Communication (applied science)

Summary

Communication is the complex, continuous, two-way process of sending and receiving information in the form of messages. Communication engages all the senses and involves speech, writing, and myriad nonverbal methods of data exchange. It is a vital component of everyday existence. An interdisciplinary, multidimensional field that incorporates language, linguistic structure, symbols, interpretation, and meaning in personal and professional life, communication is essential in any division of scientific study.

Definition and Basic Principles

Communication is the science and art of transmitting information. Communication science is objective, involving research, data, methodologies, and technological approaches to procedures of information exchange. Communication art is subjective, concentrating on the aesthetics and effectiveness with which messages are acted upon, composed, sent, received, interpreted, and understood. Art and science are equally important in understanding how communication works, why it succeeds or fails, and how best to use that knowledge to improve the dissemination of information. Communication is the oldest, broadest, most complicated, and most versatile of all scientific disciplines, with attitude-changing, life-influencing applications in every field of human endeavor.

The communication process requires three basic components—a sender, message, and receiver. The sender encodes information into a message to send to the recipient for decoding. The message usually has an overt purpose, based on the sender's desire—to inform, educate, persuade, or entertain. Some messages can be covert—to attract attention, make connections, gain support, or sell something.

In theory, the communication ideal involves matching the sender's intent to the receiver's interpretation of a message closely enough to generate a favorable response. In practice, communication is often unsuccessful in achieving this objective, considering the quirky, complicated nature of humans and the variety and intricacy of languages and systems used to transmit messages.

There are two fundamental forms of communication—verbal and nonverbal. Verbal communication includes interpersonal or electronically transmitted conversations and chats, lectures, audiovisual mass media such as television and radio, and similar forms of oral speech. Verbal communication also includes written communication—books, letters, magazines, signs, websites, and emails. Nonverbal communication incorporates an infinite range of facial expressions, body language, gestures and sign language, and paralanguage. In face-to-face interactions, nonverbal messages frequently convey more meaning than verbal content.

Background and History

Human communication has been a vital part of evolution. Protohumans communicated through gestures before developing the ability to speak, perhaps as far back as 150,000 years ago. An opposable thumb allowed early humans to make tools and leave long-lasting marks, such as cave paintings. As communities formed, spoken language evolved. Verbal language spawned written language, and pictographs appeared approximately 10,000 years ago. The system known as cuneiform originated several thousand years later in Mesopotamia, about the time hieroglyphics were born in Egypt. By 3000 BCE, writing had developed independently in China, India, Crete, and Central America. Written symbols became alphabets organized into words and structured linguistic systems.

From the dawn of civilization, humans have reached out to one another, devising ingenious solutions to expand range, enhance exactitude, and ensure the permanence of messages. A library was begun in Greece in the sixth century BCE, and paper was invented soon afterward. By 1455, Johannes Gutenberg devised a printing press with movable type and printed a major work with this new form of communication—the Gutenberg Bible. Each innovation represented a leap forward in the spread of information.

Communication has greatly accelerated and expanded during the last two hundred years as it became a scientific study. The nineteenth century witnessed the development of inventions such as railroads, the telegraph, postal systems, the typewriter, the phonograph, automobiles, and telephones. The twentieth century ushered in movies, airplanes, radio and television, audio and video recorders, communication satellites, photocopiers, and facsimile machines. Since the 1980s, personal computers, cellular phones, fiber optics, the internet, and various mobile handheld devices have widened and sped human integration into the information age.

How It Works

Though necessary for interaction throughout human history, communication is an imperfect science. Modern senders have vastly different abilities in composing comprehensible messages compared to 100 years earlier. Contemporary receivers, for various reasons, may have a difficult time interpreting messages.

Channeling. How a message is sent—the medium of transmission, called a channel in communications science—is key to the communication process. An oral message too faint to be heard, a written message too garbled to be understood, or a missed nonverbal signal can interrupt, divert, delay, or derail the passage of information from one source to another. In the modern world, there are dozens of methods of sending messages—telephone, text messaging, ground mail, mass media, email, social networking, or face-to-face contact. Deciding on the best means of information transmission depends on several factors, including the purpose of the message, the amount and profundity of data to be sent, the intended audience, and the desired outcome. All media have distinct advantages and disadvantages. Each type of communication requires a particular skill set from both the sender and receiver.

A vital consideration is the relationship between sender and receiver: they must have something in common. A message written in Chinese and sent to someone who reads only English is ineffective. Likewise, shouting at the hearing impaired or sending text messages to newborn infants are counterproductive activities. Even among individuals with a great degree of similarity in language and culture, there can be gaping discrepancies between sender intent and receiver interpretation. Ultimately, communication is a result-oriented discipline. Whatever the purpose of a message, a response from the recipient (feedback) is expected. If there is no reply, or an inappropriate response is generated, the process is incomplete and communication fails.

Context. Communication does not occur in a vacuum. Many factors determine and define how the process of information transfer will unfold and the likelihood of successful transmission and reception of, and response to, a message.

Psychological context, for example, entails the emotional makeup of individuals who originate and receive information—the desires, needs, values, and personalities, which may be in harmony or at variance. The environmental context deals with the physical setting of an interaction—weather, surroundings, noise level, or other elements with the potential to impair communication. Situational context is specific to the relationship between the participants in communication. Senders tailor messages differently to receivers who are friends, relatives, coworkers, or strangers. Linguistic context concerns the relationships among words, sentences, and paragraphs used throughout a speech or written work that help clarify meaning. The interpretation of any message is relative to the preceding and following information.

Particularly relevant to effective communication in the ever-widening global community is cultural context. Every culture has particular, ingrained rules governing verbal and nonverbal behavior among its members. What might be acceptable within one cultural group—such as extended eye contact, using profanity, or frequent touching during conversation—might be offensive to a different cultural group. High-context cultures are homogeneous communities with long-established, well-defined traditions that help preserve cultural values; such cultures are found throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. Low-context cultures like the United States are heterogeneous—a blend of many traditions that have produced a less rigid, broader-based, more open-ended set of behavioral rules. Though adhering to certain patterns learned from diverse national and ethnic heritages, Americans are more geared toward individual values. When high- and low-context cultures communicate, differences in attitude can wreak havoc on the implied intent of a message and the interpretation of meaning.

Communication Barriers. There are universal emotions, such as fear, surprise, happiness, sadness, and anger, common to all peoples in all cultures and can serve as building blocks for understanding. However, numerous obstacles interfere with the clear, unambiguous transmission of messages at one end and the full grasp of meaning at the other. Some prevalent physical, social, and psychological impediments include racial or ethnic prejudice, human ego, noise (in transmission equipment or surroundings), and distractions. Gender issues are also a primary concern. For many reasons, men and women often think, speak, and act differently in interpersonal relations. There are generational issues, too—children, parents, and grandparents can speak different languages and hold different worldviews. It is the task of communication to identify and develop methods of circumventing or accommodating such information blockers.

Applications and Products

Linguistics. The scientific study of the structure and function of spoken, written, and nonverbal languages, linguistics has many academic, educational, social, and professional applications. A foundation in linguistics is essential for understanding how words are formed and fitted together to create meaning and establish connections between people who are simultaneously senders and receivers of billions of messages over a lifetime. The stronger a linguistic base, the easier it is to discriminate among the plethora of messages received daily from disparate sources, interpret meaning, respond accordingly, prioritize, and bring personal order to a disordered world of information overload.

Linguistics incorporates numerous threads, each worthy of close examination in its own right—word origins, vocabulary, grammar, phonetics, symbols, gestures, dialects, colloquialisms, or slang—that contribute to the rich tapestry of communication. Linguistics can be approached from several basic, broadly overlapping directions.

Structural linguistics deals with how languages are built and ordered into rules for communication. This subdiscipline, a basis for scientific research, clinical studies, sociological explorations, and scholarly pursuits, focuses on how speech is physically produced. Structural linguistics involves acoustic features, comparing languages, grammatical concepts, sentence construction, vocabulary function, and other analytical aspects of language.

Historical linguistics concentrates on the development of written, oral, and nonverbal languages over time. An appropriate field for historians, educators, and comparative linguists, the discipline is concerned with why, where, when, and how words change in pronunciation, spelling, usage, and meaning.

Geolinguistics, a newer discipline with sociological, political, and professional implications in the modern global marketplace, focuses on living languages. The study focuses on historical and contemporary causes and effects of language distribution and interaction to improve international and intercultural communication.

Many other subfields of linguistics exist, as language can be analyzed from virtually any perspective. Some categories that have been developed include sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and ethnolinguistics. Because of the large overlap between subdisciplines, some experts and academic departments may do similar work under different names.

Interpersonal Communication. Interpersonal communication is that which takes place between two or more people. Understanding the process is useful in grasping how message transfer, receipt, interpretation, and response succeed or fail in the real world.

This is a broad discipline relevant to all applied science because it involves everyday human relationships, interactions, and interpersonal communication and is the basis for much scientific and popular study. Thousands of books and articles are published annually on various aspects of the subject: how to talk to a spouse, how to deal with a child, how to succeed in business, and how to communicate with pets.

Interpersonal communication can be subdivided by specific fields of study or professional emphasis:

• Conflict management and problem-solving are communication-based specialties invaluable for students of family therapy, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, law, criminology, business management, and political science.

• Gender, racial, sexual, intergenerational, and cultural communication issues concern many disciplines, particularly sociologists, psychologists, intercultural specialists, and international business students.

• Health communication, a subdiscipline that involves the translation of jargon to plain language and the development of empathy, is of particular relevance to medical and psychology students, as well as intercultural therapists and clinicians.

• Organizational communication, including departmental interaction, group dynamics, and behavior, is indispensable to the successful function of businesses, professional associations, government, and the military.

Mass Communication. This is the study of the dissemination of information through various media, including newspapers, magazines, billboards, books, radio, television, websites, blogs, and numerous others, with the potential to influence large audiences. Modern mass media is the culmination of centuries of technology enhancing the power of communication. For better or worse, messages sent and received are manifested qualities and possibilities that have elevated humans to a predominant position on Earth. As languages are defined and refined and transmission methods improve, the range of communication expands. The modern distribution of data, once confined to the limitations of the human voice, is a worldwide phenomenon. Multiple outlets (internet, satellite television, international phone lines) are available to send messages, solicit responses, and record aftereffects on a global scale. Mass communication offers numerous opportunities for specialization.

Advertising, marketing, and public relations represent the persuasive power of communication. The modern world is a global marketplace. There are billions of potential customers for every conceivable product, service, or cause and thousands of businesses and agencies whose task is to create consumer demand. Marketing is sales strategy—planning, researching, testing, budgeting, setting objectives, and measuring results. Advertising is a message strategy—what, how, when, where, and how often to say it to achieve desired aesthetic and marketing goals. Public relations is an image strategy—manipulating words and pictures that establish and preserve the public perception of corporations, institutions, organizations, governmental entities, or individuals.

The performance or public communication often involves a particular motivation—to generate an immediate response from an audience. Motivational speakers, lecturers, debaters, politicians, actors, and other public performers share the goal of eliciting instant emotion in listeners or viewers.

Telecommunications refers to electronic means of sending information, primarily via radio or television broadcast, broadband, mobile wireless, information technology, networks, cable, satellite, unified communication, and emergency communication. A burgeoning, far-ranging industry, telecommunications offers global possibilities in business management, on-air and on-screen performance, research, marketing, journalism, programming, advertising, editing, sales, information science, and technology.

Creative communication concerns the composition of messages for various informational purposes and is a component found to some degree in all facets of mass media. Writers of all kinds, graphic artists, photographers, designers, illustrators, and critics can influence behavior through words or pictures.

Related fields of study fall under the umbrella of mass communication. Consumer demographics, the collection of data that quantify an intended audience according to economic, political, ethnic, religious, professional, or educational factors, is an important consideration for many segments of mass media. There are numerous legal, ethical, environmental, political, and regulatory issues to be dealt with that require specialized training.

Careers and Course Work

Communication is an all-purpose discipline that offers a multitude of career paths to personally and professionally rewarding occupations in a booming, always-relevant field. Core courses—English language and grammar, sociology, psychology, history, popular culture, speech, and business—provide a firm foundation on which a successful specialization can be built in any of several broad, compatible areas.

In academics, communication offers teaching, counseling, research, and technology careers. Students should pursue degrees past the bachelor's level, adding courses in education, communication theory, media ethics and history, information technology, and telecommunications in the undergraduate program.

Many creative niches are available in corporate communications, journalism, consumer advertising, public relations, writing, art, and the media. Verbal artists need rhetoric, literature, composition, linguistics, persuasion, and technical writing coursework. Visual artists require graphic design, illustration, semiotics, and computer-aided design. On-screen or on-air performers would benefit from courses in organization, diction, public speaking, nonverbal communication, and mass media.

There are dozens of jobs and professions in media, government, politics, corporations, nonprofits, and other organizations for those with skills and credentials in communication and its various subfields, including writer or editor, agent, director or producer, publicist, and journalist. Courses in interpersonal and intercultural communication, business management, group dynamics, interviewing, problem-solving, negotiation, and motivation are particularly useful.

Communication also has many applications in the social and health sciences. These include marriage counseling or family therapy, psychiatry, speech pathology, gender and sexuality services, legal providers, ethical concerns, international relations, and intercultural, intergenerational, and interspecies specialties that often require advanced degrees and original research. Coursework can include concentrated studies in sociology and psychology, cultural history and geolinguistics, law, and foreign languages.

Social Context and Future Prospects

From the beginning of civilization, communication has been the glue that binds all elements of human society. In the modern global community, with billions of information exchanges passing rapidly among members of a vast, diverse, largely receptive audience eager to connect, competence in oral and written skills is mandatory for personal and professional success. More than ever, messages must be concise, unambiguous, accurate, and compelling to cut through the clutter streaming from dozens of sources.

Several issues are of particular concern in contemporary communication studies. A major ongoing shift in publishing is the shift from print to electronic. There is high interest across the multitrillion-dollar telecommunications industry in green technology that reduces air and noise pollution. These and other factors continue to grow the economic outlook for various communications industries and communications experts within virtually all fields. With fresh markets of information exchangers emerging globally, there is great demand for intercultural expertise.

All disciplines are subject to the economic climate. If employment slumps in one field, such as journalism, skill sets can often be easily and profitably applied to a related field, such as advertising or public relations. People, management, and verbal skills translate well across industries, geography, and time.

One of the greatest challenges facing communication in the Internet age is the educated assessment and consumption of the vast array of information available to receivers at all levels. The need for courses and instruction in critical thinking has risen exponentially as various electronic sources of information have proliferated, especially when those sources are poorly understood, their authoritativeness is open to question, and their existence is ephemeral. The need for such assessment became particularly evident by the beginning of the 2020s as people increasingly relied on social media for news and information. Concerns grew in 2016 about the trend of impactful misinformation and disinformation spreading rapidly worldwide through these popular communication channels. Research around social media user behavior and potential methods for preventing such large-scale communication of disinformation and misinformation continued. Also, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a greater focus on virtual communication skills as people regularly conducted meetings and conversations through videoconferencing.

For the foreseeable future, there will always be news to report, information to supply, products and services to sell, causes to promote, politicians to elect, legislation to be enacted, and government actions to document and disseminate. There will always be ethical debates about what can be done versus what should be done. There will always be a place for those who advance the art and science of communication through performance, education, therapy, research, or innovation. People who can consistently and successfully connect with fellow humans through evocative words and images will always be in demand.

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