Cap´ıtulo 9: Fot ´olisis ultravioleta de carbono amorfo

“Communication is powerful: It brings companions to our side or scatter our rivals, reassures or alerts children, and forges consensus or battle lines between us”

(Keating, 1994; as cited in Samovar, Porter, McDaniel & Roy, 2013; pg. 27)

The statement above succinctly describes the influential role of communication in our lives. It shows that communication is crucial for living things to convey their intended messages to others, express their opinions and views, make meaning or negotiation. Since the day we were born, we communicate to make sense of the world to others and as we become older, we learn how to communicate explicitly and implicitly in order to make our communication more effective. Humans and animals need to communicate for survival. Therefore, communication has played an integral role in our everyday lives.

Over the years, many scholars have attempted to define what communication is and investigate the purpose of communication and its importance. Communication can be described as a process where we use signs, symbols and behaviours to exchange information and make meaning (Floyd, 2011). Similarly, Wood (2014) outlines communication as a systemic process of interaction between people through symbols to make and interpret meanings. Meanwhile, Hybels and Weaver (2009) describe communication in a more elaborate manner as any process which people generate meanings such as information, ideas, feelings and perceptions through the use of symbols

whether it is done verbally or non-verbally, consciously or unconsciously, with intentions or unintentionally within or across various contexts, cultures, channels and media.

Martin and Nakayama (2013) come up with three perspectives on the definition of communication. The three perspectives are social science, interpretative and critical.

From the social science perspective, communication consists of sender/receiver, channel, message and context. Communication from this perspective has a pattern and it can be predicted. Meanwhile, from the interpretative point of view, communication is seen as symbolic and of processual nature. According to Martin and Nakayama (2013), communication is symbolic as the words and gestures that we use have no inherent value but has its significance from an agreed-upon meaning, which are conveyed verbally and non-verbally. Martin and Nakayama further adds that when we convey messages, we assume that the other person understands the intended meaning and shares the same view and beliefs, although sometimes it may be incoherent due to differences in cultural background and experiences. The third perspective on communication is the critical perspective. From this perspective, the importance of social roles in the communication process is stressed on. Verbal and nonverbal communication are not the same but it is organised according to the social hierarchy whereby certain individual characteristics are highly valued than the other (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).

There are many reasons why we communicate and its importance in our lives.

According Wood (2014), communication is vital to us in a few aspects in our lives -- personal life, personal relationships, professional and civic life. Mead (1934, as cited in

our personal identities through interaction with others. We seek validation and acceptance from others, from their views and their perceptions of us. Our family and friends let us know what they think and what we ought to be through communication. By communicating with the other person, we also let them know of our opinions towards them. In addition, Wood (2014) also states that we also learn who and how others perceive us through mass and computer-mediated communication.

Communication definitely fulfils one’s personal needs psychologically. It is said that children deprived of human contact suffer psychologically. It is said that there is a great connection between communication and identity in cases that involves children isolated of human contact. A few case studies of children isolated from human communication show that these children have no concept of themselves as a human being and their mental and psychological development is delayed as they also receive lack of language input from their surroundings (Wood, 2014). Such example is the story of Genie, who was isolated and deprived of any language input since birth until she was discovered at the age of thirteen (Lightbrown & Spada, 2006). In addition, a few research has found that communicating with others definitely promotes one’s health and social isolation could cause stress, disease or early death (Floyd, 2011; Wood, 2004).

Other than benefiting our sense of identity, communication is also beneficial for us to establish personal relationships. Relationships are built and established at the foundation of communication. We use communication when we want to initiate a new relationship with another person and we use a lot of communication trying to sustain the relationship as it goes on. Without effective communication, relationships may deteriorate. According

to an American national poll in 1998, it was found that 53% of voters attributed the cause of divorce due to lack of communication between married couples (Wood, 2014). It is said that couples who discuss their innermost thoughts and feelings and manage conflict constructively tend to survive in a relationship. With interaction, intimacy in relationships could be sustained (Wood & Duck, 2006; Schmidt & Uecker, 2007).

In addition to personal relationship, communication is also the foundation to a successful professional life. Established organizations such as FedEx and GlaxoSmithKline cite that communication is important to the success of their organizations (O’ Hair & Eadie, 2009, as cited in Wood, 2014). For example, it is said that those who work in the health care sectors rely on communication skills to interact with their patients and colleagues and effective communication between a doctor and his or her patients relate to effective treatment and patients’ well-being (Fleishman, Sherbourne & Crystal, 2000).