COMMUNICATION THEORY: PRINCIPLES, COMPONENTS AND HISTORY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The theory of communication was first proposed by Aristotle in the classical period and defined in 1980 by SF Scudder. It maintains that all living beings on the planet have the ability to communicate. This communication occurs through movements, sounds, reactions, physical changes, gestures, language, breathing, color transformations, among others.

It is established in this theory that communication is a necessary means for the survival and existence of living beings and that it allows them to give information about their presence and state. Communication is used to express thoughts, feelings, biological needs and any type of relevant information about the state of a living being.

According to the communication theory, animals also have communication systems to send messages to each other. In this way they ensure that their reproduction takes place successfully, protect themselves from danger, find food and establish social ties.

The theory of universal communication establishes that communication is the process of coding and transformation of information that takes place between the sender and the receiver, where the receiver has the task of decoding the message once it is delivered (Marianne Dainton, 2004).

The communication process is considered to be as old as life on the planet. However, the study of communication with a view to establishing a scientific theory about it, took place for the first time in ancient Greece and Rome.

Communication theory states that the communication process can be affected or interrupted by multiple barriers. This can modify the meaning of the message that you want to deliver from the sender to the receiver.

Framework

There are different points of view proposed from the theory of communication to deal with the phenomenon of its study.

Mechanic

This view indicates that communication is simply the process of transmitting information between two parties. The first part is the sender and the second part is the receiver.

Psychological

According to this point of view, communication comprises more elements than the simple transmission of information from the sender to the receiver, this includes the thoughts and feelings of the sender, who tries to share them with the receiver.

In turn, the receiver has reactions and feelings once the message sent by the sender is decoded.

Social

The social point of view considers communication as the result of the interaction between the sender and the receiver. It simply indicates that communication is directly dependent on discursive content, that is, how one communicates is the basis of the social point of view.

Systematic

According to the systematic point of view, communication is actually a new and different message that is created when various individuals interpret it in their own way and then reinterpret it to reach their own conclusions.

Critical

This view holds that communication is simply a way to help individuals express their power and authority over other individuals (Seligman, 2016).

Communication components

The theory of communication indicates that communication is the process that allows the passage of information from a sender to a receiver. This information is an encrypted message that must be decoded by the receiver once it is received. The elements of communication are:

Transmitter

The issuer is the source trying to share information. It may or may not be a living unit, since the only characteristic necessary for it to be the source is that it can supply some kind of information and has the ability to transmit it to a receiver through a channel.

Message

The message is the information that you want to communicate. The theory of communication indicates from a semiological perspective that the meaning of the message depends on the way it is created through the use of signs.

That is, depending on the signs used, it will be the interpretation of the message. In this way, the message is successful to the extent that the receiver understands what the sender wants to report.

Coding

It is the process of building the message with the objective that the receiver understands it. That is, communication can only be established when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information.

In this way, it is understood that the most successful individuals in the communication process are those who encode their messages taking into account the understanding capacity of their recipient.

Channel

A message encoded by the sender must be delivered by a channel. There are multiple categories of channels: verbal, non-verbal, personal, impersonal, among others. A channel can be, for example, the paper on which some words were written. The goal of the channel is to allow the message to reach the receiver.

Decoding

It is the opposite process to encoding in which the receiver must decipher the message that was delivered. At this point the receiver must carefully interpret the message. The communication process is considered successful when the receiver deciphers the message and understands the same as the sender.

Receiver

He is the one who receives the message. A good sender takes into consideration the possible preconceptions that the receiver may have and its reference frames, in order to determine possible reactions when decoding the message. Having a similar context helps the dissemination of the message to be effective.

Feedback

It is the evaluation of the reaction that the sender receives from the receiver after decoding the message.

Context

It is the environment where the message is delivered. It can be anywhere the sender and receiver are. The context makes communication easier or more difficult (Seligman, 2016).

Types of communication

There can be up to 30 types of communication, although three of the main ones are:

Verbal communication

Non-verbal communication is the type of communication where information flows through a verbal channel. Words, speeches and presentations are used, among others.

In verbal communication the sender shares information in the form of words. In verbal communication, both the sender must carefully choose his words and use a tone understandable to the receiver.

Non-verbal communication

Non-verbal communication is defined by communication theory as the language composed of gestures, facial expressions, hand movements and body postures that provide information about the sender to the receiver. In other words, non-verbal communication is wordless and expressed through gestures.

Visual comunication

It is the communication that occurs when the receiver receives information through a visual medium. Traffic signs and maps are some examples of visual communication.

According to communication theory, vision plays a fundamental role in communication since it affects the way the receiver understands the message (NotesDesk, 2009).

Barriers to communication

The theory of communication establishes that there may be different barriers or obstacles that hinder the effective exercise of it. These barriers can lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the information by the recipient.

Noise

Noise is a common barrier to effective communication. Generally, the information is distorted and the message reaches the receiver incompletely. Crowded spaces prevent information from reaching the recipient's ears correctly. In the event that the information arrives, the receiver may not be able to interpret it correctly.

Unstructured thoughts

Not being clear about what you want to say and how you want to say is presented as an obstacle that makes effective communication difficult. The sender must always build clear ideas about what he wants to communicate, once this happens, he can give way to sending the message. Otherwise, the communication will not be effective.

Bad interpretations

Misinterpreted information can lead to unpleasant situations. The sender must encode the message in such a way that the receiver can receive it without misinterpreting it. It is the responsibility of the receiver to give the necessary feedback to the sender in order to clarify possible doubts about the message.

Receiver unknown

Lack of information about the receiver may prompt the sender to supply information that the receiver cannot decode. The sender should always know her receiver and communicate with her in terms that are familiar to her.

Ignorance of the content

The content of the message should emphasize the information that you want to convey. The theory of communication indicates that to give strength to the ideas that you want to convey it is necessary to know their meaning. Otherwise the speech will lose its meaning for both the sender and the receiver.

Ignore the receiver

The sender must always have contact with the receiver, in such a way that he does not lose interest in the message. A common mistake is considered reading the content of the notes in a talk without paying attention to the receiver. Eye contact is important to maintain the interest of the recipient.

Lack of confirmation

The sender must check if his receiver has decoded the message correctly. When the reception of the message is not confirmed, it is common to find that the sender and the receiver do not share the same information.

Tone of voice

According to communication theory, the tone of the voice plays an important role in communication. The tone of the voice should be clear, the words slow and precise. The volume of the voice should be set taking into account the noise in the environment.

Cultural differences

Differences in languages ​​or preconceptions can make communication difficult. Words and gestures can take on different meanings in different cultures. This situation is framed within the communication theory as one of the most significant variables to take into account in the information coding processes.

Receiver attitude

The attitude of the receiver affects whether the message is delivered correctly. An impatient recipient will not take enough time to fully absorb the information that is being delivered, causing disruptions in the communication process. This can lead to confusion and misunderstandings between sender and receiver (Lunenburg, 2010).

Communication chronology

Classical period

The foundations for Western classical thought are laid in Greece and Rome. This leads to debates on epistemology, ontology, ethics, the axiology of form, philosophy, and the values ​​of communication that are held to date.

Aristotle model

According to Aristotle's communication model, the sender plays a fundamental role in communication since he is the only one who is fully responsible for the effective communication of a message.

Therefore, the sender must carefully prepare his message organizing ideas and thoughts in order to influence the receiver, who must respond according to the sender's wishes. The message, according to this theory, must impress the receiver. (MSG, 2017)

Cicero's Foundations

During the classical period, Cicero was in charge of establishing the canons of rhetoric as a model of communication. In this way it was established that there is a process through which any message passes: invention (invention), arrangement (organization), elocution (style), memory (memory), and pronunciation (delivery).

Cicero and other Romans developed the communication standards that would later make up the Roman legal code and the study of bodily gestures as persuasive when communicating non-verbally.

1600 -1700

The era of rationalism began and one of the most important issues it addressed was epistemology or theory of knowledge. Jean-Jacques Rousseau speaks of the social contract as a means to establish order in society and Descartes develops ideas about empiricism as a way of knowing the world from experience. All these factors influenced the study of communications and the first scientific theories developed around them.

During this period, reading becomes important for societies and the need for text interpretation appears as a result of the new knowledge revolution.

XIX century

During 1800 different scholars are interested in the study of forms of expression, focusing on oral expression in public. Georg Hegel proposes a philosophy based on dialectics, which later influenced Karl Marx to develop his study of dialectics and criticism of the theories of communication treated by different schools of thought.

Establishing a theory of communication concerns several thinkers of the time such as Charles Sanders Pierce, who founded the principles of semiotics that influence the interpretation of signs, language and logic until today (Moemka, 1994).

Twentieth century

The collective interest in establishing a theory of continuous communication and is related to the social aspects of man's life from psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud is the one who lays the foundations for a rationalist and empiricist study of the human being as a social entity. In this way, the study of non-verbal communication is on the rise and gestural communication is established as a universal language.

Ferdinand Saussure published a general treatise on linguistics during the 20th century, which would provide the basis for the study of language and communication to this day.

The first studies on communication in this century would indicate that there is a response to a stimulus and that during the communication process, people tend to make judgments and evaluations about others. Kenneth Burke began his career studying cultural symbols and their relationship to the way people identify with a social group.

Charles Morris establishes a model to divide semiotics into semantics, syntactics and pragmatics, which allows a deep study of language in verbal communication. On the other hand, the study of communication in the media grows to the extent that radio occupies a place in people's lives.

By 1950, the social sciences began to be interested in the signs and gestures used for communication, identifying that they were influenced by context and culture. Jürgen Ruesch and Gregory Bateson introduce the concept of meta communication or communication about communication, as a study of communication beyond superficial ideas and the transmission of a message.

With the development of mass media, the study of them appears. One-way communication is evidenced from the mass media, which play an important role in societies in terms of communication.

In the mid-twentieth century, cognitive studies on communication appeared, and some representative publications were made on communication theory, non-verbal language, the mass phenomenon, the influence of women in communication and all kinds of related matters. with the cognitive development of the human being from language.

XXI century

The theory of communication includes all the studies carried out on it. It is understood that communication can be focused on different contexts, such as work, public, domestic and academic, among others.

The pedagogy of cognitive communication appears as a critical approach to education systems from communication. Similarly, twists and turns in communications are evident as telecommunications strengthen and give way to less personal interactions (Littlejohn, 2009).

References

1. Littlejohn, SW (2009). Encyclopedia Of Communication Theory. New Mexico: Sage.
2. Lunenburg, FC (2010). Communication: The Process, Barriers, And Improving Effectiveness. Sam Houston State University, 3-6.
3. Marianne Dainton, ED (2004). Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life: A Practical Introduction. La Salle University.
4. Moemka, AA (1994). Development Communication. New York: Sunny Series.
5. MSG. (2017). Management Sudy Guide. Obtained from Communication Theory: managementstudyguide.com.
6. NotesDesk. (8 of 3 of 2009). Notes Desk Academic Encyclopedia. Obtained from Types of Communication: notesdesk.com.
7. Seligman, J. (2016). Chapter 10 - Models. In J. Seligman, Effective Communication (pp. 78-80). Lulu.