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