Lessons of the Study
In public communication, the nature, modes of presentation, and channels of dissemination should be keenly and innovatively factored in, the nature being either; informative or educative, fact finding, etc. the modes of presentation can be: slides, photographs, drawings, sketches, and transparencies, and lastly the channels can be verbal, using blogs, emails, etc. Capturing the attention of the audience is a must in public communication to ensure that the two way traffic in communications is achieved. Skills like; rhetoric’s, body language, and humour amongst numerous others can be used, to capture attention and read the mood of the audience (Trenholm, 2008).
The nature of the audience; situations, and beliefs of the audience, can only be realized through research and past experiences, if this is not achieved, the speaker can witness violent audience behaviours as they retaliate for the speaker’s offences, breakdown of communication can also be witnessed as the audience switches-off.
The role of mass media as a channel for communicating to the public is very big, it ensures that a large population is captured; it can be entertaining nature of the mass media like using lively music in between can influence audiences positively. When the communication is too entertaining it can cause some negative effects like; distortion of the information, addiction, and audience passivity, development of antisocial behaviour and lowering of tastes, this can also be witnessed when one information is repeatedly played over the mass media (Trenholm, 2008). Capturing the all the interest of the people engaging in the mass communication is very hard and it can sometimes lead to conflict of interest, like some terms might not be favourable to children and certain religious groups.
The speaker has also to use more creativity and innovation, while safeguarding issues like; equality, conflicts of interest, mode of information collection, source credibility, privacy infringement and the possibility of inflicting emotional or physical harm while in the process of collecting and disseminating information (Trenholm, 2008). Lastly all these can be archived through the right choice of words and language, sticking to one topic or the set objectives of the message, constantly gauging the mood of the audience, and the length of the process should be gauged by the concentration span of the audience.
Reference:
Trenholm, S. (2008). Thinking through communication: An introduction to the study of human communication. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
