 Hi, and welcome to chapter three, Communication Principles for Group Members. Over the next few slides, what we're going to look at is some of the basics of what communication is, give you a few understandings as to how that interaction takes place, apply a couple theoretical models so that we can have a better idea as to how this works. Let's go ahead and dive in. So the first thing is to take a couple seconds here to define what communication is. Now, there is a wide variety of definitions. Recently, there was a meta analysis done, which is just a fancy way of saying that they compared a variety of different textbooks and journal articles together, and they found hundreds of different categories and thousands of different definitions. For the sake of simplicity, we're only going to look at a couple of definitions inside this class and then kind of give ourself a basic working framework to move on. So one of the most classic definitions comes from 1946 in the work of Smith-Laswell and Dee, which says that communication studies is an academic field whose primary focus is who says what through what channels of communication to whom and what will be the results. So basically we're interested in what people are saying, what channels they're saying to it, whether it's face-to-face or something mediated and what the outcome of that is. In the 1990s, the National Communication Association, which is the big organization that brings together scholars throughout the United States, got together and tried to work on a more complex definition on how to define our discipline and field. And they said that communication focuses on how people use messages to generate meanings within and across various contexts, cultures, channels, and media, as well as the field is one that promotes the effective and ethical practice of human communication. So you can see in that definition, they brought into the classic definition a little bit by expanding it to talk about generating meaning within different contexts and cultures as well as the media, but also added that additional layer of promoting the practice of ethical human communication. So not just enough that we know how to effectively communicate and how to be persuasive, but how to do that in a means which is ethically sustainable inside a given society. So for us in the class, basically we're primarily just interested in how we use symbolic communication, right? How we use these messages to create meaning with one another inside of that. And we'll talk about that next through a couple of different models. So one of the most basic models that was originally used to describe how communication functioned was the linear model of communication. Now, why this was later replaced, it's a good starting point for us to gain some insight into how communication actually functions. So if you look at the chart on your screen, you'll see that on the left-hand side, there is a bubble that is labeled sender. The idea in the linear model of communication is that a sender would conceptualize ideas in their mind, encode them into symbols, the symbols being words or written communication, and send those symbols out across a channel. And that channel is where the message then travels to a receiver. That receiver would then receive the symbolic communication, decode it, and hopefully have some idea as to what the original idea was that the sender was trying to convey. However, that as that message traveled across the channel, whether that channel was face to face or some form of mediated communication, noise would get in the way. And really what noise was is just anything that could ultimately impact the communication that we're talking about. And this might have been, for example, actual physical noise, if it was like something loud taking place or if you were trying to have a conversation with someone inside a noisy bar and there's a lot of music on in the background, that could get in the way. But it can also be other things. It could be that the other person lacked understanding of what you're trying to say. So there might have been linguistic differences. The other person might be sick and have a really bad headache and not be as effective at decoding and understanding the message. So noise is anything that gets in a way in sending it. Now, why this linear model of communication was useful, it had a bunch of shortfalls in that scholars said that it seemed to be problematic because it kind of conveyed the communication process as only a one way transaction of ideas when actual communication process seemed to go back and forth far more than that. So communication isn't just a ping pong game where the ball bounces to one side of the court and then comes back, but instead functions as a transactional process. As a result of that, thinking a new revised model called the transactional model of communication was created. Here you see some of the same things, right? But instead of having bubbles that say sender and receiver, we've replaced those bubbles with communicator that simultaneously send and receive ideas. And you can also see that there are these purple shaded areas. These purple shaded areas represent shared understanding between the individuals with the overlap being the place that the message can actually connect and genuine understanding is able to take place. So here a communicator is able to decode an idea, send it out across the channel and simultaneously the other communicator is communicating at the same time. So think for example, when you watch an instructor giving a lecture in front of a classroom, the instructor has a variety of ideas about their expertise. They're packaging these messages into words and saying them to you, but it's not just a one way interaction. As they send out these messages, you're sitting there giving nonverbal feedback. You may be nodding your head if it's making sense or you may be fumbling your brow and looking confused if it's not as a response to those things that instructor will probably change their communication style to be more adaptive to you. And this seems to fit better and with how communication actually takes place inside the real world. So on that note, it's important to understand that when we talk about communication, what we're talking about here is a system of symbols. So first off a basic definition, when we talk about symbols, we're talking about all of the arbitrary things that we give meaning. So as we go throughout our lives as human beings, we are cursed I suppose you could say with the fact that we are islands unto ourselves and other words that we have ideas that are trapped in our minds and we have no way to telepathically beam those ideas to other people, well at least not yet. We'll have to see if they get a Bluetooth upgrade for that at some point, I kid. That said, we use communication as a way to bridge the gap between those islands to convey ideas to one another. And so to do that in verbal communication, we have created a system of symbols that allows us to share and exchange meaning. Now these symbols can be things such as words, they can be the letters that we have put together to create those things, they can be the linguistic vocal things that come out of our mouth that mean them. The key thing here is that the things that we say to convey meaning have no essential meaning unto themselves. The word mouse only has a connection to you when I say that because we have shared agreement between us that it means the same thing, right? So when I say mouse, you tend to think of that furry little critter and then my message is conveyed. That said that since symbols can be ambiguous, there is a possible for a miscommunication, right? I say mouse, you might think of that thing that is sitting on your desk that allows you to interact with your computer and not the furry little critter that I was referring to. So there's a certain amount of abstractness to this and a chance for miscommunication and we add other qualifiers and use other symbols to try to make clear. So I might say a live mouse to give you a better idea that I'm not talking about a computer mouse inside of that. Ultimately through combining these symbols together is what allows us to share ideas and communicate with one another. So to kind of give that a little bit more nuance, when we talk about the difference between verbal and nonverbal communication, what we're dealing with is the use of symbols versus not having those symbols. So for verbal communication, what we have is that agreed upon rule-governed system of symbols that we use to share meanings. In other words, languages and things like languages that we use to share ideas inside of this. This can be contrasted with nonverbal communication which is the analog channel through which we share meaning but through other things such as sounds and behaviors and artifacts that aren't symbolically based inside that. And so this can be a variety of different things that we call nonverbal cues. And for the rest of this presentation, I'm just going to briefly take you through some of the nonverbal cues and basic categories of nonverbal communication that can be used to share a meaning outside verbal communication. So here comes some nonverbal cues. One of the key nonverbal cues that we talk about is physical appearance, right? And this can be things such as body type, hair, color, the clothes that you wear. In fact, the way that we adorn ourselves with garments and other artifacts is one of the key ways that we communicate to other people. And so the way that we dress is sending messages about who we are and that tends to be self-constructed. However, there are also societal norms as to what is expected in certain situations. And so physical appearance is one of the ways that we communicate through that channel. Another nonverbal cue is perilinguistics. Now, perilinguistics can be a little confusing at first because while we're talking about the sounds that come out of our mouth, we're not talking about the words that we put those sounds together to make. We're talking about the way in which we say them. And so if I am really angry, I'm like, what did you do? Right? The tone of my voice and saying that phrase conveys meaning inside of the actual words of what did you do? However, if I was to kind of chuckle and laugh and kind of add a layer of sarcasm into that, that also changes the level. We also talk about this in terms of being a dynamic speaker later on versus being someone who has a lot of vocal variety as to someone who is very monotone. If you ever have a chance to watch any of the videos with Ben Stein, who's featured on this slide that's on the screen, Ben Stein is kind of infamously known to be a very monotonic speaker, meaning that he has a very dry voice that tends to carry at the same level and does not fluctuate higher or lower as he goes throughout what he says. And he tends to drone on and on and on. And there's some very famous examples. If you're alive, 80s or 90s, you might have seen him in the Ferris Bueller movie or in the Clear Eyes commercial where they kind of made fun of this. So parallel linguistics, not what is said but how something is said. Kinesics is the body movement, gestures and facial expressions that you use. So as you talk, you may notice that you might be an individual that talks a lot with your hands. Those gestures can actually help to enhance or nuance the type of communication that you're engaging in. Also, facial expressions that Freud brow that we discussed earlier to express confusion also sends meaning. Haptics is the nonverbal cue that relates to perceptions as well as meanings of touch inside the way that we communicate. So this can have to do with relational distance. People tend to be relationally closer and more likely to engage in touch where if there is power distance between people they might not use it. One of the fun things I talk about in my persuasion classes is that sometimes people will use touch to create more immediacy between people. So one of the things you might notice is the next time you're at a fancy restaurant take care to see if the waiter or waitress makes a slight touch on your hand or your arm as they give you the check. This can actually be a strategy that service workers use to create immediacy and perhaps gain more of a likelihood that you will tip them better inside of this. I don't really see anything wrong with it. Tip your service field. All right, proxemics. Proxemics is the nonverbal cue that directly relates to the use of space between individuals. If you've ever had the interesting experience in your life of knowing someone who is a close talker you'll know what this means, right? This is the individual that gets really close doesn't quite seem to understand accepted norms for in our culture, for distance and space and it just kind of gets right up on you and it can make you feel uncomfortable because they're violating the norm for proximity in that given relationship. That said, how close people get together and how close they engage in communication can speak wonders to the nature of the relationship that they're in. Specifically, if you see two people sitting close to each other on a bench in a park you might be able to kind of extrapolate that like, hey, these individuals are a friend or might even be involved in some sort of romantic relationship inside that. So proxemics is how we use space to convey meaning. Chronemics has to do with how we interpret and use time inside communication. Now, across the globe, varieties of different culture use time differently and why in the United States we tend to be a very time-centric culture, the same isn't necessarily true for other cultures throughout the world. Typically in Eastern or in Latin cultures time has a very different meaning and being on time isn't necessarily valued the same inside society. That said, the nonverbal cue of chronemics can express a wide variety of things inside that such as rate of speech as well as the conveyance of pauses and the like. Last is the use of environment. Environment definitely can express a wide variety of things inside a given setting. Environments are really interesting sources of nonverbal cues. We talked a little bit about this during systems theory, but environment can convey a sense of urgency, a sense of mellowness. The classrooms inside the university setting tend to be very plain and very simple to kind of calm students down and make them focus. It's debatable as to where this is effective or tends to lead to the situation of people sleeping on desks that is depicted inside this PowerPoint slide. That said, environment can have a lot of different impacts on us. Bright colors can express that urgency if you ever go into a McDonald's, you'll know that there's a lot of reds and a lot of oranges, which tend to have the impact of people coming in, eating and getting the heck out of there. Whereas if you go into a coffee shop, you might see more calm earth tones and comfortable settings, which creates an environment of welcome come and stay for a while inside of that. Well, that wraps up our conversation about the basics of communication principles. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any other variety of methods that have been made available to you.