The deeper meaning of communication and the elements that are behind it

This paper will talk about the deeper meaning of communication and the elements that are behind it when communicating to individuals every day. The breakdown of context to have a transparent assimilation on how it works and its relation to communication.

A day does not go by wherein we do not communicate with somebody. Communication is often thought of just communicating with people by talking to them, messaging, emailing and other types of verbal & non-verbal Communication. As for (Knapp & Hall, 2006) non-verbal messages are cues we send with our body, voice, space, time, and appearance to support, modify, contradict.

What most of the individuals don’t know is that there is more to just talking and messaging in the everyday communication process. In fact communication is very sophisticated, it has numerous elements that go through processes wherein nobody could actually see. Communication is just the process of conveying a message that has meaning, meaning on the other hand is something that is being decoded by the receiver, meaning is somewhat something that does not go hand in hand with communication it is just a part of communication that is essential in order to understand what is being communicated. Meaning is also negotiated by individuals within social and cultural context.

Context is when the meaning is addressed through communicating then being interpreted by an individual, Context are somewhat like circumstances that surround the message that you want to deliver to a person, a small group or a big audience. These circumstances also include the place or setting, the status or position of the people you are talking to, and appropriateness of the topic you will be talking about. For example, understand what makes a person who loves to communicate with everybody good at communication. These is basically because he knows the use of Context and its importance, or the circumstances and setting of communication. All of us may know how to communicate with each other but we may not have explored beyond how communication really works.

The way we communicate most likely changes when we are with somebody else, the events we are in or what is happening at that present moment, and wherever we are. Context is somewhat the amplifier to communication and is an essential key to making everything easier for us to decipher the data being conveyed to the decoder. The ideal communication situation is impossible to achieve, but considering its contexts as we communicate can move us closer to that goal (Littlejohn & Foss, 2010). Digging in deeper to context, everything makes more sense when understanding the various types of context and knowing that these types increase the way of using the communication more efficiently yet professionally. These contexts’ help the decoder have a wide range of perspective on what is meant to be said by the encoder and these could lead to positive or negative approaches. Context is then divided to various types such as Physical, Social, Historical, Culture, Psychological and Intrapersonal. All of them play a huge role but yet, Physical Context is one of the main context that is common but easily forgotten.

Forgotten in the sense that we live in a world that has leading edge technology such as smartphones, smart watches, laptops and many more. Technology basically affects the physical context since you miss the interaction with somebody you’re talking with. For example, having to talk to somebody on the other side of the world, you talk to them but they can only see words, they don’t have the sense of emotion or the first hand feeling especially that makes a difference when hearing the voice of somebody rather than just seeing plain texts. Gestures and other non-verbal communication falls under the effects of technology; we cannot just predict how the message of one person is delivered when in fact we don’t see how they are acting. You have less information on how they convey a certain message to you and it makes it difficult to comprehend, even more having transparencies like these can lead to miscommunication. Possibly either you are taking to somebody far away from you, it is better off to call or have a video call to send better information and you are adding real emotions since you are live with that person when talking.

Next to the physical context is the cultural context, the rest of the context just moves around these two, both physical and cultural play bigger roles than the rest, since they are often used and encountered on a daily basis. As (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2009) stated that, everyone is part of one or more cultural groups (race, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability). There are various businesses that are diverse in culture, since every now and then companies and businesses are open to various nationalities. In the Hotel Industry for an example, The business runs with the employees in it who serve their customers on a daily basis. Individuals who are in the hospitality industry come from different countries. Having these types of people coming in to apply, they must have a standard on how to speak in English or at least go in an English academy to have a feel on a different environment and immerse themselves to that culture to be more flexible with their future customers. The main problem of cultural differences is fluency to speak one’s desired language which is English, one of them may struggle when interacting and communicating in English. In cultural context this does not only apply to language or practices but values and their accords, One’s country may have a community that is free to do anything and the other may have strict rules to abide so it may be hard for other people to adjust in culture. Though the staff now are very diverse and yet flexible with each other since they try their best to be united with each other, Which may be a long term strategy to have better communication towards other individuals. To avoid discrimination.

Context plays a crucial role towards society wherein it is not only beneficial to learn in Schools but also to be applied on a daily basis when conversing with various people. This may help to have transparent messages delivered in a much more efficient way when it comes to businesses. In addition to the relation of communication to context and communication itself, it has been proven that there are various types of context.