D.I.A.S.S.

BASIC ELEMENTS OF THE

COMMUNICATION PROCESS
 • Communication, as a process where people share
information, feelings and ideas, consists of four basic
elements: the message, the medium, the sender and
the receiver. Basically, communication happens
when a message is conveyed.
In the process, there is the
means by which such
message is conveyed, the
generator and the
communicator of the
message, and the
recipient to whom that
message is intended.
• However, due to the complexity of the
communication process, these elements
may be modified and detailed in several
ways.
• According to Alberts et al. (2007), there are
present six basic elements of
communication: the setting, participants,
message creation, channels, noise and
feedback to explain how communication
interaction unfolds.
 SENDER-RECEIVER
Communication means that the sender
and the receiver get involved in
communication because they have ideas
and feelings to share. This sharing
however, is not one-way. In most
communication situations, people are
senders and receivers at the same time.
They are the participants in a
communication.
MESSAGE • The message is made up of
ideas and feelings that the
senders/receivers want to
share. Moreover, ideas and
feelings can only be shared if
they are represented by
symbols. Symbols are things
that stand for something else.
All communication messages
are made up of two symbols:
verbal and non-verbal.
 The verbal symbols are all the words
“MESSAGE” in a language, which stand for a
particular thing or idea. A word is
VERBAL used to generally mean one thing.
Verbal symbols can be even more
complicated when they are abstract
than concrete. Abstract symbols
stand for ideas rather than objects.
When two people use abstraction
(e.g., love, beauty, justice), they may
have different meanings because
they had different experiences with
the concept.
 -The non-verbal symbols are
“MESSAGE” anything we communicate
NON-VERBAL without using words such as
facial expressions, gestures,
postures, colours, vocal
tones, appearance, etc.
They have certain meanings
attached to them, which are
culturally or even personally
encoded and decoded.
The Channels are routes
CHANNELS
traveled by a message as it
goes between the
senders/receivers. Sound
and sight are primary
channels in face-to-face
communication, and even in
not face-to-face. In Mass
media the Channels may be
Radio, Records, Television,
Newspapers, Magazine, etc.
 FEEDBACK
A feedback is a response of the receiver to the sender and
vice versa. This is very important in communication since it
tells how ideas and feelings have been shared in the way
they are intended to.
 NOISE
Noise keeps a message from being understood or
accurately interpreted. It occurs between senders
and receivers. Noise may be an external or
internal interference in
transmitting and receiving the
message. External noise is any
noise that comes from the
environment that keeps the
message from being heard or
understood.
Internal noise occurs in the minds of
the senders and receivers such as
prior experience, absent-
mindedness, feeling or thinking of
something other than the
communication taking place.
Semantic noise is also a form of
internal noise caused by people’s
emotional reactions to words.
 The setting is
essentially the
context where
communication
occurs. It may be
venue, formal or
informal seating
arrangements, attire,
SETTING use of sound system,
etc.
Who (Sender)
What (Message)
How (Medium)
To Whom (Receiver)
Why (Impact)
Where (the Context)