Communication: meaning, types and characteristics
Communication is the two-way sharing of meaning between sender and receiver through a channel, completed by feedback. It can be verbal or non-verbal, formal or informal.
The communication cycle
- back to Sender
Without feedback it is one-way transmission, not complete communication.
Types of communication
| Basis | Types |
|---|---|
| Medium | Verbal (oral and written) and non-verbal |
| Number of people | Intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, public, mass |
| Formality | Formal (official channels) and informal (grapevine) |
| Direction in an organisation | Downward, upward, horizontal (lateral), diagonal |
| Flow | One-way (linear) and two-way (interactive, transactional) |
Models NET asks about
| Model | Year | Key idea |
|---|---|---|
| Aristotle | 4th century BCE | Speaker-centred: speaker, speech, audience |
| Lasswell | 1948 | Who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect |
| Shannon and Weaver | 1949 | Linear; introduced noise; called the mother of all models |
| Osgood and Schramm | 1954 | Circular; both parties encode, decode and interpret |
| Westley and MacLean | 1957 | Adds the gatekeeper role in mass communication |
| Berlo (SMCR) | 1960 | Source, Message, Channel, Receiver |
Characteristics
- Two-way and transactional: both parties send and receive.
- Continuous and dynamic: a process, not a one-time event.
- Irreversible: once said, it cannot be unsaid.
- Inevitable: even silence and posture send messages.
- Symbolic and contextual: meaning depends on shared symbols and setting.
- Goal-directed: to inform, persuade, instruct or entertain.
NET asks you to sequence the process (sender → encoding → channel → decoding → receiver → feedback), match models with authors and years, and classify types by direction or number of people.
Typical MCQ: “Which element was introduced by the Shannon-Weaver model?” Noise: any interference that distorts the message between sender and receiver.
Typical MCQ: “A principal's circular to the faculty is which direction of communication?” Downward communication: from a higher to a lower level of the hierarchy.
Lasswell's five Ws: Who says What in Which channel to Whom with What effect. Berlo is just SMCR: 'Send Me Clear Replies'.