COMMUNICATIONS ART II

COMMUNICATION ART 11

BY

EGURIASE S. M . OKAKA

Any communication disseminated in this world or beyond must have a process or channels through which the information gets to us. This process is the medium we intend to consider. The ability to get a message or information transmitted to an heterogeneous audience brings completeness in such process. This is where we can say of the Mass Media as a vivid channel in getting messages across to a large number of people at the same time.  

We can say of communication as the dissemination of information from person to person or from place to place as the cast may be. This can only reach a few people, it can only be better still when a disseminated information can reached a mass audience; that is when we employ the use of mass media to get to a large number of people at the same time and place as the case may be.

Therefore, we can refer to Mass Communication as that information or message sent via a mass medium like radio and television, books and magazines, films or a mixture of these. What makes mass communication ‘mass’ is the ability of the communication to get to a large number of people at a time. This could be a large audience benefiting from a lecture delivered by a lecturer. What differentiate mass communication from every other type of communication includes: the sender, the message, the receiver and the medium.

Let us consider the host politician who delivered his manifesto without the aid of mass media will not be able to communicate his information to a large number of people who were not present at the venue of the message, on the hand, if he employs the use of mass communication his message will be deliver to a large number of people. This explains why every government wants to control one mass media or the other because of the mass nature of their policies made for the masses or mass audience. We shall consider the peculiarities of communication.

PECULARITIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION

            A variety of peculiarities single out mass communication from other kinds of communication, which includes:

1.      Mass Medium: The mass medium makes it possible for messages to reach far beyond the immediate proximity of the receiver. The mass medium includes: Radio, Television, Newspapers, and Magazines etc. The mass medium can also be seen as the vehicle which carries the information across to the immediate surroundings of the sender. The human voice for example can only reach out to a shorter distance without the aid of a microphone or public address system. On the other hand, a mass medium like radio can get the information across the globe.

2.      Limited Sensory Channels: The presence of mass medium limits the numbers of sensory channels open to us which we can draw from. That is, if you are listening to a person talking you need absolute concentration with all your senses involved and at alert but with mass communication we can only see and hear a person communicating without having a physical contact with him. After the deliverance of his manifesto by the host politician, we might have the opportunity to socialize. Mass communication does not provide for such opportunity as we can only see or hear them without having a physical contract with them.

3.       Impersonal versus Personal Communication: Another peculiarity of mass communication is that it is mostly impersonal.  In order to comprehend this concept compares message exchange through Interpersonal communication. Initial meeting between strangers are mainly interpersonal but as strangers get to know each other better, the communication among them become more personal. With mass communication those involved are usually unfamiliar with each other, the information are therefore more impersonal.

4.      The Gatekeeper Concept: The presence of mass communication requires additional person. Most organizations and institutions helps to carry messages from Speakers to the audience,  for example, if a reporter writes a story about an event he covered he sends it to the editor who edits the story. Both the reporter and the editor who help to relay the message through the mass medium are called Gatekeepers. (i.e., the reporter and the editor) They are so referred because they have mediated the story the reporter reported through editing.

A Gatekeeper is any person or formally organized group directly involved In the exchange or transferring of information from one individual to another through a mass medium. A Gatekeeper can be a film producer who cuts a scene from the original script, a network censor who deletes a scene from a prime time show because it is perceived as too sexually explicit. A director who determines what segment of films to use in a documentary, a newspaper executive who determines the topic from an editorial or any other individual in the processing or control of messages disseminated through the mass media.

Gatekeeper is a word originated by an Australian psychologist Kurt Lewin. He used it to link individual or group of persons who control the movement of news segment in the communication channels. Let us go a step further by explaining that gatekeeper includes any organization whose main preoccupation is the conveyance or transmission of information from one person to anther via a   mass medium. Hope we have understood the concept? Let us take a look at the duties of the gatekeeper:

1.      To refine the information through editing before it is disseminated.

2.      Inclusion of details in an information received.

3.      Giving information a different twist.

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

There are three types of human communication which include:

1.      Intrapersonal communication: Our primitive parents relied on their senses in other to fathom out their universe and initiate ideals to help them adjust to the ever changing environment they live in. for example, they built fires places in cold weather to keep them warm and on hot weather, they looked for shelter to cool them down. During the process of sunlight penetrating the eye and communicating clarity to the central nervous system, the tactile sense organs communicating sensation of cool air, the reflection process of choosing to accommodate the cold or set up a fireplace, remain inside or venture outside   were all the effect of communication taking place within the same person. Electrochemical actions are involved in the process intrapersonal of communication. It is communication within human being.

Intrapersonal communication is the foundation of all other kinds of human communication. Individuals and other organism cannot function effectively in their environment without potential system of intrapersonal communication. The implication is that such individual cannot receive communication from sources outside itself. it can be said that intrapersonal communication is a communication within oneself. Soliloquy is a perfect example.

2.      Interpersonal communication: This refers to the communication between two or more persons (i.e.) the sender and the receiver. This communication can be best described as our day to day communication or conversation. Simply put, it is a face to face type of communication which requires a reaction or feedback to what was communicated between the persons involved.

3.       Mass Communication: This is the information sent through the mass media to a large people as we have discussed above. Let us take a step further as we look into the factors which can impede easy communication flow in a modern world like ours.

FACTORS AFFECTING EASY COMMUNICATION FLOW

There are factors affecting the easy flow of communication especially mass communication, they include:

(a)   Language Barrier: Your language helps to carry your message across to wherever you are sending it across to. That is why language can be refers to as a vehicle of thought.  When two people are communicating to each other in two different languages unknown to them, there is band to be an impediment in the communication. For instance, a Yoruba broadcaster broadcasting in Yoruba to a Hausa audience. There is going to be language barrier between them as both will not understand the broadcast because both Yoruba and Hausa are two different languages.

(b)   Power Outage: Since communication is a product of electricity. We always need electric power to power our electronic appliances which include most sources of communication.  When a news broadcast is going on and there is power outage midway into the news that will impede the communication passed. This can stop the people from getting information that will be beneficial to them. Power is the bedrock of any society or country and when there is no electricity in a country, there will be a fall in so many sectors of the economic. Power is the life wire of an economic.

(c)    Aberrant Communication: This is a situation where the sender and the receiver have no understanding in respect of a communication passed. The essence of any communication is to achieve a purpose or a reaction which often is the reply of the message received. When there is no understanding in the communication sent we say there is an aberrant communication. This can distort the free flow of communication anywhere such condition exists.

(d)   Lack of Feedback: Feedback shows that a message was passed and received and was acted on. Where there is no feedback it gives an impression that the message was not received because no action was taken on it. So we can say that Feedback is the reaction to a message sent and received. There are two types of feedback,  they include:

(I)                 Instantaneous Feedback: This is a communication system that gives feedback immediately a message passed is received.

(II)               Delayed Feedback: This is a communication system where the reply of a communication is delayed until later date. E. g. it is usually on television programs, radio programs, newspapers or magazine etc.

(e)   Noise: Since Noise is anything added to a communication or a message that was not originally intended to be there. It means that any addition to a message becomes noise and this impede the soothe flow of communication in any medium.

(f)     Heterogeneous Audience: This is sending messages to a large audience, which may be different in character or divers in so many ways, especially in ideologies and language or mode of comprehension. Sending messages to this group of people may be a heavy task when sending message to.  That is why heterogeneous audience may be difficult when sending messages to some times.

(g)   Speech Impairment: This can be psychological or otherwise. It is a disability in speech. When a newscaster is a stammer for example, he cannot pass a clear message across without stammering. Firstly, he can make the news uninteresting by his or her incessant stammering which can create apathy in the minds of the listeners.    

FACTORS WHICH ENHANCE MASS COMMUNICATION

As easy or difficult as it may seem to us from what we have seen and learnt so far it may surprise you to note that certain factors still affects the free flow of mass communication as we did study previously, we shall now  look at those factors which can enhance mass communication:

1.      Commonality: This is a factor that states that when communication is shared between people of like attribute it enhances free flow of the communication. Both the sender and the receiver have a common ground of understanding. Sharing the same commonality go a long way in enhancing communication in all ways.

2.      Voice Vocalization: This is the ability to speak loud and clear. It is very important when passing oral communication. The actor on stage needs this to convince his audience, the politician needs it when campaigning to the people. In either ways, we all partake in one form of communication or the other. Good vocalization can enhance and beautify your communication.

3.      Speech Fluency:  This is closely associated with voice vocalization. A newscasters who has this as her quality will no doubt have an edge over her peers in news casting.  Speech Fluency can promote a person’s personality in the public and it’s a good asset of communication and a very important tool which every communicator should possess.

4.      Feedback:  This is another pertinent tool which enhances communication; it provides an opportunity to react to information passed between the sender and the receiver. Feedback gives an assurance that a message has been received and reacted to. It enhances communication when one knows that messages sent are received by the receiver and reacted on..

5.      Clear Signal: Clarity of signal arouses interest in a television program and when there is a bad signal it often creates lack of interest in a program. Clear signal greatly enhances communication and it is very important when passing information through the air-waves.

6.      Language; Language help to transport information to wherever you are sending it to. It is seen as a vehicle of thought and a pivot on which the wheel of communication rotates. Since language carries your thoughts or message to and fro then it will be wrong for a Yoruba man to communicate a vital message to a Hausa man in Yoruba language. The right way would be to pass the message in the language that both the sender and the receiver will understand.

7.      Good command of English Language: English language is the lingua franca of most Anglophone countries. When communicating to these people it is only wise to have a good command of English for a better understanding of the message you are passing across. It is presumed that everybody understands English as a language which is their official language and any communication made in English language is most welcomed and reacted to.  

From what we have seen so far, communication does not end in our bedrooms but go further than what we expect or where we expect it to get to. If we want it to go far we should use the necessary channels. If we want it to reach a heterogeneous audience, it is too possible.

By

Eguriase S. M. Okaka