Communication

Communication --

Communication is a real "melting pot" of a discipline. Although communication is one of the newest majors in the country (only since about the early 1970's could a student major in communication, and it was not common until the mid-80's), it is also the fastest growing major nationwide. Communication is a social process in which individuals employ symbols to establish and interpret meaning in their environment.

Communication has five key terms:

Meaning

Meaning is what people extract from a message. In communication episodes, message can have more than one meaning and even multiple layers of meaning.

Environment

Environment is the situation or context in which communication occurs. The environment includes: time, place, historical period, relationship, and a speaker’s and cultural backgrounds.

Social

When interpreting communication as social -- it involves people and interaction.

Process

Communication is a process means that it is ongoing and unending. It’s dynamic, complex, and continually changing.

Symbols

Symbol is an arbitrary label or representation of phenomena. Words are symbols for concepts and things.

Communication as a process --

Feedback -- Communication given to the source by the receiver to indicated understanding.

Self-concept -- A relatively stable set of perceptions people hold about themselves.

Individuals develop self-concepts through interaction with others.

Self-concepts provide an important motive for behavior

Epistimology— Question about how we know things

Parsimony— A criterion for evaluating theories; refers to the simplicity of the explanation provided by the theory.

Communication apprehension (CA) – Fear of speaking before an audience: