 In this video, we'll discuss the definition of communication and a few of the fundamental characteristics of communication. We'll also explore three models of the communication process. First, let's address the question, what is communication? Well the short answer is that communication is the process through which we attempt to make meaning by sending and receiving messages. Communication can take on a variety of forms. First we use both verbal and nonverbal channels to communicate. Nonverbal communication refers exclusively to the words that we choose. Most languages are incredibly broad and diverse, offering a breadth of options in attempting to share an idea. Verbal communication is about choosing the word that best communicates that idea. Everything else, gestures, appearance, vocal inflection, the notion of personal space, facial expressions, would all fall under the category of nonverbal communication. Another important factor is whether the communication is taking place face-to-face or via an electronically mediated channel. Face-to-face communication is very channel rich, meaning we can usually make use of all kinds of verbal and nonverbal cues. Electronically mediated communication, like text messages, email and social media, however, are more channel lean. You're somewhat limited in that you can't see facial expressions or hear the person's tone of voice in the way that you can in face-to-face communication. One more thing to keep in mind is that communication is irreversible. Once something is expressed and received, it cannot simply be erased or taken back. Have you ever had a comment slip out unintentionally or said something you immediately wish you could take back? While an apology or correction is nice, it doesn't wipe away the original comment or expression. Once it's out there, it's out there for good. Nowhere's this principle related more absurdly than in the court of law. Have you ever watched a TV show or movie where an attorney says something prejudicial or inflammatory, followed by the judge instructing the jury to disregard the comment? No such thing is possible and everyone there knows it. These explanations just begin to scratch the surface of understanding communication. We'll dig deeper over the course of this video and even further in other videos. Over the years, the study of communication has developed through three basic models of the communication process. We'll take a look at each of these models and see how our understanding of communication has changed with each one. The first model of communication that was developed was the action model. The action model of communication portrays communication as a one-way process. Communication is something that one person does to or at another person. When the other person has a response, the whole process flips around and starts anew. In the action model, communication begins with the sender. Quite simply, the sender is the person who has something they're attempting to express. The sender encodes or packages a message using verbal and or nonverbal communication to send it to a receiver. The message refers to what it is they are trying to communicate. The message can be communicated verbally, nonverbally, or a combination of both. The message can also be communicated intentionally or unintentionally. The method through which the message is communicated is called the channel. If a message is the what, then the channel is the how. What are some channels that you use to communicate? I imagine you use your voice and communicating face-to-face. Do you talk on the phone, text, post in social media, email, write it on post-it notes, use smoke signals, tap on the wall for Morse code? All of these would represent a channel of communication. When we communicate, we direct that communication at a person or persons. The person for whom the communication is meant is called the receiver, which is the fourth element in the action model of communication. It is the responsibility of the receiver to decode the message that the sender has encoded and attempt to make sense of it. The fifth and final element in the action model is noise. Noise refers to anything that interferes with the sending or receiving of a message. There are three basic categories of noise. The first is physical noise, which refers to interference from the surrounding environment. Physical noise could be audible, such as loud or distracting sounds that keep you from clearly hearing or paying attention to the message. Physical noise could also come from other sources, though, such as a room being too hot or too cold, things flashing by the window and drawing your attention elsewhere, or having to sit in an uncomfortable chair. Another type of noise is psychological noise. Those of you who are mentally making your grocery list or thinking of other things you need to get done today instead of fully paying attention to this lesson, for example, are experiencing psychological noise. Any time that we're daydreaming or our mind is simply elsewhere while someone is speaking to us, we experience psychological noise. Physiological noise is the final category of noise. As the name would suggest, physiological noise has to do with your body. Do you ever have trouble paying attention when you're hungry? How about when you're sick or you have a headache? Those are common sources of physiological noise. Hearing loss can be another source of physiological noise. So those five elements, sender, message, channel, receiver, and noise, make up the action model of communication. As scholars continued to study communication in greater depth and detail, however, they discovered that the action model didn't paint the full picture of what happens during the communication process. As a result, they developed a new model, the interaction model. The interaction model keeps all five of those original elements, sender, message, channel, receiver, and noise, and adds two more, feedback and context. Feedback is the response of the receiver to the message. Feedback can be verbal or nonverbal, intentional or unintentional, and creates a sort of loop within the communication process. Whereas the action model is a one-way street, the recognition of feedback creates a two-way process. Think of it like a ping-pong game, where the ball goes back and forth. One player sends the ball, in this case the message, across the net to the receiver. The receiver then sends the ball, now in the form of feedback, back across the net to the first person. The element of feedback allows all of this to happen as part of one inclusive process. The other new element in the interaction model is context. Context, sometimes called the environment or the situation, refers to the physical and psychological circumstances in which the communication takes place. Communication does not take place in a vacuum, it happens somewhere, at some time, between someones. You don't have the same conversation in the produce section of the grocery store that you do over romantic candlelight dinner, right? The topics are different, the tone is different, the volume is different. These things also vary when you're having a conversation with your best friend or someone you hardly know at all. This is the impact of context, knowing what is appropriate in that situation and with that person. As you can see with the addition of feedback and context, the interaction model represents a leap forward in our understanding of the communication process. It was still really a work in progress though, as you'll see, in the most current model of the communication process, the transactional model. The transactional model of communication doesn't really add or subtract any significant elements, it does, however, modify those elements to more accurately reflect the communication process. The first modification recognizes that there's not just one sender and one receiver in the process. Rather, the communicator on each side of the process is both a sender and a receiver. As a result, the transactional model changes those labels from sender and receiver to communicator A and communicator B, both of whom send messages and feedback. The other update in the transactional model is the change from simple feedback to simultaneous feedback. When we don't wait for the completion of the message to send feedback, we signal all kinds of things while the message is still being sent. Sometimes this is nonverbal, such as facial expressions, signaling shock, anger, happiness, disagreement or boredom. We also provide simultaneous verbal feedback when we interrupt someone who's speaking or prompt them by saying things like, uh-huh, and go on. The essence of both of these modifications changes our perception of communication. I compared the interaction model to a traditional ping-pong game, where you have one ball going back and forth so that one person is waiting for the other to finish before sending feedback. The transactional model, however, is more like a ping-pong game where a hundred different ping-pong balls are going back and forth all at once, as we're constantly sending and receiving messages. So how does all of this apply specifically to public speaking? Well, you tell me. Take a moment to consider which of these models best illustrates the communication between a speaker and his or her audience. Why is that? Give me your explanation. Go ahead, I'll give you a moment. If you need more time to answer those questions, feel free to pause the video now. Otherwise, let's continue. In this video, we discussed the definition of communication and a few of the fundamental characteristics of communication. We also explored three models of the communication process. Check out some of our other videos for more insight into the public speaking process.