Defining Communication Study Guide

Many Definitions of Communication

Communication study “focuses on how people use messages to generate meanings within and across various contexts, cultures, channels and media. The field promotes the effective and ethical practice of human communication” (NCA, 1995)

Smith, Laswell, and Casey offer a simple definition of communication study: “who says what, through what channels (media) of communication, to whom, [and] what will be the results”

For the purpose of this text we define communication as the process of using symbols to exchange meaning.

  

The Mathematical or Linear Model of Communication is a model that suggests communication moves only in one direction.

Image of a blue horizontal arrow pointing right

  • A sender is someone who encodes and sends a message to a receiver through a particular channel. The sender is the initiator of communication.
  • A receiver is the recipient of a message. The receiver must decode messages in ways that are meaningful for him/her.
  • A message is the particular meaning or content the sender wishes the receiver to understand. The message can be intentional or unintentional, written or spoken, verbal or nonverbal, or any combination of these.
  • A channel is the method a sender uses to send a message to a receiver. The most common channels humans use are verbal and nonverbal communication
  • Noise is anything that interferes with the sending or receiving of a message.
    • External and Internal Noise

   

The Transactional Model of Communication adds to the Linear Model by suggesting that both parties in a communication exchange act as both sender and receiver simultaneously, encoding and decoding messages to and from each other at the same time.

Illustration of two blue arrows in a circle, pointing to the tail of the other

  • Communication participants act as senders AND receivers simultaneously
  • Communication is not a simple one‐way transmission of a message
  • The personal filters and experiences of the participants impact each communication exchange
  • Noise and personal filters always influence the outcomes of every communication exchange

Key Terms

  • channel
  • communication
  • communication study
  • linear model
  • message
  • noise
  • receiver
  • sender
  • transactional model

 

 

A PDF of this Defining Communication Study Guide can be downloaded here.