Communication is an activity, through which people give, receive, or exchange facts, ideas, needs, observations and feelings, intentionally or unintentionally through spoken words, drawings, signals, notes, and behavior. Communication is a social activity involves interaction of people either physically or through appropriate media. Apart from being continuous, it is vibrant, multifaceted and frequently changes. Defining communication is complex; many varying definitions exist with each person having a different version (West & Turner, 2007). Personally, communication is very important to the human nature because it affects all the facets of our day-to-day lives. We use communication to understand our environment and our lives are affected by how we communicate with each other; lack of or ineffective communication leads to misunderstandings. For Example, Infants communicate their needs and feelings through crying. Without such kind of communication, it would be difficult for the mother to know when to feed a child or when the child is not feeling well.
The linear model of communication was developed by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver and it assumed a one-way communication with the message flowing from the sender to the receiver. Three assumptions in this model; one is that there is only one message conveyed at a time, secondly, there is an end to communication, and thirdly, the receiver is passive. The linear model could only work well for electronic media like radio where communication is mostly one-way (Lms.oum.edu.my, 2014).Wilbur Schramm developed the interactional model; unlike the linear model, it envisages a two-way process between the sender and the receiver. This model shows that the role of sender and receiver can be interchanged during communication, and there is feedback during the process. The transactional model best represents the communication process; it shows that sending, receiving of messages is done simultaneously. Furthermore, the sender and the receiver cannot be separated, and it is an activity done by both parties.
Self-concept is the belief of whom you are a person and the role you play in the society, which is developed, borne, and altered through interaction with others (Lane, 2010). Communicating with others helps us build our self-concept, as social beings we can only understand ourselves by building relationships with other beings. Opinions from those whom we value help us understand not only ourselves, but also how others view us. By observing how others communicate and respond to us, we can develop our opinions about ourselves. I used to perform badly in Algebra and instead of being scolded by my parents; they encouraged me with the words that the other students who were scoring A’s in Algebra were no different from me. It is only that I had a negative attitude, after changing my attitude; I scored an A in Algebra and Calculus. From this experience, I developed a positive attitude towards anything I do.
- Myth - Many times we send messages when we have not chosen to and unconsciously. An example of un-deliberate communication is delaying to reply to a letter and the sender makes assumptions as to the intent of the delay.
- Myth - Words have different meanings to different persons. There are words with connotative meanings and those with denotative meanings. Denotative meanings are agreeable; however, connotative meanings are often misinterpreted (Reviews, 2014).
- Reality - Non-verbal communication takes different forms, and communication can be done through use of sound, touching and tasting.
- Communication is a process that involves back and forth from the parties involved and therefore it is a reality to say it is one-way activity.
- The message sent by the sender is not similar to the message received, everyone interprets a message in their way. Receiving a message does not in any way imply acceptance.
- It is possible to overwhelm people with information, either by giving too much information that they cannot consume or irrelevant information that they do not need.
References
Lane, S. (2010). Interpersonal communication. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Lms.oum.edu.my,. (2014). 1.2 MODELS OF COMMUNICATION. Retrieved 10 November 2014, from http://lms.oum.edu.my/e-content/OUMH1303KDP/content/24094922OUMH1303_OralCommunication_v1/OUMH1303_Topic1/OUMH1303_1_2.html
Reviews, C. (2014). Studyguide For Introducing Communication Theory. [S.l.]: Academic Internet Publish.
West, R., & Turner, L. (2010). Introducing communication Theory. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
