Communication Between Cultures

Components of Human Communication

Having defined communication and briefly explained its key ingredients, we now

expand our analysis to include a discussion of the basic characteristics of communica-

tion. As was the case with the examination of definitions and ingredients, a few intro-

ductory remarks are in order. First, communication has more characteristics than we

can discuss in the next few pages. Just as a description of a forest that mentions only

the trees and flowers, but omits the wildlife and lakes, does not do justice to the

entire setting, our inventory is not exhaustive. We, too, are forced to leave out some

of the landscape. Second, as noted in the introduction to this section on communica-

tion, while the linear nature of language forces us to discuss one principle at a time,

keep in mind that in reality the elements of communication are in continuous inter-

action with one another.

Communication Is a Dynamic Process

You will notice that the words“dynamic process”were contained in our earlier defi-

nition of communication. The words“dynamic”and“process”were linked to remind

you of a number of factors related to communication. First, the words indicate that

communication is an ongoing activity that has no beginning or end. Phrased in

slightly different terms,communication is not static. Communication is like a motion

picture, not a single snapshot. A word or action does not stay frozen when you

communicate. It is immediately replaced with yet another word or action. Second,

communication is a dynamic process because once a word or action is produced, it

cannot be retracted. Once an event takes place, thatexactevent cannot happen

again. The judge who counsels the jury to “disregard the testimony just given”

knows that such a mental activity is impossible. T. S. Eliot expressed it poetically

when he wrote,“In the life of one person, never the same time returns.”Third, the

phrase“dynamic process” conveys the idea that sending and receiving messages

involves a host of variables,all in operation at the same time. Each of the parties to the

transaction is reacting to the other by seeing, listening, talking, thinking, and perhaps

smiling and touching the other, all at

once. As Andersen states, “These

forces do not work in isolation from

one another, nor are they purely addi-

tive. Instead, one force may counter-

balance or sharply change the nature

of the other.”^6

Communication Is Symbolic

You will recall that our definition of communication mentioned the importance of

symbols to human interaction. Earlier, we alluded to the truism that there is no direct

mental connection between people. Of course, this means that you cannot directly

access the internal thoughts and feelings of other human beings; you can only infer

what they are experiencing by what you see and hear. Those inferences are drawn

from the symbols people produce.In human communication, a symbol is an expression

CONSIDER THIS

What is meant by the phrase“Communication is a dynamic

process”?

30 CHAPTER 2•Communication and Culture: The Voice and the Echo

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).