COMMUNICATION PROCESS, PRINCIPLES, AND ETHICS

Communication is the transmission of ideas and emotions between or among

persons with the use of verbal and non-verbal cues. Communication may vary from
spoken and written words but also actions, mannerisms, and style- anything
attached to a message that gives meaning.

 COMMUNICATION PROCESS

 NOISE IN COMMUNICATION
- Anything that interferes with the communication process between a
speaker and a receiver or audience.

Types of Noise
 Physical Noise
- It is a communication disturbance created by the environment. Therefore,
physical noise is also known as environmental noise in the communication process.

 Physiological Noise
- It is a barrier created by the communicator’s physical condition. Usually,
physical illness and weakness produce physical noise and this noise obstacle to
effective communication. 

 Psychological Noise
- It is a communication barrier created from the communicator’s values,
beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour. This type of noise interrupts our minds to
concentrate on listening.

 Semantic Noise
- It  is a communication barrier created from confusion over the meaning of
words. It comes from complex, technical, or grammatical errors in communication.
Semantic noise occurred because of different meanings of the message between the
sender and receiver. It also refers to the wrong grammatical sentence that makes
the receiver unable to understand the meaning.

 Cultural Noise
- It is a communication barrier created from the wrong explanation of
another person’s behaviour. Actually, cultural noise is produced due to the wrong
meaning of messages; therefore, it is a little similar to semantic noise. Especially,
cultural noise is created from the nonverbal communication of people from different
cultural backgrounds.

 ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION
1. PARTICIPANTS
- The participants refer to both the speaker and the listener. Speakers share
ideas by transforming their thoughts and feelings into messages while listeners
receive, interpret, and respond to the message.
2. CONTEXT
- Context refers to the interrelated conditions of communication (Padilla et
al., 2003) which affect how people understand the message.
3. MESSAGE
- The message refers to the speaker’s meanings, ideas, and feelings. The
message can be delivered by the speaker verbally or non-verbally and then received
and interpreted by the listener based on his/her personal ideas and feelings.
4. CHANELS
- The speaker sends messages through channels which transmit his or her
ideas and feelings to the listener. The two major channels are visual (light) and
auditory (sound). The visual channel enables communicators to send and receive
visible information such as hand gestures, bodily movements, and facial expressions.
The auditory channel, on the other hand, enables listeners to receive information
and interpret it through the tone, volume, and pitch of the speaker’s voice.
5. NOISE/INTERFERENCE
6. FEEDBACK
- Feedback is the reaction or response of the listener. The response of the
listener can be verbal and non-verbal such as murmuring, nodding, clapping, or
giving a standing ovation.

 NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION

1. KINESICS deals with the body language movements, facial expressions, and
gestures.
2. PROXEMICS refers to the amount of distance and space used in a
communication situation.
3. HAPTICS deals with communication through touch
4. CHRONEMICS involves the role of time in communication.
5. APPEARANCE refers to the physical look that conveys a message. How a person
looks conveys a message.
6. ARTIFACTS are simply objects used as tools to convey a message. These include
pictures, maps, and other objects which a person may use in communication.
7. PARALANGUAGE refers to the non-verbal cues of the voice such as volume,
pitch, intonation, and tone.

 GUIDELINES IN COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY

As a speaker, follow the guidelines below:
1. Use concise and simple words.
2. Take note of the environment where you are speaking and adjust your voice
accordingly.
3. Use verbal and non-verbal means to get your message across clearly.
4. Consider your listener’s context. State your message in a way which can be
easily understood.
5. Pay attention to our listener’s non-verbal cues. These signals can tell you
whether your listener is bored, disinterested, or fascinated.
6. If your listener does not understand your message, try to rephrase your
statement or use gesture.
7. After speaking, give your listener a chance to share his/her feedback.

As a listener, follow the guidelines below:

1. Practice self-awareness by being conscious of your own behaviour, feelings, and
habits when listening to a speaker. This will help you structure your feedback
and message once it is your turn to speak.
2. Avoid being distracted by listening actively and paying close attention to the
speaker.
3. Use non-verbal cues, such as nodding, to show that you are listening.
4. Focus on the speaker and maintain eye contact during the conversation so that
the connection between you two run smoothly.
5. If unsure of what you heard, clarify with the speaker if your understanding of
the message is right before responding.
6. Provide feedback to let the speaker know that you listened to and understood
what he/she said.

PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION
1. Trustworthiness
- Effective relationships are built on trust and with respect to communication,
trust that both parties are applying the same principles. Without a sense of trust, it
may be difficult to really engage in meaningful communication.
2. Active Listening
- Active listening means being focused entirely on the person speaking, and
not interrupting or starting to fashion your own response before someone has
finished his/her sentence.
3. Non-judgmental
- Judging others is not a good basis for building relationships. It is very easy to
say that we should be non-judgmental, but an extremely difficult principle to live by.
4. Value Difference
- Value the different contributions that people you interact with bring to your
relationships. Their opinions may be different but not better or worse. If you can
create a trusting environment, whereby people know that their contributions will be
valued, they are not being judged, people are respectfully listening to them and
appreciating their input, that what they say remains confidential and that they are
being listened to fully, you create an environment for active engagement and fruitful
relationships.
5. No Assumptions
- People can interpret words they hear in a way that was not intended by the
person who said them. If someone says one thing and another takes those words to
mean something completely different, communication has not occurred.
6. Authenticity
- Be truthful in your communications. We communicate in a number of ways,
not just by the words we use. How we say things and movement of the body all have
a bearing on the message that is conveyed to the listener or observer.

 10 BASICS OF ETHICAL COMMUNICATION

1. Seek to “elicit the best” in communications and interactions with other group
members.
2. Listen when others speak.
3. Speak non-judgmentally.
4. Speak from your own experience and perspective, expressing your own
thoughts, needs and feelings.
5. Seek to understand others (rather than to be “right” or “more ethical than you).
6. Avoid speaking for others, for example by characterizing what others have said
without checking your understanding or by universalizing your opinions, beliefs,
values and conclusions assuming everyone shares them.
7. Manage your own personal boundaries: share only what you are comfortable
sharing.
8. Respect the personal boundaries of others.
9. Avoid interrupting and having side conversations.
10. Make sure that everyone has time to speak, that all members have relatively
equal “air time” if they want it

COMMUNICATION AND GLOBALIZATION

 Globalization is the process of interaction and integration between people,

companies, and governments worldwide. It is primarily an economic process of
interaction and integration that's associated with social and cultural aspects.
Globalization has affected us in numerous ways especially with how we
communicate.

 Globalization relies on media as its main conduit for the spread of global culture
and ideas. The relationship between globalization and media must be unraveled
to further understand the contemporary world. Lule (2014) describes media as
“a means of conveying something such as a channel of communication”.
Technically speaking, a person’s voice is a medium. However, when
commentators refer to “media” (the plural of medium), they mean the
technologies of mass communication.
 Connecting with people on the other side of the world is now much easier than
it was a few years ago. Satellites, fiber-optic cables, and internet make it
effortless to share information with those in different time zones and locations.
Global communication is directly affected by process of globalization, and helps
to increase business opportunities, remove cultural barriers and develop a
global village. Both globalization and global communication have changed the
environmental, cultural, political and economic elements of the world.

Increased Business Opportunities

- Many companies today hire employees that are located in other countries.
Using communication vehicles such as video calling make it simple to converse with
colleagues across the globe, almost making it feel as if they are in the same room.
Technology also makes it easier to connect with suppliers and customers all over the
world, and to streamline those relationships through improved ordering, shipment
tracking and so on. With this kind of communication technology, many businesses
are able to take advantage of opportunities in different countries or cities, improving
the economic outlook on a global level.
Thanks to global communications, information itself can be transferred as a
valuable business asset from one country to another. This has the effect of making
everyone's operations more modern and efficient, regardless where they are
located.

Fewer Cultural Barriers

- Many people perceive culture to be the root of communication challenges.
When people from two different cultures try to exchange information, the way they
speak, their body language or their mannerisms can be interpreted differently by the
other person. The way people approach problems and how they participate in
communities is all influenced by culture.
Globalization has made it possible, for example, for someone in Japan to understand
how someone in the U.S. goes about their day. With television and movies, cultural
barriers are becoming less prevalent. Being able to communicate effectively and
frequently with colleagues or friends across the planet helps people understand each
other’s cultures a little better.

Creation of a Global Village

- You’ve likely heard of the phrase "global village," coined by theorist
Marshall McLuhan. Affected both by globalization and global communication, the
global village is created when distance and isolation no longer matter because
people are connected by technology. Wide-spread telephone and internet access
have been life-changing for many people across the world, especially those in
developing countries. Many are now enrolling in universities across the world
without having to leave their desk chair. Virtual assistant jobs are becoming
commonplace, where employees from developing countries work with companies in
North America or Europe, providing administrative support and other business
services that can easily be conducted over the phone or via the internet.
 Globalization and global communication have made it easier to see people on
the other side of the world as a neighbor, instead of a stranger from a faraway
land. There is so much knowledge about other countries and cultures available
online, that it’s no longer a complete mystery.

LOCAL AND GLOBAL COMMUNICATION IN

MULTICULTURAL SETTINGS

DIVERSITY refers to the differences in race, age, gender, income, religion and
ethnicity among others.

GLOBALIZATION requires that we pay attention to these differences as the global

community is formed.

GLOBAL COMMUNITY refers to the people or nations of the world, considered as

being closely connected by modern telecommunications and as being economically,
socially, and politically interdependent.

As the world moves to globalization, intercultural communication, an interaction

with individuals from different cultures, is possible.

 FORMS OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

a. Interracial Communication: Interpreting and sharing of meanings with
individuals from different races
b. Interethnic Communication: Interaction with different ethnic origins
c. International Communication: Communication between persons representing
different nations
d. Intracultural Communication: Interaction with members of the same racial or
ethnic group or co-culture as yours

 CULTURE AND CO-CULTURE

CULTURE is a system of knowledge, beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts
that are acquired, shared, and used by members during daily living.

CO-CULTURE refers to the cultures within a culture. It is composed of members of

the same general culture who differ in some ethnic or sociological way from the
parent culture.

The means by which co-culture members attempt to fit in with the members of the
dominant culture is called assimilation.

Meanwhile, the means by which co-culture members maintain their cultural

identity while striving to establish relationships with members of the dominant
culture is called accommodation. On the other hand, separation is when co-culture
members use to resist interacting with members of the dominant culture.
While ethnocentrism is the tendency to see one’s own culture as superior to all
others*, cultural relativism is the acceptance of other cultural groups as equal in
value to one’s own. Cultural awareness is being cognizant that there are different
cultures based on religion, ethnicity, nationality, and other factors that have various
attitudes and outlook.

CULTURAL SENSITIVITY involves accepting those differences without insisting your

own culture is better, or that everyone should do it your way

 CULTURAL AWARENESS AND SENSITIVITY GUIDELINES

1. View human difference as positive and cause for a celebration
2. Have a clear sense of your own ethnic, cultural, and racial identity
3. Be aware that in order to learn about others, you need to understand and be
prepared to share your own culture
4. Be aware of your own discomfort when you encounter differences in race, color,
religion, sexual orientation, language and ethnicity
5. Be aware of the assumptions that you hold about people of cultures different
from your own
6. Be aware of your stereotypes as they arise and develop personal strategies for
reducing the harm that they cause
7. Be aware of how your cultural perspective influences your judgments about
what appropriate, normal, or superior behaviors, values and communication
styles are
8. Accept that in cross-cultural situations, there can be uncertainty, and that
uncertainty can make you anxious. It can also mean that you do not respond
quickly and take time needed to get more information
9. Take any opportunity to put yourself in places where you can learn about
differences and create relationship
10. Understand that you will likely be perceived as a person with power and racial
privilege, and that you may not be seen as unbiased or as an ally.

Along with the cultural awareness and sensitivity, it is important to understand that
there is an equally important concept known as gender sensitivity. This terms refers
to the aim of understanding and taking account of the societal and cultural factors
involved in gender-based exclusion and discrimination in the most diverse spheres of
public and private life.

Gender-sensitive language is the realization of gender equality in written and spoken

language. It is attained when women and men and those who do not conform to the
binary gender system are made visible and addressed in language as person of equal
value, dignity, integrity, and respect