communication

Texts

2022

We explain what communication is, its types, functions, elements and characteristics. Also, what are the media.

Communication is essential to understand the relationships between living beings.

What is communication?

Communication is the voluntary act of transmitting information Come in living beings. Communication is related to all living beings, in one way or another, for various purposes and strategies, whether microorganisms exchanging chemical signals, birds exchanging songs or Humans exchanging pieces of language.

Living necessarily involves communicating, although not all forms of life communicate in the same way or for the same purposes: a animal communicates with another when he warns him that this is his territory, or when it indicates to a female that it is apt to reproduce, for example.

In the case of human beings, the natural forms of communication are compounded by complex forms resulting from some type of language, such as verbal, which uses words. Hence, we can talk about different types of communication, as we will see later.

Communication is the subject of study of many disciplines, according to its nature and the actors that in the process intervene. However, it is always a fundamental process to understand the relationships between living beings.

In addition, the human being learned to replicate this natural process through technology: Computer systems, for example, can communicate with each other automatically.

Communication characteristics

Broadly speaking, communication is characterized by the following:

  • It is a process of information exchange, which occurs between living beings (or between systems cyberneticists who imitate them). There are many different forms of communication.
  • Along the communicative process different instances called "comunication elements”, And that they must be present so that communication can take place effectively.
  • It generally occurs cyclically, that is, it feeds back, although it can also be unidirectional.
  • It can have very different general purposes, but almost always it is about eliciting a desired response from the interlocutor or interlocutors.

Importance of communication

Communication is a process related to all forms of life, the understanding of which is at the base of practically all human knowledge. There is no form of life that does not communicate in one way or another with the outside, and therefore we are talking about a fundamental process in the known world.

In addition, thanks to technology we have been able to design mechanisms to amplify, characterize or modulate communication, overcoming large spatial and even temporal distances, so that it is an activity of central importance in communication. existence human.

Types of communication

Verbal communication is exclusive to the human being.

Communication can be classified according to the mechanisms used to transmit the message, in:

  • Verbal communication. That which is given through the word, that is, through linguistic signs. Since humans are the only animal with language, this type of communication is unique to humans.
  • Non-verbal communication. The one that does not depend on the word to convey its message, but of gestures, movements or sounds that they are not part of a language, that is, they do not constitute signs. The instinctive communication of animals is in this category, as well as the so-called "body language" of human beings.
  • Written communication. Although it also uses the word to transmit the message, we place it in a separate category because it does not operate immediately, in the presence of the sender and receiver, but over temporary distances: the sender may have ceased to exist and yet his message keep broadcasting as long as someone is trained and willing to read it.
  • Biochemical communication. We will place in this category the forms of communication that depend on the transmission and reception of chemical signals, as it happens within our own organism, as the cells of both types communicate to act in an organized manner. Obviously, this type of communication is also a non-verbal form.

Comunication elements

For communication to exist, some elements must be present and available, which will operate around the communicative circuit, that is, the idea and arrival of the information, as two or more individuals alternate their roles in sending and receiving of their respective messages.

This circuit is given according to certain conditions and certain rules, as the case may be, but in them the same elements can always be identified, which are:

  • Transmitter. One who initiates the communicative act, creating, encoding and transmitting a message. For example: a speaker, a radio host, or a growling animal.
  • Receiver. The one who captures the message and is able to decode and understand it, thus recomposing the message. For example: a listener, a person who tunes in his radio or an animal that hears the growl of another.
  • Message. The information itself that is transmitted, whatever the type. For example: a request for help, a advertising radio broadcast or a warning that someone else's territory is being trespassed.
  • Code. The code of the messages is a form of encryption, that is, a language or system of meaning that serves to translate the message. In the case of verbal communication, this is very evident, since we require a shared language to transmit a message to the receiver. But codes may be other types of sense systems, much more primitive, such as the one that associates grunt with risk of bite, usually based on the experience already lived.
  • Channel. The communication channel is the physical medium used to transmit the message. That is, the physical way in which we carry out the communicative act: the waves sounds that transport the spoken word, the letters of ink on a paper, or the chemical impulses between one cell and another.

Communication functions

Communication can take place for various purposes, such as:

  • Informational function. When its purpose is to share more or less objective or referential information, that is, to describe an aspect of the reality or point to an item in the real world.
  • Training function.When it is proposed to influence the mind of the receiver for pedagogical, training or educational purposes teaching, transmitting habits, ideas or convictions.
  • Persuasive function. When it seeks to convince the interlocutor to adopt a point of view or to carry out some type of specific actions. More easily said, convince.
  • Expressive function. When subjective, emotional or emotional content of the sender is transmitted, without expecting any action from the receiver except sympathy or emotional accompaniment.

Communication barriers

It is called communication barriers to those events, conditions or determinants that, instead of favoring the realization of the communication, hinder or prevent it, sabotaging the effectiveness transmission of the message. They can be of different types and depend on different communicative elements, for example:

  • Issuer barriers. Those that prevent the sender from encoding or transmitting the message in the most appropriate way, or that make it difficult to initiate the communicative act itself. For example: stuttering or defects in speaks of the issuer.
  • Receiver barriers. Those that prevent the receiver from correctly capturing or decoding the broadcast message. For example: the receiver's deafness, or the fact that the receiver does not handle the same code as the sender.
  • Canal barriers. Those that are typical of the environment or context, and that hinder communication. For example: environmental noise, the use of face masks or the presence of distracting elements between transmitter and receiver.

Media

The media They are the devices, instruments or mechanisms that, used correctly, facilitate communication between a sender and one or more receivers.

It's about a mass media when there are large numbers of receivers that correspond to a transmitter. Examples of means of communication are: the telephone, the email, the Newspaper, the movie theater, the TV, etc.

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