1) Discuss various meanings of communication and shed light on the significance of communication on human society.
The word ‘Communication’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Communis’ and ‘Communicare’ where Communis means common, commanility or share whereas Communicare means to make common. It is a discipline of knowledge. It associates every poeple in systematic way which enables to share feeling, ideas, etc.
Communication is a process of sharing informations, thoughts, knowledge, etc where there is participation of two parties i.e. sender and receiver by the use of code of symbols. The success or failure depends on both sender and receiver. The sender may be an individual or a group or an institution. In communication process, the sender encodes the message and send it through a channel or medium (something that carries codes such as natural, artifactual and mechanical) and the receiver decodes the message and sends a feedback to the sender. Miscommunication may occur if the sender does not share the information properly or the receiver does not decode properly.
Meanings of communication by various scholars:
According to DeFleur and Dennis, “Communication is the achievement of very similar or parallel meanings in the person initiating a message and those receiving it.”
According to Berger, “The term Communication is held to involve some kind of transfer of information from one person to another or to a group of other people.”
Its significance in the human society
As communication is needed for every living beings, thus it has playing a vital role in the human society. Interaction among the people is impossible without communication. Culture also plays a vital role in the communication. In order to make the communication success proper encoding is needed which is understood by the receiver. In a society, different people speaks in different languages. Language is also important for the proper communication. For communication to take place, both the sender and the receiver must understand the language being used. For example, if a person from USA comes to visit the village of Nepal there will be miscommunication because using the language which not understood by the receiver. There should be proper use of codes to make the communication success.
Communication is the base of the society. Its impossible to have social interaction, economic and political activities without it. Communication is the locus that holds soceity together. Many things are to be shared in the society and thus there is to be communication between the people or the group.
Thus communication is a most in human society.
2) Why does miscommunication occur? Discuss with the special reference to essentials of communication. Also give examples.
To make communication successful, there should be good co-operation between sender and receiver, selection of appropriate channel, correct encoding and decoding and receipt of desired response and feedback. Thus, miscommunication can be defined as when the sender doesn’t communicate enough information to the receiver then the receiver misinterprets the meaning of certain words or gestures. If the sender does not use proper code and also the proper channel to communicate then the receiver can not decode properly and thus miscommunication occurs. According to DeFleur et al, “ Distortion is an outcome of communication in which the source’s intended meanings become compounded with, or displayed by, unintended implications as the receiver reconstructs the meanings of the message.”
There are various essentials of communication for effective communication process. Followings are the essentials of communication:
a) A common communication environment
b) Cooperation between the sender and the receiver
c) Selection of an appropriate channel
d) Correct encoding and decoding of the message
e) Receipt of the desired response and feedback
Communication environment can defined as the setting in which the communication is taking place. Miscommunication may occur due to the failure of selection of proper environment. For example, if seminar on a certain topic is done in a bus station then it would not be effective when compared to that of done in a seminar hall.
There should be a good co-operation between the sender and the receiver for making the communication effective. Non-cooperation between the sender and receiver is yet another cause for the miscommunication.
Channel is something that can carry codes. It travels the message to the receiver. The wrong selection of channel causes the miscommunication. If television or radio is not used to give information to a mass of people of a country, then the information is not communicated to the people of the country. So selection of an appropriate channel is also an essential of communication.
The sender should use proper codes such as language is a code. Similarly the receiver also has to find the original message by reversing the coding process. For a communication to be successful, both the sender and the receiver should be able to understand the language equally efficiently.
Sometimes, being unable to receive the desired feedback also hinders proper communication.
3) Why have you chosen media studies for your higher education? Elucidate
Since few years my hobby has been photography and news reporting is also became one my interest. I chose hotel management in +2 because I wanted to know how the hotels would operate. But I didn’t go to Kathmandu for my higher study because I don’t like its environment and the environment of my hometown i.e. Dhulikhel is good and Kathmandu University is not far from my home and it was my luck or the co-incident, K.U. has been opening admission in media studies where I can spend all my 4 years and experience more in the field of media (mass communication). I wanted to study more about news reporting and photography which I can get it from K.U.
Thus I came to choose media studies for my higher education.
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