Communication
The term 'communication' is used to describe a wide variety of activities encompassing data exchanges among humans, animals, and computers. As can be expected, no sharp boundaries delimit the field or exist within it. The study of human communication includes the study of interpersonal communications, of human languages, and of the sociological aspects of communication.
Among the ancient Greeks, communication was chiefly viewed as a subject of rhetoric. As such, the goal was to understand how a person was able to persuade another by the use of language. In the 17th century, Descartes and Leibnitz tried to find artificial languages that would improve the exactitude of communications. They thought that mathematical notation was one of such languages, but of limited application.
The theoretical study of communication received a great impulse in 1948 when two significant works were published: "The Mathematical Theory of Communication" by Claude Shannon, and "Cybernetics" by Norbert Wiener. Both contributed to the development of several models of communication. Concepts like information source, message, encoder, communication channel, decoder, and receiver formed part of Shannon's model. Communication is affected by noise (or entropy), which hamper the correct decoding of the message.
Warren Weaver emphasized that the quality of communication depends on three factors: a) the exactness with which the symbols are transmitted; b) the precision of the correspondence between symbols and meaning; c) the capability of the message to produce the desired behavior change.
Wiener observed that animals and humans modify their behavior in response to reactions perceived in the environment. This process he called 'feedback.' In communication, for example when two persons are talking, it means the signs that one person gives the other that the message was well received. It could be an answer, a nod of the head, or a wink. In Wiener's view, organisms have the ability to maintain a desired state by a feedback mechanism that permits that deviations be corrected.
Later models offer a range of theories that cover several aspects: the sequences of interactions, the type of response, and the influence of context. One example is Marshall McLuhan's theory that "the medium is the message." Noam Chomsky disapproved the mathematical treatment of Shannon as being unsatisfactory for the case of grammar construction. G. A. Miller studied human responses with respect to language and meaning. Other researchers have explored subjects as personality, credibility, cognitive consistency, and attitudes.
Interpersonal communication
In a narrow sense, interpersonal communication can be defined as those intentional interactions that make use of symbols. Whether the intended response is achieved or not, what is prioritized in this point of view is the intentionality of the act. Research in this sense has included: persuasion, personality, selective perception, credibility, and group norms.
In a wider sense, communication has been defined as any interaction by which a person influences one another, even if it is without intention. In this sense, the response of the receiver is what defines a communication, and not the intention of the sender. Nonverbal communication, such as that produced by body postures, is included in this definition, as well as the overall social environment in which it occurs.
A middle position is that in which not everything is recognized as communication, but non-verbal communication is not left out either because of its being unintentional. The key factor in this position is the significance that the persons attribute to the message exchange.
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