CHAPTER ONE:

WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
 WARM-UP

▰ How many people do you know?

▰ How often do you interact with them?
▰ Are you more of a listener or a speaker?
▰ What topics do you usually talk about?
▰ What are the means of communication that you use?

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 WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?

▰ Communication is an essential aspect of human interaction that allows us to transmit and

receive information, ideas and emotions to others through different channels. (sender,
message, recipient)
▰ It is the ability to convey or share ideas and feeling effectively (good listener-clarity-
confidence- respect)
▰ It is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another.
▰ Communication is the key to success in every field, whether personal or professional.

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 KINDS OF COMMUNICATION

▰ Vocal Communication (the use of voice – tone – volume – rate of speech – sighs –
laughter – crying – mumbling – shouting)
▰ Verbal Communication (spoken words – written words – sign language)
▰ Non-Verbal Communication (facial expressions – body language – eye contact –
gestures)

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 THREE LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING

▰ Action
▰ Information
▰ Relationship

People communicate to build relationships in order to transfer and receive information to

take action collaboratively.

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 TRANSMISSION MODEL

Shannon and Weaver (engineers working for a telephone company) developed this model in
1949. Their goal was to make telephone cables as efficient as possible.

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 THE TRANSMISSION MODEL

▰ The transmission model is the oldest and simplest model of communication. It pictures
communication as a one-way flow of information from a sender to a receiver.
▰ We think of communication as a technical process.
▰ Information comes in bits; it needs to be stored, transferred and retrieved (recovered) as
freight, electronic information.
▰ The sender is the most important part of this model. They are the ones who encode a
message and send it through a channel.
▰ * Passive Receiver: The receiver's role is primarily to receive and decode the message.
There isn't much emphasis on the receiver's active role in creating meaning.

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 FIVE ELEMENTS OF TRANSMISSION MODEL

1. A Sender: which produces a message

2. A transmitter: the device or medium that encodes the message into
signals (vocal cords and voice – computer)
3. A channel: to which signals are adapted for transmission
These channels are written (letter, email), verbal (face to face), and nonverbal (gesturing- body
language). An electronic channel is another means to communicate verbally (VN),
nonverbally(emoji), or in writing.
4. A receiver :which decodes the message from the signal (the person
who receives the message)
5. A destination: the final point where the message is intended to arrive
(your friend’s brain – email inbox)
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 6TH ELEMENT: NOISE

▰ Noise is any interference with the message travelling along the channel (static on
the phone or radio) that might alter the message being sent.
▰ Examples: slam of the door- phone ringing

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 7TH ELEMENT: FEEDBACK

▰ Feedback was introduced in the 1950s.

▰ It is the response, reaction, or information given by the recipient of a message to the
sender.
▰ It can be verbal or non verbal (head nodding- body language)

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▰ For Example:
Think of a radio broadcast. The radio station
(sender) encodes a news story (message)
and transmits it through radio waves
(channel). A listener (receiver) tunes into the
station and decodes the message. Static or
interference (noise) might disrupt the
broadcast.

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 PROS OF THE TRANSMISSION MODEL

1. Attractive and simple

2. Suggests that information is objective and quantifiable: something that you and I
will always understand in exactly the same way.
3. Makes communication seem measurable, predictable and consistent: sending an e-
mail is an evidence that I have communicated to you.

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 CONS OF THE TRANSMISSION MODEL
▰ The transmission model is too basic to capture the complexity of human communication.
▰ It doesn't account for things like nonverbal cues, shared understanding, or the back-and-forth
exchange of ideas.
▰ Passive Receiver: It assumes the receiver is simply a vessel for receiving information, not an
active participant in creating meaning.
▰ Lack of Feedback: The model doesn't include feedback from the receiver, which is crucial for
effective communication.
▰ Thus, we need to understand that communication begins, not with transmission, but with
understanding.
▰ No matter how effectively I transmit a message, it won’t communicate to you if you don’t
understand it.
▰ If we want to improve our communication skills, we could start by focusing, not on how we transmit
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information and ideas, but on how we understand them.
 WIIO’S
(PROFESSOR OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION) LAWS
▰ Communication in organizations is unreliable.
▰ Otto Wiio’s is known for a set of humorous maxims about how communication in
organizations goes wrong.
▰ These maxims illustrate that communication will always fail.

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 WIIO’S MAXIMS/LAWS

▰ Communication usually fails, except by accident.

▰ If communication can fail, it will fail.
▰ If communication cannot fail, it still usually fails.
▰ If communication seems to succeed in the way you intend, someone will misunderstand it.
▰ If you are content with your message, communication is certainly failing.
▰ If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that
maximizes the damage.
▰ There is always someone who knows better than you, what your message mean.
▰ The more we communicate, the more communication fails.

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 EXAMPLE 1

▰ ‘I’m fine’ could mean:

• ‘I am feeling well’;
• ‘I am happy’;
• ‘I was feeling unwell but am now feeling better’;
• ‘I was feeling unhappy but now feel less unhappy’;
• ‘I am not injured; there’s no need to help me’;
• ‘Actually, I feel lousy but I don’t want you to know it’;
• ‘Help!’, etc.
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EXAMPLE 2

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 ANALYZE THE FOLLOWING CASE STUDY
The Setup: Tell a story about a letter that gets lost in the mail.
▰ Sarah sat at her wooden desk, a soft flicker of candlelight illuminating the letter she had
carefully written. It was a heartfelt message to her daughter, whom she hadn’t seen in years.
After sealing the envelope with a red wax stamp, she handed it to the postman, trusting it
would reach its destination.
▰ The postman, busy with the rush of daily deliveries, tossed the letter into a pile of others. He
didn't know that this one would never make it to Sarah's daughter. Somewhere along the way,
it got lost in the vast maze of postal channels, caught in the shuffle, never finding its way to the
right address.
▰ Meanwhile, Sarah sat by her window, waiting day after day, hoping for a reply that would
never come.

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 The Currency of Communication

▰ We hold conversations to build relationships and to make sense of reality.

▰ We influence each other’s thoughts, feelings and actions by holding conversations.
▰ Conversation is our way of imagining and creating the future.
▰ Every conversation is a dynamic process of listening and speaking. It uses different kinds of
communication

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