sewood2008

Theory of Communication

Human communication is not easy measured statistically or mathematically nor does communication theories take into account content or meaning.
The model of communication used by Ehninger, Gronbeck and Monroe was based on Aristotle’s model of communication. Aristotle was a scholar that thought about not only what he said but how he said it.
“A speaker discovers, arranges clothes and delivers “is quoted from the table and interpreted by the three scholars that took Aristotle’s information and tabulated it.
Without “discovers of emotion and ethical proofs” communication breaks down. Your communication must also be able to deliver the product. Delivering the product was most important in Aristotle’s time due to the lack of written books. Much of what Aristotle taught needed to be memorized by his students.
The flow of information is critical in communications. An example on information flows begins with “how can we help”. Explain to us your problem. Do I understand the communicator and does the communicator understand me. Next is “what is the problem”? Is it an issue that can be resolved quickly? Often times this is called an information tree. In this model the issue can be transferred to billing, shipping or sales. Each issue takes a different path depending on what is communicated to the receiver.
As Sacha Malgat wrote in his blog on communication, the sender has to adjust his message to the target. Can he hear me when I speak or read if I write (Malgat, 2008)?” This statement rings true in communication whether communication is written or spoken both parties need to understand what the other is communicating. JP Smith stated in his communication blog “as the human race has progressed, communication methods have to electronic inventions have allowed humans to address a once challenging problem, distance “(JP Smith, 2008).
While Smith and Malgat both tried to explain communication problems, Little John points out that any theory of communication is an abstraction. He slaps states that it is wiser to weigh theories based on their utility rather than their truth” (LittleJohn, 1983).
Littlejohn also supplies criteria against with to judge theories on communications.
“Theoretical scope, appropriateness, heuristic value, validity and parsimony” (Little John, 1983)
Shannon and Weavers model of communication is considered the most common communication model used in low level communication texts (Nowak, 2000) as we move towards communication in the abstract are people playing roles based on circumstances? People engage other people on what grounds? Is it not always based on the needs of each individual? I am me have enormous impact on the engagement of individuals.
According to The Royal Society, evolutionary biology of language,” Language makes use of combinatory on two levels. Duality of patterning states that words must be learned. Virtually every sentence that a person mutters is a brand new combination. Our brains can perform an unlimited amount of sentences on a finite list of words” (Nowak, 2000) the statement above is remarkable on two levels. The first is how complicated speech is, not just on an annunciation level but on a physical level. “ While generating sounds of spoken language, the vocal tract performs the movements that have to be accurate within millimeters and synchronized to within a few hundredths of a second(Miller,1981).
Communication in the workplace must also be looked at. How can any of us become better performers at work? Tom Peters, says it straight out in his preface to Thriving on Chaos. The winners of tomorrow will deal proactively with chaos; will look at chaos and uncertainty as market opportunities: capitalizing on fleeting anomalies will be the successful business greatest accomplishments “Peters, 1991)
How can organization learn to celebrate new ideas and learn to live with paradox? To paraphrase Tom Peters, ‘learn to control the ship while simultaneously throwing everything up for grabs (Peters, 1991). Not as easily done as one would think unlike the industrial revolution where products were produced tangible items that one could touch. Today’s revolution is in information. “People must become the primary source of value added, not a factor of production, to be optimized, minimized, and/or eliminated. (Peters, 1991) People must be allowed to improve everything. This must be communicated to them by speaking to them, writing to them and also by showing the employees that this behavior is not only acceptable but preferred. When it is communicated to employees that they are making a difference, the company will only get better.
Marshall McLuhan, in his book “The Medium is the message, wrote “ The medium of the message and how it effects us is this way, far more important than the actual content”(Kappleman,2002)
Media has a way of bringing all of the information to us, but does not necessarily cause any effect. “The medium of communication is shaping society, “The medium of communication is shaping society, ‘Stated McLuhan, it changes which sense we primarily rely on, with resulting change in our cognition” (Kappleman, 2002) the statement fascinates due to the nature of the technology.
Radio changed the way people received their news, television now brought about even more cognitive change and although McLuhan never experienced the internet society is changing again as more and more information and communication is done over the internet.
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc/comm_theory.html
Aristotle’ s communication model is still valid today, While communication has become moiré complete in many ways it is just as simple as it was back in 1335b. Society has produced models and graphs in a way in which we can somehow try to understand communication it is still not easily measured statistically or mathematically.

Works Cited
Fiske, John. Introduction to Communication Studies. London: Methuen, 1982.
Hinds, Pamela, and Sara Kiesler. "Communication across Boundaries: Work Structure, and Use of Technologies in a large Organization." Organization Science 6 (1995): 373-73.
Kappelman, Todd. "Marshall McLuhan: "The Medium is the Message"" The high Priest of Pop-Culture (2002).
Lila, Robert M. An Inquiry into Morals. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1991.
Littlejohn, Stephen. Theories of Human Communication. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1983.
Malgat, Sacha. "Definition of Human Communication." Weblog post. Definition of Human Communication. 26 Oct. 2008. 27 Oct. 2008 .
Nowak, Martin A. "Evolutionary Biology of language." The Royal Society (2000).
Peters, Tom. Thriving on Chaos : Handbook for a Management Revolution. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Smith, J. P. "Theory of Human Communications." Weblog post. Theory of Human Communications. 26 Oct. 2008. 27 Oct. 2008 .

Posted by sewood2008 at 12:13 PM | Permalink

Communication can be defined as the interactions between individuals consisting of either verbal or non verbal communication that is understood by participants. . (new quote) According to the text ‘Theories of Human Communication” ‘scholars have made many attempts at defining communications, but establishing a single definition has proved impossible and may not be very fruitful” (Littlejohn, 2005) This failure for scholars to agree on one single definition somewhat explains how complicated human communication is.
One may think that communication is easy, because we do it daily, but critical thinking brings out our but thinking critically about it brings out its true nature. Communication standards may change based on how we dress and by preconceived notions about with whom we are interacting (elaborate) an even be interpreted by how we dress and also by our pre conceived notions about who we are interacting with. Communication may differ while one is interacting with parents versus coworkers. Even children at a small age pick up suttle clues about how to interact with different people from their parents and social context. Human communication has played a huge role in the development of our species. (how or why to communicate) Evencdifferently when I am interacting with my parents versus interacting with people at work. Even when observing children at a small age, they have already picked up clues about how to communicate with certain people.
Human communication, in my opinion has also played a huge role in the development of our species. The expression of ideas by one person can be a challenge to one another and can be a result of cultural variations (find quote) (back up this quote). This is typically called the difference of opinion.

(reword)
When stepping into a leadership role often times one is put into situations that are uncomfortable. An example would be firing someone. This, for me, has never been a pleasant experience but one that is often times necessary. I find it very difficult to try and separate business from inter relations. The situation of firing someone makes me extremely uncomfortable. Some things in business are not suppose to easy. It makes you think about the circumstances before executing the communication.
Bibliography
Littlejohn, Stephen. W. (2005). Theories of Human Communication. Belmont: Thompson Wadsworth.

Posted by sewood2008 at 04:06 PM | Permalink

I came accross this definition of the Christian Renaissance which in my opinion describes this period.
If Church mirrors the culture of the people then the Renaissance had to effect religion and how people percieved themselves within the world.
There were six charachteristics of the period
1. Aesthetics (philosophy of beauty) took precedence over religious advancement. Art took new meanings. While most art portrayed religious themes, the viewer could see a drastically different approach. For example, Medieval artists always portrayed Mary as an "ideal". Renaissance painters used fully human, and sometimes blatantly sinful, models.

2. Scholars found classical literature easier to read than the scholastic documents from Medieval pens. Renaissance scholars often decried religious works because of this fact.

3. Some admired classical materials so much they denied Christianity's superiority. Many others attempted to harmonize pagan writers with Christianity.

4. Even though many accepted the superiority of classical literature, a renewed interest in Greek and Hebrew studies emerged.

5. The Renaissance promoted man's dignity encouraging each person to develop his native abilities and to cultivate an enjoyment of nature.

6. Renaissance men saw themselves as autonomous, emancipated from authority in matters of thought and worship.

The (Catholic Church) was dragging society back to the dark ages by trying control everything that people beleived in. People began to beleive that their could be more than one truth. That the liberal arts had a place in society. Guttenburgs invention of the printing press was also a very important milestone in this progress. It allowed books to be created quickly and in much greater volume. Prior to this invention, books were hand written. Every single word had to be scribed on a peice of paper. This made books extremely rare, expensive and in turn kept the people illiterate. The church of course was in charge of all of the book creating and so could also influence common people by just allowing what they wanted out to surface. Mass prining allowed books to be less expensive and information soon was in the public. This was a major step in
Scott Wood

jaskaw. (2008, 08 31). http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/?tag=renaissance. Retrieved 10 14, 2008, from http://beinghuman.blogs.fi: http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/?tag=renaissance

ntellectuallising socitet.

Posted by sewood2008 at 11:29 AM | Permalink

In the middle of the ocean, there is a special place, which is a Dragon Gate. It has this wonderful property: any fish that swims through it immediately turns into a dragon. However, the Dragon Gate does not look any different from asny other part of the ocean. So you can never find it by looking for it. The only way to know where it is is to notice that the fish that swim through it become dragons. However when a fish swims through the Dragon Gate, and becomes a dragon, it does not look any different. It just looks like the same fish it was before. So you can't tell where the Dragon Gate is by looking closely to find just where the change takes place. Furthermore, when fish swim through the Dragon Gate and become dragons, they don't feel any different so they don't know that they have changed into dragons' They just are dragons from then on.

http://www.dragongatefengshui.net/Pages/bio.html
You could be a dragon.

Becker, Howard S. "Coda." Tricks of the Trade : How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It. By Howard S. Becker. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago P, 1998. 218-19.

Posted by sewood2008 at 01:47 PM | Permalink