 As my friends will happily tell you one of my greatest irritations is when there's a situation where there's some miscommunication occurring and somebody says oh, we've had a communication breakdown because In reality, there is no such thing as a communication breakdown despite the fact that it's one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs of all time Communication is not like a car engine. It does not break down. It's not something mechanical that has a breakdown like that We have miscommunications, but that's not a it's not something that can break down per se now again It's a there is a specific process though to communication in which we can have miscommunications and misunderstandings and and unintended consequences through misinterpretation and so forth, but but there's no such things communication breakdown So I want to take a look today though at the process of communication the process of communication not the engine of communication but the process of communication that takes place here and so to do that I want to take a look at the transactional model of communication So this is the most contemporary most recent model of communication that we utilize and really demonstrates the different elements of the Communication process quite quite well here. So so we start off with this cool guy, right? This cool guy and and he's just hanging out He sees though that his buddy over here is doing something equally cool and he thinks to himself He thinks to himself Wow, that's so cool. That's so cool. I should tell him about how cool it is, right? I should tell him how cool it is so He does he says cool beans dude, right? He lets him know that what he's doing He thinks what he's doing is cool, right? And so there we have the beginning of the communication process So this person is communicating something to another person, right? I could be to another person could be to a group of people could be to himself But but we have the the communication process starting here So the first couple elements that we can recognize in this process are the first communicator Which we call communicator a and then the other person is communicator b, right? We call that person communicator b and we call them a and b We used to call them sender and receiver about the truth is they're both sending and receiving at all times So so they're not really a sender and a receiver. They are both senders and receivers So it's easier just to call them communicator a and communicator b to differentiate between the two the two sides of the communication here So communicator a has something that he wants to communicate to communicator b, right? And and the and what that is them the content of what that person is trying to communicate We call the message the message is what that person is trying to communicate What is the message he's trying to communicate that you're doing something really cool over there So he's this cool being student. So the message there is that cool being student. It's what he's trying to to communicate there Now he also has to communicate this somehow, right? So we have the what of what's being communicated in the message But the how comes through what we call the channel or channels. There could be more than one channel So the channel could just be you know using your voice to say so it could be that he called this person on The phone and said that it could be that he texted him left a post at no you smoke signals. Whatever The however or or whatever ways that was communicated Either way or ways that was communicated is what we call the channel the method through which the message was sent So we have this person communicator a Sending something to communicator b. That's the message and they send it through the channel and so far so good, right? But we see that this is really only one way But what if the other person after hearing, you know, cool beans did they recognize that this person like what they're doing? So they want to respond in some fashion, right? So what we know in terms of the transactional models that communication does not just flow one way as is indicated here It actually flows in two different directions. So if this person wanted to say, you know after he hears cool beans Do do you want to say hey, thanks, dude, and he does a little dab, right? Give them a little dab and in addition of that then we see that this communication really is operating in two different directions Not just one, right? So we have the message which is the the cool beans, dude But then we also have what we call the feedback Right feedback could be verbal or nonverbal response from the other person or people or whatever But whatever way that's communicated in return is what we call feedback So again, it could be verbal communication such as the thanks, dude It could be the dab which would be nonverbal communication or some facial expression or whatever Any kind of communication could be feedback in return, right? So now we have this transactional process It's a back and forth and and it's happening simultaneously. All of this is happening all at once As this person is delivering their message, they're presumably getting feedback and so forth. So so now we have the first Five elements of the communication process here. There are going to be seven total But we have communicator A, communicator B, the message, the channel and feedback are the first five So we've got a good start here. We've got the transactional part of the process going on But let's say that while this is all happening That there's there could be some construction going on in the background or there could be noisy traffic Or they're trying to pay attention and not get hit by a car or whatever Or the somebody could be watching TV or their roommates watching TV or somebody's watching TV in the other room And all of this could be distracting could be interrupting this communication could be making it more difficult To send and receive these messages, right? This is what we would call Noise anything that interferes then with the sending or receiving of those that message or feedback or interferes with that communication Is what we call noise and those little squiggly lines there indicate that it's interrupting. It's interfering there Noise could be something that we hear and oftentimes is again if there's loud construction or loud traffic or something It could be interfering with the way that or how effectively we can actually hear what's going on and be able to listen effectively But noise could also be other environmental factors like if it's too hot or too cold in the room It's hard to pay attention, right? Or it could be internal things like you're hungry or you have a headache or you're just distracted It could be something psychological like just being distracted You're making your grocery list instead of really paying attention to what the other person is saying so noise comes in lots of different shapes and sizes and formats and So but and noise is anything that would interfere with the sending or receiving of that message or feedback anything that interferes with the Communication process there would be noise So now we've got that sixth element of noise The last one that we're gonna look at here is what we call context and you can see context just kind of wraps around everything It encircles and encapsulates every part of the communication process because what we know is that communication does not happen in a vacuum, right? It happens somewhere some time some place with someone and so there are a variety of different factors involved in the context It could be things like the environment You get as it noises at hot is it cold is it is it a library? We're supposed to be quiet Well, you know, what's the situation? What's the environment in which the communication is taking place? What's the relationship between those two people? Are they best friends? Are they total strangers? Is it a parent and a child? Is it you know, somebody in a romantic relationship? So those types of things will affect what's being said and how it's being said I mean even just a difference between an acquaintance and your best friend You swap those people out and there's a totally different communication experience happening They're based on the context of that relationship. You also have the situation again. Just what's the you know Is this an emergency situation? Is this just a casual situation? Is it what's the what's the overall? situation that's in which this communication is taking place and then Culture is a big part of this as well. The culture really informs and and Influences every aspect of this communication and it's part of that context It just encapsulates everything and infuses everything with new meaning and new interpretation And so culture would also be an aspect of context to consider in this situation and in any situation so so there you have it those are the seven elements of the Transactional model of communication and really no matter what kind of communication you're engaged in whether it's interpersonal meaning You know you and one other person or if it's you know A public speaking situation where it's you and then a group of people on the other side or whether you are both people you're Communicator a and communicator b you're talking to yourself in that situation All seven of these elements are in place at all times and really are just variables then based on What makes up the context what makes up communicator b? What is the noise that's going on there? These are all variables, but any kind of communication really comes down to these seven elements as we see here in the transactional model of communication If you have questions about the this model of communication or anything else related to the process of communication please feel free to email me be happy to chat with you that way and and interact with you that way and You can be communicator a and I'll be communicator b And we'll we'll you know sort things out in that way So I hope this helps you better understand the communication process not the mechanism of communication that can't break down Right, but but it can lead to misunderstandings misinterpretations or ideally will lead to effective communication scenarios So I hope this has been informative and helpful for you in understanding the communication process