The Portfolio of Assessment is worth 40% of your final mark. Students are required to produce an online learners record which engages and reflects on theories and practice acquired in the subject of Multimedia Communications.
The marking scheme of this learners record is as follows:
Charting the student's learning experience, whether in media, film or research 20
A reflection and evaluation of Communication Theory and practice 20
Here is a clip regarding how to create a blog through blogger
There are a number of models that students will need to familiarise themselves with in Multimedia Communications. Human communication exchanges information through a medium.
Communications theory
The word communication means to share, impart or make common. It comes from the Latin word communicaire. Communication is an active process that is continually changing and evolving. How well we communicate is often determined by how easily we can share or impart information or find common ground with other people.
Language changes overtime and someone like Shakespeare may have difficulty understanding “textspeak”. Everytime we speak we put together a selection of words we may have never used before. 2 people communicating with each other may have no idea where they will end up in conversation.
What Reasons Do We Have to Communicate?
-Survival
-Co-operation
-Personal needs
-Relationships
-Persuasion
-Power
-Societal needs
-Economy (buying and selling)
-Information
-Making sense of the world
-Decision making
-Self-expression
Discuss in class examples of the reasons for communication as highlighted above. Can you give a real world example as to why any of the points above are reasons to communicate?
For Communication to be Effective:
-Effective communication is about conveying your message to others clearly and minimising dangers for misinterpretation
Example of how information can be misinterpreted
-Effective communication is also about receiving information from others, with minimal distortion
What is the communication process?
The communication process is an important process by which humans communicate with each other.
There are THREE basic elements which are central to the communication process.
1. The audience
2. The Message you want to share
3. The Channel of communication
Communication Theory Definitions
Message: The information you want to communicate Encoding: The process of transferring info you wish to communicate into a form that can be sent and decoded at the other end. Encoding is is the process by which information from a source is converted into symbols to be communicated Channel: The method used to communicate eg face to face meetings, telephones & video conferencing, letters, emails, memos, reports Decoding: the process of transforming information from one format into another, usually information sent from the sender. Receiver: Must understand your message and is at the receiving end of the communication channel. They receive decoded messages or info from the sender. Sometimes, the receiver has to decode the message themselves
Example of positive feedback
Feedback: is the verbal and nonverbal reaction to a communicated message. Close attention to feedback can give the sender confidence that the message is understood. Feeding back part of the output so as to increase the input is positive feedback; feeding back part of the output in such a way as to partially oppose the input is negative feedback.
Context: the relevant constraints of the communicative situation that influence language use, language variation, and discourse. This may include the surrounding environment or broader culture (corporate culture, international culture). It can be the surroundings, circumstances, environment, background, or settings which determine, specify, or clarify the meaning of the message
A famous still image of John McCain taken out of context in the last US election
In order for the transfer of information to qualify as communication, the recipient must understand the meaning of the information transferred to them. If the recipient does not understand the meaning of the information conveyed to them, communication has not taken place.
Shannon and Weaver's communication model
As you can see in the example below, Communicator A is sending a message to Communicator B through a medium (channel). The message is transferred through the medium and received by Communicator B. Communicator B decodes the message, understands the message and sends it back to Communicator A. Meaningful communication has taken place if the information exchanged occurs in a common manner of language that both Communicator A and B understands.
How the audience, message and channel elements factor into the communication process:
The Communication Process
Lets say the person on the left in the diagram above wants to send a message to the person the right.The man on the left has to decide what language the man on the right will need in order to understand the message.Also the man on the left has to take into account societal factors such as the relationship between them and the context of the message These 3 factors of language, relationship with each other as well as the context of the conversation will influence the tone of their conversation. Next, the appropriate channel needs to be selected to communicate the message. Typical channels of communication include: Writing, face-to-face speaking, having a telephone conversation, video-call, email, fax, SMS or even through instant online messaging providers such as Instant Messenger.The man on the right may give feedback to the man on the left to further his understanding of the message and having more clarity regarding the appropriate response.
Here is a video which uses the model of a message sent through a paper aeroplane to demonstrate the communication process:
Berlo's Communication Model
In 1960, David Berlo expanded on Shannon and Weaver's model of communication. It takes into account the emotional aspect of the message. Berlo's model of communication operates on the SMCR model
S=Source
M=Message
C=Context
R=Receiver
