1501HUM NCT Assessment 2: Essay

1501HUM New Communication Technology
‘The Limitations of Communication’
By Katie Hall
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Communication is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as; ‘the successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings’ and ‘the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium.’
The way human beings interact is just one tier of the multi-layered communication cake. The use of body language, facial expression, voice volume level, the way we stress certain words more than others and our current relationship with the person we are communicating with have factors in how what we are saying is expressed and transmitted to others. Communication is not just a human occurrence though, it is absolutely universal in the amount of uses, users and also the amount of limitations communication can come with.
Though just what and who communicates? And is it purely a human occurrence? It most certainly is not. Every living organism has the capability to communicate and often it is the communication occurring between organisms that enables the survival of those organisms. Communication between; humans and machines, human-to-human communication (even communication with oneself), and human and animal communication all have their limitations and failures. This essay will explain the various forms of communication and also discuss the limitations and failures that come hand in hand with communicating. 

In the last decade alone it has become ever more obvious that human and computer communication has grown. Using various styles of coding (such as html code); humans can create and edit images, websites and even music with computers by inputting a command and as a result, having an outputted reaction to the command. Simply, an input of certain information and circumstances results with an output of information that is deemed ‘appropriate for the situation at hand.’(Suchman, Lucy A,.1987). A specific type of communication going on with human-computer communication does not require a specific tone of voice or a commanding facial expression to highlight the command’s importance. A specific way people communicate with computers is through the process of writing up a web page.

The art of writing with HTML code to create images and web pages is something to get excited about, an understanding of basic HTML code is necessary to fully grasp how by using the language, the overall image of the ‘artwork’ can be manipulated. Though, computers do not speak English, Japanese or Spanish, they speak computer language and it takes time to learn. For the computer to understand the command, it must be written in its own language. Which is hard to understand for those just beginning to understand programming. There are many ways to gain knowledge on basic code-writing and entire websites are devoted to it. For example, W3 Schools is an excellent way to read up and practice writing html code and great to learn new things.

By writing with HTML code, a computer does not need to recognise various human facial expressions, sounds or tones to follow a command and present the requested output of information.  Though there are certain problems associated with writing HTML code, though it is usually the code-writers fault. If a mistake has been made it is usually not the computer that is ‘broken’, accuracy is important with writing code and if one word is spelt incorrectly, it could alter the appearance of the entire document or web page. Correct communication is vital between humans and computers.  

Just as writing with HTML code can be complicated and meticulous, requiring upmost accuracy to be used, human-to-human communication is sometimes just as equally complex. Often there are many 'conversations' occurring at once even though there may be two people discussing one topic of interest.

One example of the different 'conversations' humans can have simultaneously with one another is through the use of select body-language. A person may be caught up in a situation that intimidates them and even though their words reflect the surface of the physical conversation being had with the other person, a simple note of their body language can explain much about how they are feeling and what they are communicating to others: Their eyes- that may be looking nervously from side to side, their arms that may be hugging themselves for protection. "Even when only one person speaks at a time, other participants exchange information continuously among themselves and with the speaker through gesture, gaze, posture and facial expressions.” (Morency, L.2010).

A notable question on intrapersonal communication and its viability is: though people can have conversations with themselves, is it really considered communication? As a person is actively discussing topics with themselves by inputting a question and having a successful output of information as a result, then by the Oxford definition of communication it would appear to be just another form of communication. Donald E. Wasbhurn states “communication ordinarily presupposes a relationship between at least two persons […] The outside person is represented internally.” (Washburn, Donald E, 1964). Then intrapersonal communication is the person having a thought process and transmitting information is the sender and receptor in the loop of communication.

Human and animal communication stems from the original domestication of animals. It is also more difficult to get an animal to respond in the desired way than having an intrapersonal conversation with oneself. Having animals as pets also opens up the way we communicate every day with animals. People have to find different ways to ‘talk’ with their pets. Online, on websites such as YouTube there are many examples of the communication gap between humans and animals. Such an example of this can be viewed by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgJb7GPTHAo

When an animal is physically expressing an emotion, humans can recognise some similar traits of certain emotions because of the way we also express them. Shyness, fear and reaction to pain are easy enough to identify. Is it wrong to say that certain communication between animals has little to no emotional factor? Animals feel emotions such as fear, so their communication should convey elements of those emotions through their individual methods of interaction.

It should be said that animals are able to use different calls/ expressions to convey emotion. Primates have been known to use facial expression to show different emotions. Waal states that, "(By) the emotional content of a particular vocalization. We certainly have the impression that some alarm calls or grunts are more emotionally charged than others."(Waal, 2003). Humans are able to ascertain elements of the different responses animals give to different situations based upon our own reaction to a similar situation.

Limits of human communication do exist and communication between humans and other organisms is limited. Human communication between animals, infant humans, elderly humans and even people engaged with on a daily basis can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. This can come from a lack of understanding the topic being discussed, not having the communication skills needed to understand what is going on, being unable to speak the messenger’s language fluently and various health problems such as blindness and deafness. The transactional view of human communication shows an important dynamic between communicative behaviours where each person serves simultaneously as the speaker and listener. “At the same time you send a message, you also receive messages." (Morency, L. 2010).

Shannon and Weaver’s model of Communication states that a sender is the information source of the message and after passing through the encoder, channel, decoder (reception) and receiver it is possible to be interrupted by ‘noise’. Noise can be only related to external noises occurring around the people communicating at any one time. Communication happening between two people sending emails would not be affected by noise, but communication over the phone, face-to-face and through video chatting such as Skype chatting can be.
Noises such as: vehicle noises, other people talking and animal noises can have an impact on the messages that are being sent and received face-to-face or over the phone.

Sounds that interrupt the flow of information can act like chunks of flour in a Sieve used when cooking. It mixes in with the thin powdery flour and takes more effort to sieve through. Unwanted data interrupts the original message or response and as such, creates a miscommunication and limitation of communication between the speakers.

Receiver’s beliefs and understandings also play an important factor in the model posed by Shannon and Weaver. As the receiver discerns what they in turn shall respond to the response of their initial message. It is found most commonly that disputes between two parties are based off a misunderstanding of a message. Religion, politics and personal matters all gather different responses according to what was initially insinuated by the messenger.

 In conclusion, the basis for communication is the sending of a message to a recipient, the successful input and output of information and turning a request into an action that is expected to be completed. The communication between humans and computers, has developed and if compared to Shannon and Weaver’s model for communication, cannot be impacted by noise. Though requires prior knowledge to make any progress with communicating to a computer. Communicating to other humans and gaining a response from them is the most basic form of communication, it does not even require words sometimes. Actions such as hugging, kissing and hitting all convey particular meanings that not even words can properly depict. Human interaction with animals can be observed but there are only certain things a human can ascertain from animal behaviour, such as primal emotion such as fear and warning cries to it’s fellow animals. A message will always be sent from a messenger and received by a recipient, though the modes of how the message is sent vary and the limit on who and what can communicate is limitless.