Communication Free Updated Study Material
Syllabus
Communication: Meaning, types and characteristics of communication
Effective communication: Verbal and Non-verbal, Inter-Cultural and group communications, Classroom communication
Barriers to effective communication
Mass-Media and Society
Communication
Meaning
It’s nearly impossible to go through a day without the use of communication. Communication is sending and receiving information between two or more people. The person sending the message is referred to as the sender, while the person receiving the information is called the receiver. The information conveyed can include facts, ideas, concepts, opinions, beliefs, attitudes, instructions and even emotions. Even animals also communicate. Usually, they communicate, through non-verbal means, they express their feelings, pain, pleasure, joy, sorrow, anger, pity and other emotions. But their language is silent. Besides silent languages, there is a special kind of language – verbal language. Verbal languages can be used by those who are able to form all sorts of concepts. Since only human beings are able to form all sorts of concepts, therefore verbal languages have been evolved from and confined only to humans.
Definitions
Generally we define communication as the process of transfer of information between two sources with the information being understood by both. Some remarkable definitions of communication are given below.
“Communication is a field of knowledge dealing with the systematic application of symbols to acquire common information regarding an object or event.”
-Kell
“It is the transmission of commonly meaningful information. It is a process that involves the exchange of behaviours.”
-Luther
“Communication is the process of making a message understood by satisfying the need sets and ego sets of a receiver.”
-A. Kumar
“Communication – the exchange of information and the transmission of meaning – is the very essence of a social system or an organisation.”
-Katz and Kahn
“Communication is the process of meaningful interactions among human beings. It is a process by which, meanings are perceived and understandings are reached among human beings.”
– Dr. McFarland
“Communication is a process of transmitting ideas or thoughts from one person to another for the purpose of creating an understanding in the thinking of the person receiving communication.”
– Brown
“Communication is a dynamic process in which, man consciously or unconsciously affects the cognition of another through materials or agencies used in symbolic ways.”
– Anderson
“Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages.”
– Sanborn
“Communication is nevertheless an attempt at making common the basic condition for the origin, the existence, and the development of every social relationship.”
– Fauconnier
“It is a two-way process which cannot be adequately understood in terms of simple engineering or mechanical analogies. It is uniquely a human relationship from which, emerge all civilizations and culture without which, man as we know him, could not survive.”
– Fearing
