Tuesday, December 29, 2009

communicatio types














Communication theory


Currently, many definitions of communication are used in order to conceptualize the processes by which people navigate and assign meaning. Communication is also understood as the exchanging of understanding. Additionally the bicommunication theory investigates communicative processes within and among non-humans such as bacteria, animals, fungi and plants.

We might say that communication consists of transmiting information from one person to another. In fact, many scholars of communication take this as a working defnition , and use Lasswel's maxim, "who says what to whom in what channel with what effect," as a means of circumscribing the field of communication theory.


Other commentators suggest that a ritual of communication exists, one not artificially divorcible from a particular historical and social context.

There is an additional working definition of communication to consider that authors like Robert A. Lanham (2003) and as far back as Erving Goffman (1959) have highlighted. This is a progression from lessell'sto define human communication through to this century and revolutionized into the constructionist model. Constructionists believe that the process of communication is in itself the only messages that exist. The packaging can not be separated from the social and historical context from which it arose, therefore the substance to look at in communication theory is style for Robert Lanham and the performance of self for Erving Goffman.

Lanham chose to view communication as the rival to the over encompassing use of CBSmodel (which pursued to further the transmission model). CBS model argues that charity, brevity, and sincerity are the only purpose to prose discourse, therefore communication. Lanham wrote, “If words matter too, if the whole range of human motive is seen as animating prose discourse, than rhetoric analysis leads us to the essential questions about prose style” (Lanham 10). This is saying that rhetoric and style are fundamentally important; they are not errors to what we actually intend to transmit. The process which we construct and deconstruct meaning deserves analysis.

Erving Goffman sees the performance of self as the most important frame to understand communication. Goffman wrote, “What does seem to be required of the individual is that he learn enough pieces of expression to be able to ‘fill in’ and manage, more or less, any part that he is likely to be given” (Goffman 73) Goffman is highlighting the significance of expression. The truth in both cases is the articulation of the message and the package as one. The construction of the message from social and historical context is the seed as is the pre-existing message is for the transmission model. Therefore any look into communication theory should include the possibilities drafted by such great scholars as Robert.A.lenham and Ervinggoffman that style and performance is the whole process.

Communication stands so deeply rooted in human behaviors and the structures of socity scholars have difficulty thinking of it while excluding social or behavioral events. Because communication theory remains a relatively young field of inquiry and integrates itself with other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, and sociology, one probably cannot yet expect a consensus conceptualization of communication across disciplines.

Currently, there is one paradigm from which communication scholars may work, a universal law, posited by S. F, Scudder (1900). "The Universal Law of Communication states that, "All living entities communicate." All living entities communicate via movements, sounds, reactions, physical changes, gestures, languages, breath, etc. Communication is primarily used as a means of survival. Examples such as the cry of a hungry infant (communication that it is hungry), the browing a leaf (communication that it is dehydrated), the cry of an animal (communication that it is injured) falls under the Universal Law of Communication. Everything living must communicate, primarily as a means of survival."

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