Communication
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
"If, as it appears to me, a book is communication, the author is only one link in a unity of different readings." --Georges Bataille from his essay "Sur Nietzsche". --tr. unidentified |
Illustration: a close-up of a mouth in the film The Big Swallow (1901)
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Communication is a process that allows beings - in particular humans - to exchange information by one of several methods. Communication requires that some kinds of symbols from a kind of language are exchanged. There are auditory means, such as speaking or singing, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch or eye contact.
Communication happens at many levels (even for one single action), in many different ways, and for all beings, and some machines. Many or all, fields of study dedicate some attention to communication, so when speaking about communication it is very important to be sure about what aspect of communication one is speaking about. Some definitions are broad, recognizing that animals can communicate with each other as well as human beings, and some are more narrow, only including human beings within the parameters of human symbolic interaction.
Nonetheless, communication is usually described along a few major dimensions:
- Content (what type of things are communicated)
- Source (by whom)
- Form (in which form)
- Channel (through which medium)
- Destination/Receiver (to whom)
- Purpose/Pragmatic aspect (with what kind of results)
Between parties, communication content include acts that declare knowledge and experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts may take many forms, including all variations of nonverbal communication. The form depends on the symbol systems used. Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be oneself, another person (in interpersonal communication), or another entity (such as a corporation or group).
Depending on the focus (who, what, in which form, to whom, to which effect), there exist various classifications. Some of those systematical questions are elaborated in Communication theory.
History
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The history of communication technologies (media and appropriate inscription tools) have evolved in tandem with shifts in political and economic systems, and by extension, systems of power. Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange, to full conversations and mass communication. The history of communication itself can be traced back since the origin of speech circa 100,000 BCE. The use of technology in communication may be considered since the first use of symbols about 30,000 years BCE. Among the symbols used, there are cave paintings, petroglyphs, pictograms and ideograms. Writing was a major innovation, as well as printing technology and, more recently, telecommunications and the Internet.
See also
- Animal communication
- Biocommunication (science)
- Biosemiotics
- Cross-cultural communication
- Historical linguistics
- History of art
- History of writing
- Message stick
- Plant communication
- Proto-writing
- Telecommunication
- Telepathy
- Visual communication
