Communication

Introduction

What is Communication?
Communication is social process that is essential to life and fundamental to survival (Stacks &
Hockings, 1999). It permeates every level of society and influences how we think, act, and engage
personally and professionally. It is derived from the Latin word, communicare, which means
to impart or share (Merriam-Webster, 2017). One of the most important aspects of effective
communication is the use of a common language to create a shared understanding of messages
between the sender and receiver. This process can take many forms: face-to-face; through
mediated communication, such as written letters and books; or via electronic platforms, such as
computers.
Over the past 50 years, the media landscape and, consequently, the ability to communicate
to mass audiences have greatly evolved. From radio and television to the invention of the
internet and mobile technology, a range of platforms are now central to how and with whom we
communicate.
Communication studies have proven applicable in a range of fields, including business, law, film,
education, computer science, advertising, and health. In recent years, strategic communication
and promotion have gained prominence in the field of public health. Today, both approaches draw
on theories to understand human behavior and facilitate disease prevention (Rimal & Lapinski,
2009). This makes sense given that communication is essential for the exchange of information,
coordination of social actions, and the encouragement of behavior, including the dissemination of
messages to influence health and wellbeing.
Rimal and Lapinski (2009) refer to intervention efforts to change behaviors as “communicative acts”
that often include both a function of information exchange and rituals of a social community. It is,
therefore, important to understand the beliefs and value systems of a community when designing
health communication or behavior change interventions, as different audiences may interpret
messages in different ways.
Human communication is indeed complex. Its long history and varied processes have been
studied across multiple fields and practices for many years, this is a testament to the significance of
communication to human existence. From these investigations, De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach (1982)
present five major perspectives through which human communication can be viewed:
• Human communication is a semantic process. It is dependent upon symbols and rules
for their use that have been selected by a given language community.
• Human communication is a neurobiological process. Meanings for particular symbols
are recorded in the memory functions of individuals. Thus, the central nervous system
plays a key role in the storage and recovery of internal meaning experiences.
• Human communication is a psychological process. The meaning of words or other
symbols to a given individual are acquired through learning. These meanings play a role in
perceiving the world and responding to it.
• Human communication is a cultural process. Language is a set of cultural conventions.
It is a set of postures, gestures, and symbols, and their arrangements have shared or
agreed-upon interpretations.
• Human communication is a social process. It is the principal means by which human
beings are able to interact in meaningful ways. Roles, norms, and social sanctions are
understood through a system of shared values.

Definition of Communication

The way that we think about communication has evolved over the past 50 years. Kincaid (2002)
described the history of modern notions about how communication contributes to the spread of
new ideas and new behaviors:
• 1962: No formal definition of communication was widely used, but diffusion was
recognized as the process by which a new idea spreads from its source of invention to
its adopters in stages through human interaction: people communicate a new idea to
another person, who then shares it with others, and so on. With each sharing of the idea,
individuals gain knowledge, become interested, and become motivated to try the new
idea and eventually become adopters. The definition has five stages: Awareness, Interest,
Evaluation, Trial, and Adoption.
• 1971: Communication was defined as a process by which messages are transferred from
a source to a receiver with effects; this is known as the Source-Message-Channel-Receiver
(SMCR) model. Diffusion becomes a special subset of communication under this model:
the diffusion of new ideas, new practices, and innovations occurs as information is shared
through particular channels to particular audience members. Change under this definition
has four stages: Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, and Confirmation.
• 1983: As scholars began to appreciate that communication was not linear and
unidirectional, such as from a campaign to an audience, they began to define
communication as a process of interaction through which information flows back and
forth between communicators, rather than in one direction only from a source to a
receiver. Under this perspective, communication is defined as a process of convergence
in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a
mutual understanding. It becomes a two-way process of information exchange (dialogue)
rather than a one-way transfer (monologue) (Rogers & Kincaid, 1981). This realization
led to small but profound changes in the definition of communication and diffusion and
in the stages of change. Diffusion was defined as the process by which an innovation
is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social
system. The practice of implementation was added to the previous four stages, resulting
in the five-stage process: Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation, and
Confirmation.
• 1995: By this time, the convergence perspective was widely accepted. Communication
was defined as a process in which participants create and share information about a
new idea with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding. Communication
networks now consisted of interconnected individuals linked by patterned flows
of information exchange. Social systems were believed to be composed of a set of
interrelated units—such as families, neighborhoods, work units within a company, and
so on—engaged in joint problem-solving to accomplish a common goal. Horizontal and
collective diffusion—among peers and peer groups—occurred as well as vertical and
individual diffusion—from the top down, such as from leaders to community members.
The five stages from 1983 continue to be recognized: Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision,
Implementation, and Confirmation.