Just like the cliché about opinions the same can be said for
definitions of communication; everyone has one and every one is slightly
different. Here are four fairly
different, yet fairly similar definitions of communication as described in
Sarah Trenholm’s textbook, Thinking
Through Communication: An Introduction to the Study of Human Communication
(2011):
1.
Communication is a process of acting on
information.
2.
Communication is the discriminatory response of
an organism to stimulus.
3.
Communication is a process whereby people assign
meanings to stimuli in order to make sense of the world.
4.
Communication is the transmission of
information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc., by the use of symbols – words,
pictures, figures, graphs, etc.
In 2008 and entered my junior year as a Communication
Studies journey and began with taking a Communication Studies 101 class. It was in this class that I remember hearing
the first definition of communication that really resonated with me,
“Communication is a systemic process in which individuals interact with and
through symbols to create and interpret meanings.” (Wood, 2004) From this definition grew my own personal
definition of communication, “Communication is an ongoing process of
interrelated parts that affect one another, and where individuals interact by
using representations to create significance.” (Pollino, 2008) All of these definitions leave plenty of
wiggle room for interpretation. Why,
because the possibilities within communication is never ending.
The Fur-Kid
I love the way that you defined communication. I like that you put it into the terms that everyone has a different definition of the word. It was also interesting to read the different definitions of communication as described in the textbook, because it is easier to see the juxtaposition when they are all laid out next to each other. I also liked your definitions that you learned in your Communication Studies 101 class, because it is interesting to see definitions from different authors as well as our Comm 105 textbook. I liked how you tied the last sentence of your post back to the title of the post, about how communication is a never ending story, because it’s so true!!
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