{"id":135,"date":"2022-04-06T14:12:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T18:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/?post_type=chapter&p=135"},"modified":"2022-08-24T12:27:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T16:27:57","slug":"1-2-the-communication-process","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/chapter\/1-2-the-communication-process\/","title":{"raw":"1.2 The Communication Process","rendered":"1.2 The Communication Process"},"content":{"raw":"In basic terms, humans communicate through a process of\u00a0encoding<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0decoding<\/strong>. The encoder is the person who develops and sends the message. As represented in the video below, the encoder must determine how the message will be received by the audience, and make adjustments so the message is received the way they want it to be received.\r\n\r\nEncoding<\/strong> is the process of turning thoughts into communication. The encoder uses a \u2018medium\u2019 to send the message \u2014 a phone call, email, text message, face-to-face meeting, or other communication tools. The level of conscious thought that goes into encoding messages may vary. The encoder should also take into account any \u2018noise\u2019 that might interfere with their message, such as other messages, distractions, or influences.\r\n\r\nThe audience then \u2018decodes\u2019, or interprets, the message for themselves.\u00a0Decoding<\/strong>\u00a0is the process of turning communication into thoughts. For example, you may realize you\u2019re hungry and encode the following message to send to your roommate: \u201cI\u2019m hungry. Do you want to get pizza tonight?\u201d As your roommate receives the message, they decode your communication and turn it back into thoughts to make meaning.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[video width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" mp4=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/businesswritingessentials2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/983\/2022\/04\/The-Communication-Process.mp4\"][\/video]\r\n
Figure 1.1 | The Communication Process<\/sup><\/div>\r\nOf course, you don\u2019t just communicate verbally\u2014you have various options, or channels, for communication. Encoded messages are sent through a channel, or a sensory route, on which a message travels to the receiver for decoding. While communication can be sent and received using any sensory route (sight, smell, touch, taste, or sound), most communication occurs through visual (sight) and\/or auditory (sound) channels. If your roommate has headphones on and is engrossed in a video game, you may need to get their attention by waving your hands before you can ask them about dinner.\r\n

Transmission Model<\/h3>\r\nThe\u00a0transmission model<\/strong> of communication describes communication as a linear, one-way process in which a sender intentionally transmits a message to a receiver (Ellis & McClintock, 1990). This model focuses on the sender and message within a communication encounter. Although the receiver is included in the model, this role is viewed as more of a target or endpoint rather than part of an ongoing process. You are left to presume that the receiver either successfully receives and understands the message or does not. Think of how a radio message is sent from a person in the radio studio to you listening in your car. The sender is the radio announcer who encodes a verbal message that is transmitted by a radio tower through electromagnetic waves (the channel) and eventually reaches your (the receiver\u2019s) ears via an antenna and speakers in order to be decoded. The radio announcer doesn\u2019t really know if you receive their message or not, but if the equipment is working and the channel is free of static, then there is a good chance that the message was successfully received.\r\n

Interaction Model<\/h3>\r\nThe\u00a0interaction model<\/strong>\u00a0of communication describes communication as a process in which participants alternate positions as sender and receiver and generate meaning by sending messages and receiving feedback within physical and psychological contexts (Schramm, 1997). Rather than illustrating communication as a linear, one-way process, the interaction model incorporates feedback, which makes communication a more interactive, two-way process. Feedback includes messages sent in response to other messages. For example, your instructor may respond to a point you raise during class discussion or you may point to the sofa when your roommate asks you where the remote control is. The inclusion of a feedback loop also leads to a more complex understanding of the roles of participants in a communication encounter. Rather than having one sender, one message, and one receiver, this model has two sender-receivers who exchange messages. Each participant alternates roles as sender and receiver in order to keep a communication encounter going. Although this seems like a perceptible and deliberate process, you alternate between the roles of sender and receiver very quickly and often without conscious thought.\r\n

Transaction Model<\/h3>\r\nThe\u00a0transaction model<\/strong>\u00a0of communication describes communication as a process in which communicators generate social realities within social, relational, and cultural contexts. In this model, you don\u2019t just communicate to exchange messages; you communicate to create relationships, form intercultural alliances, shape your self-concepts, and engage with others in dialogue to create communities. In short, you don\u2019t communicate about your realities; communication helps to construct your realities (and the realities of others).\r\n\r\nThe roles of sender and receiver in the transaction model of communication differ significantly from the other models. Instead of labelling participants as senders and receivers, the people in a communication encounter are referred to as communicators. Unlike the interaction model, which suggests that participants alternate positions as sender and receiver, the transaction model suggests that you are simultaneously a sender and a receiver. For example, when meeting a new friend, you send verbal messages about your interests and background, your companion reacts nonverbally. You don\u2019t wait until you are done sending your verbal message to start receiving and decoding the nonverbal messages of your new friend. Instead, you are simultaneously sending your verbal message and receiving your friend\u2019s nonverbal messages. This is an important addition to the model because it allows you to understand how you are able to adapt your communication\u2014for example, adapting a verbal message\u2014in the middle of sending it based on the communication you are simultaneously receiving from your communication partner.\r\n

8 Essential Components of Communication<\/h2>\r\nThe communication process can be broken down into a series of eight essential components, each of which serves an integral function in the overall process:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Source<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Message<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Channel<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Receiver<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Feedback<\/li>\r\n \t
  6. Environment<\/li>\r\n \t
  7. Context<\/li>\r\n \t
  8. Interference<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    Source<\/h3>\r\nThe source imagines, creates, and sends the message. The source encodes the message by choosing just the right order or the best words to convey the intended meaning and presents or sends the information to the audience (receiver). By watching for the audience\u2019s reaction, the source perceives how well they received the message and responds with clarification or supporting information.\r\n

    Message<\/h3>\r\n\u201cThe message is the stimulus or meaning produced by the source for the receiver or audience\u201d (McLean, 2005). The message brings together words to convey meaning but is also about how it\u2019s conveyed \u2014 through nonverbal cues, organization, grammar, style, and other elements.\r\n

    Channel<\/h3>\r\n\u201cThe channel is the way in which a message or messages travel between source and receiver.\u201d (McLean, 2005). Spoken channels include face-to-face conversations, speeches, phone conversations and voicemail messages, radio, public address systems, and Skype. Written channels include letters, memorandums, purchase orders, invoices, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, email, text messages, tweets, and so forth.\r\n

    Receiver<\/h3>\r\n\u201cThe receiver receives the message from the source, analyzing and interpreting the message in ways both intended and unintended by the source\u201d (McLean, 2005).\r\n

    Feedback<\/h3>\r\nWhen you respond to the source, intentionally or unintentionally, you are giving feedback. Feedback is composed of messages the receiver sends back to the source. Verbal or nonverbal, all these feedback signals allow the source to see how well, how accurately (or how poorly and inaccurately) the message was received (Leavitt & Mueller, 1951).\r\n

    Environment<\/h3>\r\n\u201cThe environment is the atmosphere, physical and psychological, where you send and receive messages\u201d (McLean, 2005). Surroundings, people, animals, technology, can all influence your communication.\r\n

    Context<\/h3>\r\n\u201cThe context of the communication interaction involves the setting, scene, and expectations of the individuals involved\u201d (McLean, 2005). A professional communication context may involve business suits (environmental cues) that directly or indirectly influence expectations of language and behaviour among the participants.\r\n

    Interference<\/h3>\r\nInterference, also called noise, can come from any source. \u201cInterference is anything that blocks or changes the source\u2019s intended meaning of the message\u201d (McLean, 2005). This can be external or internal\/psychological. Noise interferes with normal encoding and decoding of the message carried by the channel between source and receiver.","rendered":"

    In basic terms, humans communicate through a process of\u00a0encoding<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0decoding<\/strong>. The encoder is the person who develops and sends the message. As represented in the video below, the encoder must determine how the message will be received by the audience, and make adjustments so the message is received the way they want it to be received.<\/p>\n

    Encoding<\/strong> is the process of turning thoughts into communication. The encoder uses a \u2018medium\u2019 to send the message \u2014 a phone call, email, text message, face-to-face meeting, or other communication tools. The level of conscious thought that goes into encoding messages may vary. The encoder should also take into account any \u2018noise\u2019 that might interfere with their message, such as other messages, distractions, or influences.<\/p>\n

    The audience then \u2018decodes\u2019, or interprets, the message for themselves.\u00a0Decoding<\/strong>\u00a0is the process of turning communication into thoughts. For example, you may realize you\u2019re hungry and encode the following message to send to your roommate: \u201cI\u2019m hungry. Do you want to get pizza tonight?\u201d As your roommate receives the message, they decode your communication and turn it back into thoughts to make meaning.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n