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Chapter 1
Introduction to Communication
CHAPTER OUTCOMES
In this chapter, students will learn:
• What communication is and how the communication process works
• The goals that communication helps them achieve
CHAPTER OUTLINE
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
Lots of people believe that communication is just “common sense.” But people are not born knowing how
to communicate well. Instead, they become good communicators by learning about communication
concepts and theories, building skills, and practicing in their everyday lives. You can take the first step
toward becoming a competent communicator by learning what communication is and why it matters.
DEFINING COMMUNICATION
Communication is the process through which people use messages to generate meanings within and
across contexts, cultures, channels, and media.
• There are five features of communication:
1. Communication is a process that unfolds over time through a series of interconnected actions.
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2. People engaged in communication and use messages to convey meaning. A message is the
3. Communicators choose from many different modalities––or forms—for sending and receiving
messages. These include face-to-face interaction, photos, social media posts, and texting, along
with other interactions such as email, handwritten notes, or phone calls.
4. People communicate through various channels. A channel is the sensory dimension along which
communicators transmit information. The most common channels are auditory, visual, and tactile.
5. Communication occurs in a seemingly endless variety of contexts, or situations. In each context,
WHY YOU COMMUNICATE
Communication also helps you meet the following goals:
1. Self-presentation goals involve presenting yourself in certain ways so others view you as you want
them to.
3. Relationship goals help you build, maintain, or terminate bonds with others.
COMMUNICATION MODELS
• Communication scholars developed communication models to examine and describe how
communication works.
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• Each communication model doesn’t necessarily represent good or bad ways of thinking about
• Three examples of communication models include:
1. The linear communication model was the first formal model of communication and was created
more than 70 years ago by engineers at Bell Labs to explain how information is transmitted
across telephone lines. It views communication as an activity in which information flows in one
direction, from a starting point to an end point.
• The linear model contains several components:
o The message
o The channel
o The sender(s) is the individual(s) who generates the information to be communicated.
The sender packages it into a message, and chooses one or more channels for sending it.
2. Online communication is a type of communication that fits well within this model. But the linear
model doesn’t accurately explain other communication forms such as face-to-face conversation
and doesn’t account for the back-and-forth flow of such encounters.
3. The interactive communication model views communication as a process involving senders and
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• Feedback is the verbal and nonverbal messages coming from recipients in response to
• Fields of experience consist of the beliefs, attitudes, values, and experiences that each
participant brings to a communication event. People with similar fields of experience are
more likely to understand each other than are individuals with dissimilar fields of experience.
o Classroom instruction and group presentations are examples of forms of communication
that may also be viewed as interactive.
4. The transactional communication model holds that communication participants constantly
exchange verbal and nonverbal messages and feedback to collaboratively create meanings. It
helps illustrate how we often build communication collaboratively, rather than simply receiving
or sending messages.
• The transactional communication model intuitively captures encounters that seem
“interpersonal” in nature.
STUDYING COMMUNICATION
Now that you have a better understanding of what communication is, let’s look at how people have
studied communication throughout the ages, and the types of communication that teachers and scholars
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focus on today. Understanding the past, present, and future of the communication field will help you
apply what you learn to your everyday life.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION
The communication field has ancient roots; seemingly modern concepts evolved from the past.
Communication in Antiquity
• Communication is an academic discipline that goes back thousands of years and that traverses many
different cultures.
• Rhetoric is the theory and practice of persuading others through speech, and it became a formal
discipline of study in ancient Greece and Rome almost 2,000 years after Ptahhotep.
• Socrates and his student Plato were among the first to debate the nature of rhetoric. They believed:
o That rhetoric was a practical skill that people could gain through experience.
• Aristotle, the best-known ancient Greek scholar, taught that effective persuasive speakers should:
o Demonstrate credibility.
o Provide logical reasons.
o Appeal to the emotions of the listeners.
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o To honor
• Cicero also outlined the five requirements of speech crafting and presentation still in use today:
o Invention: reasoning out truth to make your case compelling.
o Arrangement: organizing the information you want to present.
Communication in the Early Twentieth Century
• Throughout the era stretching from ancient Rome to the early twentieth century, communication
scholars stayed focused on rhetoric.
• Harold Lasswell was a political scientist who detailed four persuasive aims of governmental
propaganda:
o Create hatred against the enemy
o Preserve friendship with allies
• Elton Mayo, a Harvard business professor, examined the effects of coworker interactions on
productivity, giving rise to the human relations movement and the recognition that supportiveness is
crucial for competent workplace communication.
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Communication after World War II
• Immediately following World War II, interest in the field of communication exploded, mostly owing
to the use of mass media propaganda during the war. Each side had harnessed film and radio to send
messages on a massive scale to their populations, convincing them that their cause was just and that
the enemy was “evil.”
• By the early 1970s, dozens of communication and speech communication departments existed and
were teaching classes in the traditional areas of public speaking and rhetoric, but also were
introducing new areas such as mass media effects, communication in relationships, group discussion,
and organizational communication.
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
Communication can be divided into four broad types:
1. Mediated communication is separated (“mediated”) by some type of technological device. You use
mediated communication when you make phone calls, tweet, send text messages or emails, use
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2. Interpersonal communication is communication between two people in which the messages
exchanged significantly impact their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationship. Through
3. Small group communication involves three or more interdependent persons who share a common
identity (such as membership in a team) and who communicate to achieve common goals or purposes.
Small group communication involves unique challenges that often include the need to coordinate
4. Public communication, or public speaking, is the process of preparing and delivering a message to
an audience to achieve a specific purpose. Examples can range from giving a talk to a youth group or
presenting a project idea to your coworkers over video conference.
• Although these four types of communication differ in terms of their main purpose, the number of
people involved, and their nature (linear, interactive, transactional), they also are connected to
one another in that they all:
o use of messages to generate meanings.
o are affected by the communicators’ views of themselves and perceptions of others.
COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE
Communication is a choice. How you choose to phrase your messages, display your facial expressions,
and even approach a conflict is up to you. Each time you make such a choice, you have the opportunity to
strive for competence. This can help you set the stage for success in your own life.
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UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE
• Communication competence means consistently communicating in the following three ways:
1. Appropriateness is the degree to which your communication matches expectations regarding
how people should communicate. In any setting, norms govern what people “should” and
“shouldn’t” say, and how they “should” and “shouldn’t” act.
• We judge how appropriate our communication is through self-monitoring: the process of
observing our own communication and the norms of the situation in order to make
appropriate communication choices.
b. Low self-monitors don’t assess their own communication or the situation. They prefer
encounters in which they can “act like themselves” by expressing their values and beliefs,
rather than abiding by norms.
• One of the most important choices you make related to appropriateness is when to use mobile
devices, and when to put them away. When you’re interacting with people face-to-face, the
priority should be your conversation with them; if you prioritize your device over the person
in front of you, you run the risk of being perceived as inappropriate.
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o Competent communicators know that overemphasizing appropriateness can backfire. If
you always adapt your communication to what others want, you may end up making poor
choices.
2. Effectiveness is the ability to use communication to accomplish the three previously discussed
type of goals:
• self-presentation
• instrumental
3. Ethics is the set of moral principles that guide your behavior toward others. You are ethically
obligated to avoid intentionally hurting others through your communication.
• Communication that’s intended to erode a person’s self-esteem, that expresses intolerance or
hatred, that intimidates or threatens others’ physical well-being, or that expresses violence is
unethical and therefore incompetent.
• In communication situations that are simple, comfortable, and pleasant, it may be easy to behave
appropriately, effectively, and ethically, but true competence develops when you consistently
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PUTTING COMPETENCE INTO PRACTICE
• Competent communicators know how to translate their knowledge into communication skills,
repeatable goal-directed behaviors and behavioral patterns that they routinely practice.
CHOICES AND CONNECTIONS
When you’re communicating, everything you say and do counts—and is connected to what comes after.
There are no “take-backs” or “do-overs.” That’s why it’s so important to know how to make good
communication choices.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
• Practicing communication skills can empower you to communicate appropriately, effectively, and
ethically in your personal and professional life.
COMMUNICATION CONNECTIONS
• As we recognize the link between communication skills, choices, and outcomes, your communication
competence will be boosted by learning the connections that exist between the different types of
communication, as well as the skills that are unique to each.
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CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Review the three goals of communication (pages 6–7) and give an example of each; and then
give an example when all three might be important simultaneously. Explain your reasoning.
• This question will help students to understand that often our goals are mixed and more complex
than they might originally think. An example of when they might have all the goals is in a
2. What are fields of experience, and how might they affect a parent’s relationship with a
teenager?
• One’s beliefs, attitudes, values, and experiences are often similar to our parents’ but on some
issues they vary greatly; this is good time to point out how it affects communication. Possible
3. Chapter 1 discusses how the linear communication model works best for much of our online
communication—like tweets, emails, and text messages. Do you agree? Why? What limitations
would these types of communication have based on the model?
• Some students may not easily recognize the linear nature of online communication, and this is a
4. What is your dream job? Is being an effective communicator important in that career? Why or
why not?
• Discuss with students specific jobs that they are interested in and help them identify how
improving their communication skills will be beneficial. Many students have a hard time
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5. Your book discusses that many people believe that communication skills are just “common
sense.” Do you agree or disagree? Explain your opinion.
• This assumption may prevent students from putting the necessary effort into your class. If it is
just “common sense,” why aren’t humans better at it? Help them connect how improved
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. 30-20 Icebreaker
Goal: An icebreaker activity that helps you and your students bond while demonstrating how we are
all unique yet still have many things in common regardless of our background, age, and culture. Note:
This can be done as a whole class or in small groups. I have found that it is more challenging and fun
as a large group.
Time: 30 minutes
1. Have the class help you compile a list of 30 items about themselves that no one else in the class
has done or is. For example, one student might have 10 siblings, been to Africa, know how to
yodel—just about anything will work. To make the list everyone in the class must agree that no
2. Once the list of unique characteristics is complete, have the class repeat the activity but this time
they must find 20 items that everyone in the class has in common. For example, they all own cell
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phones, want a college degree, like fried chicken—again it could be anything. Again be prepared
for claims that this is an impossible task—but if they work hard enough they can do it.
3. Once it is done, remind them that despite our many unique characteristics we all are human and
have many things in common, and that if we dig deep enough we can find these similarities. With
2. If Only I . . . Wait, No . . . If Only We Exercise
Goal: To improve communication skills, allow students to explore the concepts of field of experience
and feedback, and improve listening skills.
Time: 60 minutes
1. This exercise requires the class to pair up, and you will need enough questions for each team to
have one card. Feel free to add your own questions or repeat questions as needed.
2. Prior to class place one of the following questions on individual cards:
a. If you were given $50,000—how would you spend it? Why?
d. If you could live during any point in history, when would it be? Why?
e. If you could be someone else, who would it be? Why?
f. If you could have your dream job in 10 years, what would it be? Why?
g. If you could have any question answered right now, what would it be? Why?
3. Randomly pair students up. Try to maximize the randomness by not pairing students who sit next
to each other.
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4. Ask each team to draw one card.
5. Give them 10 minutes to answer the question. The trick is they have to answer the question as
one. Their answer needs to a compromise—something they both can agree on.
3. Why We Communicate Skits
Goal: To reinforce and help students identify the three goals of communication.
Time: 45 minutes
1. Review the three goals of communication; self-presentation goals, instrumental goals, and
relationship goals.
2. Divide the class into groups of three or four and assign or draw for one of the three goals.
4. Historical Impromptu
Goal: To have students discover more about the history of communication and give them
opportunities to practice their public speaking and small group skills.
Time: 60 minutes
1. Divide class into groups of three or four.
2. Assign each group one of the following names:
a. Ptahhotep
b. Socrates
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g. Elton Mayo
3. Each group has 15 minutes to use their electronic devices to find information about each person,
select interesting or informative information, and present as a group to the class. Each group
4. Have each group present to the class.
5. Communication Limericks
Goal: To have students review the different parts of the communication process, work on small group
skills, and have a little fun.
Time: 25 minutes
1. Make several copies of the following example of the meter of a limerick:
Da DADA da DADA da DADA,
2. Divide class into groups of five.
3. Assign each group one of the following words:
a. Communication
b. Message
4. Have each team create a limerick that contains their word and explains it as well.
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MEDIA RESOURCES
1. Why Study Communication?
This six-minute video explains why someone should study communication by discussing what
2. Transactional Communication
3. Communications—What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
This humorous three-minute video demonstrates a variety of examples of communication failures in
4. Are You Up on Cellphone Etiquette: Do’s and Don’ts
5. Self-Control and Self-Monitoring Test
Have students take this 20-minute self-monitoring quiz to see if they are high or low self-monitors to