About Communication

A dictionary definition of "communication" reads: "the imparting or interchanging of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs."  What at first glance seems somewhat reductive here actually tells us a lot about communication.


Communication, according to the above definition, can be either


1) imparting thoughts, opinions, or information


For instance, in a lecture class, a professor communicates by imparting his knowledge.  Meanwhile, his students listen, jot down notes, and perhaps ask the occasional question; students don't respond to every one of the professor's points as if they were engaging in a conversation. The professor expresses thoughts, opinions, or information much more than his students do in this case, and he is the chief communicator.


2) or interchanging of thoughts, opinions or information


The word "interchanging" suggests reciprocity amongst people conveying thoughts, opinions, or information to each other. This second type of communication is comparable to "conversation," in the sense that more than one person involved in the situation expresses thoughts, opinions, or information.


For our podcast project, it is important to take into consideration both types of communication.  On the one hand, viewers of the podcast are like students listening to a lecture, and the actors in the podcast are like professors teaching course material.  Because viewers cannot ask us to clarify the information we present to them, we should try to make our podcast scripts easily comprehensible.  As the latter part of the dictionary definition of "communication" tells us, we can communicate not only "by speech," but also by "writing, or signs." Effective communication can only be achieved with a good mix of audio and visual cues; therefore, speakers' enunciation, tone, and body language are equally important.  


On the other hand, members of a podcast group are engaging in the second type of communication, that is, conversation.  In order for us to communicate effectively with each other, we should again try to present our ideas as clearly as possible, but also remember to listen to each other.


From this project, I hope to learn how to communicate effectively with my group members, as well as to a larger audience.  Moreover, I'm looking forward to learning how to make and edit videos, because I have no filming experience.