A communicative process involves the exchange of data.
Communication consists of the emission and reception of messages between two or more people or animals. Those who communicate seek to contribute and obtain information about a certain issue.
The set of activities linked to this exchange of data is known as the communicative process , therefore. This process requires at least one sender and one receiver . The sender sends certain signals (a written text, words, a gesture) to spread a message ; When these signals reach the receiver, he must decode them to interpret the message . The process contemplates a “return” of the message, through which the receiver will become the sender, and vice versa.
Code and channel
Within the framework of this communicative process, the sender and the receiver share a code (a combination of rules and signs that allow communication to take place) and appeal to a channel to transmit the message (the physical medium: from the air to a paper, passing through a digital support). If the process is difficult for any reason, it can be said that there is noise in the communication.
The most complex communication process is the one developed by human beings . In this case, communication begins with a psychic activity: the message arises from thought and is expressed through language . In the development of communication, the individual's psychosocial skills to communicate come into play.
Example of communicative process
An example of a communicative process takes place when a man picks up the phone and calls a friend to wish him a happy birthday . The man who calls places himself, in the first instance, in the role of sender and uses the telephone as a channel.
When the receiver hears it and answers, he becomes the sender. In this way, throughout the communication process, both people will exchange roles on numerous occasions.
A telephone call can make it possible to establish a communication process.
The importance of context
Context is one of the main elements of the communication process, although its importance is often overlooked. These are all those events and circumstances that can affect the sender and the receiver when the message is being broadcast or interpreted, with the consequent alteration of its meaning.
The components of the context are the messages that have taken place before the current one and the following ones (which together are called linguistic context ), the time, space and sociocultural circumstances in which the communication takes place, that is, education and culture of the interlocutors as well as any event outside the communication process that may affect it in one way or another and that determines the appropriate interpretation of the message.
In other words, it is not possible to isolate a message from its context , since this affects it before its creation, during its broadcast and when it is interpreted. Certain topics that were not discussed in public a few decades ago due to social prejudices are part of the most common conversations today, and can be understood thanks to sociocultural advancement and the tools we receive in the daily exchange of information, unlike what would have happened in said past time.
Other components of the communication process
It should be noted that the communicative process depends on more factors than its constituent elements. The type of relationship that exists between the sender and the receiver, the interest of both parties in the issues to be discussed and the will that each one has to play their role effectively.
In the same way, communication can evolve and go through different phases when the results are satisfactory: a message that begins as oral can give rise to a gestural, sound, visual or written one, and transcend in time and space.