback, and setting
(Bovee & Thill 1992 & 1998; Burnett & Dollar 1989; Gibson & Hodgetts 1990).

Sender-Receiver

Communication means that the sender and the receiver get involved in communication because they
have ideas and feelings to share. This sharing, however, is not one-way or turn-taking process. In most
communication situations, people are senders and receivers at the same time. They are the participants
in a communication.

Message

The message is made up of the ideas and feelings that the senders /receivers want to share. Moreover,

ideas and feelings can only be shared if they are represented by symbols. Symbols are things that stand
for something else. All communication messages are made up of two symbols: verbal and non-verbal.
The verbal symbols are all the words in a language, which stand for a particular thing or idea. A word is
used to generally mean one thing. Verbal symbols can be even more complicated when they are
abstract than concrete. Abstract symbols stand for ideas rather than objects. When two people use
abstraction (e.g., love, beauty, justice), they may have different meanings because they had different
experiences with the concept. The non-verbal symbols are anything we communicate without using
words such as facial expressions, gestures, posture, colors, vocal tones, appearance, etc. They have
certain meanings attached to them, which are culturally or even personally encoded and decoded.

Channels

The channels are routes traveled by a message as it goes between the senders/ receivers. Sound and
sight are The channels are routes traveled by a message as it goes between the senders / and even in
not face-to-face. At present, it is increasingly common to use social Primary channels in face-to-face
communication, networking sites for communication where we see and hear the person we are
communicating with in a manner similar to face-to-face. In mass media, t channels may be radio,
records, television, newspapers, magazines, etc.

Feedback

A feedback is a response of the receiver communication since it tells how ideas and feelings have been
shared in the way they are intended to.

Noise

Noise keeps a message from being understood or accurately interpreted. It occurs between senders and
receivers. Noise may be an external or internal interference in transmitting and receiving the message.
External noise is any noise that comes from the environment that keeps the message from being heard
or understood. Internal noise occurs in the minds of the senders and receivers such as prior experience,
absent-mindedness, feeling or thinking of something other than the communication taking place.
Semantic noise is also a form of internal noise caused 137 people's emotional reactions to words such as
reactions to ethnic or sexist remarks.

Setting

The setting is essentially the context where communication occurs. It may be a venue, formal or
informal seating arrangements, attire, use of sound system, etc. In this communication process, the six
elements can be summed up as: Who, the source (sender); What, the message; How, the medium; To
Whom, the recipient is, the influence, impact, world view; and Where, the context.

Intrapersonal communication

This refers to communication that occurs within us. This involves feelings, Interpersonal Communication
thoughts, and the way we look at ourselves. The self is the only sender and receiver. The channel is your
brain. The feedback is in the form of talking to oneself or discarding certain ideas and replacing them
with others.  Interpersonal communication The communication that occurs on basis usually in an
informal, Interpersonal Communication unstructured setting is interpersonal communication. Messages
consist of both verbal and non-verbal symbols. The most channels are sight and sound.

Intercultural Communication
This is an interpersonal communication that occurs between or among members of different cultures or
people who are enculturated differently. This is more apparent between persons coming from two
different cultures of upbringing but it can also be among people of the same culture but brought up in
different times or cultural contexts.

Interviewing

Interviewing makes use of a series of questions and answers usually involving two people or groups. Its
purpose is to obtain information one particular subject. In an interview, communication takes place
verbally in a face-to-face setting, and a lot of non-verbal information are exchanged. Feedback is very
high and instant and drives the conversation.

Small Group Communication

Small group communication occurs when a small group of people meets to solve a problem. There is
cooperative thinking; there is a specific purpose. Communication process in small groups is more
complicated than in interpersonal communication.

Mass Communication

The sender-receiver (speaker) sends a message (speech) to an audience in a highly structured manner.
 EXERCISES
Apply what you learned!

Test Your Knowledge!

A. Describe the key roles of the six elements in the communication process.

Elements of Communication Role

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ASSESMENT
Test Your Knowledge

A Write the definition of communication and underline its key components.

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B. What is the goal of communication? Explain your answers

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C.Name the three levels with which the communication process can be analyzed.

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3.