Communication
What do
writing in a diary, watching television, talking with friends, speaking on the
telephone, and reading a menu have in common? They are all forms of
communication. It has been estimated that people spend more time communicating
than they spend in any other complex activity in life. Even so, communication
is a word that most people have difficulty defining and talking about.
The word
communication may be used to identify activities that do not involve
people--for example, the word communication may be used to describe the ways
that animals relate to each other. Similarly, it is often said that electronic
devices communicate with each other. Communication usually refers to activities
involving people, however. Thus, communication may be defined as the means
through which people exchange feelings and ideas with one another. While this
definition is clear and simple, much more needs to be said.
The Use of Symbols
Unlike
things, feelings and ideas are difficult to exchange. People wishing to
exchange physical objects may simply hand them to each other. Feelings and
ideas, however, are without physical substance. They cannot be handed directly
to another person. Rather, they must be exchanged through the use of
symbols--things that represent or stand for other things.
In oral,
or spoken, communication sound patterns are used to stand for other things. The
secret to learning an oral language is to discover which sound patterns are
associated with which meanings. Very young children often point at objects as
they say "Dat?" They have learned that the word "dat,"
which is their word for "What is that?", causes older children and
adults to help them learn the sound patterns that stand for objects they wish
to identify. As children start to associate sounds with meanings, they are
acquiring language.
Oral
communication, however, involves more than just language. In the above example,
young children use higher pitch at the end of the sounds "dat" to
show that these sounds are intended as a question. When people use such a vocal
characteristic to help clarify the intent of the sound patterns being used, it
is often said that they are using paralanguage. Since para stands for besides,
or in addition to, paralanguage may be defined as the vocal
characteristics--rate, pitch, loudness, and so on--that accompany sound
patterns and help to indicate meaning. For example, if a child shouts
"dat" with no elevation in pitch, what change in meaning has
occurred? "Dat" now is being used to stand for "Give me
that."
Sound
patterns may also be accompanied by nonverbal symbols. Facial expression,
gestures, and eye contact help speakers to make their meanings clear. For
example, when a child says "dat" (meaning "give me that"),
he or she is likely to look at and point to the object in question. If the
child's request is not answered, expression on the child's face will indicate
disappointment unless "dat" is provided.
While
nonverbal symbols normally add to sound patterns, or language, they may also be
used by themselves. When members of a football or basketball team hold their
hands high in the air with the index fingers extended, the audience knows that
the athletes are proud of their victory and consider themselves to be number
one--the best team in the league. Many other gestures have meaning when used by
themselves. People who have serious hearing problems, and cannot communicate
through sound patterns, become unusually skillful in signing--using hand
signals to indicate their meaning. They also become skillful in using eye
contact and facial expression to add to signing.
One
special type of nonverbal communication involves the use of objects or designs
rather than gestures, facial expressions, or movements. Traffic lights and
highway roadsigns are examples. So too are religious symbols and national,
state, and company flags.
Symbols
are also used in written communication. It is important to recognize, however,
that both individuals and societies begin with oral language. Children use
language to communicate through speaking and listening several years before
they learn to read and write. Nearly one third of all the people in the world
over the age of 15 are illiterate--incapable of reading or writing. Still these
people use language, paralanguage, and nonverbal symbols to communicate with
others.
Similarly, societies begin with oral languages. Later they may seek to
represent their languages with written symbols. Many societies, however, do not
have written languages. Of the approximately 2,800 languages in the world,
fewer than half have been transcribed into written symbols. The cultural
heritage of these societies is passed on to succeeding generations by tribal
elders through oral communication. In North America there were once 200 Indian
languages. Many of these languages have been lost forever because tribal elders
died before the languages could be transcribed.
Essentially a written language uses printed symbols to stand for sound
patterns. In English the 26 letters of the alphabet are the main symbols used
to represent sounds. As there are approximately 47 sounds in the English
language, however, the letters of the alphabet used alone cannot represent all
of the sounds. Consequently, various groupings of letters are used to represent
some sounds. For example, the letters t and h are used to represent the first
sound in the word thinking. Some letters and combinations of letters may stand
for more than one sound. For example, all of the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) stand for
more than one sound in English.
In
addition to using letters to represent sounds, a written language contains
punctuation marks that stand for paralanguage. For example, a period and a
comma stand for a pause, a question mark stands for a change in inflection, or
pitch, and an exclamation point stands for increased volume and intensity.
Nonverbal aspects of oral communication have no direct counterpart in
written language. Charts, graphs, pictures, and drawings, however, may be used
to help the reader understand the printed text. Pictures and other graphic
forms may hold meaning for people who speak different languages and who come
from different cultures. A picture of a starving child, for instance, has
meaning for people throughout the world.
Most
forms of human communication, however, require that people share the same
symbol systems. Language, paralanguage, and nonverbal symbols must be shared.
In addition, people must share the same knowledge of what in a language can be
used properly under various social situations. This varies from one culture to
another. So, when learning a second language, it is important also to learn
about the people who use that language.
A Process
People
sometimes forget that communication is a process--a series of ongoing events.
Instead, communication is often thought of as a thing. A book, an encyclopedia,
a phonograph record, and a magazine are indeed things. But each of these things
is, by itself, not communication. It is, rather, a message that is but one part
of the whole communication process. This process begins when a person feels a
need to communicate. For example, a student may feel that his or her hair looks
messy after gym class. To check it out, the student encodes, or places into
sound patterns, a message: "Does my hair look messy?" Person two
hears the sounds and decodes, or assigns meanings to, the message: "Chris
is worrying about messy hair again." The friend then encodes a response
into sound patterns: "Your hair looks great, Chris. Stop worrying."
Chris hears the sounds and decodes their meaning: "Oh, great. Pat thinks
my hair doesn't look messy." This illustration shows how the communication
process works for one person-to-person exchange involving a single idea or
feeling. In ordinary conversation the communication process is unlikely to stop
with a single exchange.
In the
preceding illustration the communication process was interactive--person one
and person two directly exchanged ideas. However, this is not always the case.
For example, this article, a printed message, was written by a person whom the
reader will never meet. To the degree that the editors of 'Compton's
Encyclopedia' alter the message, it is partly theirs. In some respects, the
encyclopedia's business managers, typographer, a secretary or two, and others
are also sources of the message. It is also unlikely that the reader will try
to send a message to the author. So, in this case communication is a one-way
process. Similarly, radio and television programs, newspapers, films, and
magazines are usually one-way messages created by teams of people. In all of
these cases, a great deal of communication has taken place between people as
they planned for, encoded, revised, and edited the message that is read, seen,
or heard.
The
ideas included in a one-way message seldom remain only in the head of the
receiver. Students use information from encyclopedias to create their own oral
and written messages. People often encode messages about other messages as they
talk with or write to others about things they have seen or read or heard.
Consequently, a single communication process is often linked with other
communication processes.
In
schools separate time slots are sometimes set aside for reading, writing, and
oral communication instruction. When this is true, language instruction is
organized around the modes, or ways, of communicating--reading, writing,
listening, and speaking. When people communicate in real life, however, they
seldom use the language modes in isolation. As people write, they talk to other
people about their ideas, read printed materials to get additional information,
and listen to helpful explanations or reactions. In fact, communication usually
begins with a purpose rather than a mode.
PURPOSES
Communication
serves five major purposes: to inform, to express feelings, to imagine, to
influence, and to meet social expectations. Each of these purposes is reflected
in a form of communication.
Informative Communication
Informative communication is the process of people sharing knowledge
about the world in which they live. Informative messages are expected to
present an objective--truthful and unbiased--view of the topics being
considered. For example, if a sports fan reads accounts of a baseball game in
two different newspapers, it is reasonable to expect that the reports will
agree on all the significant details of the game: the final score, the winning
team, hits, runs, errors, and other happenings.
Informative communication is an important part of life. Young people are
exposed to informative messages throughout their school years; it is the main
type of communication at all educational levels. As students mature, they are
expected to grow in their ability to understand and create informative messages.
When reading or listening to such messages, students are expected to recognize
the subject or purpose, identify the main points, pick out important details,
summarize information, make some assumptions, and draw additional conclusions.
Informative
communication is also important to adults in their work. Nations such as the
United States were once called industrial societies, as most people worked in
industries that manufacture products. Today these nations are often called
information societies, as an increasing number of careers involve the
processing of information rather than products. People who work with things
rather than ideas, however, also must use such job-related informative messages
as parts manuals, job descriptions, catalogs, instructions, warranties,
contracts, and invoices.
Young
people and adults also use information away from school and work. They seek
information about the weather, sporting events, available entertainment, and
local, national, and international news. People need information in order to
conduct their lives intelligently.
Fortunately information has never been more available than at the
present time. Free public libraries are available in most parts of the world.
The reference sections of libraries contain a wide assortment of reference
materials: encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, dictionaries of geographical
places, biographical dictionaries, indexes such as 'The Reader's Guide to
Periodical Literature', almanacs, and handbooks and manuals on how to make
things.
A wide
array of printed materials is available. Magazines include information both for
the general audience and for people with special interests. Informative
paperback books may be found in bookstores, drugstores, newsstands, and supermarkets.
Newspapers remain a popular source of information.
Television has become an important source of news information in the
United States. While newspapers were the primary news source in 1960, they were
overtaken by television in 1963. Television is now the favorite choice for
state, national, and international news. Only for local news are newspapers the
most preferred and trusted source.
Information is rapidly becoming even more available because of advances
in technology. Personal computers, word processors, cable television,
videodiscs, and video recording devices are finding their way into more and
more homes, classrooms, and businesses. Computers have already dramatically
changed the storage, analysis, and retrieval of information by business and
governmental agencies.
Affective Communication
Affective communication is the process through which people express
feelings about things, themselves, and others. Expressions of positive and
negative feelings about places, objects, events, policies, and ideas are called
opinions. Expressions of feelings about oneself are known as self-disclosures.
Expression of both positive and negative feelings about others is vital to
maintaining close relationships. Expressions of positive feelings let friends
and loved ones know that they are valued. Expressions of negative feelings
serve as a safety valve in a relationship.
Affective communication is of major importance in the formation of
self-concept--what one thinks of oneself. Through affective exchanges children
form opinions about themselves. As students attend school, interactions with
teachers and other students continue to influence their self-concepts. To a
large extent, an individual is what people say he or she is. Students who are
praised by parents, teachers, and peers are likely to have a high self-concept.
Students who are put down, or criticized, are likely to have a low
self-concept. While self-concept is important in its own right, it takes on
even greater importance in its influence on the academic success of
students.
Affective communication is of major importance throughout life.
Employers value employees who get along well with other people, who take
criticism well, and who are open and honest in their relationships with others.
Affective communication is also important to a happy family life. Psychologists
and family therapists stress the importance of open communication in the home.
Members of supportive families feel free to talk about positive feelings of
love, joy, and appreciation as well as negative feelings of anger, fear, and
disappointment.
The
major ingredient in affective communication is empathy. Empathy is the ability
to see the world from another's point of view--to share the joy or
disappointment that another person feels. Empathy has two parts. Empathic
people are sensitive to the emotional needs and feelings of others; they are
skillful in reading verbal, paralinguistic, and nonverbal cues to feelings; and
they sense that a friend is, for example, sad and invite the friend to share
the negative feelings. Also, an empathic person responds to emotional needs and
feelings in a manner found appropriate and rewarding by the other person.
Affective communication skills are of central importance in certain careers.
Psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, physicians, and nurses all need to
see the world from the perspective of their patients. But affective
communication skills are important to all other careers as well. Teachers,
judges, police officers, and school principals are better at their jobs if they
can empathize with others.
Imaginative Communication
Imaginative communication may be defined as the process through which
invented situations are created and, in most cases, shared. Whenever people
invent jokes or stories, speculate, daydream, or make believe, they are engaged
in imaginative communication. People also engage in imaginative communication
when they appreciate fictional messages found in books, magazines, newspapers,
films, television dramas, plays, and conversations.
Imaginative communication plays a major role in the lives of all people.
Preschool children watch television cartoons and "read" picture
books. They appreciate stories read to them by older children and adults. They
play "house," "store," and "school" and create
imaginary castles and mountain roads in their sandboxes.
In
elementary school, children encounter an increasing number of imaginative
messages as they learn to read and explore literature. Through writing activities
children create their own literature. Using the works of others as models,
students create poems, stories, plays, and cartoons as they express their
individual creativity. Creative dramatics and role-playing enable students to
recreate history or understand present events. In their free time elementary
and middle school students continue to enjoy television cartoons and dramatic
programming and may develop an interest in sports programming.
Secondary school students are introduced to important literary works
and, in some schools, to quality films and media programs. In many high
schools, however, students receive little encouragement to create imaginative
messages of their own. Gifted students find a creative outlet in debating,
drama, journalism, creative writing, and media activities. The vast majority of
students, though, are merely exposed to the imaginings of others through
literature. In their free time secondary school students enjoy televised
sports, drama, and cartoons. Their interest in music and films usually grows
dramatically during this period of their lives.
Adults
are enthusiastic consumers of imaginative messages. It has been estimated that
adults devote 40 percent of their free time to being entertained by television.
Unfortunately, too few adults read books for pleasure, attend plays and
concerts, or search for quality programs on television. Even fewer adults seek
to express their imaginations by creating original messages. Unhappily, as
creators of formal imaginative messages, most people tend to reach a peak
during their childhood.
Persuasive Communication
Persuasive communication may be defined as the process through which
people attempt to influence the beliefs or actions of others. In many cases
persuasive communication involves people who are important to each
other--parents influence children, children influence parents, and friends
influence each other. Persuasive communication may also involve strangers. When
customers are upset about products they have purchased, they may write letters
to company officials seeking a refund. Similarly, customers are the targets of
television commercials produced by strangers in advertising agencies.
People
begin to influence others early in life. Preschool children learn that they can
influence other children and adults by crying, smiling, whining, pointing,
tugging, and, eventually, talking. By the time children enter school, they use
a variety of strategies to influence others.
During
elementary school years children grow in their ability to adapt persuasive
messages to the people they wish to influence. Research has shown that
kindergarteners and children in the first grade tend to use the same strategies
when trying to influence different people. Children in grades two and three
adapt their persuasive messages by adding words like "may I" and
"please." Children who are in the fourth and fifth grades begin to
adapt their messages to specific people. For example, they begin to use
strategies when trying to gain favors from teachers that differ from those they
use in trying to gain favors from friends.
By the
time most students are in the sixth grade, they can adapt their persuasive
messages to specific listener characteristics. For example, one study found
that most 12-year-olds use different strategies when trying to get a ball back
from the yard of an angry-appearing man than they do when addressing a
pleasant-appearing man.
In
senior high school students continue to grow in the number and sophistication
of persuasive strategies used. The average high school senior, for example,
anticipates and responds to arguments that disagree with his or her own. High
school seniors, however, still have much to learn about influencing others and
responding critically to attempts to influence them. Since persuasive
communication is complex, learning about it is a lifelong process.
Persuasive communication plays a central role in a number of
professions. Lawyers, salespersons, advertising specialists, public relations experts,
and politicians must use persuasive communication. While persuasive
communication may not be the central ingredient in many careers, most people
need to be able to influence others in work-related settings.
The most
talked-about form of persuasive communication in contemporary life is
advertising. Consumers in a capitalistic society are bombarded by
advertisements from a variety of directions. While newspapers are thought of as
informative sources, local, national, and classified advertising take up about
65 percent of their average total space. In many magazines 45 to 50 percent of
the space is given to advertising. As people drive to and from work, radio
advertising rides with them. Those few drivers who do not have car radios are
still not protected from advertising; billboards, neon signs, and signs in
store windows compete with traffic for attention. After arriving home and
sorting through the advertisements in the day's mail, people still often view
numerous commercials on prime-time television.
Ritualistic Communication
Ritualistic communication is the process through which people meet
social expectations. The word ritual comes from the Latin ritualis,
meaning "pertaining to rites." At one time rites were seen as acts of
religious or public ceremony. People were expected to perform the rites in a
certain way. People still have strong expectations about how others should act
in a wide range of social situations.
Ritualistic communication is important because people who violate the
rules and customs of social interaction have difficulty relating well with
others. Children who do not recognize when other children are
"kidding," or overreact when other children are "teasing,"
have difficulty adjusting to school life. Teenagers who have difficulty in
engaging in light banter and responding to put-downs are considered by their
peers to be odd. Adults who seem too stiff and formal or too loose and informal
have difficulty in relating to other adults.
Social
expectations differ greatly across different cultures. In some cultures men are
expected to embrace one another and kiss each other on the cheek. In other
cultures such behavior is considered odd. In American culture most people feel
free to express many of their feelings openly. In some Oriental cultures the
open expression of feelings causes embarrassment.
There
are many different kinds of social rituals. In modern life people are expected
to engage in such everyday speech acts as greeting one another, small talk,
leave-taking, teasing, and joking. It is also expected that people use social
amenities, or polite expressions, when relating to each other. People are
expected to use such polite expressions as "May I please . . .,"
"Yes, you may," "Thank you," "You're welcome,"
"May I be excused," and "Pardon me."
People
are also expected to introduce others gracefully, use telephone etiquette,
demonstrate good table manners, and write thank- you notes. In conversation it
is expected that individuals take turns, change topics skillfully, and
demonstrate interest in the ideas that are expressed by others. In group
discussions participants are expected to share leadership roles, meet the
emotional needs of other group members, follow agendas, and compromise.
In
written communication people are also expected to conform to social
expectations. Personal letters, business letters, letters to editors,
limericks, sonnets, ballads, haikus, invitations, responses to invitations,
short stories, novels, and editorials are all governed by rules or
expectations.
CONTEXTS
Communication contexts consist of a blend of the audience being
addressed and the social settings in which communication occurs. While
audiences and settings may be discussed separately, they may also be discussed
together.
Intrapersonal Communication
Intrapersonal communication involves communication with oneself. People
normally communicate with themselves when they are alone in private or
semiprivate places. When people talk to themselves aloud in crowded, public
places, others find such behavior strange.
People
communicate with themselves for a variety of purposes. They inform themselves
by making grocery lists and by jotting notes of upcoming events on calendars.
Before writing essays, they may inform themselves about how to proceed by
making outlines. People also express feelings to themselves. Diary writing, for
example, grows out of the human need to express feelings to oneself. People
also address imaginative messages to themselves. They daydream and fantasize
for pleasure. Students doodle creatively as they sit in class. Some people
write poetry or prose that they never intend to share. Finally, people engage
in ritualistic communication with themselves. Silent prayers and devotions
often involve memorized rituals. Many athletes go through a ritual as they
prepare for a game or contest. Baseball pitchers and batters, for example,
often go through a routine as they prepare to pitch or bat.
Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal communication involves one-to-one exchanges between
people. It is the most important and frequent context for communication. It is
important because it is essential to forming and maintaining significant
relationships between individuals.
Two
types of interpersonal contexts exist. The first is impersonal in nature. When
people react to each other according to the role they are playing, the context
is impersonal. For example, in the relationship between a customer and a clerk,
the customer may say "I'd like this item," and the clerk may say
"That will be 79 cents." The most important type of interpersonal
context, however, is personal in nature. When people react to one another as
unique human beings with special needs and interests, a personal context exists
and close relationships may develop. Such things as attraction,
self-disclosure, and trust seem to play important roles in establishing and
maintaining long-term social relationships.
While
most interpersonal communication involves face-to-face exchanges, telephone
calls and letters are also forms of interpersonal communication. When friends
and loved ones are separated by space, they still feel the need to communicate
with each other. To compensate for the lack of physical presence, people use
personal language and paralinguistic cues to reveal their feelings of love and
friendship when writing letters or talking on the telephone.
Small Group Communication
Small
group communication involves give-and-take exchanges between a relatively small
number of people. A small group involves at least three but has no precise
upper limit. The important thing is not how many people are involved but
whether the people are aware of each other as individuals and feel that they
can participate in the discussion.
The first
small group in which most people communicate is the family. Family
communication often occurs around the dinner table, in the living room, and in
the car. As children mature they become members of other small groups: peer
play groups, church or synagogue classes, and day-care center or preschool
groups. When children enter school they become members of classes. As they
progress through school they communicate in an ever-increasing number of
groups: scouting, dance classes, musical groups, athletic teams, and school
clubs.
As
adults people begin families of their own, become members of groups of people
who work together, form friendship groups, join recreational and athletic
teams, and become active in community groups. Throughout life people continue
to participate in small-group contexts.
Scholars
often classify groups by function. Among the functional groups that have been
identified are learning, social, therapy, problem-solving, political action,
and worship groups. Given the variety of functions, effective participation in
groups requires a variety of skills. In family and therapy groups, for example,
people must be effective in empathizing with others. In learning groups,
however, people must have the wide array of skills needed for sending and
receiving informative messages.
As
members, people must learn to help the group to accomplish its purpose or
function. Their behaviors toward this end are called task roles. But people
must also help each other to feel good about group membership and
participation. Their behaviors toward these ends are called group maintenance
or social roles. In addition, group members must become aware of individual
actions that interfere with effective group functioning. Good group members are
team players--they sacrifice self-interests for the welfare of the group.
Organizational Communication
Many
small groups are also part of a larger group called an organization. An
organization is, simply, a body of people organized for some specific purpose.
Among the major organizations in society are churches, schools, colleges and
universities, businesses, corporations, libraries, military services, and city,
county, state, and national governments.
Because
organizations are complex, it is important that communication networks be
established. The communication network in a business or public agency is often
drawn up in an organization chart that identifies the titles of people who hold
positions in the organization and indicates who is responsible to whom. Communication
networks provide for both formal and informal exchanges of ideas.
It is
important in organizations that communication networks provide for a two-way
flow of information. It must flow from a company president's office to all of
the individuals and groups who need that information. But it should also flow
in the other direction. Workers are more satisfied when they feel that their
ideas are flowing to persons higher on the organization chart.
Organizational communication is also important because conflicts arise
between individuals and groups. Engineers in a company, for example, may
produce product designs that shop foremen consider too difficult to make. When
such differences arise, the communication network must provide for conflict resolution--a
system through which workers can settle their differences.
Public Communication
Public
communication involves face-to-face exchanges between people in situations
where speaker and listener roles are relatively fixed. A lecture, a theatrical
production, a concert, a religious service, a court trial, and a legislative
hearing are all instances of public communication.
Since
public communication is essentially a one-way process, those who play speaker
roles have a special responsibility. Speakers need to prepare carefully for
such occasions. The message must be clearly organized. Audiences in public
communication contexts have a right to expect speaker competence.
Mass Communication
Mass
communication may be defined simply as messages directed at masses, or great
numbers, of people. There are features of mass communication, however, that
help to set it apart from other communication. Mass communication messages are
prepared by institutions or other groups of people. A local television evening
news program, for example, involves the three or four people who are seen at
the news desk, but it also involves many people who are never seen on
camera--camera operators, engineers, business managers, and many others. Mass
communication is also directed to a relatively large and anonymous
audience--"to whom it may concern." The message must appeal to a
large number of people, or those producing it will not remain in business.
Finally, the source of the message is remote--separated from the audience by
time or space. As a consequence, those being addressed do not feel the same
need to pay careful attention as do those in the company of the message source.
For example, television viewers generally feel free to talk to each other,
leave the room to get a snack, change channels, or fall asleep.
The fact
that mass communication is a business in America has important implications.
The mass media are in competition with each other for sales dollars,
advertising revenue, or both. With advances in technology the number of
alternatives is increasing. People have a greater variety of communication
products from which to choose. Cable television, videotapes, and pay television
systems, for instance, offer an increasing number of options to television viewers.
As some people turn away from regular network and local-station programming,
advertisers may be unwilling to pay the prices asked for advertising time. In
the past, magazine publishers, film producers, and radio stations found it
necessary to reach out for specific audiences. It has been suggested that the
general mass audience is disappearing in favor of a number of smaller, more
limited mass audiences.
MEDIUMS
The
various mediums of communication are the means through which messages are
encoded or transported between people. There are only five possible ways that
messages may enter human consciousness: through sound, sight, touch, smell, and
taste.
Primitive Means
In
earliest times primitive people made contact with the outside world through the
same five senses used by people today. They could hear the sounds of animals,
see objects, feel the rain on their faces, smell the fragrance of wild flowers,
and taste berries and other foods. The individual cave dweller could do all of
these things in the absence of other people.
But
primitive people did not live alone. They came together in groups to avoid
loneliness, to help each other hunt and gather food, and to protect themselves
from ever-present dangers. In order to live and work cooperatively, they needed
to find ways to communicate with each other. They were largely limited to
things that could be heard, seen, or felt. They used sounds, gestures, and
touch as symbols. A grunting sound might have indicated that a rock was too
heavy to lift alone, or a gesture might have stood for "come here" or
"get back." Over time a language developed that stood for the objects
and actions needed for survival in a hunting society.
Primitive people also expressed their feelings through art and dance.
The cave paintings in Lascaux, France, which were drawn some 27,000 years ago,
depict animals of the time. It is not known whether these pictures had a
magical or religious purpose, but they show that primitive people had both a
need and a talent for self-expression.
As
societies advanced, people learned to grow crops, raise animals, and fish as
well as hunt. Consequently, they needed symbols to stand for new objects and
actions required by such activities. Also, as people did different kinds of
work, they needed to trade products with one another. In order to keep records
of their transactions, they made notches on sticks and scratches on stones or
shells. The Inca Indians recorded information on quipu--a set of knotted
strings. Such primitive devices represented the first attempt of humans to
record information visually.
Primitive peoples were limited in their ability to communicate across
distances. Smoke signals, drums, and fires were used to stretch the boundaries
of human sight and sound. Nighttime bonfires were used in early societies as
beacons to guide ships at sea. Later, lighthouses were built to extend the
range of fire signals. The Pharos at Alexandria, Egypt, stands as a remnant of
early attempts to reach out to those at sea. On land, communication at
distances greater than the limits of sight or sound was no faster than the
speed of the swiftest runner.
Writing
Although
oral language was a major achievement for humanity, it had limitations. It was
an imperfect means for transporting messages over distance and time. A message
sent to far places or passed to succeeding generations was only as accurate as
the memory of the runner or the tribal elder. With the invention of writing,
ideas could be recorded, copied, and sent by several runners to people in
distant places. Ideas could also be passed on with little or no distortion to
succeeding generations.
The
first forms of writing were little more than crude pictures strung together in
messages called pictographs. Each picture stood for a simple idea. With time
pictures were combined to represent more complex ideas. These combinations,
called ideographs, expanded the variety of ideas that could be represented. The
Chinese ideograph for wife, for example, consisted of the pictures for woman
and broom. Even later ideographs came to represent sounds, and the forerunner
of modern alphabets was born.
The
invention of alphabets enabled people to send signal messages by torches. For
example, the Greeks organized their alphabet in five rows with five letters in
each row. By lighting torches in one rack to indicate row and torches in a
second rack to indicate the letter in the row, they could spell out messages.
Navy signalmen indicate letters of the alphabet with flags and by blinking lights
that stand for letters.
With the
invention of writing, people sought materials on which symbols could be
written. In early times symbols were recorded on flat stones, bark, and animal
skins. As symbol systems were improved, so too were the materials on which
symbols were recorded. The Babylonians wrote on clay tablets and large flat
stones. The Egyptians wrote on a fabric made from the papyrus plant, and the
Greeks on parchment made by treating the skins of sheep and goats. Eventually
paper, invented in China, was used to record symbols throughout the civilized
world.
Although
writing represented a major breakthrough in the way that messages were encoded,
it did not do so in the way that messages were transmitted. A written message
still had to be transported by conventional means. Cyrus the Great of Persia
sent messages across the land by relays of men on horseback much as Pony
Express riders carried messages cross-country in the American West.
One of
the great contributions of the Roman Empire was a network of roads from Rome to
the far reaches of the empire. In addition to transporting armies, these roads
were used to send messages by horseback or horse-drawn chariots. The network of
Roman roads is sometimes credited with promoting the spread of Christianity in
the early years of the church; the same roads that carried the Roman armies
were also traveled by Paul and his emissaries bearing letters to the churches
at Corinth, Thessalonica, and Phillipi. But it still took weeks and sometimes
months for people and messages to be transported between places.
Printing
Although
writing enabled people to record ideas on a surface, it did not provide the
basis for making multiple, inexpensive copies of materials. Additional copies
of writings required long and tedious work by scribes, people who copied
documents by hand. Consequently, the writings of earlier times were not
available to most people.
The
origin of printing dates back as far as AD 100. By inking covered marble surfaces and placing paper on them, the
Chinese were able to "print" designs and symbols. By the year 500,
wood blocks were used in some parts of the Orient to reproduce symbols. But the
modern era of printing began when Johannes Gutenberg, a German inventor and
possibly a goldsmith, created movable letters from which words could be formed.
This invention made it possible for printers to produce thousands of copies in
less time than it had taken a scribe to produce one. Inexpensive written
materials became generally available. As the art of engraving emerged, pictures
could be printed as well as words. The single invention of printing encouraged
more and more people to learn to read as well as to read to learn.
While
printing made written materials available to more people, it did not improve
the system for transmitting messages. It was still necessary to send printed
messages by traditional forms of transportation. For nearly 300 years the
printed message could be transported with no greater speed than that of the fastest
person, animal, or sailing ship.
Then in
the 1700s the power of steam was harnessed. Steam-powered presses permitted
printers to produce a greater volume of printed materials more quickly and
inexpensively than ever before. Newspapers and magazines grew in number and
circulation. Equally important, steam engines had a major impact on
transportation. Printed messages could be rushed across continents by
steam-powered trains and across oceans by steam-powered ships.
Electric Media
In the
early 1800s inventors made great progress in sending symbols via electrical
impulses over wires. By 1832 Samuel F.B. Morse had invented the telegraph. In
the years immediately following he perfected a dot-dash system for encoding and
decoding telegraph messages. By 1844 Morse's telegraph spanned the 37-mile
(60-kilometer) distance between Washington and Baltimore. By 1856 the Western
Union Telegraph Company was established. Soon wires crisscrossed the United
States, and cables were laid beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The telegraph had, at
long last, freed long-distance communication from transportation. Messages
could be transmitted instantly across great distances. News from across the
world could be published in newspapers on the day it happened.
In 1876
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded patents for his telephone, a device by which
the voice could be transported over electrical currents carried by wires. By
1880 about 30,000 telephones were in operation in the United States. The
electric revolution in communication was well on its way.
Broadcast Media
Electronic advances in the 1900s made it possible to transmit messages
without the use of wires. In broadcasting, messages are encoded on
electromagnetic waves that travel through space. By 1901 coded messages were
sent across the Atlantic Ocean by wireless telegraph (early radio). When Lee De
Forest patented a vacuum tube in 1906, music or voice could be encoded on
electromagnetic waves. Radio as known today became possible. By 1920 radio
receivers began to appear in homes across America and throughout the
world.
Television broadcasting is similar to radio broadcasting except that
more signal space--called bandwidth--is needed to carry the complex video
signal with the audio signal. Although television was demonstrated as early as
1926 and was used experimentally in the 1930s, the popular use of television
did not begin until the late 1940s because of the intervention of World War II.
Color television emerged in the mid-1950s and became dominant over black-and-white
television in the late 1960s. The electronic revolution was by that time well
under way.
Forgotten Media
As
people chart the progress of media over time, they often move from writing, to
printing, to the telegraph and telephone, to radio and television, and into the
space age. So dramatic were electric and electronic inventions that they
overshadowed advances in media for recording visual images and sound.
Photography emerged as a means of recording visual images in the early 19th
century. The phonograph also dates back to the 19th century. By the beginning
of the 20th century, a practical motion picture system had been invented.
Silent films were replaced by talking motion pictures in 1927. Colored films
were introduced in 1934. Film, photography, and audio-video recordings are now
important media of communication. If they are slighted, it is probably because
these media still depend on traditional forms of transportation. It is
difficult to compete for recognition with media that involve the instantaneous
transmission of messages around the world.
High-Technology Revolution
The new
technology required for space exploration has had a major impact on
communication in offices and homes. This technology has enabled business people
to hold teleconferences with people in faraway cities. Computers and word
processors are found in many offices. Electronic mail speeds business messages
across continents, and electronic fund transfers give business managers great
flexibility in managing money.
The new
technology has also entered homes. Many families now receive their television
through cable, a sophisticated wire system permitting many television signals
to be transmitted at the same time. Other families view television programs
bounced off a satellite high above the Earth. Videotape recorders enable people
to record television programs for later playback and to increase the variety of
materials they may view in their homes.
Computers continue to become an increasingly important aid to the
communication process. Large computers in central locations store enormous
amounts of information and permit other computers to use it if desired. By
connecting their television sets to telephones and personal computers, people
can see information from a library or other program source. Further linkages
with cable, teletext, and viewdata systems enable many more families to bring
the knowledge of the world into their homes.
Whatever
technical advances may occur in the future, meaning will still exist only in
the minds of people. Technology is a means of helping people to share ideas and
feelings, but it will never replace the fundamental human need to relate to
others.
This article was contributed by R.R. Allen,
Professor of Communication Arts and Curriculum and Instruction, University of
Wisconsin, Madison, and author of 'Developing Communication Competence in
Children'.
FURTHER RESOURCES FOR COMMUNICATION
Books for Children
Bender, Lionel.
Understanding Communication and Control (Silver, 1985). Berry, Joy. Every Kid's Guide to Being a
Communicator (Childrens, 1987). Communicating (Good Apple, 1988). Fisher, Trevor. Communications (David & Charles, 1985). Franck, I.M. and Brownstone, D.M. Communicators
(Facts on File, 1986). Jordan, Sally. Know What I Mean? Let's Be Clear (Standard, 1988). Shadle, Carolyn and Graham, Joan. Building
Communication Skills (Dandy Lion, 1981).
Books for Young Adults
Adams, Julian. The
Student Journalist and Mass Communication (Rosen, 1981). Adler, Ronald. Communicating at Work, 2nd
ed. (Random, 1986). Agee, W.K. and others. Introduction to Mass Communications, 9th ed. (Harper, 1988). Barnouw, Erik. A History of Broadcasting in
the United States, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1966-70). Bettinghaus,
E.P. Persuasive Communication, 4th ed. (Holt, 1987). Buley, J.L. Relationships and
Communication: A Book for Friends, Co-Workers and Lovers, 2nd ed.
(Kendall-Hunt, 1982). Flesch, Rudolph. Art of Plain Talk (Macmillan, 1985). Johannesen,
R.L. Ethics in Human Communication, 2nd ed. (Waveland,
1983) Koch, Arthur and Felber, S.B. What Did You Say: A Guide to the Communication Skills, 3rd ed. (Prentice, 1985). Langs, Robert. Unconscious Communication in
Everyday Life (Aronson, 1983). McLuhan,
Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New
American, 1984). Myer, G.E. and Myers, M.T. Dynamics of Human Communication, 5th ed. (McGraw, 1987). Shannon, Trish. Express Yourself (Random,
1988). Watzlawick, Paul. How Real Is Real? Confusion, Disinformation, Communication (Random, 1977). [1]
COMMUNICATION SKILLS. The most important lessons for elementary-school pupils focus on
communication skills. They use the skills of listening, talking, reading, or
writing almost every moment in their work and play. These skills are basic
tools in learning each new subject. Mastery of them helps prepare young people
for solving the problems of adult life. Whatever careers they choose, they must
communicate in order to work with others and put their ideas and knowledge to
use. Personality development is also dependent upon good communication
skills.
Thoughtful parents provide their children with a wide variety of
experiences in listening and speaking. These experiences prepare the children
for rapid progress in communication skills in school. Babies begin listening
early. They have learned the meaning of many words and other sounds long before
they speak their first words. As they continue to develop, the family provides
them with words they need, helping with pronunciation and meaning. The children
are encouraged to ask questions. Well-selected books and pictures provide
topics for talking and listening.
Children
are self-centered in their use of oral communication (speaking and listening)
when they enter school. Members of the family have adjusted their topics,
words, and sentences to the child's ability to understand. Schoolchildren must
learn to work with the group and to adjust to others' interests. Communication
becomes a social experience.
People
spend about 45 percent of their communicating time in listening, 30 percent in
speaking, and only 25 percent in reading and writing. Listening was the chief
means of learning until books became abundant after the invention of printing.
Listening has revived in importance with the spread of radio, television,
recordings, and films. When people are bored with what they hear, however,
their minds frequently tune it out. Skilled listening involves thinking as well
as hearing.
School
activities for practicing and improving speech include conversation,
discussion, reports, planning and evaluating, storytelling, and reciting
poetry. School programs and assemblies are occasions during which students can
demonstrate speech skills. [2]
1. Comdata Observe (1-2), 1987H, 1988G - 1408H, 1409H
2. Comdata Coverage (1), 1988G - 1408H,1409H
3. Comdata Events (Information System), 1988G, 1989G - 1408H, 1409H
1410H
4. Catalogue 1996G by I.S. SDM; 1996g (Charts)
5. Education Activity and View Coverage; 1996g (Charts)
6. Regular Project..; 1996g
(Charts)
7. Challenge Task I (Business General Basics); 1996g
(Charts)
8. Challenge Task II (Understanding Data Processing); 1996g
(Charts)
9. Normal View and Check Coverage; 1996g (Charts)
10. Introduction to
Information Technology ( Real Life Business); 1996g
11. Business Concept and View
Points (Part I); 1996g
12. Business Concept and View
Points (Part II); 1996g
13. Marketing Strategy for
Success; 1996g
14. Basic Rules For
Information Management; 1996g
15. Organization Management
and Administration Coverage; 1996g (CT
iii)
16. An Entrance to Next
Century; 1996g (CT
vi)
17. Survival in Business by
an Easy Procedures; 1996g (CT
x)
18. Monitoring Project
Planning and Facilities Update; 1996g (CT xx)
19. Project’s Activities and
Related Tasks; 1996g
20. Join the Competition and
Win the Challenge; 1996g (CT
xxv)
21. Directions of Management
and Processing; 1996g (CT
xxx)
22. Productiveties
Improvement and Getting Update; 1996g (CT xxxv)
23. Culture Effect in
Marketing Business; 1996g (CT
xxxx)
24. Efficient Methods of
Management Administration; 1997g (CT xxxxx)
25. Creating Procedures to
Get Best Project Processing; 1997g (CT 100)
26. Meet the Changing Demands
in the Market; 1997g (Acceptance Package to the Customer) (CT
200)
27. Windows to the business
in the Market; 1997g (CT
222)
28. Sort of Existing
Business - 0X 1997g (Chart) (CT
999)
29. Access All the Authorized
Channels by an Ease
30. A littel Moment in
Managment (Information Technology Systems)
1997G
31. Major and Minor
Activities Coverage 1997G (CT
2000)
32. Way of Organizing the
work (Information Technology Systems)
1997G
33. Dealing Right to get
your Rights (I.T.) Industrial Engineering)
1998G
34. Simple Ways to Project
Activities 1998G
35. Packaging Systems and
Quality Packing (I.T. Industrial Engineering) 1998G
36. Academic and Non
Academic Business (Industrial Engineering)
1998G
37. SDM-IE Newsletters –01- 1998G-1999G