Musings on the complexity of human communication
I remember,
in my Introduction to Human Communication System course in my first year at the University of Ibadan,
the first words of Professor Oyewo, who taught us then…
“Communication isn’t as simplistic as we all think…”
And he’s absolutely correct…and today his words make me wonder how complex communication is.
I think communication is indeed complex.
We all engage in it, every day, without bothering ourselves with its complexities
or that our meanings can be misinterpreted or misconstrued by the receiver…
that our perceptions of ourselves can influence the choice of our words, and our perceptions of others can equally affect what we communicate or the choice of our words.
“Meaning largely resides in people,” Professor Oyewo said
during the course of the class…
it’s then our responsibility, as communicators, to ensure that what we send out is almost exactly what is understood by the receiver.
But how about the pervasive problems inherent in the channels or mediums of communication?
Or the language we use — our pronunciation, the syntactic arrangement of our words, social context, literal meaning, connotative meaning, figurative or idiomatic usage of words…
We may even evaluate the frame of reference of the people we talk to…what do they know? Their lived experiences or experiential knowledge…or the needs of the audience/receivers.
“Man cannot not communicate,” Professor Oyewo said, and those words formed an indelible print in my memory…
Human communication is ubiquitous, it’s everywhere. Pervasive and all around us.
Everything we say or do is communication, even our silence communicates a myriad of things — anger, pain, happiness, indecision, and you name it.
And then there is noise, which impedes the communication process…
And this noise can come in different forms: physiological noise, psychological, linguistic (sound, semantic and syntactic noise), physical noise…
And he said that communication is transactional — not a one-way thing. Think about buying and selling of goods and services in the market…
And communication is irretrievable, like an egg that falls and breaks.
Hence we must evaluate what we want to say in our minds before finally saying it…
“Each channel/medium requires different message packagings and specialized skill,” Prof Oyewo made us understand.
From interpersonal communication to group communication and then to public communication and finally international or global communication…wowww
The communication skill that radio requires isn’t the same as that of television…
Radio appeals to our auditory senses, and so we must ensure we use a lot of imagery, coupled with powerful storytelling, so that our audience can visualize the scenario…
And then there is public speaking, which ranks second in the list of man’s worst fears — highly specialized and demands a great skill.
A few years after, I’m learning Rhetorics in my third year and final year, and reading what makes a great public speaker…their skills and level of persuasiveness.
“Communication is never complete without feedback,” he said…and that’s true. Without feedback, we can’t decipher whether the receivers are following our words or understand our message.
But how do you evaluate feedback in print media (newspapers and magazines for instance) or in public speaking or radio/TV? It appears to be a humongous task.
Communication is sweet, yet complex. But a communicator who knows his onions can use it to achieve what he wants…this is an instrumental use of communication.
Communication has many uses…as relationship lubricant, growing business or building lives…
It was an introductory communication course and I was intrigued by the way Prof taught us. It was also my very first time to be taught by a professor at the University.
Now I’m in my final year and I’ve grown much better at it and my life has witnessed tremendous growth as a result of communication.
No wonder our departmental motto (please check the correct pronunciation of “motto”, lol) says Effective Communication, Greater Understanding.
