Communication is interaction with our fellow human beings, our internal and external environments. It is a social process that involves two or more people from the society who have the need to express their thoughts and feelings about certain issues. We as humans need to relate to the society unlike animals. This way, communication gives us the leeway to do so.
Communication can be termed as the centripetal force through which we create social realities. Social reality includes the concept of the Self, community, institutions and cultures.
This radial representation justifies the fact that communication is omnipresent. Whether done consciously or otherwise, we tend to communicate through words, written mode or through silence i.e. non-communication
Non communication is a type of communication where the sender does not receive any response from the receiver. The way I perceive it to be is that, there can be two reasons for this non-responsive behavior from the receiver’s part:
• He/she is apathetic about the issue spoken about.
• He/she does not agree to the sender’s suggestions or views on the issue.
Therefore, with the help of body language and his/her silent treatment, he/she automatically communicates either of the two above reasons.
This is somewhat similar to a concept in Political Development where political non-participation by the citizens of a country is also considered as participation. This concept was given by Verba – the father of Political Development.
In simple words, communication has the sender, message, medium, channel and the receiver. Also, assuming that the receiver responds, the element of feedback channel is also included.
Theories and Models in communication are academic tools created by great thinkers from various fields. They put forth their ideas and these now help us to understand the process of communication better.
Therefore, a theory can be defined as a set of propositions or statements about a particular phenomenon or a class of phenomena. Merton defines theory as “a set of logically interconnected propositions”. A theory deals with facts. Thus, only if these facts are scientifically tested and are objective in nature, can the hypothesis of the theory can be positive and can be proved right. However, in social sciences, all theories are tentative. Especially in communication, which is never constant, can never have a theory that is standard. Moreover, communication is interaction between two or more human beings and they are bound to change. Therefore, communication theory is a social science theory.
Deriving from the above definitions of communication and theory, Communication Theory can be defined as the tool used by humans to understand the abstract meaning of communication.
Communication here has a fluid meaning i.e. it is ever changing and always takes a different shape; like water.
Models can be defined as the pictorial representation of the process of communication. Sometimes, a model can be devised to explain a theory. Otherwise, models and theories are similar and not the same. A model can explain the abstract meaning of a particular phenomenon in visual format. The above diagram that explains the process of communication can be a model too. It gives a simplistic cover for a complex phenomenon.
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