35. Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

Verbal C is one way for people to communicate face-to-face. Some of the key components of verbal C are sounds, words, actual speaking & l-ge. Words alone have no meanings, only a person can put meanings into words. When a meaning is assigned to a word, then a l-ge develops. This leads to the development of speaking. Speaking can be looked at in 2 major areas: interpersonal & public. Since the majority of speaking is an interpersonal process, to communicate effectively we must not simply clean out our l-ge but learn to relate to people (to find contacts). Here etiquette is very important. Some people are better public speakers than others. Public speaking should be taught and practiced. Areas: speaking to persuade/to inform/to inspire/to motivate. Forms. A conversation is C by 2, 3 or more people. Conversations are almost the ideal forms of C since they allow people with different views on a topic share their mind & learn from each other. For a successful conversation the partners must achieve a workable balance of contributions & have mutually interesting connections. A monologue is an extended, uninterrupted speech by a single person directed to themselves, a person, an audience, an inanimate object. This term can also be applied to poems. A dialogue is a literary form in which 2 or more parties are engaged in the discussion. Verbal C barriers: attacking (interrogating, criticizing, blaming, shaming); “you messages” (moralizing, advising, diagnosing); showing power (ordering, threatening, commanding, directing); other: shouting, name calling, refusing to speak. Non-verbal C includes facial expressions, eye-contact, tone of voice, motions, positioning within groups, the way we dress. 4 categories: physical (facial expressions, tone, senses of touch, smell & body motions); esthetic (creative expressions: music, dancing, sculpture); signs (signal flags, sirens, salutes); symbolic (religious status or ego-building symbols). Stative features: distance, orientation, posture, physical content. Dynamic features: facial expressions, gestures, looking. Verbal cues provide 7% of the meaning of the message, vocal cues – 38%, facial expressions – 55%. Nonverbal C barriers: flashing or rolling eyes, quick or slow movements, arms or legs crossed, gestures made with exasperation, slouching, hunching over, poor personal care, doodling, staring at people or avoiding eye contact, excessive fidgeting with materials.

36. Models of the Communication Process

Models are a fundamental building block of theory. Models are also an effective tools of instruction. They allow scholars to decompose the process of communication into separate structural elements. Each model provides teachers with a powerful pedagogical tool for teaching students to understand that communication is a complex process in which many things may sometimes go wrong.

Shanon’s model was designed in 1948 at the beginning of communicative science. It provided for the first time a general model of communication process that can be treated as the common ground of such diverse disciplines as journalism, linguistics, stylistics and hearing sciences. This model was quite successful because it showed communication as a set of basic constituents that not only explain how communication happens, but why communication sometimes fails. Shanon’s model breaks the communication process into 8 elements: info source – person who creates a msg; msg which is sent by source and received by destination; transmitter (with dace to face communication there are 2 layers of transmission. The 1^st, the mouth(sound) and body(gesture) create and modulate signal. The 2^nd, a channel is built of the air(sound) and light(gesture) that enable the transmission of signals from one person to another – physical transmission); signal which flows through channel. There may be multiple signals such as sounds, gestures which turn into electronic signals, radio waves, words and pictures in the books); carrier or channel (the most commonly used channels include air, light, electricity, radio waves, paper, postal systems, internet); noise (is a secondary signal that confuses or hinders the transmitted signals: background music, interruption); receiver (in his conception of face to face communication a receiver is a set of ears which accept sounds and eyes that observe gestures); destination (a person who consumes and processes the msg).

Gatekeeper’s model. In was designed in 1957. It focuses on the important role that intermediaries or gatekeepers often play in the communication process. Mass communication frequently associates editors as gatekeepers because they decide what stories will fit in the newspaper or news broadcast. Many of gatekeepers have ability to decide what msgs others will see or context in which they’ll see the msg and even when they’ll see the msg. sometimes gatekeepers have ability to change msgs or prevent them from reaching the destination. Editors in massmedia, moderators in internetchats, reviewers who look through publications, delivery workers also act as gatekeepers but their actions are usu restricted by law and some ethical norms. Teachers and lecturers have the ability to shape info because they’re a kind of a bridge in teaching process.

The interactive model.This model elaborates Shanon’s model with the concept of feedback without changing any other element of Shanon’s model. The key concept is that destinations provide feedback on the msgs they receive. It’s a very important elaboration. Feedback may be in the form of msg or gestures. The consumer of feedback is info source.

The transactional model acknowledges neither communicators nor msgs preferring to label the ppl associated with model as communicators who both create and consume msgs. The model presumes symmetries with each participant creating msgs that are received by the other communicator. This is in many ways a brilliant example of the face to face interactive process that provides users with symmetrical contribution to creation and consumption of msgs, letters, emails and other forms of interpersonal communication. It implies an equality between communicators within interpersonal contexts. But such kind of ideal model doesn’t actually exist. E.g. a caller in most phone conversations has an initial upperhand in setting the direction and tone of the phonecall or tge receiver of the call/ in face to face interactions the boss has considerably more freedom in terms of msg choice, ability to frame meanings, ability to set rules of interaction than does the employee. Also the transactional model won’t work in mass communication.