Communication in the broad sense of the word is communication, the transfer of information from one person to another. The same concept in the organizational context is considered as a process (communication is a communication of people: the exchange of thoughts, ideas, information, feelings, intentions) and an object (it is a set of technical means that provide information transfer).
The functions of communication are information-communicative, emotional-communicative and regulatory-communicative. However, researchers define them differently. After reading this article, you will learn what the essence, tasks and role of communication are. We will also talk about the functions of this process.
Communication process and its role
The communication process is the exchange of information between two or more individuals. Its purpose is to ensure the understanding and transmission of information that is the subject of exchange.
We transmit and receive information in order toto:
- inform other people about something (such as a press release or teletext);
- warn others (shout or road signs);
- explain something (textbook);
- entertain (feature film or joke);
- convince someone (calling poster);
- describe something (oral story or documentary).
This is the purpose of communication. Within one process, most often, there are several of them. For example, a film can inform, entertain, warn, describe, and explain.
Satisfaction of human needs in the process of communication
The main reason we all need to communicate is the social needs of the individual or group. A person enters into the process of communication in order to satisfy their urgent needs. Therefore, the above purposes of communication serve to satisfy basic human needs. Among them, the following stand out:
- survival;
- personal needs;
- collaboration with others;
- maintain relationships;
- persuading someone to think or act in a certain way;
- union of organizations and societies into a single entity;
- exercising power over people (in particular, propaganda);
- manifestation of imagination and creativity;
- awareness of the world around us and our experience in it (what we think of ourselves, what we believe, how we relate to others, which is true).
Human Need Groups
Human needs are usually divided into the following groups:
- social;
- personal;
- economic;
- creative.
In order to understand and interpret the theory of communication, which is scientific knowledge about the various laws of interaction, we are primarily interested in the social and personal needs of the individual.
Communication components
If mutual understanding is not achieved, we can say that communication did not take place. It follows that both sides play an active role in this process. The communication process is the interaction of a set of a number of components. Let's briefly consider the main ones.
Communicator
A communicator or sender is a person who generates an idea or collects information and then transmits it. The sender is not just a source of information. It also acts as an encoder for the messages it transmits and as a decoder for the information it receives through feedback channels. In addition, the communicator is the person responsible for forming the target audience and creating or selecting a key message.
Encoder
An encoding device, or encoding, is a type of information conversion by a communicator. There is a written and spoken encoding.
Oral is that the transfer of information is carried out through verbal or non-verbal methods (tone, facial expressions, gestures often become much more important thancommon words). An example of oral encoding is the translation of a message for deaf people. In this case, ordinary words are encoded with special characters that are transmitted to the addressee in a non-verbal way.
Written encoding is of the following types:
- electronic, when letters are converted to characters (0 and 1);
- special when letters are converted into sounds (for example, Morse code).
Channel and decoder
It is necessary to consider such a thing as a channel. This is a means of information transmission (meetings, written transmission, oral transmission, telephone conversations, reports, memos, computer networks, e-mail, etc.).
Decoding device (decoding) is a type of message transformation by the recipient. These are the same tools and methods that are used for encoding, only in this case they are used in the opposite direction.
Barriers and hindrances
Barriers and interference can interfere with the transmission of information. There are the following types: age, social, terminological, racial, linguistic, economic, political, the recipient's ability to perceive information, noise, stereotypes, equipment failures, etc.
Address, result of communication, feedback
The addressee (recipient) is the person to whom the message is intended, who interprets it. The result of communication is the receipt and interpretationthis message. And, finally, feedback is the recipient's response to the message.
Communication functions
Since the time of Aristotle, thinkers have noted that the process of communication can manifest itself in different ways. Its essence depends on the internal and external environmental conditions, the declared and true goals of the parties, the number of participants, strategies and means of execution, etc. Communication functions should be determined taking into account the influence of numerous factors on it. In the real process of transmitting messages, even in one communicative act, several functions are sometimes combined. At the same time, one or two of them are defining, basic. You can also talk about the functions of this communication as a whole, that is, what is its role in the life and activities of society and man.
As a rule, communication functions are singled out only for the purposes of applied scientific or research analysis. For example, this is necessary for consulting activities. An interaction model can be built by determining which of the functions is primary and which are secondary.
Communication patterns
To date, many communication models have accumulated in the educational and specialized literature. Most of them were described by researchers in the 20th century. However, even Aristotle proposed the first of the models known to us. Based on it, you can determine the tasks, functions of communication and its significance. In his works "Rhetoric" and "Poetics" the thinker presented the following model:"speaker-speech-listener". He pointed out that this classical model is universal, as it fully reflects the act of communication both in written and oral forms.
However, in the first half of the 20th century, when such mass media as cinema, radio, television began to develop, the classical model was somewhat changed. In the 21st century, due to the development of computer technology, economic integration and political globalization, this model requires an even more in-depth interpretation. Once again, researchers are faced with the task of determining the main functions of mass communication.
Jacobson Model
According to R. O. Jacobson, the addresser and the addressee take part in the functional model of a speech event or communication. The message is sent from the first to the second. This post is written in code. In the Jacobson model, the context is related to what content a given message has, with the information it conveys. The concept of contact refers to the regulative aspect of communication.
Jacobson Communication Functions
According to the Jacobson model, the following six functions can be distinguished:
- expressive (emotive), associated with the addresser, expressing his attitude to the content of his speech;
- conative, reflecting the orientation towards the addressee, expressing the impact on the interlocutor;
- referential (cognitive, denotative), context-oriented and is a reference to the semantic object thatpresented in the message;
- poetic (rhetorical), aimed mainly at the message, making everyday human speech a model of verbal art;
- metalinguistic, which is associated with the code of the transmitted message, its understanding by the interlocutor, the correct interpretation;
- phatic, which is aimed at contact, at the continuous maintenance of this contact, and not at the novelty of the message or its transmission.
The transfer of information affects the actions and actions of a person, his behavior, the state of his inner world and his organization. This is also indicated by some communication functions. The specificity of the process that interests us lies in the fact that with its help the mental worlds of people interact with each other.
However, only people are able to enter into this process? As we noted above, the concept of communication can be considered in several senses. Its functions, described above, are inherent in human communication. However, this does not mean that communication can only take place in the human world. We invite you to get acquainted with its diversity.
Variety of communication
So, this process is observed not only in human society. Communication is also characteristic of animals (the language of bees, capercaillie lekking, mating dances of birds) and mechanisms, that is, objects created by man (sewerage, pipelines, telephone and telegraph signals, transport). Communication of a special kind can be observed even in inanimate nature. For example, it is carried outbetween some plants.
In particular, the African acacia, throwing out special enzyme compounds into the surrounding space, informs other acacias about the invasion of a giraffe that eats tree shoots. The leaves of trees that have received this information quickly acquire qualities that, from the point of view of the animal, are characteristic of inedible food. The process described above has the basic functions of communication and its features. This means that it can be characterized by the term we are interested in.
The very concept, role, functions of communication we briefly described. The material presented above reveals the main aspects of this topic.
