Levels of Communication Güven Selçuk

Levels of communication This classification is based on the number of people involved in the process. Intra-personal Inter-personal Group Organizational Mass

Intra-Personal Communication It is the communication style which an individual communicate within himself/herself. It is language use or thought, internal to the communicator. This type of communication takes place every moment that an individual lives.

The individual becomes his or her own sender and receiver, providing feedback to him or herself in an ongoing internal process. The individual uses his/her brain waves as a channel; and the outcomes are thoughts or ideas, sometimes decisions, and sometimes actions or behaviors.

So it is the communication type when an individual is thinking, imagining, solving problems, listening, daydreaming, studying, creating, contemplating or dreaming.

Some examples of intra-personal communication Day-dreaming Nocturnal dreaming (lucid dreaming) Speaking aloud (talking to oneself), reading aloud Writing one’s thoughts or observations Making gestures while thinking

A particularly interesting example is that lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming. When the dreamer is lucid, he or she can actively participate in and often manipulate the imaginary experiences in the dream environment.

Lucid dreams can seem extremely real and vivid depending on a person's level of self-awareness during the lucid dream. Also transcendental meditation, for instance, is an example of such communication.

Inter-Personal Communication Interpersonal communication defines the interactions of two or more people. The most significant setting for interpersonal communication is direct face-to face communication between two people.

Interpersonal communication is the process that individuals use to communicate their ideas, thoughts, and feelings to another individual. Interpersonal communication skills are learned behaviors that can be improved through knowledge, practice, feedback, and reflection.

Some principles of interpersonal communication interpersonal communication is inescapable interpersonal communication is irreversible interpersonal communication is contextual (such as psychological, situational, environmental, cultural context, etc.)

Group Communication Groups are the crowds which came together for the same purpose and to reach the same goals. Group communication is a system which more than two people communicates each other in the same group and effect each other with the opinions they have.

A group must have a common purpose or goal and they must work together to achieve that goal. The goal brings the group together and holds it together.

Small-group Communication refers to the nature of communication that occurs in groups that are between 3 and 12 to 20 individuals. Small group communication generally takes place in a context that mixes interpersonal communication interactions with social clustering.

Large group communication is a general description for organizational communication as a communication context describing large numbers of individuals who are members of a group.

A company is a large group communication context with specific media, language codes, and methods of interaction that distinguish it from other companies or other groups. Unlike small-group communication where members interact in primarily synchronous and personal ways, large groups use a host of synchronous and asynchronous methods and media.

Organizational Communication Organizational communication is a subfield of the larger discipline of communication studies. Organizational communication, as a field, is the consideration, analysis, and criticism of the role of communication in organizational contexts.

It is the communication which aims people working together to achieve individual or collective goals. People can relate to each other only through some form of communication.

The survival of an organization depends on individuals and groups who are able to maintain among themselves effective and continuing relationships. If we can understand organizational communication, we will understand the organization itself.

The field traces its lineage through business information, business communication, and early mass communication studies published in the 1930s through the 1950s. Until then, organizational communication as a discipline consisted of a few professors within speech departments who had a particular interest in speaking and writing in business settings.

The current field is well established with its own theories and empirical concerns distinct from other communication subfields and other approaches to organizations. In the 1950s, organizational communication focused largely on the role of communication in improving organizational life and organizational output.

In the 1980s, the field turned away from a business-oriented approach to communication and became concerned more with the constitutive role of communication in organizing. In the 1990s, organizational communication scholars focused more on communication's possibilities to oppress and liberate organizational members.

Mass Communication Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time.

Mass communication is ‘mediated’ through a specific set of technologies which stand between the senders and receivers. There may be greater questions of influence and power when the scale of communication increases. When this wider mode of communication gives rise to technologies, the real immediacy of interaction is lost.

It is usually understood to relate to newspaper and magazine publishing, radio, television and film, as these are used both for disseminating news and for advertising. Mass communication is characterized by the transmission of complex messages to large and diverse audiences, using sophisticated technology of communication.

Mass communication is seen as institutionalized production and generalized diffusion of symbolic goods via the transmission of information or symbolic content, it is explained as a communication which is directed to or reaches an appreciable fraction of the population.

Five characteristics of mass communication (Thompson, 1995): Firstly, it comprises both technical and institutional methods of production and distribution. Secondly, it involves the commodification of symbolic forms as the production of materials relies on its ability to manufacture and sell large quantities of the work.

Mass communications third characteristic is the separate contexts between the production and reception of information. The fourth is in its reach of those “far removed” in time and space in comparison to the producers.

Finally, mass communication involves “information distribution”. This is a “one of many” form of communication, whereby products are mass produced and disseminated to a great quantity of audiences.

Mass Media '' the methods and organizations used by specialist social groups to convey messages to large, socially mixed and widely dispersed audiences''. (Paul Trowler, Investigating Mass Media, p. 1)

They are complex formal organizations They are directed towards large audiences They are public (content is open to all) Their audiences are heterogeneous They can establish simultaneous contact with very large numbers of people