1.3 Elements of Communication

The essential elements of communication include sender-receivers, messages, channels, noise, feedback and setting. Among these elements the following four are of great importance: the notions of encoding and decoding the idea into a message in either verbal or nonverbal forms, the idea of noise as interference with transmission, and the feedback from the receiver to the sender.

1.3.1 Communicators: Sender-Receivers

If people want to share information, ideas, and feelings with others, they may initiate a certain kind of communication. The initiators are the senders of such information, ideas and feelings. The other people who share them are receivers. However, the sharing is a two-way process where a starter sends information and ideas while the other receives the information them. Thereafter, the process goes from the receiver to the sender. So, very often people are both sender and receivers. Both sending and receiving happen at the same time. In an international business context, the sender may called home country sender, while the receiver may called the host country receiver. In multi-cultural context, the question of who goes first in negotiation as a home country sender is in part a question. North Americans often assume that everybody wants to go first and get their position out on the table. Teams in Japan or China usually want to be last so they can hold back their own position until they've heard from the other side.

1.3.2 Messages and Codes

A message is what people want to share with others including information, ideas, and feelings. Messages are usually expressed through symbols, which often stand for something else, and are made up of two kinds of symbols: verbal and nonverbal. As mentioned previously, communication is symbolized with words and signs. Every word is a verbal symbol that stands for a particular thing or idea. Nonverbal symbols are those people use to communicate without words, such as body language including facial expressions, gestures, postures, vocal tones, appearance, and so on. Different cultures link different nonverbal symbols with certain different meanings. A yawn means that person is bored or tired. Not looking at someone in the eye may mean that the person has something to hide. All these words, gestures and yawn can be summarized as communicative codes. Before a message is sent, it is encoded with words and expressions of sender's native language or the receiver's language. Information on ideas, concepts and feeling is encoded into verbal and nonverbal signals. Encoding is therefore determined by the language skills, attitudes, cultural values, knowledge and social culture system of senders. Whether this information can be precisely understood by the receiver depends on his language skills, cultural framework and values, attitudes and education level.

1.3.3 Channels—Media Mix

A channel is a path people use to express a message and the means used to reach a sender or receiver, such as radio, television, records, newspaper, and magazines in the mass media, the combination of which are called media mix. Channel of communication can be regarded as where it takes place. It involves the issue of what should be put in writing, and what should be communicated only. It can be nonverbal. In face-to-face communication, the primary channels are sound and sight: people listen to and look at each other. For example, when applying for a job, the applicant uses several nonverbal signals to send out a positive message: a firm handshake （touch）, business clothes （sight）, and respectful voice （sound）. Moreover, the senses the communicators are appealing to are the channels as well.

Cultures offer different perspectives on the channels, which can also be influenced by the purposes of communications. Individuals who orient communication to perform task apply to different channels from those who orient communication to build up relationship. Following the principle of context dependency, the selection of channels or media-mix is culturally contextualized or cultural dependency. Therefore, organizations are always running against problems that could have been avoided if the channel had been agreed upon. Americans are contract-makers, and usually don't think any agreement exists unless a contract has been written and signed. But in other parts of world an oral statement is as good as a contract, if it is within the context of relationship. A member of a United States organization can innocently say,“Oh, I'd really be interested in that new product”meaning （conditional tense） at some future time it sounds worth looking into more closely. But a member of an Asian culture, where relationships make contract possible, may understand such a comment as,“I will be looking forward eagerly to receiving that product.”If an oral channel, like the telephone, is used for making agreements by one communicator, and a written channel, like a contract, is used by the other, misunderstanding can result in （Beamer & Varner, 2003）.

Channel selection can be related to the time to communicate. When communication takes place the issues of time such as being on time is involved. It is more complex than simply keeping time zones in mind. It also means choosing the right moment for a particular message. It involves the issue of a simultaneous versus sequential approach to tasks.

1.3.4 Feedback after Decoding the Messages

After messages are received, the receiver has to decode the language used into a form that he/she can understand using his/her language skills, cultural framework and knowledge accumulated. In this way can receiver catch the exact information which the sender wants to share with him/her. After catching the information the receiver prepares his/her response to sender's message. Thus feedback is the response of the receiver-senders to each other. Feedback is important because it is through feedback that both senders and receivers can understand each other. In face-to-face communication, people have the greatest opportunity for feedbacks. They have a chance to see whether the other person understands and is following the message. However, a lecturer in a large lecture hall is not as aware of the feedback from his/her audience.

1.3.5 Noise—Barriers for Effective Communication

Noise is disturbance that keeps a message from being accurately understood. It is anything that interferes with effective communication （Solomon, Marshall & Stuart, 2009）. Noise happens between the sender-receivers in such forms as external, internal and semantic. It is anything added to the message that is not intended by the source. External noise comes from the environment and keeps the message from being heard or understood, such as sound from a plane overhead. Internal noise occurs in the minds of the sender-receivers when their thoughts or feelings are focused on something rather than the current communication. A student doesn't hear the lecture because he/she is thinking about lunch. Semantic noise is caused by different meaning of the words used. Some meanings can lead to bad and negative emotional reactions to receivers. Semantic noise, like external noise and internal noise, can interfere with all or part of the message （Liu,2007）.Other noises include the mood in which both communicators are, misunderstanding, difference in culture perspectives, different attitudes and values, and difference in social status. These noises interfere communicators to correctly understand the messages in the course of encoding and decoding them.

1.3.6 Setting—Context Dependency

The setting is where the communication occurs. Setting can be a significant influence on communication. The setting can be called as a context of communication following the principle of context dependency. Context dependency is defined as the extent to which a message can be explained by contextual factors or environmental factors.

Some settings or contexts are formal such as an auditorium, which is good for giving speeches and presentations. Some are informal, such as a smaller, and more comfortable room where they can sit and face each other. The setting is made up of many components including arrangement of furniture, lighting and colors used for decoration. Setting often influenced power relationships. The question“Your place or mine? ”implies an equal relationship. However, when the dean asks a teacher to come to her/his office, it shows that the dean has more power than the teacher. Moreover, the environmental factor can also affect the meaning of messages communicated between senders and receivers（Liu,2007）.