what is communication we're going to
give our best effort to answer that so
we have to admit that defining
communication in a way that everybody
agrees with is almost impossible why
well one reason is because the word is
so common in 1970 in the Journal of
communication Frank
dance said that communication is one of
the most overworked terms in the English
language then you wrote that decades ago
but the situation is really the same
today it's a word like culture or
community if you asked a hundred
different people what those words mean
you'd get a hundred different
definitions but we have to try to define
it I'm no quitter
so here's what we're going to do this
video has three parts first I'm going to
give you a basic definition next we'll
look at three popular models of
communication over time and finally I'll
touch on how different researchers study
communication from different angles
taken together that will give you a
well-rounded answer to this question the
word communication in Latin comes from
communique which means to share to make
something common and I love that my
plain language basic working definition
of communication from all I've read is
the process by which people transmit
information share verbal and nonverbal
messages and create meaning with each
other so let's look at three popular
communication models that align with
those three key words transmit share and
create first some people think
communication is about how we transmit
information years ago in 1948 Claude
Shannon and Warren Weaver developed a
foundational model of communication that
you'll see in most textbooks from their
view communication happens when an
information source a sender has a
message and transmits that message in
the form of a signal through a channel
let's say that little box in the middle
represents the channel then that signal
is received by the receiver at its final
destination
along the way there might be some noise
in the communication system that could
negatively influence the process some
people call this the container model
because according to the model meaning
is contained in the words themselves
when the message has then reached its
final destination communication has been
accomplished because the message has
been sent and received now I'd like to
point out that the concept of feedback
is not part of Shannon and Weaver's
original model even though some
textbooks add that the word feedback
does not appear in the diagram and
nowhere in the text of the original
article that concept came later Shannon
and Weaver were diagramming and were
interested in communication systems like
the Telegraph the telephone and radio
and their model reflects that 1948 way
of looking at communication so it's a
linear one-way model that describes how
information is transmitted their model
is very limited and not designed to
explain face-to-face communication and
that's why most textbooks call this the
information transfer model so that's our
first key word transmitted to some
people the answer to the question what
is communication is that it is simply
the transmitting of information our next
key word is share some people think
communication is about sharing
meaning fast-forward several decades and
a couple of models to 1962 Dean barn
lund articulated the transactional model
of communication to barn LAN
communication wasn't a one-way process
to him it had a different nature
communication was dynamic continuous and
circular in other words communication
between people is an ongoing
back-and-forth simultaneous exchange we
are senders and receivers at the same
time and the point is we exchange
messages because we want to share
meaning with other people barn Lunz
model include
both verbal and nonverbal cues and
feedback and importantly to barn lon
meaning existed within the person not
the words so like Shannon and Weaver's
1948 model they sender has a meaning
that he or she wants to communicate and
encodes it in specific words and then
sends it at that point according to
Shannon and Weaver's model meaning
exists in the words but for barn lund
that wasn't quite right
his transactional model says that the
receiver interprets or decodes what
those words mean for him or herself then
that really highlights that meaning is
not in the words but meaning is in us
it's in our minds we supply the meaning
we are superimposing our understanding
or interpretation onto the process and
that's why two people can hear the same
exact message but interpret it
differently so two barn lund he looked
so closely at the way communication
happens face-to-face and he looked at
some of these subtle processes that were
happening to explain this process more
thoroughly
so while Shannon and Weaver's model is
about transmitting messages the
transactional model describes the
complex and layered process we follow to
pursue and achieve shared meaning with
each other
tibarn lund it's all about the way
individuals collaboratively work toward
shared meaning through communication so
barn Long's answer to the question about
what is communication is it's the
process through which we achieve shared
meaning our next key word is create so
let's leap forward a couple of more
decades and talk about how communication
is the generative process that creates
our social world and to me this is where
it gets really interesting according to
this approach the word communication
describes the way we create meaning in
the first place Robert Craig says
communication constitutes our social
reality constitute means create he said
in his 1999 article communication is not
a secondary phenomenon communication
doesn't happen
after those views are already in our
head after a culture has taught us norms
after socio-economic factors have shaped
us Craig says that communication is the
primary constitutive social process that
explains all these other factors so I'll
put that in my own words compared to the
previous mentioned models pre-existing
meaning is not in the words meaning is
not even in our minds that we then
communicate we're not simply sharing
already existing ideas when we
communicate with each other according to
this view in our conversations we are
generating those ideas together we
create meaning through our interactions
with others over time we create our
social world together that we could have
not created on our own the creation of
shared meaning is a collective
accomplishment our whole social reality
is the product the outcome of
communication so communication is that
driving creative force at the center of
our sense of self our relationships our
families our culture through
interactions we make or break agreements
we create or dissolve relationships we
form the tone or nature of those
relationships we establish societal
norms or violate them through the
process of communication so it might
seem on the surface that meaning exists
in words or even in our heads but to
Robert Craig and others who follow this
constitutive approach we have to
remember that we are not dealing with
already existing meanings provided by
nature that meaning was first and
foremost generated and is still being
generated through our communication
processes so the answer to the question
what is communication from this point of
view is that it's a creative process a
meaning generating process and we've
already covered a lot of ground by
looking at these three models but let's
finally touch on some major areas that
show how people look at communication
that will help us to make it even more
concrete the most historic area is
rhetoric if you've ever taken a
speaking class then you have an idea
about what this is it all began when
Aristotle wrote a book about 2,000 years
ago and even really before that and he
taught us that when we spoke we had
these available approaches and choices
and techniques that we could use to
persuade our listeners the classic view
of rhetoric is all about how a speaker
can create and share messages artfully
with an audience for maximum
persuasiveness Aristotle showed us that
there are dozens or maybe even hundreds
of small choices that we make along the
way that can make us more or less
persuasive given the circumstances today
the area of rhetoric studies things like
political speeches argumentation the
freedom of expression in society and
lots of other topics like that another
popular area is called interpersonal
communication this area looks at
one-on-one conversations and
relationships and normally focuses on
face-to-face interaction like
friendships romantic relationships and
family dynamics at a basic level you
might study things like active listening
skills conflict resolution the stages of
relationship development the area of
interpersonal communication is a big
area of study that looks at both
nonverbal and verbal dynamics and how
small changes in the way we talk to each
other can shape our relationships in big
ways another popular area is
organizational communication and this is
another broad area here you'd learn
about communication that happens in and
around the workplace you might study for
example different leadership styles and
how you see those at work or workplace
culture and how it shapes our lives as
employees and how communication is
likely to happen through both formal and
informal networks organizational
communication is a huge area and we even
see subfields within it taking shape on
their own like crisis communication
training and development and whole
classes in professional communication
skills more recently we see a lot of
interest in the area of health
communication and here you learn about
how communication and healthcare
settings is real
important because it can directly impact
issues like how quickly patients recover
how we communicate risk and how patients
and families talk about illness in
either helpful or harmful ways it's all
about the way the quality of
communication influences our health and
well-being and I'm just scratching the
surface communication is a huge field
and there's lots of other interesting
areas of study and it seems like the
boundaries continue to expand every day
and like I said from the beginning
finding one agreed-upon definition of
communication is not really the goal but
we have to at least explore a basic
definition look at these three common
models and mentions some of the major
areas of study to help us answer the
question hopefully this will paint a
well-rounded picture that answers the
question what is communication so
question for you how would you answer
this question I would love to hear your
comments and that section below the
video and I look forward to reading your
point of view and by the way I have a
free online mini course and the five
essential communication skills that
every professional should know I will
put a link to that in the description
below this video feel free to take a
look it's free thanks God bless and I'll
see you in the next video