Communication

A basic model of human communication, where a person, who is the emitter, transmits a message (he talks about a tree) to another person, who is the receiver.

Communication (from the Latin communicatio, -ōnis.) is the conscious action of exchanging information between two or more participants in order to transmit or receive information or different opinions. The basic steps of communication are the formation of an intention to communicate, the composition of the message, the encoding of the message, the transmission of the signal, the reception of the signal, the decoding of the message and finally, the interpretation of the message by a recipient.

Communication generally takes place between three main subject categories: human beings (language), living organisms (biosemiotics), and communication-enabled devices (cybernetics).

In a general sense, communication is verbal interaction, contact with other beings, and can be defined as the process by which information is transmitted from one point to another.

Its purpose or objective can be called under the action of informing, generating actions, creating an understanding or transmitting a certain idea. The communicators have the function of delivering true information confirmed by more than three sources.

Most important forms of communication

Depending on the kinds of signs used, non-verbal communication and verbal communication are differentiated.

On many occasions, verbal signs and non-verbal signs are combined in a message, giving rise to mixed forms of communication. An example would be an advertisement, the cinema or a comic.

If we look at the relationship established between sender and receiver, a unilateral communication is differentiated from a bilateral communication.

Unilateral communication occurs when the receiver does not become the sender. It happens at traffic signals. Bilateral communication occurs when the receiver can turn into a sender. It happens in a conversation.

Non-verbal communication

Non-verbal communication helps people of different languages achieve a degree of understanding

Nonverbal communication is the conveying of meaning in the form of nonverbal messages. Non-linguistic signs are used. Examples of nonverbal communication include gestures, facial expressions, body language, eye contact, dress, haptics (communication through touch), chronemics (meaning of time in communication), and kinesics (body language), among others. The same oral communication contains non-verbal elements such as paralinguistics (non-verbal elements that accompany linguistics, for example tones of surprise, interest, disinterest, fear, tiredness, insinuations, etc.) According to studies, 55% of human communication occurs through non-verbal facial expressions and 38% through paralanguage. This includes the same written communication in which it is possible to determine meanings in the writing style, the distribution of spaces between words and the use of emoticons to convey emotions. In this sense, to convey a message, colors are used, such as the blue and red marks of the faucets, sounds, such as the siren of an ambulance, and gestures, such as the wink of an eye.

Some of the purposes of nonverbal communication include complementing and illustrating the message to reinforce or emphasize it, replace or substitute, control or regulate and even contradict. This gives great importance to non-verbal communication because it contributes to reinforce the sender's ideas and purposes and helps the receiver to better decode the message he receives.

Verbal communication

Verbal communication or linguistic communication is that which uses words as signs. It cannot be isolated from a number of factors to be effective, including non-verbal communication, listening skills, and clarification. Human language can be defined as a system of symbols or linguistic signs, known as lexemes and grammatical rules in which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" it also refers to its common properties. With these signs the objects and facts of reality are represented, and by uniting them through the rules of grammar, complex messages are built, that is, sentences, with which thoughts are represented. In the event that two people speak the same language, they will recognize the signs that each one pronounces, and their meaning, in such a way that it will evoke in the mind a thought or an idea that is what they will want to transmit.

Learning about it occurs normally and intensively during the human childhood years. Most languages in the world use sounds and gestures as symbols that make it possible to communicate with other languages, which tend to share certain properties, although there are exceptions. There is no sharp line between a language or language and a dialect. Constructed languages such as Esperanto, the programming language, and various mathematical formalisms, are not necessarily constrained by properties shared by human language.

Basically, verbal communication is oral, using words pronounced with the voice. It can also be written. In writing, sounds are transformed into letters, and pronounced words into graphic words.

Written communication

The invention of writing marked the beginning of the history of humanity. In the image, the so-called Papyrus of Artemidoro, which contains the first map of the Iberian peninsula. It's a three-metre long roll written in the century.I before Christ, perhaps in Alexandria.

Written communication, unlike verbal, has another way of interaction between sender and receiver, occurring over time or even never, although what is written can last. Throughout history, this type of communication has developed thanks to the impact of technology and science. These development processes are divided into three stages: Pictograms as the most primitive forms of human writing; the development of alphabets in different languages written on physical supports such as stone, wax, clay, papyrus and, finally, paper; and finally the information transmitted through electronic means.

Written communication requires the interpersonal skills of processing, listening, observing, speaking, question, analyze, gesture and evaluate in such a way that collaboration and cooperation are possible. Misunderstandings can be anticipated and resolved through forms, questions and answers, paraphrasing, examples, and stories.

Information theory

Communication Model by Claude Elwood Shannon and Warren Weaver (1949), represents the source of information, the encoder that sends the message through the media or communication channel, which could be interrupted or distorted by the noise (represented in the falling lightning) and arriving at a decoder and from it to the receiver which could in turn issue an answer.

The concept of communication in the context of Information Theory is used in a very broad sense in which "all the procedures through which one mind can influence another are included". In this way, all the ways that man uses to transmit his ideas are considered: the spoken, written or transmitted word (telephone, radio, telegraph, etc.), gestures, music, images, movements, etc In the communication process it is possible to distinguish at least three different levels of analysis: technical, semantic and pragmatic. At the technical level, those problems that arise around the fidelity with which the information can be transmitted from the sender to the receiver are analyzed. In the semantics, everything that refers to the meaning of the message and its interpretation is studied. Finally, at the pragmatic level, the behavioral effects of communication are analyzed, the influence or effectiveness of the message as it gives rise to a behavior. It is important to highlight that the Information Theory is developed as a response to the technical problems of the communication process, even when its principles can be applied in other contexts.

In many cases, communication is often confused with information theory, which corresponds to Claude E. Shannon's mathematical theory that studies information (channels, data comprehension, cryptography and everything). what is related to it) as a physical magnitude. This uses a unit of measurement of information that he calls the & # 34; BIT & # 34;, that is, the smallest unit that can be learned. This unit of measurement of the information is based on the alternative yes or no in each determination that can give elements for the knowledge of the objects. Thus, for example, the sexuality of a subject can be given by a BIT, simply, male or female. To fix the position of a chess piece on a 64-square board, at least 6 BITS or 6 binary questions will be needed.

Although information theory is fundamental to the study of communication and the understanding of its processes, this theory does not respond to the concerns of human communication itself, such as the following, among many others of a social nature:

• Social relations between individuals or groups within a social problem.
• Relationship between media communication and political power.
• Semiological character of communication.
• Language character of communication.
• Relationship to other social sciences.

Communication theory

In a television studio, 180 degrees, he tells us that reality is seen by the media from different points of view, usually chosen by the broadcaster.

Communication theory is a field of information theory that studies information processes and human communication.

The best-known schools of communication theory are the following:

• Mechanism: Understand communication as a perfect mechanical transmitter of a message from a transmitter up to one receiver.
• Psychological: Consider communication as the act of sending a message to a perceptor (Called like this because it considers receiver as a subject of communication) and in which the sensations and ideas of both parties have a significant impact on the content of the message.
• Social construction: This view, also called "symbolic interaction", considers communication as the product of creative meanings and shared interrelations.
• Systematic: Consider communication as a message that passes through a long and complex process of transformations and interpretations from which it occurs until it reaches the perceivers.

These theories are also studied from the following perspectives:

• Ontology: Ask the question about the what is communicated.
• Epistemology: Ask the question about the how to communicate.

Basic elements of communication

Jakobsonian type communication model with elements and functions

The following are the basic elements of communication:

• Code: it is a set of signs that are combined according to rules (semantics) and that allow their interpretation (decoding), by which the transmitter makes the message. The receiver must also know the code to interpret the message. In order to produce communication between two people of different languages, extranjerismo is used.
• Canal: the physical medium through which the message is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver.
• Emissor: is the person who intends and is responsible for transmitting information (message), for what needs to be developed and sent to the receiver. This person chooses and selects the signs that suit him, i.e., performs a coding process; encodes the message.
• Receptor: The person who receives and interprets a message is called a receiver, previously sent by a transmitter. That is, he is responsible for decoding the signs of the message received. Once such information is interpreted, the receiver can respond, and thus occupy the place of the issuer, generating a communicative action.
• Message: In the most general sense, it is the object of communication. It is defined as the information or sequence of signs that the transmitter makes and sends to the receiver through a particular communication channel or media.
• Status, communicative situation or context: In the most general sense, it is the space where the act or communication situation develops. It is the set of circumstances that affect both the emitter and the receiver, and also condition the interpretation of the message. Both transmitter and receiver must be aware of the circumstances of this communicative act, which in a conversation is given by understanding, so that the communication is effective.
• Reference framework: It is the environment that frames the situation.

The following are the basic mechanical elements of communication:

• Source or Emissor (Remind): Device that generates data to transmit, for example, personal phones or computers.
• Transmitter: Transforms and codes the information, generating electromagnetic signals that can be sent through some transmission system. For example, an antenna.
• Transmission system: It can be from a simple transmission line to a complex network that connects the source to the destination.
• Receptor: It is the person who receives, accepts and interprets the signal (message) from the transmitter, and transforms it so that it can be handled by the destination. For example, a radio or a television.
• Destination, recipient or destination: Take the data from the receiver, for example the audience.

Communication functions

"This is the enemy," 1941, U.S. propaganda aimed at promoting rejection of Nazism.

Communication can have functions such as informing, persuading, regulating and motivating, among many others. The most basic functions are four:

• Informative: It has to do with the transmission and receipt of the information. Through it the receiver accesses the flow of social and historical experience.
• Training: The formation of habits, intellectual skill and convictions. In this function the emitter influences the internal mental state of the receiver by providing new information.
• Persuasive: The transmitter intends to modify the conduct or opinion of the receiver so that it cooperates in a given purpose. Or that you believe in your mind a perception of an organization, company, service or product. It is called Marketing Communication and applies to all social fields on and off-line, such as politics, social, environmental, commercial, etc.
• Come on.: The transmitter creates contents that the receiver enjoys.

Other Functions of communication within a group or team:

• Regulator: The broadcaster intends to regulate the conduct of the receiver, for example in a given social rule.
• Control: The broadcaster intends to control the behavior of the receiver, for example by establishing a system of social awards and sanctions.
• Motivation: The transmitter intends to motivate the receiver in the conduct of certain acts, for example the head within a company.
• Emotional expression: Communication is presented as the means to express ideas, emotions, for example employees can communicate what they think of their company.
• Cooperation: Communication is an important aid in solving problems.

Signs

What is seen in the image is not the province of Valladolid, but a representation of it. This image serves to evoke the idea of the territory of the province of Valladolid. In the same way, both the clouds and the Sun are also representations that evoke the idea that it is both sunny and cloudy.

To communicate something about the objects of reality, signs that represent those objects will be used. Words, therefore, are the "name of things".

A sign is anything that we perceive through the senses and evokes another object or different fact with which it maintains a relationship. Depending on the relationship established, there are three types of signs.

• Evidence: Based on the cause-effect relationship between two facts. Evidence conveys information that was not known to date.
• Icons: Based on the similarity relationship between two facts.
• Symbols: Conventional signs that maintain an arbitrary relationship with the fact represented.

The philosopher and writer Umberto Eco, in his work Il segno (Sign), describes what a sign is:

These signs are not natural phenomena; phenomena say nothing for themselves. The natural phenomena "talk" Sigma, to the extent that a whole peasant tradition has taught him to read them. So Sigma lives in a world of signs, not because he lived in nature, but because, even when he is alone, he lives in society; that rural society that would not have been constituted and could not survive if he had not developed his own codes, his own systems of interpretation of natural data (and for that reason they became cultural data).

Umberto Eco, Il segno1973.

Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, also mentions the linguistic sign:

Then we went to the Language School, where three professors were deliberating to improve their country's [language]. [One of the systems they were projecting] was a system to completely abolish all words and was emphasized as a great health and speed advantage. It is clear that every word we utter is in a way a decrease in our lungs by corrosion, and therefore it helps to shorten our lives. Consequently, a solution was offered: that since words are just names of things, it would be more convenient for all men to carry with them the things that were necessary to express the particular business they had to deal with [...] I often saw two of those wise men fainting almost under the weight of their farts, like the buhoneros among us; and when they were in the streets, they left the burdens on the ground, opened their sacks and talked for an hour; then they picked up their garments, helped each other to throw them at slopes and threw them away.

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's travels1726.

Communication sciences

This section is an extract from Communication Sciences.[chuckles]edit]

In corporate and institutional organizations, communication is a fundamental support for the development, development and visibility of communication.

The communication sciences (social communication, communication or simply communication) analyze, study and discuss the phenomena related to the information and effect of the action of human communication. They are also responsible for observing and examining the mass media (from their legislation to the production and reception of the contents), the cultural industries, the consumption and the semiotic group that they build.

It is a field of interdisciplinary studies whose theoretical concepts are shared and frequently intervened. It is mainly addressed by disciplines such as semiotics, psychology, political science, sociolinguistics, anthropology, philosophy, computer science, cybernetics, sociology; developing analytical tools and own methods of study.

The communication covers a wide range of labour specialties, such as public relations, advertising, graphic design, social networks, photography, audiovisual communication, institutional communication, political communication, journalism, cinema, video games, telecommunications, among others.

Much of the studies and analyses developed in the field of communication come from different schools of thought and research, including the Palo Alto School of the United States, the Frankfurt School of Germany, the U.S. Mass Communication Research (founded based on the then strong current of conductism); the New York Academy of Sciences and research fields such as that of cultural studies, which concentrates numerous observations related to the political economy, history, the theory

Audiovisual communication

Relationship with other disciplines

• Marketing: It is the science that, taking into account the needs and desires of the population through proper psychosociological knowledge, integrates in a global way the product, the service, the idea or act that you want to promote, determining the price or sacrifice that the people who adopt it must endure, defining the way to get it to the adopters and designing the most appropriate communication actions depending on the typology of each of the types that conform to its objective public, with the purpose. The most successful non-profit organizations make up their communication strategy as a marketing variable, the most successful political parties form their communication strategies as a marketing variable and all companies and organizations that stand out in a notorious way use communication as a marketing variable.
  • Neuromarketing: It is a discipline of neurosciences that evaluates marketing and communication actions through the use of neuroscience techniques, measuring the unconscious reactions of individuals, in such a way that substitutes traditional market and opinion studies based on questionnaires, focus-groups, etc. According to González-Morales (2016), president of the Spanish Association of Neuromarketing and Neurocommunication (AENENE), who defines neuromarketing by taking as a starting point the definition of marketing of Philip Kotler, “The Neuromarketing is the use of neurosciences in order to facilitate and improve the creation, communication and exchange of actions, services and products of value between groups and individuals who need and want to meet their needs through these exchanges.”
• Psychology: In this one analyzes the subject-object of communication, its problems, needs and ways of assimilating and the influence that the message has on them, especially from the psychology of personality, evolution and social.
• Sociology: This analyzes the social impact of the message and the dynamics of the groups, as well as how social conditions influence the contents and forms of communication.
• Cybernetics: This analyzes the self-regulated and controlled processes, the reaction (feedback) and how the media can influence large-scale social processes.
• Pedagogy: This analyses the teaching principles for the development and understanding of messages, the formation of convictions and general learning procedures through the media.
• Education: Educational communication is the field of knowledge that studies the relationship between communication and education. It analyzes the process in which people exchange ideas, knowledge and experiences, within an educational context, whether formal or informal. This concept arises in the 1960s and some authors have used it as a synonym for educommunication. In the same way that the traditional concept of communication distinguishes the main elements in the educational communication: issuer, which in this case is the educator; receiver, which corresponds to the role of the student; and the message, which is the content of teaching/learning. From the position of the Latin American current of educators and communicators, including Paulo Freire, Mario Kaplún, and Daniel Prieto Castillo, they propose dialogue, as an indispensable requirement for a true process of educational communication. From this perspective, education requires horizontal communication. Against banking education, i.e., from the deposit or transmission of information by the teacher to the student, a liberating education is proposed to enable people to understand the world critically. In addition, the teaching/learning contents are not selected only by the educators, since the students also take part in the selection of the teachers.