Chapter 3 has the wonderfully broad title of “Communication”. There were a few interesting points that I liked throughout the chapter. Does understanding= communication? A common place question in the field of communications. While understanding is desired, communication unfortunately occurs. Misunderstanding can create a lot of problems for a company, which is why PR reps must be the best communicators in a company. Well what if a company just doesn’t communicate with its publics? Other than the company completely failing, I hate to break it to them but by not communicating you are communicating. It communicates a lack of interest in your publics opinion.
The Goals of communication are to :
-Inform, persuade, motivate, and to build mutual understanding.
In a globalized society it is very hard to make sure the meaning isn’t changed when it is transferred from an American social/business context to a Chines/Italian/Korean social context. Two ways that I think are best, discussed in the book, to control the meaning of a message are to: use the proper medium and account for receiver’s bias.
The medium is the message. This statement has many implications in our highly digital age. The way you send your message may mean many things to the receiver. If it is a television message than you must take into account the connotations a television has. This can be said about all mediums such as the internet, telephones, and face-to-face interaction.
Receiver’s Bias plays a huge role in globalization. Not only is it hard to determine the receiver’s bias in your home country, but the precognitions and predilections of your receivers can be harder to identify as you traverse social realms. receiver’s bias are based upon 5 things:
1. Stereotypes: as true as they may appear to be, receivers often base actions off of the actions set forth by a stereotype of a person or thing; not the thing itself.
2. Symbols: be careful what symbols you associate with your message as they carry a lot of emotionally charged meaning in their receivers. Associations with symbols can occur on accident, but the meaning can stick or be ironic.
3. Semantics: the connotation of one word is usually different from person to person. These connotations are usually based on our personal experiences.
4. Peer Groups: the majority creates the truth. This along with the last aspect I will highlight play a major role on how receivers establish truth in a message. Our peers have a large influence on our opinions, whether we know it or not. When crafting a message social truths and trends must be accounted for.
5. Media: this aspect focuses on how the media can create truth and ultimately a reality. By selecting what we see and are exposed to the media acts as a filter or interpretation of reality. Media trends are important to consider.
