c h a p T e r 1

UNDERSTANDING 21ST CENTURY

COMMUNICATION
OVERVIEW

Communication is critical to student success. 21st century educators used a variety

of technology tools to expand their ability to give students fast and effective feedback,
saving classroom time, developing students’ skills, and accelerating their achievements.
Thus, this Chapter consists of five lessons focusing on understanding the 21st
Century Communication. It details communication processes, principles, and ethics;
communication and globalization; local and global communication in multicultural
settings; varieties and registers of spoken and written language; and evaluating
messages and/or images of different types of texts reflecting different cultures.

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the chapter, the students can:
 demonstrate mastery in elucidating the nature, elements, and
functions of verbal and non-verbal communication in various
and multicultural contexts.
 manifest expertise in explicating how cultural and global
issue after communication.
 respond through written or global communication to the
challenges of diverse and multicultural communication.
LESSON 1

Communication Process, Principles and Ethics

WHAT TO EXPECT?

 Explain the Principles and process and process of

communication and the ethical considerations in
communication.
 Elucidate how communication skills help resolve problems,
better understand new concepts and aid in your profession.
 Frame a slogan about how the knowledge of the
communication process aids people in communicating
effectively.

PRE-DISCUSSION
1. Why do people communicate?
2. What might happen to the world if communication does not exist?
3. Why do miscommunication and misunderstanding happen?

LESSON OUTLINE
Communications is inevitable. Our need for self-expression leads us to
communicate not only our thoughts but also our feelings. Communication may be done
verbally or nonverbally. A simple yawn from a member of the audience in a public
speaking engagement is a non-verbal message sent to the speaker. On the other hand,
a phone call inquiring about a certain product is an example of a verbal message.
Communication is understood as the process of meaning-making through a
channel or a medium. It comes from the Latin communicares, meaning to share or to
make ideas common. The connection that encompasses interaction among partakers is
at the center of your learning of communication.
The Components of the Communication Process
Understanding the communication process may help you become a better
communicator.
1. Source. The sender carefully crafts the message. The sender maybe anyone: an
author of a book, public speaker in special occasion or even a traffic enforcer.
2. Message. The message is the reason behind any interaction. It is the meaning
shared between the sender and the receiver.
3. Channel. The channel is the means by which the message is conveyed. When we
answer a phone call, the phone is the channel. On the other hand, when your
parents receive a notification of your absences from school, the channel is the letter.
It is the responsibility of both the sender and the receiver to choose the best channel
for the interaction.
4. Receiver. The receiver is the person who receives the transmitted message. The
receiver may be a part of the audience in a public speaking event, a reader of the
letter o a driver who reads the road signs. The receiver is expected to listen or read
carefully, to be aware of different kinds of sender to joy down information when
needed, to provide response and to ask question for clarification.
5. Feedback. In any communication scenario, a feedback is essential to confirm
recipient understanding. Feedbacks, like messages, are expressed in varied forms.
A simple nod for a question of verification is considered a feedback. Thus, feedbacks
may be written, spoken or acted out.
6. Environment. The place, the feeling, the mood, the mindset and the condition of both
sender and receiver are called the environment. The environment may involve the
physical set-up of a location where communication takes place, the space occupied
by both the sender and the receiver, including the objects surrounding the sender
and receiver.
7. Context. This involves the expectations of the sender and the receiver and the
common or shared understanding through the environmental signals.
 8. Interference. This is also known as a barrier or block, prevents effective
communication to take place.

Kinds of Interference
a. Psychological barriers are thoughts that hamper the message to be interpreted
correctly by the receiver.
b. Physical barriers include competing stimulus, weather and climate, health and
ignorance of the medium.
c. Linguistic and cultural barriers pertain to the language and its cultural
environment. Words may mean another in different cultures.
d. Mechanical barriers are those raises by the channels employed for
interpersonal, group or mass communication. These include cell phones,
laptops and other gadgets used in communication.

The Nine Principles of Effective Communication

Michael Osborn (2009) claims that communication must meet certain standards
for effective communication to takes place.
1. Clarity. This makes speeches understandable. Fuzzy language is absolutely
forbidden, as are jargons, cliché expression, euphemism and doublespeak
language.
2. Concreteness. This reduces misunderstandings. Message must be supported
by facts such as research data, statistic or figures. To achieve concreteness,
abstract words must be avoided.
3. Courtesy. This builds goodwill. It involves being polite in terms of approach and
manner of addressing an individual.
4. Correctness. Glaring mistakes in grammar obscure the meaning of a sentence.
Also, the misuse of language can damage your credibility.
5. Consideration. Message must be geared towards the audience. The sender of
a message must consider the recipient’s profession, level of education, race,
ethnicity, hobbies, interest, passion, advocacies, and age when drafting or
delivering a message.
 6. Creativity. This means having the ability to craft interesting message in terms
of sentence structure and word choice.
7. Conciseness. Simplicity and directness help you to concise. Avoid using
lengthy expressions and words that may confuse the recipient.
8. Cultural Sensitivity. Today, with the increasing emphasis on empowering
diverse, cultures, lifestyle and races and pursuit for gender equality, cultural
sensitivity becomes an important standard for effective communication.
9. Captivating. You must strive to make messages interesting to command more
attention and better responses.

Ethical Consideration in Communication

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that focuses on issues of right and wrong in
human affairs. Ethical Communicators (a) respect audience; (b) consider the result of
communication; (c) value truth; (d) use information correctly; and, (e) do not falsify
information.

SUMMARY

Communication is defined as the process of transmitting information and common

understanding from one person to another. Communication follows a process. There are
8 elements of communication: (a) Source; (b) Message; (c) Channel; (d) Receiver; (e)
Feedback; (f) Environment; (g) Context; (h) Interference. Principles are consideration in
the communication process. These principles will ensure effectiveness along the
communication process.
Ethics is defined as a set of rules or guidelines; these are theories as to which is
right or wrong. In communication, ethics is considerable important because it would likely
guide everyone to effective communication process and effectives. Communication ethics
emphasizes that morals influence the behavior of an individual, group, or organization
thereby affecting their communication.
LESSON 2

Communication and Globalization

WHAT TO EXPECT?

 Write a reaction paper on communication challenges in a global

atmosphere and methods for effective and ethical global
communication.
 Create a two-minute informative video about communication and
globalization.

PRE-DISCUSSION

https://natcapsolutions.org/the-challenge-of-globalization/

1. What is the saying about the world today?

2. What do you think has contributed to the easy access and exchange of information
these days? Why?
3. In transacting or communicating in a global setting, what vital preparations must be
done? Why?

LESSON OUTLINE
Globalization is the communication and assimilation among individuals, ethnicities,
races, institution, governments of various nations supported by technology and compelled
by international trade. Due to globalization, the more you become exposed to diversity—
the valuing of the uniqueness or differences in gender preference, color age, religious,
affiliation, ethnicity, education, social and economic status and political beliefs.
Globalization is not a new process or concept. Years before the advent of technology,
people had been purchasing and selling each other properties, goods and other objects
of certain value.
Communication has since been increasingly global, blurring national boundaries.
The ability to communicate effectively in a global setting can be challenge. Hence, to
effectively communicate in global context, a general understanding of the differences in
conducting communication from one country to another helps avoid miscommunication.
People’s background and experiences influence their view of the world and the
values, beliefs and behavior patterns assumed to be good. The following are possible
cultural barriers to effective communication in a global environment:
1. Cultural relativism
2. Lack of knowledge of others’ culture
3. Discrimination and harassment
4. Language differences

To get the desired outcome or response, the above barriers must be properly
addressed. It is the responsibility of the parties involved in the communication process to
eliminate the possible hindrances in their exchange. The goal of effective global
communication is to achieve communication that gets the desired response leading to
harmonious connection.
Krizan (2014) suggests these strategies to become an effective global
communicator:
1. Review communication principles.
2. Analyze the message receive.
3. Be open to an accepting of other cultures.
4. Learned about culture and apply what is learned.
5. Consider language needs.

SUMMARY
 Globalization is the process of interaction and integration among people,
companies and governments worldwide. Global village refers to the world emphasize that
all the different parts of the world form one community linked together by electronic
communications, especially the internet.
There are cultural barriers when people of different cultures are unable to
understand each other’s ‘customs, resulting in inconveniences and difficulties.
LESSON 3

Local and Global Communication

in Multicultural Settings

WHAT TO EXPECT?

 Cite examples on how to enhance one’s ability to communicate with

people from diverse cultures.
 Create a three-to four-minute presentation about various cultural
modes of communication of a certain country.

PRE-DISCUSSION
How do you get to communicate effectively across cultures? Indicate whether you
agree or disagree with each of the following statements:
1. I am interested in interacting with people who are both like me and different
from me.
2. I am sensitive to the concerns of all minority and majority groups in our
multicultural country.
3. I can sense when persons from other cultures seem not to understand
me or get confused by my actions.
4. I have no fear communicating with persons from both minor and major
cultural groups.
5. People from other cultures may get angry with my cultural affiliates.
6. I deal with conflicts with people from other cultures depending on the
situation and their cultural background.
7. My culture is inferior to other cultures.
8. I can manage my behavior when dealing with people of different
cultures.
9. I show respect to the diverse communication practices of other
people.
 Note: The more number of agreements you have indicates the more prepared you
are in expanding your communication arena by welcoming people from different cultures.

LESSON OUTLINE
Living in a globalized world, you encounter people with diverse cultural
backgrounds. Such interactions occur in social, educational, political and commercial
settings. Hence, in today’s era of increased global communication, it is imperative to
understand intercultural communication for us to enhance our intercultural awareness and
competence. Intercultural competence is essential for us to live harmoniously despite our
differences in culture.

Intercultural communication refers to interaction with people from diverse

cultures. The forms of intercultural communication according to Jandt (2017) are the
following:
1. Interracial communication – communicating with people from different races
2. Interethnic communication – interacting with people of different ethnic origins
3. International communication – communicating between representatives from
different nations
4. Intercultural communication – interacting with members of the same racial or
ethnic group or co-culture

According to Gamble and Gamble (2006), communication style among cultures

differs; it may be high-context or low-context communication. High-context
communication is a tradition-linked communication system which adheres strongly to
being indirect. Low-context communication is a system that works on straightforward
communication.

Improving Intercultural Communication Competence

The following guidelines may help you enhance your ability to communicate
effectively across cultures (Gamble & Gamble, 2008).
1. Recognize the validity and differences of communication styles among people.
2. Learn to eliminate personal biases and prejudices.
 3. Strive to acquire communication skills necessary in a multicultural world.

SUMMARY
Global communication becomes more complicated when there are multiple
recipients from different cultures with different languages all receiving the same message,
as well as when there are more layers added to the channel.
Local and global communication in multicultural settings will help you realize that
miscommunication is essential to enhance our ability to communicate and effectively
accept and embrace across country cultures.
LESSON 4

Varieties and Register of Spoken

and Written Language

WHAT TO EXPECT?

 Apply the varieties and registers of spoken and written language in the
proper context.

PRE – DISCUSSION
The students will be tasked to present a role playing following the given guide
below:
- How do you greet your best friend? Your mother? Your teacher? Your school
dean?
- Do your ways of greeting these people vary?

LESSON OUTLINE
For us, speech is well-worth careful study because we depend on it so heavily for
our communications with others. The development of human civilization owes it to a great
extent to man’s ability to share experiences, to exchange ideas, and to transmit
knowledge from one generation to another.
The spoken mode is often associated with everyday registers while the written
mode is strongly associated with academic registers. However, this is not always true.
For instance, in everyday communication, face-to-face conversations are usually
supplemented by text messaging.
In academic contexts, significant forms of oral communication are used along with
written communication. Significantly, both every day and academic communications are
characterized by multi-modality or the use of multiple modes of communication, including
spoken, written modes and images, music, videos, gestures, etc.
Varieties of Spoken and Written Language
Lin (2016) presents the following nature of language variation as prescribed by
most linguists based on the ideas of Mahboob (2014).
1. Language varies when communicating with people within (local) and
outside (global) our community.
2. Language varies in speaking and in writing.
3. Language varies in everyday and specialized discourses.

Mahboob and Dutcher (2014) identified eight different domains in which language
varies depending on the combinations of different values on the three dimensions (field,
tenor and mode) of the context of communication.
The first four domains include language variations that reflect local usage done in
one local language or multiple local languages depending on the context. They vary in
the following ways:
1. Local everyday written. This may include instances of local usage found in the
neighborhood posters (e.g. a poster looking for transients/bed spacers).
2. Local everyday oral. This may occur in local communication among neighbors
in everyday, informal and local varieties of languages.
3. Local specialized written. An example of local specialized written usage can be
found in the publications and web sites of local societies such as the Baguio
Midland Courier.
4. Local specialized oral. It involves specialized discourses. For example, in a
computer shop in the neighborhood, specialized local usage can be found (e.g.
specialized computer game-related vocabulary is used).

On the other hand, the other four domains involve global usage. These four
domains of language usage differ from the first four domains since they refer to contexts
of language usage where participants need to communicate with people not sharing
their local ways of using language.
They are as follows:
 1. Global everyday written avoids local colloquialisms to make the text
accessible to wider communities of readers. This can be found in
international editions of newspapers and magazines.
2. Global everyday oral may occur in interactions between people coming from
different parts of the world when they talk about everyday casual topics.
3. Global specialized written expands to as many readers internationally,
hence the non-usage of local colloquial expressions (e.g. international
research journal articles).
4. Global specialized oral occurs when people from different parts of the world
discuss specialized topics in spoken form (e.g. paper presentation sessions
in an international academic conference).

SUMMARY
The kind of register to be used affects the way one speaks and writes. Language
has formal and informal registers. These registers have form which defines the social
situation.
LESSON 5

Evaluating Messages and/or Images of Different Types

of Texts Reflecting Different Cultures

WHAT TO EXPECT?

 Analyze media messages and/or images using Key Concepts of Media

Literacy framework.
 Create a multimodal advertisement of a cause-oriented event.

PRE - DISCUSSION

1. Analyze the advertisement below

2. Class brainstorming. Generate questions and ideas about the message conveyed by
the advertisement.

LESSON OUTLINE
 The Key Concepts of Media Literacy framework serves as a basis for developing
a critical understanding of the content of mass media, the techniques used and the impact
of these techniques. Also, the Key Concepts of Media Literacy can be very helpful in the
construction of media texts for different purpose.
The term “text” includes any form of written, spoken or media work conveying meaning to
an audience. Text may use words, graphics, sounds and images in presenting
information. It may also be in oral, print, visual or electronic forms.

Key Concepts of Media Literacy (Center for Media Literacy, 2005)

Key Concepts Guide Questions in Media Text Analysis

1. All media messages are  What is the message of the text?

“constructed”.  How effectively does it represent reality?
 How is the message constructed?

2. Media have embedded values  What lifestyles, values and points of view
and points of view.  are represented in the text?
 Who or what is missing?


3. Each person interprets  What message do you perceive from the text?
messages differently.  How might others understand it differently?
 Why?

4. Media have commercial,  What is the purpose of the text?

ideological or political  Who is the target audience of the text?

interests.  Who might be disadvantaged?

 Who created the text and why?

5. Media messages are  What techniques are used and why?

constructed using a creative  How effective are the techniques in supporting

language having its own the messages or themes of the text?

 What are other ways of presenting the
rules.
message?
SUMMARY
Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all
forms of communication. In its simplest terms, media literacy builds upon the
foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. Media
literacy empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators and
active citizens.