{"id":10452,"date":"2020-11-06T01:05:37","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T01:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/?page_id=10452"},"modified":"2020-11-06T01:05:37","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T01:05:37","slug":"communication-contexts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/learning-pathways\/introduction-to-business-communication\/communication-contexts\/","title":{"rendered":"Communication contexts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\" class=\"mw-body container\" role=\"main\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n<div class=\"panel\">\n<div class=\"panel-body\">\n<div id=\"bodyContent\">\n<div id=\"mw-content-text\" lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"mw-content-ltr\">\n<div class=\"floatright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wikieducator.org\/File:Connect_the_dots_puzzle_(partially_solved).png\" class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Connect the dots puzzle (partially solved).png\" src=\"\/\/wikieducator.org\/images\/thumb\/d\/d8\/Connect_the_dots_puzzle_%28partially_solved%29.png\/320px-Connect_the_dots_puzzle_%28partially_solved%29.png\" width=\"320\" height=\"384\" class=\"img-responsive\"><\/a><\/div>\n<table class=\"cquote\" style=\"margin:auto; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; background-color: transparent; width: auto;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"20\" valign=\"top\" style=\"border:none; color:#B2B7F2;font-size:35px;font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 10px 10px;\"> \u201c\n<\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\" style=\"border: none; padding: 4px 10px;\"> Without context, a piece of information is just a dot. It floats in your brain with a lot of other dots and doesn&#8217;t mean a thing. Knowledge is information in context&#8230; connecting the dots.\n<\/td>\n<td width=\"20\" valign=\"bottom\" style=\"border: none; color: #B2B7F2; font-size: 35px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: right; padding: 10px 10px;\"> \u201d\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"3\" class=\"cquotecite\" style=\"border: none; padding-right: 4%\">\n<p style=\"font-size: smaller; text-align: right;\"><cite style=\"font-style: normal;\">\u2014Michael Ventura<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><br style=\"clear:both;\"><br \/>\nThe meaning of any communication, for both the creator and the receiver of the message, is shaped by its <b>context<\/b>.\n<\/p>\n<p>As the quotation above suggests, when an individual processes a piece of information, they do so by connecting it to things they already know or believe. So, one aspect of communication context is the set of pre-existing assumptions which affect a person&#8217;s understanding of a particular message. These assumptions are created by our:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Culture\n<\/li>\n<li> Experiences\n<\/li>\n<li> Beliefs\n<\/li>\n<li> Values\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Culture<\/b> can be described as the patterns of learned and shared behaviour and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.<sup id=\"cite_ref-1\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"#cite_note-1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup> Culture has a strong, and often subconscious, influence on our assumptions. Ways in which culture can affect business communications include cultural attitudes to social hierarchy, expectations of formality, humour, and approaches to expressing disagreement.\n<\/p>\n<p><b>Experiences<\/b> that individuals have had in their life can also shape our assumptions. These may be experiences from any aspect of life, including education, family, social relationships, and\/or health. Any of these elements can affect someone&#8217;s interpretation of a  message, even in a business setting. For example, if a person has been made to feel inadequate at school, this feeling may carry over into a lack of confidence in the workplace, where they may perceive personal criticism in an email which others, with different experiences, would find acceptable.\n<\/p>\n<p><b>Beliefs<\/b> include the religious or political beliefs that an individual holds. For example, an individual&#8217;s religion may require that they should not work on a particular day of the week, or that they should only eat certain types of food.\n<\/p>\n<p><b>Values<\/b> are ethical beliefs about the importance of some thing or action.<sup id=\"cite_ref-2\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"#cite_note-2\">[2]<\/a><\/sup> They are often strongly influenced by an individual&#8217;s culture and\/or beliefs. They will affect a person&#8217;s attitudes to such things as family commitments, animal welfare, or honesty.\n<\/p>\n<p>For communication to be effective, and to avoid misunderstandings, it is important for both the source of the communication and the receiver to take all these contexts into account.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"panel iDevice\">\n\t<div class=\"panel-heading idevice-heading\">\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"pedagogicalicon\" alt=\"reading\" src=\"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-content\/themes\/oeru_course\/idevices\/Icon_reading.png\">\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t<h2>Reading<\/h2>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"panel-body\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Another way of looking at the context of communication is to consider the number of communicators and the direction of communication . This is discussed in the reading below.\n<\/p>\n<p>Read<br \/>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/saylordotorg.github.io\/text_business-communication-for-success\/s05-03-communication-in-context.html\">Section 1.3 Communication in context<\/a>, in Saylor Academy (Ed.) 2012. <i>Business Communication for Success<\/i>. (See page(s) 22 &#8211; 26 in <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"http:\/\/www.saylor.org\/site\/textbooks\/Business%20Communication%20for%20Success.pdf\">PDF<\/a> version.). (You do not need to do the chapter exercises for this section.)\n<\/p>\n<p>The reading introduces intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, institutional, and mass communication contexts, their advantages and disadvantages, and appropriate and inappropriate uses. It is important to remember that each context influences the communication process differently, and that contexts can overlap.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"panel iDevice\">\n\t<div class=\"panel-heading idevice-heading\">\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"pedagogicalicon\" alt=\"reflection\" src=\"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-content\/themes\/oeru_course\/idevices\/Icon_reflection.png\">\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t<h2>Reflection<\/h2>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"panel-body\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Thinking about different communication contexts described in the reading, in which context do you think an audience would pay the least attention to a written communication? Which context is most characterised by intimacy, and which is most likely to involve a group?\n<\/p>\n<p>Please share your thoughts in WENotes.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><div><p>You must be logged in to post to WEnotes.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Your comment will be displayed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/wikieducator.org\/Corporate_communication\/CCOM101\/Feed\" title=\"Corporate communication\/CCOM101\/Feed\">course feed<\/a>. Don&#8217;t forget to look in the feed to see what others have posted.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<\/p>\n<ol class=\"references\">\n<li id=\"cite_note-1\"><span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\"><a href=\"#cite_ref-1\">\u2191<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"reference-text\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/culturalanthropology\/chapter\/what-is-culture\/\">Lumen learning: What is culture?<\/a><\/span>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"cite_note-2\"><span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\"><a href=\"#cite_ref-2\">\u2191<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"reference-text\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Value_(ethics)\">Wikipedia<\/a><\/span>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCPU time usage: 0.116 seconds\nReal time usage: 1.621 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 334\/1000000\nPreprocessor generated node count: 1566\/1000000\nPost\u2010expand include size: 7597\/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 3354\/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 7\/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0\/100\n--><\/p>\n<p><!-- Saved in parser cache with key we_en-mw_:pcache:idhash:178518-0!*!0!*!*!2!* and timestamp 20201105135710 and revision id 1082171\n -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"visualClear\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-12\">\n<ul class=\"pager\">\n<li class=\"previous\">\n            <a href=\"\/ccom101\/learning-pathways\/introduction-to-business-communication\/how-does-communication-work\">\u2190 Previous<\/a>\n          <\/li>\n<li class=\"next\">\n            <a href=\"\/ccom101\/learning-pathways\/introduction-to-business-communication\/communicators-responsibilities\">Next \u2192<\/a>\n          <\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer><\/footer>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c Without context, a piece of information is just a dot. It floats in your brain with a lot of other dots and doesn&#8217;t mean a thing. Knowledge is information in context&#8230; connecting the dots. \u201d \u2014Michael Ventura The meaning of any communication, for both the creator and the receiver of the message, is shaped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":790,"featured_media":0,"parent":10440,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10452","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/790"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10453,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10452\/revisions\/10453"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/course.oeru.org\/ccom101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}