What is Communication?

0:00- What is communication?

0:02We're going to give our best effort to answer that.

0:05(upbeat music)

0:10Now, we have to admit that defining communication

0:12in a way that everybody agrees with is almost impossible.

0:16Why? Well, one reason is because

0:19the word is so common.

0:20In 1970, in the Journal of communication,

0:23Frank Dance, said that

0:26communication is one of the most overworked terms

0:28in the English language.

0:30And he wrote that decades ago,

0:33but the situation is really the same today.

0:35It's a word like culture or community.

0:38If you asked 100 different people, what those words mean,

0:41you'd get 100 different definitions,

0:44but we have to try to define it.

0:46I'm no quitter.

0:47So here's what we're going to do.

0:49This video has three parts.

0:50First, I'm going to give you a basic definition.

0:54Next we'll look at three popular

0:55models of communication over time.

0:58And finally, I'll touch on how different researchers

1:01study communication from different angles.

1:04Taken together, that will give you

1:06a well rounded answer to this question.

1:09The word communication in Latin comes from communicare,

1:13which means to share, to make something common

1:16and I love that,

1:17my plain language basic working definition of communication

1:21from all I've read is the process by which

1:25people transmit information,

1:26share verbal and nonverbal messages,

1:28and create meaning with each other.

1:31So let's look at three popular communication models

1:34that align with those three key words,

1:36transmit, share, and create.

1:39First, some people think

1:40communication is about how we transmit information.

1:44years ago in 1948, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver

1:48developed a foundational model of communication

1:51that you'll see in most textbooks.

1:53From their view, communication happens

1:56when an information source, a sender has a message

1:59and transmits that message in the form of a signal

2:03through a channel.

2:04Let's say that little box in the middle

2:06represents the channel,

2:08then that signal is received by the receiver

2:11at its final destination.

2:14Along the way, there might be some noise

2:17in the communication system

2:19that could negatively influence the process.

2:22Some people call this the container model,

2:24because according to the model,

2:26meaning is contained in the words themselves.

2:30When the message has been reached its final destination

2:33communication has been accomplished

2:36because the message has been sent and received.

2:40Now I'd like to point out that the concept of feedback

2:43is not part of Shannon and Weaver's original model,

2:47even though some textbooks add that.

2:50The word feedback does not appear in the diagram

2:53and nowhere in the text of the original article.

2:56That concept came later.

2:58Shannon and Weaver were diagramming

3:01and were interested in communication systems

3:03like the telegraph, the telephone, and radio.

3:07And their model reflects that 1948 way

3:11of looking at communication.

3:14So it's a linear, one way model

3:16that describes how information is transmitted.

3:20Their model is very limited

3:21and not designed to explain face to face communication.

3:26And that's why most textbooks call this

3:28the information transfer model.

3:31So that's our first key word, transmit.

3:34To some people, the answer the question,

3:36what is communication,

3:38is that it is simply the transmitting of information.

3:42Our next key word is share,

3:44some people think communication is about sharing meaning.

3:48Fast Forward several decades and a couple of models to 1962,

3:52Dean Barnlund articulated the transactional

3:56model of communication.

3:58To Barnlund, communication wasn't a one way process,

4:02to him It had a different nature.

4:03Communication was dynamic, continuous and circular.

4:08In other words, communication between people is an ongoing,

4:12back and forth simultaneous exchange.

4:15We are senders and receivers at the same time.

4:18And the point is, we exchanged messages

4:21because we want to share meaning with other people.

4:25Barnlund's model includes both verbal and nonverbal cues

4:29and feedback, and importantly to Barnlund,

4:32meaning existed within the person, not the words.

4:36So, like Shannon and Weaver's 1948 model,

4:39the sender has a meaning that he or she wants to communicate

4:43and encodes it in specific words, and then sends it.

4:46At that point, according to Shannon and Weaver's model,

4:49meaning exists in the words, but for Barnlund,

4:53that wasn't quite right.

4:54His transactional model says that the receiver interprets

4:58or decodes what those words mean for him or herself.

5:03Then that really highlights

5:04that meaning is not in the words, but meaning is in us,

5:07it's in our minds,

5:09we supply the meaning,

5:11we are super imposing our understanding,

5:14our interpretation on to the process.

5:17And that's why two people can hear

5:20the same exact message but interpret it differently.

5:24So to Barnlund, he looked so closely

5:27at the way communication happens face to face,

5:29and he looked at some of these subtle processes

5:32that were happening to explain this process more thoroughly.

5:36So while Shannon and Weaver's model is about

5:38transmitting messages,

5:40the transactional model describes the complex

5:43and layered process we follow to pursue

5:47and achieve shared meaning with each other.

5:49To Barnlund, it's all about the way

5:52individuals collaboratively work toward

5:56shared meaning through communication.

5:58So Barnlund's answer to the question

6:00about what is communication,

6:02is it's the process through which we achieve shared meaning.

6:06Our next key word is create.

6:08So let's leap forward a couple of more decades

6:11and talk about how communication is the generative process

6:14that creates our social world.

6:18And to me, this is where it gets really interesting.

6:20According to this approach, the word communication

6:23describes the way we create meaning in the first place.

6:27Robert Craig says communication constitutes

6:30our social reality.

6:31Constitute means create, he said in his 1999 article,

6:35communication is not a secondary phenomenon.

6:39Communication doesn't happen

6:41after those views are already in our head,

6:43after culture has taught us norms,

6:45after socio economic factors have shaped us.

6:49Craig says that communication is

6:50the primary constitutive social process

6:54that explains all these other factors.

6:56So I'll put that in my own words,

6:58compared to the previous mentioned models,

7:01pre-existing meaning is not in the words.

7:04Meaning is not even in our minds that we then communicate.

7:08We're not simply sharing already existing ideas.

7:12When we communicate with each other,

7:14according to this view in our conversations,

7:17we are generating those ideas together,

7:20we create meaning through our interactions

7:22with others over time,

7:24we create our social world together

7:27that we could have not created on our own.

7:30The creation of shared meaning

7:31is a collective accomplishment.

7:33Our whole social reality is the product,

7:37the outcome of communication.

7:40So communication is that driving, creative force

7:43at the center of our sense of self,

7:46our relationships, our families, our culture,

7:49through interactions we make or break agreements,

7:53we create or dissolve relationships,

7:55we form the tone or nature of those relationships.

7:59We establish societal norms or violate them

8:02through the process of communication.

8:05So it might seem on the surface that meaning exists in words

8:08or even in our heads,

8:09but to Robert Craig and others

8:12who follow this constitutive approach,

8:14we have to remember that we are not dealing with

8:17already existing meanings provided by nature.

8:20That meaning was first and foremost generated

8:23and is still being generated

8:24through our communication processes.

8:28So the answer to the question, what is communication,

8:31from this point of view,

8:33is that it's a creative process,

8:35a meaning generating process.

8:37Man, we've already covered a lot of ground

8:40by looking at these three models.

8:42But let's finally touch on some major areas

8:45that show how people look at communication,

8:47that will help us to make it even more concrete.

8:50The most historic area is rhetoric.

8:53If you've ever taken a public speaking class,

8:55then you have an idea about what this is.

8:58It all began when Aristotle wrote a book,

9:00about 2000 years ago and even really before that,

9:03and he taught us that when we spoke,

9:06we had these available approaches and choices

9:09and techniques that we could use to persuade our listeners.

9:13The classic view of rhetoric

9:14is all about how a speaker can create

9:17and share messages artfully with an audience

9:20for maximum persuasiveness.

9:23Aristotle showed us that there are dozens

9:25or maybe even hundreds of small choices

9:27that we make along the way that can make us more

9:31or less persuasive given the circumstances.

9:34Today, the area of rhetoric studies things like

9:36political speeches, argumentation,

9:38the freedom of expression in society,

9:41and lots of other topics like that.

9:43Another popular area is called interpersonal communication.

9:47This area looks at one on one conversations

9:50and relationships and normally focuses on

9:53face to face interaction, like friendships,

9:56romantic relationships and family dynamics.

9:59At a basic level you might study things like

10:02active listening skills, conflict resolution,

10:05the stages of relationship development.

10:07The area of interpersonal communication

10:10is a big area of study,

10:12that looks at both nonverbal and verbal dynamics

10:15and how small changes in the way we talk to each other

10:18can shape our relationships in big ways.

10:22Another popular area is organizational communication.

10:25And this is another broad area.

10:27Here you'd learn about communication that happens

10:30in and around the workplace.

10:32You might study for example, different leadership styles

10:35and how you see those at work or workplace culture

10:38and how it shapes our lives as employees

10:41and how communication is likely to happen

10:43through both formal and informal networks.

10:46Organization communication is a huge area

10:49and we even see sub fields within it

10:51taking shape on their own, like crisis communication,

10:54training and development

10:56and whole classes in professional communication skills.

11:00More recently, we see a lot of interest

11:02in the area of health communication.

11:03And here you'd learned about how communication

11:06in healthcare settings is really important

11:08because it can directly impact issues like

11:10how quickly patients recover,

11:12how we communicate risk,

11:14and how patients and families talk about illness

11:17in either helpful or harmful ways.

11:20It's all about the way the quality of communication

11:22influences our health and well being.

11:25And I'm just scratching the surface,

11:27communication is a huge field.

11:30And there's lots of other interesting areas of study

11:33and it seems like the boundaries

11:34continue to expand every day.

11:37And like I said, from the beginning,

11:38finding one agreed upon definition of communication

11:42is not really the goal,

11:43but we have to at least explore a basic definition.

11:47Look at these three common models

11:49and mention some of the major areas of study

11:52to help us answer the question.

11:53Hopefully this will paint a well rounded picture

11:56that answers the question what is communication.

11:59So a question for you, how would you answer this question?

12:02I would love to hear your comments

12:04in that section below the video

12:05and I look forward to reading your point of view.

12:08And by the way,

12:09I have a free online mini course

12:11in the five essential communication skills

12:14that every professional should know.

12:15I will put a link to that

12:17in the description below this video.

12:19Feel free to take a look, it's free.

12:21Thanks, God bless and I'll see you in the next video.