Communication Terms and Concepts 

1. Communication is the process of simultaneously sending and receiving symbolic messages between individuals. (Valenzan 18)

2. Communicator (Sender/receiver) - the participants in communication.  Typically the roles reverse regularly.

3. Message - a single uninterrupted utterance. Verbal or nonverbal

4. Code - a system suitable for creating/carrying messages through a specific medium (e.g. Morse Code, HTLM, a spoken language like English, emoticons, etc.)

   • encode (put into code) and

   • decode (take out of code)

5. Medium (face-to-face, television, web, phone, etc.) - the form or technology of transmission — determines the kind of code used.

6. Channel (verbal, nonverbal, 105.9FM, etc.) - The specific mechanism (“pipeline”) within a medium used to transmit the message.

7. Noise - interference with message — external (physical), internal (mental) or semantic (misunderstanding/reaction)

8. Environment (part of context) - that which surrounds and provides a basis for the meaning of a message:

   • Physical  (surroundings)

   • Temporal (point in time)

   • Relational (the existing relationship between communicators - friends, strangers, etc.)

   • Cultural  (language, customs and the behavior community the communicator(s) come from)
      

9. Feedback - checks the effects of messages

   1. positive feedback - "keep doing what you’re doing"

   2. negative feedback - change what you’re doing.
       

Works Cited

Valenzano, Joseph and Stephen Braden.  CThe Speaker: The Traqdition and Practice of Public Speaking.  Southlake, TX: Fountainhead Press, 2012. Print