Page 75 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Information Technology and Application

Notes of communication is referred to as ‘transmission’. It is the process of transmission that is generally
termed as Communication.
Communication regulates and shapes all human behaviour. Therefore, it is important to have a
clear understanding of the concepts of communication what is communication? Why is it important
to us? How does it work? What are the elements in the process of communication? What are the
different types of communication that we are engaged in? These are the questions that come to our
mind when we study this subject.

Self Assessment
Fill in the blanks:
1. A combination of information technology and communications technology is known as
..................... .
2. E-mails, instant messaging, chat rooms and social networking are the examples of ..................... .
3. A message must be conveyed is a requirement for ..................... .
4. The second basic requirement of the one the one communication is ..................... .

6.3 Meaning of Communication

The English word ‘communication’ is derived from the Latin noun‘communis’ and the Latin verb
‘communicare’ that means ‘to make common’. Communication is a much-hyped word in the
contemporary world. It encompasses a multitude of experiences, actions and events, as well as a
whole variety of happenings and meanings, and technologies too. Meetings, conferences or even
a procession thus can be a communication event. Newspapers, radio, video and television are all
‘communication media’ and journalists, newsreaders; advertisers, public relation persons and
even camera crew are ‘communication professionals’.
Communication in its simplest sense involves two or more persons who come together to share,
to dialogue and to commune, or just to be together for a festival or family gathering. Dreaming,
talking with someone, arguing in a discussion, speaking in public, reading a newspaper, watching
TV, etc., are all different kinds of communication that we are engaged in everyday.
Communication is thus not so much an act or even a process but rather social and cultural
‘togetherness’. Communication can be with oneself, god, and nature and with the people in our
environment. Interaction, interchange, transaction, dialogue, sharing, communion and commonness
are ideas that crop up in any attempt to define the term communication.

Notes According to Denis McQuail, communication is a process, which increases, com-
monality-but also requires elements of commonality for it to occur at all.
A common language, for instance, does not necessarily bring people together. There are other
factors too at play such as a shared culture and a common interest, which bring about a sense of
commonality and more significantly, a sense of community. Denis McQuail sees ‘human
communication’ in linear terms as the sending of meaningful messages from one person to another.
These messages could be oral or written, visual or olfactory. He also takes such things as laws,
customs, practices, and ways of dressing, gestures, buildings, gardens, military parades, and flags to
be communication.
Thus, ‘communication’ can be defined as ‘the interchange of thoughts or ideas’. Again
‘communication’ is viewed as a transmission of information, consisting of discriminative stimuli,
from a source to recipient’. In everyday life, the communication is a system through which the
messages are sent, and feedback received. It is therefore, the process of transferring particular
information or message from an information source to desired, definite or a particular destination.
One of the main elements of communication messages is perception. The effectiveness of
communication is limited by the receiver’s range of perception. Also, people perceive only what
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