1.

0 INTRODUCTION
Have you ever noticed how we express ourselves or interact with each other?
Have you ever wondered what communication is and what role it plays in our lives?

Communication generally means the exchange of messages with others but it can also be with one’s
own self where the self is the sender and receiver of messages. It is an integral part of our lives and
is intertwined with all the activities undertaken by us. Human beings communicate right from the
moment they are born till death and it will not be an exaggeration to say that communication is
indicative of life itself. Thus communication can be equated with other basic needs of life such as
food, clothes and shelter as any person, group or community cannot survive without
communication. We may communicate with ourselves while thinking, dreaming, reading, watching
something or listening to something. We communicate face-to-face with another person or speak
with people in group situations. We can also communicate with people located in widespread
places, who may be from a heterogeneous group and be anonymous to each other, with the help of
technology.

1.2 CONCEPT OF COMMUNICATION

The word communication has it origin in the Latin word 'communis' that means 'to make common'.
Communication facilitates sharing of common experiences with others. It involves sharing of an
idea, thought, feeling or information with others, which includes thinking, dreaming, speaking,
arguing and so on. Thus the scope of communication is very wide. Communication is part skill, part
art and part science. It is a skill as it involves certain fundamental techniques, it is an art as it
involves creative challenges, and it is science because certain verifiable principles are involved in
making communication more effective. All this makes communication a complex process.

1.2.2 PURPOSE OF COMMUNICATION

Communication performs many purpose, such as informing and generating awareness, educating,
persuading, motivating, entertaining, etc. Let us examine some of these purpose:

1. Sharing of Information:

Information is key to progress in any society. Communication plays an important role in information
dissemination related to any form of human activity, such as social, political, economic, educational
and developmental. Regular exposure to information over a period of time generates awareness on
a given issue, problem or matter of concern. To illustrate, if you were not informed about global
warming or Pluto losing the status of a planet or the latest technology used in governance, your
awareness on these issues would not have been there. Communication provides us with information
about the environment we are placed in. It helps in molding our opinions, formulating decisions and
in turn making 'informed choices' to safeguard our interests as well those of the society.

2. Education and Training:

Communication results in sharing of information, which in turn makes people knowledgeable and
thus productive members of the society. Right from our childhood we are taught by our teachers in
the school and elders at home and we thus gain various new concepts and skills as we grow up.
However, we do not cease to learn when we grow up as we continue to learn throughout our lives.

In the modern educational scenario, training of personnel is an ongoing process and communication
plays an important role in orientation and training of teachers and learners. The degree of learning
depends to a great extent not only on the contents of training but also how effectively the
information and skills are shared. As we know, knowledge can be constructed through interaction
between learners and his/her peers and also with his/ her teachers/sources of information.

3. Socialization :

For the well-being of the society, nation and culture it is crucial that we are exposed to different
viewpoints so that we understand and appreciate the need for plurality of ideas and diversity of
views. Communication fosters the feeling of oneness in a society by exposing the various social
groups to different views. It develops the need to share and understand the feelings, emotions,
hopes, aspirations and expectations of varied groups in a social system.

4. Entertainment :

To break the monotony of human life, we need to be exposed to art, literature, music, films, dance,
drama, sports and other modes of entertainment. Communication provides us with this necessary
diversion. Thus entertainment is an equally important function of communication. However, of late,
this element has overtaken other functions especially in various mass communication media.

5. Motivation:

A motivated individual plays a useful and active role in a society. Communication motivates and
persuades individuals to meet the mutually agreed upon goals. Sharing success stories of those who
have overcome the odds in life and have been able to achieve their goals can do this. This function
of communication, although relevant in all walks of life is more pronounced in business and industry
where communication is being increasingly used as a tool for motivation.

6. Persuasion:

Yet another important function of communication is to persuade. This may be to influence us

towards a new idea, technique or a product and also to persuade us to buy these products. The
industrial and corporate houses and advertising agencies, while taking messages of new products to
potential consumers far and wide have amply exploited this function. In the wake of globalization
and liberalization and the growing competitive environment and consumerist culture, we need to
take great care to understand the motives of the source.

7. Preservation of culture:

Communication helps to preserve the culture and heritage of a nation and society. Through
communication, stories from the epics, such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bible, Koran, etc. are
shared with the younger generation. The transmission of values from one generation to another has
been taking place orally as well as through written texts, over the ages.
1.3 MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

A model is a graphic representation designed to explain the way a variable works. It is a pattern,
plan, representation, or description designed to show the structure or workings of an object,
system, or concept. A model of communication offers a convenient way to think about it by
providing a graphical checklist of its various elements. Some important models of communication
are Lasswell Model, Shanon and Weaver Model, Osgoods Model and Schramm Model.

Lasswell Model (1948):

One of the early models of communication was developed by the political scientist Harold D.
Lasswell who looked at communication in the form of a question: Who, Says What, In Which
Channel, To Whom, and With What Effect. This verbal model focused attention on the essential
elements of communication and identified the areas of communication research. 'Who' raises the
question of identification of the source of the message? 'Says what ' is the subject of analysis of the
message. Communication channel is the medium through which the message has traveled. 'To
whom’ deals with the characteristics of the receivers and audience and 'what effect' can be seen as
evaluation of the effect of the message.

Shannon and Weaver Model (1949):

This model has been considered as one of the most important models of communication and it has
led to the development of many other models. It is referred to as the transmission model of
communication as it involves signal transmission for communication. In this model, the information
source produces a message to be communicated out of a set of possible messages. The message
may consist of spoken or written word. The transmitter converts the message into a signal suitable
for the channel to be used. The channel is the medium that transmits the signal from the transmitter
to the receiver. The receiver performs the inverse operation of the transmitter by reconstructing the
message from the signal. The destination is the person or thing for whom/which the message is
intended. This model introduced the concepts like ‘noise’.

Charles Osgood's Model (1954)

Osgood in his model showed communication, as a dynamic process in which there is an interactive
relationship between the source and the receiver of the message (M). An individual engaged in the
communication process sends as well as receives messages and as such encodes, decodes and
interprets messages through a number of feedback mechanisms. Osgood stressed the social nature
of communication. This model was found more applicable in interpersonal communication in which
the source and receiver were physically present. For example when a teacher teaches, the learners
interact by raising queries, answering questions, etc. The role of interpretation of the message has
also been highlighted in this model for decoding a message.
Schramm Model (1954):

Wilbur Schramm, a well-known communication expert did not make a sharp distinction between
technical and non-technical communication. But drawing upon the ideas of Shannon and Osgoods,
Schramm proceeded from a simple human communication model to a more complicated one. His
first model has a lot of similarity with Shannon and Weaver Model. Schramm Model visualized the
process of communication as a process of sharing of experience and commonality of experience of
those communicating. It introduced the concept of shared orientation between sender and receiver.
The source can encode and the destination can decode in terms of the experience/s each has had.
Communication becomes easy as both the participants have a common field of experience

Example: A teacher and learners will interact more if the content taught is based upon the
experience of the learners and also if the teacher is friendly and has a good relationship with the
learners, there will be more interactions.

1.4 COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Source: The source of communication is the sender who has a message to impart. The sender has to
decide how to communicate a message, which channel is to be selected for the message and what
type of strategies should be planned so that the message makes the desired response. The sender
provides verbal or non-verbal cues that can be received, interpreted and responded to by the
receiver.

Message: Message is a set of signs and symbols which are given by the source to create meanings
for the receiver. Simply put, message is the content which is shared between the participants in the
communication process. To make the message effective, the sender has to understand the nature
and profile of the receiver of the message, his/her needs and expectations and possible response to
the message. This is important in both face-to-face as well as mediated situations.

Channel: Channel is the medium used to communicate a message from the sender to receiver. The
channel could be spoken word, printed word, electronic media, or even non-verbal cues such as
signs, gestures, body language, facial expressions, etc. In modern communication, the word
'channel' mostly refers to mass communication media such as newspapers, radio, television,
telephone, computers, internet etc. The selection of an appropriate channel is crucial for the success
of communication.

Receiver: Communication cannot take place without a receiver for whom the message is meant. We
receive a message, interpret it and derive meaning from it. You have already studied that for
successful communication, the receiver should receive the message in the same way it was meant
by the sender.

Feedback: The response given by the receiver to the message of the sender is known as feedback.
Communication being a two-way process, without the element of feedback any discussion on the
process of communication is incomplete.

Noise: Noise is distortion in a message which affects the flow of communication. Noise could be due
to internal as well as external sources. Noise creates barriers in communication.