INFORMATION/FOOD
FOR THOUGHT

THE COMMUNICATIVE PROCESS *

            “Communication is a process of inducing others to interpret an event, fact, opinion, or situation in accordance with the intent of the speaker. Certain objective facts can be expressed so they are not readily misunderstood. Thus, if you say, ‘Yesterday I put one hundred dollars in the First National Bank’; understanding can be taken for granted. When on the other hand, you say, ‘My religious and political views are liberal’, it is doubtful whether either you or your listener has a precise notion of what is meant, and it is certain that each has a somewhat different understanding of the meaning.”

            “When you speak to others, you cannot transfer meanings from your mind to theirs. You can only use symbols that have approximate meanings and that will be heard and interpreted by listeners who are bound to understand them in terms of their own – not your - own experiences, abilities, and preconceptions. You cannot deliver a speech to an audience with anything like the definitiveness with which you could deliver a bag of peanuts. If you try defining love, hate, idealism, or success, you will realize how difficult it is to find ways to make their meaning clear even to yourself, let alone to others. It is not strange that when communication is undertaken, misunderstandings are frequent.”