Foundations of Communication
Click to go To Classes for Each Learning Thread
Physical Foundations
The electromagnetic Spectrum, The Electron, Biochemistry, Cognitive Science, Physics,
Logic and Rhetoric
Linguistics, Argumentation, Statistics & Probablity
Communication Theory
Creating Meaning
Basic Economics
Adam Smith, Milton Freidman, F. A. Hayek,
Legal Foundations
The law.
Communication Skills
Reading, Writing, Talking, Listening, Non-verbal,
Technology
The Internet, Networking, Digital Signal Processing, mediated Communication.
Information Foundations
History of Information, Artificial Intelligence
The Process of Creating Meaning
Communication is about shared meaning making, a critical component to how we develop as human beings. It allows us to construct and control our environments.
Through communication our realities are: Created, Recreated, Understood
LANGUAGE
- an important part of communication
- separates us from other animals
- allows us to share our experiences
- a major vehicle through which we document knowledge
Over time, communication scholars have increasingly expanded our understanding of the communication process through the use of three models:
1.Linear Model – The oldest, most simplified model
2.Interactional Model – A more expansive version of the linear model
3.Transactional Model – The most complex and contemporary model
Linear Model (source-dominated)
This model defines communication in basic terms:
Source, Message, Receiver, Feedback
It considers feedback…and NOISE or interference of the message. The four types of noise are:
- Physical (actual noise)
- Semantic (linguistic influences on the message)
- Psychological (cognitive influences on the message)
- Physiological (biological influences on the message)
See Claude Shannon for detailed description of his influential model.
Interactional Model (reciprocal & ongoing)
Sender and Receiver become “interpreters”—both encode and decode messages, simultaneously.
Messages are interpreted according to individual experiences and shared experiences.
Both interpreters negotiate meaning in the message.
Linear and interactional models represent the transmissional view of communication.
Transactional Model (dynamic)
This model views the communication process as changing the communicators.
Communicators walk away from the exchange different people. This makes the transactional approach constitutive because something now exists that did not exist before the communication.