What is Communication

Introduction:

Communication, just like information, is something that we as humans come in contact with on a daily basis whether we want to or not. There exist many definitions for communication from different disciplines and perspectives. In this essay I will talk about definitions for communication and why understanding communication is as important to us as information scientists. I will discuss three well known communication models in an attempt to understanding communication better.

Define communication:

Many believe that the word communication is derived from two Latin words, the noun “communis” and the verb “Communicare”. According to (List, 2014) the word “Communis” means “common”, “general” or “run of the mill” and the word “Communicare” means “to share”, thus our first definition from an etymology sense is “the act of sharing something” or “making something common”.

In the journal article by (Greenman, 2008), he talks about communication and how it fits into the law system. He says that the coarse definition of communication is something that intends to convey a state of mind, emotion or idea from one person to another. He further adds that the act attempting to perform communication must be reasonably recognizable as something that intends to convey a thought, if not it would seem like a random action that does not bare meaning. He however argues that this coarse definition has its limitations for example in cases where the person does not necessarily possess the state of mind he/she conveys. The easiest example of this would be lieing, where the person attempting to convey a state of mind does not poses that state of mind because it is a lie, but none the less that state is conveyed to another person. He also...

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...d is such a way that the sender is the most important person and the receiver is somewhat less important, just passively waiting for a message, in the Osgood and Schramm model however both parties are of equal importance.

Verderber (1990)

Bibliography

List, L. W., 2014. Latin Word List. [Online]

Available at: http://www.latinwordlist.com/latin-words/communis-4321924.htm

[Accessed 22 03 2013].

Shannon & Weaver, 1959. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. simon, w., 2010. http://communicationtheory.org/. [Online]

Available at: http://communicationtheory.org/shannon-and-weaver-model-of-communication/

[Accessed 21 3 2014]. simon, w., 2013. http://communicationtheory.org/. [Online]

Available at: http://communicationtheory.org/osgood-schramm-model-of-communication/

[Accessed 21 3 2014].

Steinberg, S., 2007. An introduction to communication. Cape Town: Juta.