What is Communication ? Types, Functions & Essential features

Communication can be defined in many ways. Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another or to many people, whether verbally or non verbally. Communication from one person to another is commonly depicted as a simple triangle consisting of the sender, the message and the receiver.

• Save

Types of Communication

Peo­ple com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er in a num­ber of ways that depend upon the mes­sage and its con­text in which it is being sent. Choice of com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nel and your style of com­mu­ni­cat­ing also affect communication.

Types of communication based on the communication channels are

Ver­bal communication 

It refers to the form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion in which mes­sage is trans­mit­ted ver­bal­ly either through words of mouth or a piece of writ­ing . It is fur­ther divid­ed into oral com­mu­ni­ca­tion and writ­ten com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

1. Oral Com­mu­ni­ca­tion :- It includes face to face con­ver­sa­tion ‚tele­phon­ic con­ver­sa­tion ‚video ‚radio ‚TV voice over inter­net . The pitch, vol­ume, speed and clar­i­ty of speech influ­ences oral communication.
2. Writ­ten Com­mu­ni­ca­tion :- It refers to the com­mu­ni­ca­tion in which mes­sages can be trans­mit­ted through let­ters, emails, Report, memo etc. Mes­sage in writ­ten com­mu­ni­ca­tion is influ­enced by the vocab­u­lary and gram­mar, writ­ing style, pre­ci­sion and clar­i­ty of tha language.

Non ver­bal communication

It refers to the com­mu­ni­ca­tion oth­er than oral or writ­ten. It May include ges­tures, body lan­guage, pos­ture or facial expres­sion. Fol­low­ing ele­ments come under non ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

1. Appear­ance — A speak­er or char­ac­ter’s cloth­ing hair­style and use of cos­met­ics can con­vey a lot about him/her . the sur­round­ing like room size ‚light ‚dec­o­ra­tion a char­ac­ter’s sta­tus or frame of mind.
2. Body lan­guage — it includes pos­tures, ges­tures amd facial expressions.

There are further two main categories of communication based on style and purpose.

For­mal Communication 

In For­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion cer­tain rules, con­ven­tions and prin­ci­ples are fol­lowed while com­mu­ni­cat­ing mes­sage. For­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion occurs in for­mal and offi­cial style usu­al­ly pro­fes­sion­al set­tings, cor­po­rate meet­ing, con­fer­ence under­go in for­mal pattern.

Infor­mal Communication

Infor­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion is doe using chan­nels that are in con­trast with for­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels. It’s just a casu­al con­ver­sa­tion. It is estab­lished for soci­etal affil­i­a­tions of mem­bers in an organ­i­sa­tion and face to face dis­cus­sion. It hap­pens among friends and fam­i­ly in infor­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion use of slang word, foul lan­guage is not restrict­ed usu­al­ly infor­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion is done oral­ly and using gestures.

The eli­ments that one needs to poss­es to make sucess­ful com­mu­ni­ca­tion are

• Reflect and improve
• Assertivenes
• Empathise
• Help­ing or facilitating
• Ques­tion­ing
• Effec­tive listening
• Self aware­ness

Essential Features of an Effective Communications:

Some essen­tial fea­tures of an effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion are

1. Clar­i­ty and integri­ty of mes­sage to be conveyed 
2. Ade­quate brief­ing of the recipient 
3. Accu­rate plan of objective.
4. Reli­a­bil­i­ty and uni­for­mi­ty of the message
5. To know the main pur­pose or feedback 
6. Prop­er response or feedback
7. Cor­rect timing 
8. Use of prop­er medi­um to con­vey the mes­sage properly
9. Use of infor­mal communication

Func­tions of Communications

The pri­ma­ry func­tion of com­mu­ni­ca­tion is to inform, edu­cate, enter­tain and influ­ence peo­ple to make them func­tions smoothly.

• Save

1. Infor­ma­tion :- It is impart­ed to us through com­mu­ni­ca­tion about our envi­ron­ment , news of war , dan­ger , cri­sis , famine etc . this com­mu­ni­ca­tion helps us in tak­ing appro­pri­ate steps to safe­guard our interests.
2. Instruc­tion :- Com­mu­ni­ca­tion also pro­vides a fund of knowl­edge exper­tise and skills give direc­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ty to peo­ple so that they can become an active mem­ber of society.
3. Per­sua­sion :- Means mak­ing efforts to change or influ­ence the atti­tude and behav­iour of oth­er per­sua­sion help to win over an con­vince oth­ers by using the best argument.
4. Enter­tain­ment :- Com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­vides enter­tain­ment through films ‚music, dra­ma art,comedy, sports etc and beings a fresh­ness in the monot­o­nous rou­tine of people.
5. Debate and Dis­cus­sion :- Com­mu­ni­ca­tion also helps in clar­i­fy­ing dif­fer­ent view­points on issue of pub­lic inter­est and come to a gen­er­al agree­ment on all mat­ters that con­cern all
6. Inte­gra­tion and cul­tur­al pro­mo­tion :- com­mu­ni­ca­tion enables dif­fer­ent indi­vid­ual groups and cul­tures to come to know each oth­er and appre­ci­ate each oth­er’s way of life.