Monday, December 2, 2013

Communication and Media

 What is communication    The common usage of the term communication refers to a process of transmitting information which can be misleading. This widely used model that has faced significant criticism was developed in 1949 by Shannon and Weaver. Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver never knew anything to do with social science but were employees at Bell Telephone Labs in US working as engineers. This implies that the link to provide a satisfactory definition of the term communication could not be well established hence the rising criticism in the transmission model of communication (Chandler, 2009). This kind of definition was adopted to develop rather a mathematical theory than a social definition of communication. The model was integral to the study of computer science and information technology.   

The model put forward by Shannon and Weaver identified five major elements information source, transmitter, channel, receiver and the destination. The source is where the message is generated and then the message gets encoded into signals. These signals produced are adapted for transmission through a channel and a receiver reconstructs or decodes the message picked from the signal. Lastly, the message reaches at the intended destination which is in most cases humans.   

In practical situation of telephone communication, the channel consists of the wire which joins two individuals and the electrical current contained in the telephone gadget is the signal while the telephone handsets represent the transmitter and the receiver. A face to face communication like in any conversation will have the mouth to be the transmitter while the sound waves serve as the signal. Ears are obviously the receiver of the message.  Between these channels of communication, there is interruption of noise which in a telephone communication, the disruption can be caused by the noise produced by a crackling wire. In a conversation, interjection can be one good source of such interference to efficient communication. The interferences in both paradigms are termed as noise (Chandler, 2009).    In Shannon and Weaver model, the listener and the speaker is exclusively the source and the destination of the message. This model does not represent the speaker and the listener as the transmitter and the receiver. The transmission model of communication can be termed as the mechanistic approach to defining the meaning of communication as just a process of information transmission which is not humanized.

What is mass communication    According to Hanno Hardt, conversation as a form of communication has been put under siege with the rise of new communication technologies like television, films and photography. These new tools have made the development of mass communication to be growing at a fast pace with the mass communication setting the agenda of public discourse. Mass communication has been at the forefront in determining the ideological thrust of the public but this fame is slowly fading out as a basis of a democratic being due to the decrease in trust among public members in journalism and other commercial propaganda (Hardt, 2004).    In mass communication, particular individuals determine on what is mentioned, where and the manner in which the message is transmitted. This, according to Hardt, distorts the true meaning of communication which means the transmission of direct information to the receiver from a sender.

Communication is meaningful in todays society which has been distorted with great consequences arising from globalization and other principal theories of a mass society. Communication is full of traditional oral cultures while mass communication runs short of the required ingredients for effective transmission of information. The interferences like propaganda and hindrances of access to information can be regarded as noise.

What is globalization    Globalization is one fine vehicle which carries communities from one state that is less advanced to a state of great advancement.

The term is used to refer to processes through which societies, cultures and regional economies become integrated by communication network which eventually changes the face of the entire globe. Commonly used in the circles of economics, globalization means the integration of national economies into one advanced international economy through foreign direct investment, trade, technology spread, capital inflows and migration (Daniel, 2004). In communication, the term can be used to mean the circulation of culture, language, ideas and concepts among states through processes of acculturation.   

In all dimensions of globalization, there is an enrichment of economy, technology, culture, capital and communication. This generally indicates that globalization is a wide concept which includes all the changes in the political, economical and social circles. Specifically globalization has transformed the global culture and communication means. With the advent of telephones and the powerful tools of the internet, communication can be achieved without restrictions of distance or geographical barriers. The way everyday activities are done in our society has been influenced by the changes brought by globalization.

Communication model in cyberspace    Information transmission used to be a difficult task but now it is made so easy. It is interesting that most people prefer the e-mail communication to posting the letters at the mailboxes. This is a change in culture and communication which I influenced by globalization. Communication in the cyberspace seems easier, faster and cheap. However, with the rise of hackers, the process of transmitting information through cyberspace is going to be one of the most insecure mean.

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