 Namaskar! I am Dr. Juri Hazarika from Bhupen Hazarika School of Mass Communication of Krishnakanta Hondiko State Open University. I welcome you all to the program on Master of Arts in Mass Communication and Journalism. And today we are going to discuss the first paper of semester one of this program. So this first course is named as Concept of Communication. And now we are going to discuss the unit number one of this course. The unit number one is named as Concept of Communication. And after the discussions that we will hold in this particular unit, in particular session, you will be able to define the term communication, outline the process of communication and explain the seven C's of communication. So this is the first unit of the course as I have already said. And here we will try to introduce you to the basic concept of communication and how the process of communication takes place between the human beings. So all of us we know that communication is a very simple term and it transcends each and every walk of human life. And that's why it is considered as very important for the existence, very existence of the daily lives of the human beings. So this term, the communication term has been derived from the Latin roots, Communus and Communicare. So both these terms, both these concepts, they imply sharing and mutual understanding, okay, sharing of anything and the mutual understanding between the human beings. So it is something from which the concept of communication has been derived from and that's how we can understand that communication means to share any knowledge, any feelings, any ideas or information. So in the case of face to face communication, when two human beings are conversing face to face, it is merely an exchange of information. It is not merely an exchange of information, but it also includes, you know, the gestures, the expression, the facial expressions, the gestures of the hands and eyes, the language, the kind of language that is used, okay, the kind of tones, whether the tone is often, whether the tone displays anger or kindness or love. So these all things together comes into the entire process of communication and which makes the communication process successful. And, you know, the impact of this particular communication, that is, that falls on both the parties, both the communicators, that who are conversing or taking part in that communication process. And the, you know, the behavior, the personality of the persons involved in the communication process also affects the entire communication system. And vice versa, the communication system may in turn affect the behavior and personality of the persons that are taking part in the communication process. So if we move to the definition part, then communication is a very simply, we can say that it is an all-encompassing activity and it has a far-reaching, you know, importance or influence or impact on the humanity, over humanity, over human beings, okay. So in a way, we can say that it is very important and it is a driving force for the humankind anywhere in the world. Because this is a simple act of sharing and exchanging information. You know, it is important to understand the views, the feelings and interests of the fellow human beings and it in turn, you know, affects the attitudes and status of mind and the way of living in almost every part of the world. Now the communication process, it happens two ways. So first, we have to know the mental status of somebody else and the second, if we are interested in getting across our status of mind to someone, we will rely on the process of communication, okay. It is merely the sharing and receiving of the kind of feelings or information that an individual wants to share with another. So if we try to look at some of the communication definitions that has been shared over the years by different communication experts, we can see that William Schramm, William Schramm, he said that communication is sharing of experiences on the basis of commonness. Again, by commonness, he is implying the attributes, the behavioral patterns, the kind of personality that the communicators, the persons who are involved in the communication that they possess, okay. So this is just the sharing of experiences. Then Cloud Shannon, another communication expert, he said that communication is about, you know, within codes, one mind affecting the other. Again, here we are talking about, you know, the mental status, understanding the mental status of one person by another through the communication process. Then again, in 1961, Legans, he mentioned that within codes, a process by which two or more people exchange ideas, facts, feelings or impression in such a way that in such ways that each gains a common understanding of meaning, intent and use of messages, okay. So through this process, if one exchanges the ideas and feelings and, you know, whatever one wants to pass on, so there will be a, you know, it comes towards the common understanding of derivation of meaning, derivation of the intent and then in the next step, the usage of the messages that has been passed on, okay. So overall, we can say that communication is the mother of existence for human beings. Now, let us see how the communication process takes place, okay. So in our daily life, we are always making use of communication, we are communicating all the time. So if we try to understand in the technicalities of the process, we can understand that there is a person who always, you know, start the process of the communication, you know, the proceedings. So that person is described as, is termed as the sender of the messages. The word sender comes here, so we have to understand that the sender implies the person who sends the message, okay, the person who, you know, initiates the process of communication. Then on the other end of the communication process is the receiver, the person who, you know, receives the communication message, okay. For example, here we can take one example that the sender wakes up in the morning and, you know, asks another person staying in the house for a glass of water. So the sender would form a suitable sentence. The sender would form a sentence, for example, can you please give me a glass of water or kindly hand me a glass of water. So that is the message. So that particular sentence that the sender has formed in his mind and said to the other person that is the message, okay. So the other person will hear the message, hear the sentence and will try to understand, okay. Will try to understand the meaning of the sentence. So that person is the receiver, okay. The receiver will try to decode the message, okay. So these terms decode and encoding, these are important in the communication process. And based on that, the other person, if he or she understands the message and thinks of handing over a glass of water to the sender, then that person will act in that way, okay. So the act of the person or the answer of the person, the receiver is termed as the feedback, okay, the response. Then now we can come to the aspect of channel. So channel is basically the carrier of the information or the carrier of the message that we want to send to the other party, okay. So the channel may come across as the language that we use, okay. If one is, if the sender is forming a sentence in English or SMEs or Hindi or any other language, that please hand over me a glass of water. So that the language, okay, the body language, the gestures that the receiver might use to ask for a glass of water, all these can be described under the term channel. So let's talk about the words that I have already said, the encoding. That means, encoding means forming the message, okay. As I have given in the example, the sender has formed the message as can you hand over me a glass of water. So that is encoding, okay, forming the sentence, forming the message. That term can be simply understood as encoding and the opposite is decoding. That means, you know, hearing and trying to, you know, understand the message that has been given by the sender that is decoding. The receiver does the job of decoding by trying to understand, trying to deciphering the message that has been given, okay. So these are the important terms that we have to keep in mind while trying to understand the process of communication. Then again, there is another important term, that important concept we can say that we need to know that comes most of the time in the communication studies. That is the word noise, okay. So noise basically refers to the various types of disturbances, the hindrances that might take place in a communication process, that might hinder the process of a successful communication process. So these disturbances, they may cause distortions in the smooth flow of the communication process. They may hamper the proper understanding of the messages or the informations that are being exchanged between the communicators. So there are different kinds of noise, the physical noise, mental noise, psychological noises. So we will come to that in the later part of the course. So here you just need to know this term and its basic meaning that anything that disrupts the communication process during its, you know, process or during its understanding, these all are clubbed under the term called noise, okay. Now let us see the need for communication. So we already have discussed again and again that there is the basic need of communication for the existence of the environments, the physical, biological or social. So it is always important to communicate through communication only, you know, the human beings living in the social structure will be able to understand their concerns, their needs, their plans, you know, for that purpose. We can always understand the importance or need of communication for the society to have a smooth process. So communication between the different stakeholders of the society can lead to, you know, different new opportunities, okay. It can lead to the evolution of different new ideas, okay. So it has a hand in the man's evolution, you can say. So communication facilitates the flow of information and understanding between different people and different groups and which is very important for the, you know, better understanding, better functionality of a society. So communication does, you know, helps people in understanding better, you know, removing misunderstandings and creating a clarity of thoughts and clarity of expressions. So it also educates people, okay. So the sharing of knowledge and information process cannot function without the existence of communication. So it is the foundation of human relationships. It helps people to express emotion ideas and help to understand, you know, that these emotions and thoughts can, of one individual can be understood by the other. So, you know, communication, it acts as a base for any action, base for any activity, any process that emerges in the ideas in the, in the, in a society and it leads the society to take action on a particular topic or a particular issue, okay. So if we come to human communication, so we have already discussed that it has been a part of the human society, the communication has been a part of the human society since time immemorial. So communication enables humans and other life forms to interact with each other and share information. So from the very beginning of the human society there has been examples of communication taking place between different individuals, okay. So human beings, they communicate in a rich and sophisticated way. We know that we have different, we have developed language, we have developed codes. So we have different means to communicate, which is not seen in other animals. So we can say that human beings, they communicate in a sophisticated manner as compared to other species. So human communication takes place through the use of sound, vision and physical contact, okay. So sound, when we say sound, it includes speech, it includes language, okay, the sounds that we make, okay. So it'll speech and language, they form a major part of the sound. And when we say there are vocalizations, okay, when we say sound there is the clapping of hands. If we encourage somebody, we do the, you know, we clap our hands. So it is one kind of communication, like we are encouraging, we are appreciating, isn't it? There is food tapping. So there are different other sounds that are made by the human beings to express their feelings to, you know, to communicate something. So when we come to vision, vision, when we say vision, we are talking about, you know, the sight, the things that we can see. So it includes the facial expressions. If somebody is angry, you can understand by looking at the facial expressions, right. And different eye contacts, different gestures, okay. People make gestures with their eyes, with their mouth, with hands, and the body language, whether the person is offended or, you know, welcoming. So this kind of, if somebody extends the hands to, you know, you know, shake hands with you. So these are body languages that will imply something that will imply the communication, imply the messages that will bring forth the messages from one person to another. Then there is the physical contact. The physical contact includes, you know, hugging somebody, patting somebody on the back saying, yes, you have done a good job, right, handshakes when you meet somebody for the first time. These are simple, you know, formal physical contact between two persons that, you know, shows the feelings or the kind of messages that they want to share with each other. So all these three parts, you know, these are the part of the human communication, sound, vision, and physical contact. Human communication is the product of a combination of all these things. Okay, so there are body postures, gestures that we have already discussed, then physical proximity between the communicators, okay, the kind of gap, the kind of distance that two individuals keep between them, keep between them while communicating. This also gives a message. If you are conversing with somebody very close to you, the physical proximity between the two persons would be less than, you know, when somebody, two strangers are talking between themselves. So these are all, you know, the messages that can, that the symbolisms, the kind of, you know, what you can say, the things that we see in our day-to-day life, if you decode them, if you try to understand them, you will be able to understand the communication process, the technicalities of the communication process in a better way. Okay, so an important factor in the nature of relationship among the individuals, the communicators, and how will they know each other, okay. So these all forms, these all are the base for all the gestures and body postures that one might take or, you know, take into consideration while conversing with another person. Now let us discuss the different, you know, seven C's of communication, which is very important and which has been basically formed as a guideline for the choice of content and style of presentation. And this has been given by, you know, Francis J. Bergin. So let us discuss them and try to understand them one by one. The first being credibility. When we say credibility, we are talking about trust or belief, okay. So the climate of trust or belief has to be mostly formed by the communicator, the communicator, the sender has to establish one's credibility, that I am a person you can trust or the things that I'm saying are trustworthy or, you know, I'm speaking the truth. So it is a process, it is a, you know, over the years, over the over time period, the sender can form a, you know, establish one's credibility so that the messages that the sender sends or gives can be taken into full trust by the receivers. So credibility, it forms a very important part in the communication process. If the receivers do not have the full trust on the sender, then the message that has been given, it will have another kind of implication on the receiver, okay. The sender might be sending a message with something, some objectives in one's mind, but if there is no credibility of the sender, then that the objectives of the sender might not be fulfilled in connection with the receivers. So credibility that C is very important in the communication process, that is one. The second is the context. So when we say context, we are basically referring to the environment in which the communicator is sending one's message, okay. The context, the environment, the area, okay, the situation, the base upon which the communication process is taking place, basically the setting. So it is very important to know the setting, to know the base, the context, because of which the communication process is taking place. For this is necessary for the communication to be successful, okay. So if we are talking, for example, if we are talking about, you know, the political situation of the country, then we have to understand the context, okay. We have to understand what kind of government is there, what happened ten years back, what was the, what is going to happen, what is the expectation, we have to understand the kind of the kind of people that are living in the country, okay. So if we take one example, this can be one to understand the term context in the communication process. The third is the content, okay. The content basically means the content of the message, okay. When one message is sent by the receiver, what all things are there, okay, in that particular message, what are things are included in the message that is the content. For example, here in this situation, when I am teaching you about the concept of communication, the content of this message, as a sender, the content of my message is about this particular course, about the concepts that are included in the communication, in mass communication. So this is the content, okay. So it also determines the audience, okay. So this content is for the audience, only the audience, the people who have taken admission in the master degree course of mass communication, isn't it? It is not for political science students or sociology students. So this is the content, so it will determine the audience as well. So the next C is the clarity. Clarity means how easily the message is understood, how clear it is, okay, and how the things have been planned, how they have been planned in the message so that it can be easily understood by the receivers. So clarity is very important and while forming a message, one has to take into account the audience, the receiver, okay, whether they will be able to understand or not, okay. Keeping that in mind, a message needs to be formulated so that it has clarity and it will be easier to understand by the people, by the audience, by your receivers. So that is very important. Clarity is important in a while forming a message. The next is continuity and consistency. Continuity basically means since communication is a process that is unending, so you have to understand the phases, you have to give the message in a phased way, in a continuous process, okay. For example, when we are making these videos for you, we will go unit wise. First you have to understand the unit one, then there will be continuity. The continuity will go to the unit number two, then three, then four. So in that way, the process of understanding, the process of communication will be easier. You will be able to understand the things that we will learn in unit one, it will have a continuity in unit two, right. So in that way, the communication process also should have a continuity, it should go from one step to another. Then consistency, there should be a, you know, consistency, that means the messages should not be repeated, okay. It should be consistent, right. So there, something out of the blue should not come in between a particular message, then it will lose its context, it will lose the meaning and there will be no clarity, okay. The next is the channels, channel that we have already discussed. Channel basically means the medium or media through which the people will communicate. So the choice of a suitable channel for the receiver is very important. While you are communicating, you should be able to, you know, choose a channel. For example, in this particular context, I have chosen the language English to converse with you as a channel to send the message, send my message to you, okay. So because I have, you know, through experience or through understanding, I have chosen this language because I am confident that a person who has taken admission in the master degree course will be able to understand this basic English language, isn't it. So in that way, you have to decide and so that this particular channel will be suitable for my receivers. Here, another channel that we can talk about is that we have taken the channel, the media form that is the YouTube or a technical, you know, platform to send the message to you. Then again, we have decided this because we were confident that the learners, our learners will be able to access this particular video through YouTube, so it will be a suitable channel for us. So in that way, this is just an example. In that way, in every communication process, in every context, you have to be, you know, you have to choose the channel with a proper understanding of your audience, of your receiver. Only then, your communication process will be successful. The objectives of your communication will be successful only in that case. Okay. Now let's, you know, talk about the last sea of seven seas, that is the capacity of the audience. Capacity here means the ability of the audience, of the receivers to receive the message and to absorb the message, to understand the message. Okay. Whenever a sender, you know, forms a message that the sender needs to understand, to keep in mind the abilities and habits and, you know, the nature of its receivers, whether my receiver will be understand, will be able to understand my message. Okay. So keeping that in mind, we have to form our message. Okay. Keeping in mind whom we are going to address. For example, if you are talking in your home, if you are conversing with your family members, the kind of language that you will use will be totally different from, you know, from the language that you might be using in your office or in your workplace. So in that way, you have to, in a different context, you have to keep in mind the capacity of the audience. The way you will be conversing with a, you know, what you can say, a rickshaw puller. Okay. You will be conversing in a different way than somebody may be in a, you know, if you are talking with a higher ranking official in a workplace, maybe. So you will be, you will be speaking in a different manner. You will be putting different words to your messages. So in that way, you have to understand, you have to form your communication process. Okay. So communication must take into account the capability of the audience. Okay. The most effective it is when, you know, they are, they require the least effort on the part of the recipient to understand the message. Okay. So this will include the factors of availability, habit, reading availability and the receiver's knowledge based upon that the sender has to form a message. Okay. So this is what we have discussed in this first unit. So if we try to go back what, what all things we have discussed, we discussed that communication is a mutually understandable activity. It is an exchange of information between one person with one's fellow human beings with the use of different methods. Right. And we discussed that, you know, communication is an endless process and it starts with the conceiving of lives in your, you know, when one person takes birth and, you know, it continues to work throughout one's life. So this process essentially involves different elements or components that we have discussed, a sender, a receiver, a channel, or a vehicle for movement of the message or the information. Then feedback we discussed that is the response to the communication we discussed about noise or the disturbances that might interfere, you know, from a technical or human problems point of view, which might, you know, put hindrances in understanding the message. Then similarly, we would also like to perceive something only with those aspects with which we feel comfortable and we are familiar. Okay. So we actually communicate something even by not responding to the sender's messages. Okay. When if we not respond to somebody's message, somebody's, you know, communication, that is also one kind of feedback. Okay. So human beings, we communicate in a very rich and sophisticated way other as compared to other species on the planet. Then we discussed the different seas, the seven seas of communication, which are very essential elements for a successful communication process to take place. So these are the things that you need to understand in the unit number one of this particular course. So in the next video, we will be discussing the next unit, the unit number two of this particular course. Thank you.