Functions & Models Of Communication

• Functions of communication


  • To gain self-understanding and insight into others
  • To form meaningful relationships
  • To influence others
  • For career development
  • To Improve Health
• To gain self-understanding and insight into others


  Through communication we can reveal to others what is important to us and what we stand for, as well as learn what is important to them and what they stand for. We depend on communication to develop self-awareness.
• For career development


  Employers complained about lack of communication among interview candidates. If we develop communication skills, we have the abilities to speak so that others listen, listen when others speak, critically evaluate what you read and hear, adapt to differences in cultural perspectives, handle conflict, solve problem, make sound decision which important in order to be a valued employers. Among the most important skills employers seek in hires are communication skills (listening, oral and written), interpersonal skills, teamwork, problem solving skills, multicultural sensitivity, and adaptability.
• To Improve Health


  Having a social support system like good friends and supportive family members seems to make a difference in our overall health and quality of life. Good friends and intimate relationships with others help us manage stress and contribute to both physical and emotional health. For example, terminally ill patients with limited number of friends or little social support die sooner than those with stronger ties. Loneliness also contribute to heart disease, high blood pressure, troke, depression, lower quality sleep and impaired judgment.
• Linear Models


  Portray communication as flowing in one direction, from a sender to a receiver
• Linear models suggest that speakers only speak and never listen and that listeners only listen and never send the messages
• Interactive Models


  Show that communicators create and interpret messages within personal fields of experience
• Interactive Models


  • Adding field of experience and feedback allowed Schramm and other communication scholars to develop models of communication as an interactive process which both senders and receivers participate actively
• A serious limitation of interactive models is that they don't acknowledge that everyone involved in communication both sends and receives messages, often simultaneously
• Interactive models also fail to capture the dynamism of communication
• Transactional Model (Wood, 2010)

  Unlike the previous ones, this model portrays each person's field of experience between communicators as changing over the time
• Transactional Model


  • As we encounter new people and grow personally, our field of experience expands
  • This model does not label one person a "sender" and the other a "receiver". Instead, both people are defined as communicators who participate actively in the communication process
  • At a given moment in communication, you may sending the message, receiving a message, or doing both at the same time (interpreting what someone says while nodding to show that you are interested)
• Transactional Model


  • While giving a press release, a speaker going to see whether the audiences seem interested with the points shared; both the speaker and the reporter are "listening" and both are "speaking"