COMMUNICATION
CONTEXT
•The communication process takes place in a context (physical,
cultural, social-psychological, and temporal)
•These four dimensions of context interact with one another :-
Context refers to the setting in which communication
is taking place.
All communication takes place in a context that has at
least four dimensions:
PHYSICAL
SOCIAL- PSYCHOLOGICAL
TEMPORAL
CULTURAL
PHYSICAL CONTEXT
◦ It is the tangible (observeable, measureable) or concrete environment in
which communication takes place
◦ Like a room, seminar hall, home, corridor or park
◦ This physical context exerts some influence on the content of your
messages (what you say) as well as on the form (how you say it).
◦ Each atmosphere has its own set of rules for how to communicate (i.e. you
would not talk in the same manner at a party hall as you would at a
classroom).
SOCIO- PSYCHOLOGICAL
CONTEXT
◦ It includes the status relationships among the participants, the roles that people
play, and the cultural rules of the society in which people are communicating.
◦ Socio-psychological context includes the friendliness or unfriendliness, formality or
informality, and seriousness or humorousness of the situation.
◦ Involves the norms of the group in a particular situation, including the intimacy level
among speakers and the formality of the exchange.
◦ There are certain rules set regarding how to communicate, for a conversation held
between two friends would not be handled in the same manner as a conversation
between boss and worker.
TEMPORAL CONTEXT
◦ Temporal Context includes:
◦ (1) the time of day (for example, for some the morning is not a time for
communication; for others, it’s ideal),
◦ (2) the time in history in which the communication takes place (for example,
messages on racial, sexual, or religious attitudes cannot be fully understood
outside of their time in history),
◦ (3) how a message fits into the sequence of communication events
◦ For example, the meaning of a compliment would be greatly different depending
on whether you said it immediately after your friend paid you a compliment,
immediately before you asked your friend for a favor, or during an argument).
◦ The temporal context is the positioning of a message within a sequence of
conversational events.
Defining culture
◦ Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people,
encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
◦ Shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding
that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity
fostered by social patterns unique to the group.
◦ "Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language
marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet
visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and other things in our day to day life,"
CULTURAL CONTEXT
◦ Refers to the values, beliefs, lifestyles, and the way of behaving that are shared
by a group of people and passed down from one generation to the next.
◦ Cultural factors affect every interaction and influence what you say, how you say
it, and how you respond to what others say.
◦ Communication will get influenced whether something is considered right or
wrong by the people involved in the process and their cultural aspects.
Noise/Barriers
◦is anything that interferes with ◦With virtually no noise
your receiving a message. interference, the message of the
◦At one extreme, noise may source and the message
prevent a message from getting received are almost identical.
from source to receiver. ◦Most often, however, noise
◦A roaring noise or static noise distorts some portion of the
can easily prevent entire message as it travels from
messages from getting through source to receiver.
to your receiver.
Four types of noise
Physical noise
◦Physiological noise
◦ is interference that is external to both
speaker and listener;
◦is created by barriers
◦ it interferes with the physical transmission within the sender or
of the signal or message.
◦ Examples include the screeching of
receiver such as visual
passing cars, impairments, hearing
◦ the hum of a computer, sunglasses,
illegible handwriting,
loss, articulation
◦ blurred type or fonts that are too small or problems, and
difficult to read, misspellings and poor
grammar and popup ads.
memory loss.
Psychological noise
◦Mental interference in speaker or listener and includes
◦preconceived ideas, wandering thoughts, biases and prejudices,
◦closed-mindedness, and extreme emotionalism
◦You’re likely to run into psychological noise when you talk with
someone who is closed-minded and who refuses to listen to
anything he or she doesn’t already believe.
Semantic noise
◦or overly abstract terms
◦is created when the speaker whose meanings can be easily
and listener have different misinterpreted.
meaning systems; ◦You see this type of noise
◦it includes language or regularly, for example, the
dialectical differences, medical doctor who uses
◦the use of jargon or overly advanced biological terms
complex terms, and without explanation or if the
ambiguous insurance sales person who
speaks in the jargon of the
insurance industry
Eliminating noise
◦As you can see from these examples, all
communications
◦contain noise.
◦In fact, noise cannot be totally eliminated, but its
effects can be reduced.
◦Making your language more precise, sharpening your
skills for sending and receiving nonverbal messages
◦improving your listening and feedback skills are some
ways to combat/overcome the influence of noise.
Effects
◦Communication always has some effect on one or
more persons involved in the communication act.
◦For every communication act, there is some consequence.
◦Generally three types of effects are distinguished.
◦Intellectual (or cognitive)
◦ effects are changes in your thinking, knowledge, information
processing skills.
◦ When you acquire information from a class lecture, for example, the
effect is largely intellectual.
Affective Psychomotor
◦ are changes in your attitudes, values, beliefs,
and emotions. ◦Are changes in behaviors
◦ Thus, when you become frightened watching a ◦such as learning new dance
horror movie, its effect is largely affective.
movements,
◦ Similarly, after a great experience with a
person of another culture, your feelings about ◦to throw a curve ball, to paint
that culture may change. a room, or
◦ The effect is largely affective (may also be ◦to use different verbal and
intellectual). nonverbal behaviours
Effects are often integrated
◦These effects are not separate; rather, they interact.
◦In many cases, a single message—say a public speech on
homelessness—may inform you (intellectual effect), move you to
feel differently (affective effect), and lead you to be more generous
when you come upon a homeless person (psychomotor effect)
and you donate to their cause.
