Introduction to Communication
I became aware of the importance of communication only a year ago. In the past, I defined
communication only as an ability to express thoughts. Surrounded by people who think that a
degree in communication is useless, I was ignorant enough to be one of them. Leading me to
take a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics strand, dreaming of taking a medical
course. However, during senior highschool, I was lucky enough to have a Media and Information
Literacy subject which introduced me to communication. It convinced me otherwise and made
me choose my current course, communication arts.
The first topic discussed in the Introduction to Communication Media subject is the introduction
to Communication. The two types of communication is the verbal communication, divided into
oral and written communication, and non-verbal communication includes facial expression, eye
contact, posture, gesture, body shape, smell & touch, silence, sign language and even
paralanguage, which is the closest to the actual communication where we use our voice in
uttering words. Some may not consider non-verbal communication as important as verbal
communication but actually, without the support of the former, the latter may not be effective.
For example, when a person is bragging about himself being too confident and not feeling any
nervousness for his upcoming performance, however his body language tells otherwise as his
palms begin to sweat and he starts to walk back and forth. It only contradicts his statement and
therefore, others won't believe him.
Additionally, It is also important to understand who you are communicating with as
communication has two dimensions: the context and the relational. Knowing the different
formality levels which are Intimate, Colloquial or Casual, Consultative, Deliberate and Frozen,
will also help to avoid confusion and make the communication as effective as possible because
it sets boundaries which should not be crossed. One example is a student who consults her
teacher about her project shouldn't treat her teacher with intimacy just like how she treats her
lover, friends or family.
Forces of Communication are as important as the others. It helps to identify the locutionary or
input/ message, illocutionary or the intended meaning which sometimes doesn't match with the
perlocutionary or the perception of the receiver resulting in miscommunication. When this
happens, most of the time people who have a higher understanding capability is the one who
makes adjustments and tries to simplify their message or expound more details about it. Setting
a proximal distance as each communication has specific kinds of messages also contributes in
indicating the relationships between the locutionary and receiver. For example, intimate distance
is usually used for love making and wrestling and indicates a very close relationship that is not
considered proper in public. Other proxemic distances like personal, social and public which
distances helps locutionary have their personal space as it indicates how far away you should
be when talking. Another example of this is when someone is having a consultative
conversation with a therapist, we can see that a table is between the therapist and the patient,
there's more space and the patient can't just sit in the lap of the therapist as it would invade
each other's personal space and will be uncomfortable for the both of them.
