Basics of Human Communication
This chapter argues that communication is a process through which we as individuals are able to share our realities with others, and thereby create a mutual understanding of the situation. This mutual understanding is sometimes referred to as intersubjectivity: our shared understanding, the ideas we hold in common, are intersubjective, whereas the things that an individual alone knows are subjective. Intersubjectivity doesn't imply agreement; it just means we understand things in the same way. We define the situation or issue under discussion in similar fashion.
The Human Communication Process
This model (in Fig 2.1 on p. 33) synthesizes a whole range of theories of communication. The basic principles of a model of human communication, according to Shockley-Zalabak, are as follows:
- Individuals exist within contexts that provide them with "fields of experience" that affect their ability to communicate in different situations. A primary aspect of an individual's field of experience is its relation to his or her communication competence in a given situation. It must be added that the field of experience is a resource to the communicator, providing him or her with different means or methods for encoding and decoding messages. For example, having done a lot of crossword puzzles (field of experience), Joe is very good at figuring out crossword puzzle clues (decoding).
- Messages once encoded are transmitted via a communication channel from a source to a receiver. The process of transmission introduces three sources of possible "error": the act of encoding a message (i.e., "I can't find the right words to say this, but..."), any "noise" in the transmission channel itself ("What? I can't hear you..."), and the act of decoding ("He called me a thespian! I'm outraged!").
- Receivers provide feedback to the sender/source (e.g., nods and other gestures) through their responses to the message (or non-response). Shockley-Zalabak wants us to understand feedback as emerging from the effects of the message. Additionally, the sender gets feedback from the act of sending a message itself as well (we know when we've said something, and whether it came out the way we intended or not).
- Messages have effects in the sense that the receiver either responds or does not, indicates agreement or dissent, and so forth.