COMMUNICATION

Presented by:
Dr. Prakashkumar Rathod
Asst. Professor and I/C Head
Dept. of Veterinary & A.H Extension Education
 COMMUNICATION
 The most important challenge is to find out ways and
means to convey the messages to the farmers in an
effective manner
 Necessary to take appropriate decisions on adoption
of the technologies.
 Hence, it is important to understand the
communication process, extension teaching methods,
audio visual aids and their usage for effective
communication.
 The word communication originated from the
Latin word “Communis” which means
common.
 CONCEPTS / DEFINITIONS
Leagans defined communication as a process by
which two or more people exchange ideas, facts,
feelings or impression in such ways that each gains a
common understanding of the meaning and use of
messages.
Communication is the process by which the message
is transmitted from the source to the receiver
(Rogers, 1983)
Communication is anything that conveys meaning,
that carries a message from one person to another
(Brooker, 1949)
Communication is a mutual interchange of ideas by
any effective means (Thayer 1968).
 PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION
 Most of us are familiar with the five-step process
occurring between a sender and receiver when they
communicate:
1. The sender generates an idea in the mind.
2. The idea is then converted into words, pictures,
sounds, symbols, actions. This is called ‘encoding the
idea’.
3. The encoded idea is transmitted to the receiver.
4. The receiver receives the encoded message through
the senses and perceives it in the mind.
5. The receiver then decodes or converts the messages
back into meaningful ideas in his / her own mind.
 Factors affecting communication/ Key
Elements of Communication
1. Communicator
 In the context of agriculture and rural development, extension
agent is the communicator who starts the process of
communication.
 Knowledge generates through research and as such the
Research Institutes, Universities are the originators of sources
of message.
 The extension agent is the communicator, a carrier of
information.
 To enhance the process, extension agents may take the help of
some aids, known as audio-visual aids. They also carry back the
reactions of the farmers, their problems etc. as feedback
information to research for finding out solutions for the same.

 CREDIBILITY means trustworthiness and competence.
Before the audience accepts any message he will judge
whether the communicator and the organization the
individual represents, can be relied upon and is competent
enough to give the information.
2. Message
 The recommendations from research, the technology
constitute the content or subject matter, the message.
 Information which is relevant to particular set of audiences,
constitute the messages, otherwise for them this is ‘noise’.
 A good message clearly states what to do, how to do, when to
do and what would be the result.
 Messages which are relevant, interesting, useful, profitable,
credible (latest and best, based on research findings) and
complete (neither too much, nor too little) are likely to
motivate the people.
3. Channel
 The medium through which information flows from a
sender to one or more receivers.
 Face-to-face, word-of-mouth is the simplest and yet one
of the most widely used and effective means of
communication, particularly for the developing countries.
 The channels of communication may be classified into a
number of ways according to different criteria.
 According to form- spoken or written
 According to nature of personnel involved- localite or
cosmopolite
 According to nature of contact with the people-
Individual, group or mass contact
4.Treatment of message
 The way a message is handled, dealt with, so that the
information gets across to the audience.
 It relates to technique/details of procedure or manner of
performance, essential to effective presentation of message.
 The purpose of treatment is to make the message clear,
understandable and realistic to the audience.
 There will be difference in treatment of the message according
to the level of literacy, socioeconomic status and
progressiveness of the audience.
5. Audience
 The audience or receiver of message is the target of
communication function.
 Audience may consist of a single person or a number of
persons.
 An audience may be formed according to age, education,
occupation groups, farm size, social criteria etc.

 Communication to be successful must be target oriented.
 Communicator must know the target, their needs, interests,
resources, facilities, constraints, location etc.
 The attitude of the audience largely depends upon who gives
what message through which channel; to what extent the
content of the message satisfy their needs and intentions etc;,
 Communicator must be perceived as trustworthy, dependable
and having the message through the medium of their choice,
and also message must be interesting and comprehensive.
6. Audience response
 Response of the audience is the ultimate objective of any
communication function.
 Response may be in the form of action, mental or physical.
 Acceptance Vs rejection -Remembering Vs forgetting
 Mental Vs physical action -Right Vs wrong
 MEANING OF FEEDBACK
 A communication process is said to have feedback, when
the receiver of the message gives his response to the
sender’s message.
 Sending back the knowledge about the message to the
communicator is known as feedback.
 Feedback is one of the important elements of the
communication process.
 A communication process without a provision for
feedback is not an effective communication.
 An effective two-way communication occurs when the
sender transmits message and the receivers involves in
feedback to the sender which is illustrated below.
 Characteristics of feedback

 Intention
 Specificity
 Description
 Usefulness
 Timeliness
 Clarity
 Validity and reliability
 Readiness
 Problems in Communication
 Language or code
 Not listening
 Too ahead of audience understanding
 Lack of empathy
 Ignoring the leaders: Also called the concept of opinion
leadership.
 Beliefs and Prejudices
 Disorganized communication
 Inarticulateness
 Physical environment
 Life positions: Essentiality of Proper mindset
 Egoism, complacency and over-confidence
 Difference in thinking or perceptions
 Insufficient information
 Information overload
 Overconfidence
 Factors affecting Good Communication
 Homophily: Degree to which two or more individuals are similar
to each other in certain characters or factors. Ex: Education, age,
farming
 Heterophily: Degree to which two or more individuals are
different from each other in certain characters or factors. This may
create obstacle in the way of communication.
 Credibility: It refers to the perceived trustworthiness and
expertise accorded to a source by its audience at any given time.

 Competence Credibility: It is the degree to which a

communication source or channel is perceived as knowledgeable
and expert. E.g. Veterinary Doctors are having higher competence
credibility than para veterinarians.
 Safety Credibility: It is the degree to which a communication
source or channel is perceived as trust worthy. E.g. Veterinary
doctors unless otherwise popular in an area will have lesser safety
credibility than paraveterinarins or local leaders. So, the efforts of
the doctors should be such that, besides competence credibility,
safety credibility is also developed.
 Distortion: It is the transformation of the meaning of a
message by changing its content.
 Omission: It is the deletion of all or part of a message.
 Redundancy: It is the repeating of a message in different
forms, over different channels, or over time. Ex; Written
messages

 Verification: It is insuring the accuracy of a previous message.

 Noise: It is the disturbance created during communication.
 Empathy: It is the ability of an individual to project into the
role of another. More the empathy homophily will be
increased and thus it facilitates effective communication.
 Nature of Communication
 Communication is a process: dynamic, ongoing, ever-changing
and continuous
 Communication employs many means: at many levels, for
many reasons, with many people, in many ways.
 Communication involves interdependence: Interdependence
may be defined as the reciprocal and mutual dependence.
Communication is a two way process involving stimulus and
response.
 Communication process comprises a number of
distinguishable parts: In its simplest form it involves three
phases, i.e expression, interpretation and response.
 Communication takes place within participants
 Communication takes place at many levels
 Varies from one communication situation to another
 Levels of Communication

 Intrapersonal communication: Communication

within an individual or one’s self
 Interpersonal communication: Face to face
contact or communication
 Organizational communication: Distinct form of
communication at highly structured setting. It can be
downward, upward and horizontal.
 Inter-organizational : Communication between the
organizations
 Models of Communication
 Models are symbolic representations of structures,
objects or operations.
 They are useful theoretical constructs that are frequently
used in social sciences for explanatory purposes.
 They may be used to show the size, shape or relationship
of various parts or components of an object or process.
 A model may also be useful in explaining the working of a
system.

 Purpose of models
 They describe the process of communication.
 They visually show relationship among the variables
involved in communication
 They aid in finding and in correcting communication
problems
 Aristotle’s model

 According to Aristotle, communication has three

ingredients
 Speaker – the person who speaks
 Speech – the speech that the individual produces
 Audience – the person who listens
 Shannon- Weaver’s model
 Also called as mathematical model of
communication.
 According to them, communication includes:
1. Source 2. Transmitter 3. Signal
4. Receiver 5. Destination

 Compared with the Aristotelian model, the source is

the speaker, the signal is the speech and the
destination is the audience, plus two added
ingredients, it transmits which sends out the source’s
message and a receiver which catches the message
for the destination.
 Berlo’s model
 According to Berlo (1960) the model of
communication consists of
1. Source 2. Encoder 3. Message
4. Channel 5. Decoder 6. Receiver

 Code is a system of signals for communication.

Encode means to put the message into code.
 Channel means the medium through which the
signals move, the decoder means which converts
the message in the code into ordinary language
which may be easily understood.

 Schramm’s model
 According to Schramm, process involves
1. Source 2. Encoder 3. Signal
4. Decoder 5. Destination

 This model of communication is preferably

relevant for the mass media. In human
communication it is most important whether people
can properly encode or decode the signal (message),
and how they interpret in their own situations
 Leagan’s model
 The communication model of Leagans has following
elements-
1. Communicator 2. Message 3. Channel
4. Treatment 5. Audience 6. Response

 The task of communication is to provide powerful

incentives for change.
 Success at this task requires thorough understanding
of the six elements of communication, a skillful
communicator sending useful message through
proper channel, effectively treated, to an appropriate
audience that responds as desired.
 Rogers and shoemaker’s model

 Rogers and shoemaker (1971) thought of the

communication process in terms of the S-M-C-R-E
model, the components of which are –
1. Source 2. Message 3. Channel
4. Receiver 5. Effects

 According to them a source (S) and message (M) via

certain channels (C) reach the receiving individual
(R), and causes some effects (E) i.e., changing the
existing behaviour pattern of the receiver.
 Westley and Maclean’s model
 A’ is source (Eg., KVAFSU), ‘B’ is receiver or public, ‘C’
is the mass media channel (eg., E-TV Annadata),

 ‘A’ gets feedback from the public refines the message

and ‘C’ also gets feedback and refines and the total
refinements are carried out by the interpreting
source that is ‘C’ and then refined messages are
transmitted to the users.

 This is typical in a TV channel broadcast.

Eg., Annadata of E-TV does similar to explained
above.
 To sum up:
 Concepts/ Definitions
 Process of Communication
 Factors affecting communication/ Key Elements of
Communication
 Feedback and its characteristics
 Problems in communication
 Factors affecting good communication
 Nature of Communication
 Levels of Communication
 Models of Communication
Thank You