The Types and Process of Communication

Class Discussion Response #1

There are 3 types of communications-

• Mass Communication- sharing ideas with a mass audience (more than one person) but not being able to get instant, immediate feedback. 

Examples: Magazine, Television, Radio, Social Media, Billboard, etc.

• Group Communication- sharing ideas with a mass audience or group of people; one person talking to a bunch of people. Can get immediate feedback from audience; works as a 2-way form of communication. 

• Individual Communication- interactive; the sharing of ideas between two people.

Process-

1. Stimulus- starting point; "my idea"
2. Encoding- taking an idea and putting it in a symbolic form to where people can understand it. E.x. typing a recipe in a word document.
3. Transmission- sharing the idea with the public/making it available for people to see. E.x. uploading the recipe to a blog.
4. Decoding- when the public encounters the idea/communication. E.x. reading the recipe on the blog using your phone.
5. Internalization- remembering the idea; "your idea"

Impediments- external

• Semantic Noise- A problem/interference with encoding. E.x. Word Document crashes in the middle of typing a book and all content is erased.
• Channel Noise- Bad transmission. E.x. A book gets shipped to the wrong house.
• Environmental Noise- A problem with decoding; something around you is interfering with your ability to decode an idea. E.x. You can't focus on decoding a book because your mom is vacuuming and it is distracting you.

Filters- 

• Physical- Can prevent people from internalizing an idea; usually happens because there are physical features preventing the internalization.
• Psychological- Prevention from thoughts.
• Informational- Learning barriers. E.x. not knowing a language.

Before this lesson I had no idea how complicated the whole idea of communication and it's process is. It's pretty wild to learn that something that can seem so simple in the beginning is actually a lot more complex than it seems.