Do not forget that the most important component of social interaction will be social communication. Although in some situations it is possible to interact without communication, in the vast majority of cases, social contacts involve communication.
Communication -϶ᴛᴏ mutual exchange of information, which implies the orientation of both participants to the reciprocal openness of the partner. Such an exchange does not necessarily take place in a verbal form (verbal), but also in a non-verbal one. Non-verbal communication is much older than verbal communication. It is worth noting that it contains gestures and facial expressions, dance, music, fine arts, sculpture and architecture. In fact, the engineering structures, temples, palaces, sculptures, and paintings left over from the past centuries convey without words information about the life, feelings, relationships of long-dead people.
The essence of the communication process, as follows from the definition, is to transfer a message containing information to another participant. The very act of revealing the content of his consciousness in the course of communication in sociology is called signal.
But a signal - ϶ᴛᴏ is not always a message or information. For example, if a passer-by in a foreign language addresses us on the street, whom we do not know, then we will receive such a signal, but we will not receive a real message. Of course, in this case, neither communication nor receipt of information will take place. If something is said that we already know, we receive a message, but it will not be information for us. A message will be information only if it contains something unknown to us.
The transfer of information in the course of the communicative process requires certain carriers - symbols and signs, since communication by its nature is a symbolic process. Objects that reveal the meaning that they contain not by themselves, but due to the fact that society endowed them with this meaning, act as symbols and signs. Such a meaning is ϶ᴛᴏ the meaning of the sign. Therefore, we can say that communication is a process of deciphering signs and reading their social meanings.
Signs will be words, gestures, postures, facial expressions, sometimes expressive behavior (laughter, smiles, tears, sighs, etc.)
Language - the most important sign system, institutionalized by society and therefore having a historical character. An individual is born and formed in a specific social context, where a specific structure of the language is already set. Therefore, the language of any society indirectly demonstrates the structure of the society itself and, as it were, sets the specifics of social communication.
Do not forget that an important characteristic of any communication process will be the intention of the participants to influence each other. Influence can be carried out through the use of such mechanisms of psychological influence as:
- persuasion - a process of purposeful communicative influence, characterized by a logical justification of a message (or several messages) in order to achieve the consent of the interlocutor (or audience) with the expressed point of view;
- suggestion - a method of communicative influence, designed for non-critical perception of information; such a nature of perception does not require any detailed logical analysis, nor evaluation, nor deep reflection, but is realized by influencing feelings, emotions, which in turn affect the intellectual and volitional characteristics of an individual who is unaware that he is exposed to external influences.
Suggestion is used to create a state in the interlocutor that encourages him to take certain actions. The effectiveness of the ϶ᴛᴏth process directly depends on the individual characteristics of the individual, his level of education, culture, mental state and degree of exposure to influences. Excluding the above, the power of influence largely depends on the visibility, accessibility, imagery and conciseness of information. The effectiveness of communicative means is largely determined by how the content of the suggested message, in general, meets the interests and needs of the audience.
1 .social communication .. 2
2.Models of social communication .. 3
3.Who? Influence of the communicator .. 13
5.How? Communication channel .. 16
5.1 Encoding and channel selection . 17
5.3 Feedback . 19
5.4 Noise .. 19
5.5 Information barriers .. 20
6. To whom? Audience .. 20
7. Impact results .. 23
7.1 Negative impacts of mass communication . 24
7.2 Positive impact of mass communication . 25
Bibliography ... 26
1. Social communication
The communicative process is a necessary prerequisite for the formation, development and functioning of all social systems, because it is it that ensures the connection between people and their communities, makes possible the connection between generations, the accumulation and transfer of social experience, its enrichment, the division of labor and the exchange of its products, the organization joint activities, transmission of culture. It is through communication that management is carried out, therefore, in addition to all of the above, it also represents a social mechanism through which power arises and is implemented in society.
There are many definitions of social communication. The most common of them are: social communication is the transfer of information, ideas, emotions through signs, symbols; is a process that connects the individual parts of the social. systems with each other; - this is the mechanism through which power is realized (power, as an attempt to determine the behavior of another person).
There are several types of social communication:
By the nature of the audience:
Interpersonal (individualized)
Specialized (group)
Bulk
According to the source of the message:
Official (formal)
informal
By transmission channel:
Verbal
non-verbal
Communication is a complex multicomponent process. Its main components are:
1. The subjects of the communication process are the sender and recipient of the message (communicator and recipient);
2. Means of communication - a code used to transmit information in a sign form (words, pictures, graphics, etc.), as well as channels through which a message is transmitted (letter, telephone, radio, telegraph, etc.);
3. The subject of communication (any phenomenon, event) and the message that displays it (article, radio program, television story, etc.)
4. Effects of communication - the consequences of communication, expressed in a change in the internal state of the subjects of the communication process, in their relationships or in their actions.
Social communication in the process of its implementation solves three main interrelated tasks:
1. Integration of individual individuals into social groups and communities, and the latter into a single and integral system of society;
2. Internal differentiation of society, its constituent groups, communities, social organizations and institutions;
3. separation and isolation of society and various groups, communities from each other in the process of their communication and interaction, which leads to a deeper awareness of their specifics, to a more effective performance of their inherent functions.
2.Models of social communication
In the process of sociological research of communication processes, various models of social communication have been developed. Any communicative activity involves not only knowledge of the characteristics of the communicator, analysis of the content of information, but also an analysis of the audience. To carry out such an analysis, the communicator needs psychological competence. Knowledge of psychotypes allows you to determine the strategy of the communicative process, to predict actions. Psychotype- a model of the behavioral structure of the personality and its interaction with the environment. Psychologists distinguish five main psychotypes: square, triangular, circular, rectangular and zigzag. Knowing the various psychotypes, the communicator in the process of communication uses this information to properly manage the communication process.
The effectiveness of information perception by the audience is influenced by the cultural, educational, social levels of the communicant. Important factors for successful communication are knowledge of the audience, respect for it, the ability to communicate with it on an equal footing, i.e. equality of psychological positions of the communicator and the communicant. In the 80s. 20th century J. Goldhaberg created a charismatic model of communication. He proceeded from the fact that TV has more effect on emotions than on the mind. Therefore, the success of television programs is less related to the information content, but directly depends on the “charisma” of the person who is on the screen. D. Goldhaberg identified three types of charismatic personality:
The hero is an idealized person, looks “as we want”, says “what we want”.
An antihero is a “simple person”, one of us. Looks “like all of us”, says the same thing, “as we do”. We feel safe with him. We trust him.
The mystical personality is alien to us (“not like us”), unusual, unpredictable. This type of communicator is suitable for late night transmissions.
When studying the impact on the perception of information by the intellectual level of the audience, it was found that for an audience with a high level of education, a two-way message is preferable. Such a message is a text that, in addition to the arguments of the communicator, contains the arguments of the other party. This is explained by the fact that such an audience needs to compare views and independently evaluate them. For an audience with a low educational level, it is recommended to use a one-way message containing only the arguments of the communicator. One-way communication is just as effective when the audience agrees with the communicator when it has not been affected by the opponent's arguments.
The goal of the specialist is to change the values and behavior of the communicant. If it is possible to change the behavior of the communication object, then the actions of the communicator are considered as influence. Influence can be exerted in three ways: by forcing; manipulating the consciousness of the communicant; inviting him to cooperate. Since the specialist does not have formal power, his influence is based either on manipulation, or on cooperation, or on both of these methods at once.
The manipulation of consciousness is understood as the actions of a communicator aimed at changing psychological attitudes, value orientations, behavior of individuals and entire audiences, regardless of their desire. Among the reasons for manipulation are: a person's conflict with himself (A. Maslow); distrust towards other people (E.Fromm); feeling of absolute helplessness (existentialism); fear of close interpersonal contacts (E.Bern); an uncritical desire to get the approval of everyone and everyone; the desire for symbolic mastery of a communication partner (S. Freud); realization of a compensatory desire for power (A. Adler).
The purpose of manipulation is control over the audience, its controllability and obedience. To achieve the goal, various manipulative technologies are used: purposeful transformation of information (default, selection, “distortion”, distortion of information, reversal); concealment of exposure; impact targets; robotization. These technologies are used in such types of manipulative influence as:
Manipulation of images - since images have a strong psychological impact, they are widely used in communicative practice, especially in advertising.
Conventional manipulation is based not on personal psychological attitudes, but on social schemes: rules, norms, traditions accepted in society, family.
Operational-subject manipulation – is based on such mental characteristics of a person as the force of habit, inertia, the logic of the execution of an action.
Manipulation of the personality of the addressee - the desire to shift the responsibility for any action to the addressee, while the manipulator remains the winner.
Manipulation of spirituality - manipulation of the highest levels of the psyche (the meaning of life, spiritual values, a sense of duty).
The linear model of communication developed by the famous American sociologist and political scientist G. Lasswell and including five elements has received wide recognition and distribution:
1. Who? (transmits a message) - communicator
2. What? (transmitted) - message
3. How? (transmitting) - channel
4. To whom? (message sent) - audience
5. With what effect? - efficiency
Finding Lasswell's model applicable, albeit greatly simplified, some researchers began to develop it further. R. Braddock added to it two more elements of a communicative act: the conditions under which communication takes place, and the purpose with which the communicator speaks. The "Lasswell Formula" reflects a characteristic feature of early models of communication - it assumes that the communicator is always trying to influence the recipient, and therefore communication should be interpreted as a process of persuasion. This assumption orients the model for application primarily in the field of political propaganda analysis.
In the Shannon-Weaver model, communication is also described as a linear one-way process. The mathematician Shannon worked on his communication model in the late 40s by order of the Bell Telephone laboratory, and this largely determined the "technical" nature of the created model, its "remoteness". The main task was to reduce the "noise" and facilitate the exchange of information as much as possible. The model describes five functional and one dysfunctional (noise) factors of the communication process. Functional elements include: a source of information that produces a message; a sender encoding the message into signals; the channel carrying this message; recipient; goal or destination.
The signal is only as vulnerable as it can be distorted by noise. An example of distortion can be the superimposition of signals simultaneously passing through one channel.
The advantage of this scheme is that it is clear that the message sent by the source and the message that reaches the recipient do not have the same meaning. Later, the provision on the distortion of information was supplemented by other reasons for the initial and final information. In connection with the work on the selectivity of perception, it became known that the communication channel includes a sequence of filters, leading to the fact that the amount of information at the input to the system is greater than the information that works at the output [N.Wiener].
The inability of communication participants to realize that the message sent and received does not always match is a common cause of communication difficulties. This important idea, embedded in the Shannon-Weaver model, attracted attention and was developed in the studies of DeFluer, who expanded the original model into a more extensive network:
In particular, he notes that in the communicative process the "meaning" is transformed into a "message" and describes how the sender translates the "message" into "information", which is then sent through the channel. The receiver decodes the "information" into a "message", which in turn is transformed at the destination into a "value". If there is a match between the first and second values, then communication has taken place. But, according to DeFluer, full compliance is a very rare case.
The DeFluer model takes into account the main drawback of the Shannon-Weaver linear model - the absence of a feedback factor. He closed the chain of information from the source to the target with a feedback line that repeats all the way in the opposite direction, including the transformation of the value under the influence of "noise". Feedback allows the communicator to better tailor its message to the communication channel to improve the efficiency of information transfer and increase the likelihood of a match between the sent and received value.
The inclusion of feedback as a full-fledged element in the model of such seemingly one-sided processes as television, radio broadcasting, and the press seems problematic at first glance. But one should distinguish between first-order feedback, when the communicator can receive it during the impact, and indirect second-order feedback, obtained on the basis of an assessment of the results of the impact. In addition, the communicator begins to receive feedback not only from the recipient, but from the message itself (for example, from the sound and image on the monitor). The fundamental absence of feedback can be noted only in exceptional cases of communication between large social groups - for example, when sending probes with information into space, "towards" extraterrestrial civilizations.
But the final overcoming of the simplified interpretation of communication as a one-way linear process was the Osgood-Schramm circular model. Its main distinguishing feature is the postulation of the circular nature of the process of mass communication. Its other feature is determined by the fact that if Shannon was primarily interested in channels - mediators between the communicator and the audience, then Schramm and Osgood turned their attention to the behavior of the main participants in communication - the sender and recipient, whose main tasks are encoding, decoding and interpreting the message.
A review of the definitions of "communication" conducted by W. Schramm made it possible to single out the common thing that unites them - the existence of a set of information signs. This set may include not only facts, objects, but also emotions, latent meanings ("silent language").
The adequacy of the perception of the message implies the existence of an area in which the experience of the communicator and the recipient is similar, in which certain signs are recognized by them in the same way. The communicator and the recipient have a "fund of used meanings", a "correspondence frame" and the area in which they can communicate successfully lies in the "overlap" of their "framework". The success of communication also depends on the expectations placed by the participants in communication with each other. Professor of the Department of Journalism at the University of Memphis J. DeMott points out that a certain tacit agreement has developed between the media and their audience, an agreement (Mass Comm Pact) that defines the duties of the QMS in relation to the audience, and the duties of the audience in relation to the QMS. The imperfection of this agreement lies in the fact that the points of view of consumers of information and its producers on the range of these duties are not the same.
According to Schramm, it is wrong to think that the communication process has a beginning or an end. In fact, it is endless. "We are small switches, continuously receiving and distributing an endless stream of information...". (Some researchers go even further in this direction, arguing that the entire inner life of a person consists solely of a unique combination of what he saw, heard and remembered throughout his life.)
A possible point of criticism of this model is that it creates the impression of "equality" of the parties in the process of communication. Meanwhile, this process is often unbalanced, especially when it comes to mass communication. Under these conditions, the recipient and the sender are not such equal participants in communication, and the circular model, which equalizes them as links in the same chain, does not adequately reflect the share of their participation in the communication process.
Dance's spiral model does not pretend to be a full-fledged model and arose only as a striking argument in discussions on the comparison of linear and circular models of communication. Dance notes that at present most researchers agree that the circular approach is more adequate for describing communication processes. But the circular approach also has some limitations. It assumes that communication goes full circle to the point where it starts. This part of the circle analogy is clearly wrong. The spiral shows that the process of communication is moving forward, and what is currently in the process of communication will affect the structure and content of communication in the future. Most models give the so-called "frozen" picture of the communication process. Dance, on the other hand, emphasizes the dynamic nature of this process, which contains elements, relationships and conditions that are continuously changing in time. For example, in conversation, the cognitive field is constantly expanding for those who are included in it. Participants receive more and more information on the issue under discussion, about the partner, his point of view. Knowledge in the discussion expands and deepens. Depending on the course of the conversation, the spiral takes on different forms in different settings and for different individuals.
The Dance model is certainly not a convenient tool for a detailed analysis of the communication process. The main advantage and purpose of Dance's spiral model is that it recalls the dynamic nature of communication. According to this model, a person in the process of communication is an active, creative, information-storing individual, while many other models describe him, rather, as a passive being.
The goal of the American researcher of mass communication G. Gerbner was to create a model with a wide scope of application. It was first introduced in 1956.
A specific feature of this model is that it takes on different forms depending on what type of communicative situation is being described. The verbal description of the Gerbner model is similar in form to the Lasswell scheme:
perceives the event
and react
in this situation
through some means
to make content accessible to others
in some form
and context
and sends a message
with some consequences.
The graphical representation of the model already has the original look:
This model implies that human communication can be viewed as a subjective, selective, changeable and unpredictable process, and the human communication system as an open system.
What people choose and remember from a communicative message is often related to how they are going to use the information received. The behavioral approach links perception selectivity to reward-punishment categories. The probability of selecting information within this concept is determined by the formula:
Probability of selection = -------,
B - the expected measure of remuneration,
H is the intended punishment,
Y is the estimated cost of effort.
In addition to the variables mentioned in this formula, many other factors play a role in the choice of messages: random noise, impulsiveness, audience habits, etc. is what Gerbner calls context.
Gerbner believes that the model can be used to describe a mixed type of communication, including both a person and a machine, dynamic, visual, applicable to communication interactions of various scales - both at the level of individuals and at the level of large social communities.
Let us consider in more detail the simplest linear communicative model of Lasswell. He singled out three main functions of the communication process as an inherently managerial process:
1. Observation of the environment to identify a threat to the represented society and determine the possibilities of influencing the value orientations of this society and / or its constituent parts
2. the correlation of the ratio of the constituent parts of this society in its response to the "behavior" of the environment;
3. transmission of social heritage from generation to generation.
So, in this model, the following components of the communication process are distinguished:
Communication source (switch)
Communication channel
Target (audience)
3.Who? Influence of the communicator
Each of the elements of this scheme has become the object of numerous studies. For example, the characteristics of a communicator are highlighted that contribute to an increase in the effectiveness of the impact. In order for a person’s speech to have the desired effect, this person must, in the opinion of the audience, possess such qualities as competence (availability of relevant knowledge and skills), dynamism (personal openness, activity, enthusiasm), reliability (ability to inspire confidence). One way to build trust with your audience is to start making judgments that your audience agrees with so that you appear reasonable. Another way is to be presented as someone knowledgeable on the subject.
The communicator's speech style also influences whether it is perceived as trustworthy. Confidence and speed of speech, a direct look, upholding something, while violating one's own interests, have a positive effect.
Most people deny that celebrity reviews have an effect on them. After all, everyone understands that the star is not an expert. This is where attraction comes into play. Often something like an audience or as an idol, an object to follow, a charming communicator captivates the audience. Attractiveness has several aspects. These are physical charm (arguments, especially emotional ones, are often more effective when spoken by beautiful people) and similarity (we tend to sympathize with people who look like us).
What is more important - similarity or credit (authority) - depends on whether the topic of the message affects subjective preferences or objective reality. Timothy Brock found that paint buyers are more influenced by the reviews of the average person who recently bought the paint, but when it comes to oral hygiene, a dental expert is more persuasive than a high school student using the toothpaste.
4.What? Message content
It is important not only who speaks, but also what exactly he says. What is more persuasive - a carefully reasoned message or a message that arouses certain emotions depends on the audience. A thinking, interested audience lends itself to direct persuasion, it is most receptive to rational arguments. An inattentive audience is influenced by indirect hints, it is most influenced by whether they like the switchboard.
Direct mode of persuasion is persuasion that takes place when an interested audience focuses all attention on favorable arguments. Researchers Richard Petty and John Cachoppo, Alice Eagley and Shelley Chaiken believe that people with an analytical mindset lend themselves best to this method of persuasion. They rely not just on the appeal of persuasive messages, but also on their cognitive response. It is not only the arguments themselves that are convincing, but also the reflections stimulated by them. And when these reflections are deep enough, any newly perceived attitude is more likely to withstand the attacks of objections and influence further behavior.
An indirect way of persuasion is a belief that takes place when people are influenced by random factors, and when it is not necessary to appeal to reason. This method of influence uses hints that incline to approval without hesitation. Instead of clear product information, cigarette ads simply associate the product with ideas of beauty and pleasure, or simply with a pretty picture. Even with analytical natures, preliminary opinion is sometimes formed on the basis of indirect persuasion, which suggests that both methods affect the entire audience to a greater or lesser extent.
Messages also become more persuasive if they are associated with positive feelings.
Good mood enhances persuasiveness, partly by encouraging positive thinking (when an audience is required to reason), and partly by the association that occurs between good mood and the proposed message. People in a good mood see the world through rose-colored glasses, make more hasty, impulsive decisions, rely more on indirect hints.
Sometimes a message can be persuasive if it appeals to negative emotions. Health messages have more impact when aroused by fear (before negative consequences). The main thing is not to overdo it, driving it into a dead end, causing rejection or displacement of information. This can be avoided by offering an effective defense strategy. An appropriate (not distracting) and expressive picture can replace dozens of words.
If the communicator is a credit source and the audience is not very interested in the issue, he may present an extreme, extremist point of view. Differences lead to discomfort, and the feeling of discomfort pushes a person to change his mind. Thus, the greater the disagreement, the greater the likelihood of a change in the original position. If the communicator is not a source of credit, then, having presented an unpleasant message, he may completely lose confidence, appear biased and biased. Also, if the audience cares about the issue at hand, then a slightly different opinion may seem radical to them, especially if it is based on the opposite point of view, and is not an extreme expression of the views that they share.
Should I consider all issues in the message only from my own position or take into account opposing points of view and try to refute them? A one-way message is most effective for those who already agree with the opinion being expressed. A message that addresses counterarguments has a stronger effect on those who initially disagreed. The impact of a two-way message is stronger and lasts longer in memory.
If information about opposing views is available to the audience, a two-way message will be more effective. Clearly, a one-sided message causes an informed audience to think about counterarguments and consider the communicator to be biased.
The information that comes first is more convincing. The latest information is better remembered. The secondary effect is less common. Forgetting creates a secondary effect when:
1) two messages are separated by a sufficiently long time;
2) the audience makes a decision shortly after the second message.
If both messages follow one after the other, and then some time passes, there is usually a primacy effect.
5.How? Communication channel
The channel of communication is the way in which a message is conveyed (face to face, in writing, or in some other way). There is a simple rule: persuasiveness decreases as the importance of the problem and the degree of familiarity with it increase. In minor matters, such as the choice of aspirin, the power of the mass media is easily demonstrated. In cases where more pressing and important issues are discussed, such as racial attitudes in cities with acute racial problems, it is much more difficult to convince people. The more figurative the presentation of information, the more convincing the proposed messages. Messages that are easy to understand are most persuasive in video form. Printed messages provide the best engagement and retention, and are more persuasive for difficult-to-understand messages. Persuasiveness is determined by the correspondence between the complexity of the message and the chosen variety of means of communication.
Persuasiveness studies show that the greatest influence on people is not indirect information, but personal contact with people. But the media and personal views are interdependent, as they are formed under the influence of the media. The impact of the media occurs in a two-stage communication flow: from the media to the person, from the person to the masses.
5.1 Encoding and channel selection
Before conveying an idea, the sender must use symbols to encode it using words, intonation and gestures (body language). This coding turns an idea into a message.
The sender must also select a channel that is compatible with the character type used for encoding. Some well-known channels include the transmission of speech and written materials, as well as electronic communications, including computer networks, e-mail, videotapes and videoconferencing. If the channel is not suitable for the physical embodiment of the symbols, transmission is not possible. If the channel is not very consistent with the idea that was born in the first stage, the exchange of information will be less effective. For example, a manager wants to warn a subordinate about the inadmissibility of serious security violations committed by the latter, and does this during a light conversation over a cup of coffee or by sending him a note on the occasion. However, these channels may not be able to communicate the seriousness of violations as effectively as a formal letter or meeting. Likewise, sending a subordinate note about the excellence of her achievement will not convey the idea of how important her contribution to the work is, and will not be as effective as a direct conversation followed by a formal letter of thanks, as well as a bonus.
The choice of means of communication should not be limited to a single channel. It is often desirable to use two or more communication media in combination. The process becomes more complicated because the sender has to establish the sequence of use of these means and determine the time intervals in the sequence of information transmission. However, studies show that the simultaneous use of oral and written information exchange is usually more effective than, say, only the exchange of written information. Discussing the results of this study, Professor Terrence Mitchell points out: "The main finding of this work is that verbal plus written communication is likely to make this communication more effective in most cases." Orientation to both channels forces one to prepare more carefully and record the parameters of the situation in writing. However, by no means should every communication be written. The second stage will become clearer if we think of it as a packing operation. Many indeed good products do not find a market until they find a package that the consumer finds understandable and attractive at the same time. Likewise, many people with great ideas fail to package them with symbols and put them into channels that are meaningful and attractive to the recipient. When this happens, the idea, even if it is beautiful, often does not find "sales".
5.2 Decoding
After the message is transmitted by the sender, the receiver decodes it. Decoding is the translation of the sender's characters into the recipient's thoughts. If the characters chosen by the sender have exactly the same meaning for the recipient, the latter will know exactly what the sender had in mind when his idea was formulated. If no reaction to the idea is required, the information exchange process should end there. However, for a number of reasons, the recipient may give a slightly different meaning to the message than in the sender's head. From the manager's point of view, information exchange should be considered effective if the recipient has demonstrated understanding of the idea by performing the actions that the sender expected from him.
5.3 Feedback
In the presence of feedback, the sender and receiver change communicative roles. The original receiver becomes the sender and goes through all the steps in the communication process to relay its response to the original sender, who now plays the role of the receiver.
Feedback can contribute to a significant increase in the effectiveness of the exchange of management information. According to a number of studies, two-way information exchange (with opportunities for feedback) compared to one-way (no feedback), although slower, relieves stress more effectively, is more accurate and increases confidence in the correct interpretation of messages. This has been confirmed in a wide variety of cultures.
5.4 Noise
Feedback greatly improves the chances of an effective exchange of information, allowing both parties to suppress noise. In the language of information transmission theory, noise is what distorts meaning. Sources of noise that can create barriers to information exchange range from language (whether verbal or non-verbal) to differences in perception that can change meaning in encoding and decoding processes, to differences in organizational status between supervisor and subordinate. , which can make it difficult to accurately convey information.
Certain noises are always present, so at each stage of the information exchange process there is some distortion of meaning. We usually manage to overcome the noise and get our message across. However, a high level of noise will definitely lead to a noticeable loss of meaning and may completely block the attempt to establish information exchange. From the standpoint of the manager, this should lead to a decrease in the degree of achievement of goals in accordance with the transmitted information.
5.5 Information barriers
These are obstacles that arise during the transmission and perception of messages.
Possible information barriers:
Technical
Psychophysiological (associated with a person's ability to concentrate, the ability to cursive)
Sign and semantic (implies the ability to recognize signs, know the words and terms of special languages; the ability to restore the meaning of a sign in a certain context)
Situational (occurs when the message is irrelevant to the person in the given situation)
6. To whom? Audience
There are many definitions of the audience as a social community. Below are some of them:
The audience is an element of the communicative process, which is the subject (individual, group, society, etc.) to whom the message is directed.
The audience is a social community that is formed on the basis of interaction with a communicator, the most unstable of all quasi-groups.
It is the perception of QMS messages by the audience that can be considered the final, resulting stage of communication. This is where the objectives of the communicator are concentrated.
In some cases, we can only talk about the potential audience. Nevertheless, this is quite enough for a number of tasks: for comparison different countries on this basis, to compare the development of mass media in terms of the rate of saturation of the consumer market with them, to compare this market in dynamics over a number of years, when it comes to one medium of mass communication, etc. But already for an advertiser who wants to know exactly which groups of the population read this newspaper, in order to place his advertisement in it for a certain product designed for a certain group of the population, more detailed information is needed - who reads this newspaper, which pages in particular, etc. d. The communicator needs the same information to know how to increase his impact on the audience: whether the audience understands everything in his messages, which messages are ignored, etc. After all, not having feedback with the addressee, the Communicator is forced to focus on the potential consumer, on some of its characteristics, on some of the recipient's expectations associated with information. We have to focus on characteristics that are obviously repetitive, typical, since the regularity and stability of the audience's relationship with the mass media also imply the typicality of these characteristics.
In order to understand the reasons that influence the size of the real audience, what determines its choice, and the possible changes in the audience after communicative contact, sociologists operate in their studies with a huge number of signs. They can be grouped in a certain way.
There are purely objective conditions for receiving information. At a minimum, it is necessary that the city where you live has purely technical possibilities for receiving a television signal or cable networks, if you are studying them. It is necessary that the consumer of information knows the language in which the newspaper is published.
Special mention should be made of such factors of inclusion in the QMS system as the level of income (has or does not have a TV), the amount of free time and purely physiological factors (sees/does not see, hears/does not hear).
When we compare the consumption of a newspaper, radio and television, we must take into account situational factors (you can’t read a newspaper if you need to wash the dishes, but we can read a newspaper in the subway, which cannot be said about the process of listening to the radio).
In order to reach out to the thematic interests of the Russian audience, the respondents were asked the question: “How do you personally feel about media reports?” Education turned out to be the factor that sharply differentiates people in their attitude to political topics.
Education can visibly model our consumption of press material, whether it be analytical versus informational broadcasts, classical music versus mass, popular, and so on. If we are talking about channels with specific features of this kind of content, we can certainly predict an audience of different educational levels that is typical for them.
In fact, sociological knowledge about the audience consists in discovering the role of these factors, in ordering them, in their systematization, in discovering the connections between them, discovering priorities for communicative behavior, and so on.
Today, there is a tendency to differentiate social and political attitudes depending on age. This is due to two factors: 1) attitudes change with age in accordance with known life cycles (for example, they become more conservative); 2) the attitudes of older people, assimilated by them in their youth, basically do not change, the gap between generations arises due to the difference in attitudes. The formative power of experiences in youth and early adulthood is partly due to the fact that they are associated with deeper and more enduring impressions.
As mentioned above, there are 2 ways of persuasion. With the direct method of persuasion, it is not the content of the message itself that is decisive, but the reaction that it causes in the minds of people. If the message evokes the right thoughts, it is persuasive. If it makes you think about counterarguments, it is more difficult to change your previous opinion. The warning that a controversial message is about to arrive encourages counterargument and reduces persuasiveness. If you manage to divert the attention of the audience enough to suppress possible objections, the persuasiveness of the controversial message increases.
The stimulation of thought makes a strong message more persuasive and a weak one (due to counterargument) less persuasive. The following methods of stimulating thought processes are used: rhetorical questions; ranks of communicators (successive speech of three speakers giving one argument each, instead of one speaker who would give all three arguments); provoking a sense of responsibility for evaluating the message or inattention to it; the use by the speaker of relaxed postures, repeated repetitions and methods of attracting the undistracted attention of the audience.
7. Impact results
According to S. Ball-Rokeach and M. DeFluer, we can talk about the following results of the impact on individual and mass consciousness:
1. behavioral effect
Activation (provoking certain actions)
Deactivation (stopping some activities)
2. emotional effect - influence on a person's passions, appearance:
Anxiety
Alienation
3. cognitive (cognitive) effect:
Uncertainty resolution (through mass communication, additional information is supplied that allows you to get an idea of new, ambiguous phenomena and processes);
Formation of attitudes, i.e. systems of cognitive, emotional and behavioral reactions in relation to objects of the external environment (physical, social, political, etc.);
Setting a set of topics for people to discuss;
Spread of new systems of opinions (ideological, religious, economic, etc.);
Clarification of the value orientations of the population (the media report on the conflict of some value systems, for example, in the field of civil rights, which forces readers to take a certain position on this issue, and therefore clarify their own views).
Social institutions and the media, interacting with the audience, form a variety of needs, interests and attractions in people. Having formed, this motivational system, in turn, begins to influence where, in what area a person will begin to look for sources of satisfaction of needs. By choosing one or another source, a person may later find himself in a certain dependence on them.
Mass communication has a formative and reinforcing effect on social stereotypes, that is, schematic and simplified ideas about social objects that are widespread in society. Stereotypes can relate to other nationalities, classes, groups, etc. The perception of a foreign group through a stereotype has two sides: positive (a stereotype gives relatively quick knowledge, allows you to attribute the group to a wider class of phenomena) and negative (filling the stereotype with negative characteristics leads to the formation intergroup hostility). The existence of stereotypes can also influence the formation of public opinion.
7.1 Negative impacts of mass communication
TO negative consequences can be attributed to the formation in recipients of the need for immediate satisfaction own desires and needs, as well as impaired reading skills and reduced creativity.
The massive impact of mass communication can negatively affect the quality of interpersonal communication of children, reduce the number of games with peers. Cartoons, with their rapid change of visual and auditory stimuli, especially attract the attention of children and can significantly reduce interpersonal contact.
The heroes of television and video films to some extent replace the family for some people. Immersion in the "day dreams" of TV films allows you to excite, hide from the problems and difficulties of real life, which in some cases exacerbates social maladaptation, increases loneliness.
The influence of the media is also noted on the development of an inadequate fear of crime in people. This kind of fear depends to the greatest extent on the nature of the coverage of the crime: fear and anxiety are stronger when information is given about crimes at the local level, as well as about crimes, the victim of which did not provoke the perpetrator in any way, and, finally, about crimes of "sensational ”, different from most others.
Violence in the media is extremely common. Watching violent films tends to trigger aggressive behavior. The impact of media violence on people's aggressiveness is mediated by many intermediate variables. These include:
Features of the recipient (gender, age, attitude towards aggression); degree of social and cognitive maturity of the viewer;
The context in which the act of violence appears (manner of presentation, genre of transmission);
Features of the external environment (opportunities for social control, family relationships).
7.2 Positive impact of mass communication
Mass communication provides not only Negative influence on mass and individual consciousness. It can counteract ethnic and gender stereotypes. Its positive results include increased awareness, curiosity, improved speech skills. Mass communication promotes generosity, friendliness, cooperation and restraint, strict adherence to social norms, as well as a decrease in anxiety and fear. After watching humanistically oriented films, children improve their communication skills with peers, mutual understanding with them, and the desire to help other people is activated.
Bibliography:
1. "Sociology", S. S. Frolov, Gardariki, 2000
2. “Sociology. Fundamentals of the General Theory, edited by G. V. Osipov, NORMA, M., 2003
3. "Sociology of Mass Communication", L. N. Fedotova, St. Petersburg, 2004
4. "General sociology", E. M. Babosov, Minsk, 2004
5. "Information and communication", A. A. Korennoy, Kyiv, 1986
6. "Communication technologies of the twentieth century", G. G. Pocheptsov, Vakler, 2002
IN modern science social communication is studied from different angles; the approach to it depends on the scientist's belonging to a certain scientific tradition, school or some direction. The corresponding understandings of communication can be roughly divided into three groups. These are understandings formed on 1) social, 2) linguistic and 3) proper communicative basis. The concept of "social communication" covers all three of these interpretations. The first approach is focused on the study of communicative means for the sake of their application (implementation of the social functions of communication); the second approach is related to the problems of interpersonal communication; the third - with the problems of the impact of mass communication on the development of social relations.
A.V. Sokolov offers the following scientific definition of social communication: social communication is the movement of meanings in social time and space. This movement is possible only between subjects, one way or another involved in the social sphere, so the obligatory presence of communicants and recipients is implied. Sokolov A.V. General theory of social communication. pp.17-18.
In expedient social communication, communicants and recipients consciously pursue three goals:
1. cognitive- dissemination (communicator) or acquisition (recipient) of new knowledge or skills;
2. incentive- encourage other people to do something or get the right incentives;
3. expressive- the expression or acquisition of certain experiences, emotions.
Depending on the material and technical equipment, that is, on the channels used, Sokolov proposes to distinguish three types of social communication (Fig. 1.2) Sokolov A.V. General theory of social communication. P.101-102.:
Rice. 1.2. The ratio of different types of communication
1. Oral communication, which, as a rule, uses, simultaneously and in an inseparable unity, natural non-verbal and verbal channels; its emotional and aesthetic impact can be enhanced through the use of such artistic channels as music, dance, poetry, rhetoric. Oral communication includes travel with educational purposes - expeditions, tourism.
2. Document communication, which uses artificially created documents, initially iconic and symbolic, and later writing, printing and various technical means to convey meanings in time and space.
3. Electronic communication, based on space radio communications, microelectronic and computer technology, optical recording devices.
One of the most important phenomena generated by the communication revolution of the twentieth century is the Global Information Network - the Internet (World Wide Web = WWW). The Internet, by all accounts, is turning into a virtual state with its own "cyber culture", territory and population, independent of national or political boundaries.
The widely used term "information society" is used to refer to a special type of social formation, late varieties of post-industrial society and a new stage in the development of human civilization. The most prominent representatives of this trend are A. Touraine, P. Servan-Schreiber, M. Poniatowski (France), M. Horkheimer, J. Habermas, N. Luhmann (Germany), M. McLuhan, D. Bell. A. Toffler (USA), D. Masuda (Japan) and others. High-tech information networks operating on a global scale are considered as the main condition for the formation of the information society. Information as the main social value of society is also a specific commodity.
The basis of the theory of the information society is the concept of post-industrial society, developed by D. Bell. In the form of the theory of the information society, the doctrine was widely developed during the computer boom of the 1970-1980s. Culturologist O. Toffler in his book "The Third Wave" made a statement that the world is entering a new, third stage of civilization, in the fate of which information demassed means of communication will play a decisive role, the basis of which will be computer systems connecting private houses with all interested parties. subjects of communication.
The end of the 20th - the beginning of the 21st century was generally marked by the growing interest of the scientific community in the issues of informatization of society. See: Burdukovskaya L.P. On the influence of information on a person, society, culture // Russian culture through the eyes of young scientists. - SPb., 2003. - Issue. 14. - S. 10-29; Kalandia I.D. The concept of the information society and man: new perspectives and dangers. // Man of the post-Soviet space: Sat. materials conf. - St. Petersburg. : St. Petersburg. Philosophical Society, 2005. - Issue. 3. - S.256-266 and others - the most important of the manifestations of scientific and technological progress. Club of Rome (A. Peccei, A. King, D. Meadows, E. Pestel, M. Mesarovic, E. Laszlo, J. Botkin, M. Elmanjra, M. Malica, B. Hawrylyshyn, G. Friedrich, A. Schaff , J. Forrester, J. Tinbergen and others) - one of the organizations engaged in large-scale research of modern processes of social development and forecasting the future, initiated a computer global modeling of the prospects for the development of mankind and the "limits to growth" of technological civilization. Many forecasts of the Club of Rome are rather bleak. Today we can safely say that humanity at the beginning of the new millennium entered the fourth stage of development, and the “fourth wave” is able to overwhelm the whole world not only with uncontrolled communications, but also completely tear a person away from his natural essence and interpersonal communication, transferring him to the virtual sphere .
The variety of spheres of public life determines the multitude of objects of communication. For the researcher, it becomes obvious that the typology or simply the classification of these species will be incomplete if separate indicators are used, it must be carried out according to multiple criteria. We encounter this in the literature, discovering various approaches. F.I. Sharkov 4 gives the following approaches to the typology of communication:
by the scale of the course (mass, medium level, local, intragroup, intergroup, interpersonal, intrapersonal);
by the method of establishing and maintaining contact (direct and indirect);
on the initiative of the subject (active, passive);
by degree of organization (random, non-random); depending on the use of sign systems (verbal, non-verbal); depending on the flow of information (downward, upward).
A.V. Sokolov 5 distinguishes the following types and types of communication. If communication is a mediated and expedient interaction of subjects, then four types of communication can be distinguished: material (transport, energy, population migration, etc.); genetic (biological, species); mental (intrapersonal, autocommunication); social. An individual, a social group and a mass aggregate can act as subjects of communication. In this case, we can talk about the following types of social communication. Microcommunications, where the subjects are the individual, the group, the mass, and the communicator is the individual. Midicommunications is the interaction of two groups, the group and the mass. Macrocommunications - the interaction of mass aggregates. If an individual, a group and a mass aggregate act as an object of influence, then we can talk about interpersonal, group and mass communication.
In the textbook "Fundamentals of the Theory of Communication 6" types of communication are considered for a number of reasons. So, according to the method of communication, they are distinguished: verbal and non-verbal. Within verbal communication, forms of speech communication are considered: dialogue, monologue, dispute, oral-speech and written-speech communication. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, gestures, posture, gait, eye contact. According to the levels of communication, there are: interpersonal communication, communication in small groups, mass communication.
The types of professionally oriented communication are also given:
business communication in the organization, marketing, communication in management;
political communication, public communication, intercultural communication, etc.
Of course, the authors' attempt to give as complete a list of types of communications as possible deserves attention. However, upon closer examination, a single basis for classification is not always maintained. This is especially felt when revealing the types of professionally oriented communication. Social relations are objective in nature, since they are determined by the place of the group in the social structure, its functions. However, in intergroup interaction, there is also a relation of a group to another in the subjective sense: the perception of another group, its assessment, acceptance or rejection, etc. In socio-philosophical terms, not only individuals, but also groups act as subjects of communication. Highlighting large and small social groups in the structure of society, the problem of interaction, relationships, communication, communication appears. Intergroup relations mediate the relations of society and the individual, and also constitute the field in which the interaction of individual groups and individuals is carried out. Joint life activity generates the need for interaction between its participants, their relationships, in its process "impersonal" relationships are personified.
Involving in social life through a system of functions and roles, each person performs a function and plays a role in accordance with his individual properties, which gives each act of communication a unique character. The picture of an event, a fact, a period in history largely depends on the state of the individual and social psyche. The personality is the subject of communication and has a number of communicative abilities. A.A. Bodalev distinguishes four groups of abilities: intellectual, emotional-volitional, ability to learn, a special structure of value orientations of the individual. Intellectual abilities are features of cognitive processes (the ability to capture information about others, to imagine oneself in the place of others). Emotional-volitional means the ability to adapt, empathy and self-control. Interpersonal communication is the process of exchanging information and interpreting it by two or more partners who have come into contact with each other. The most important condition for interpersonal communication is the ability of an individual to identify standard, typical social situations of interaction between people, the content and structure of which are known to representatives of a given culture, and to construct them by appropriate actions. Each level of communication corresponds to a certain level of mutual understanding, coordination, agreement, assessment of the situation and rules of conduct for participants. Failures in interpersonal communication are determined by the fact that people, firstly, perceive each other incorrectly and inaccurately, and secondly, they do not understand that their perceptions are inaccurate.
From the context of the socio-philosophical and socio-psychological approaches, the following logic of the analysis of intergroup relations follows: if society is a system, groups are elements of the structure, then the relationship between them is objective (connection, interdependence, interaction) and subjective (social perception). The objective attitude was studied in social philosophy, sociology, subjective - in psychology. The study of the interaction of groups in a social context helps to reveal the meaningful characteristics of intergroup relations. Intergroup relations are a set of socio-psychological phenomena that characterize the subjective reflection of diverse relationships between groups in the form of an image of another group, ideas about another group, perceptions of another group, stereotypes, etc. The basic component is social perception, in which the cognitive, emotional and evaluative components are more merged, and the group acts as the subject. Thus, the "group context" of interpersonal perception emerges: the perception by members of the group of each other and members of another group; a person's perception of himself, his group, another group; the group's perception of its member and a member of another group; the group's perception of itself and the other group. The mechanisms of intergroup perception are stereotyping (perception, classification and evaluation of social objects based on certain standards, which can be verbal signs, symbols, sensory, perceptual, etc.) and categorization (the psychological process of attributing a single object to which - then the class whose properties are transferred to this object).
Thus, the specificity of intergroup perception lies, firstly, in the fact that in it individual representations are combined into a whole, qualitatively different from its elements; secondly, in the long and insufficiently flexible formation of intergroup ideas; thirdly, in the schematization of ideas about another group (social stereotype). The attitude towards the group is formed through the mechanism of comparison. It is characterized by a tendency to overestimate its own group as opposed to another - intergroup discrimination, which is the establishment of differences with a strongly pronounced evaluative coloring; artificial exaggeration of these differences; the formation of a negative attitude, "the image of the enemy"; establishing positive evaluative differences in favor of one's group (intragroup favoritism); the establishment of positive evaluative differences in favor of another group (as a result - the emergence of tension in intra-group relations, hostility, weakening of intra-group ties, devaluation of intra-group values, destabilization, disintegration of the group.
All these aspects of intergroup relations are most clearly manifested in interethnic relations and communication and are expressed in the phenomena of interethnic perception. It is enough to single out such a phenomenon as an ethnic stereotype, which is characterized by appraisal, emotional coloring, and partiality. The indicative space of an ethnic stereotype is formed by: ethnocultural features, character traits, language, assessment of behavior and dynamic characteristics of a person, qualities that determine attitudes towards people, etc. Interethnic communication contributes to the transfer of forms of culture and social experience. At the interpersonal level, intersubjective 7 interaction takes place, in which the subjective world of one person opens up for another. At the same time, an individual person acts as a carrier of self-consciousness and culture of an ethnic group.
The phenomenon of intra-group communication arises, first of all, with direct communication of people in small groups. The specific phenomena of this type of communication include: a set of positions of group members regarding the receipt and storage of information significant for the group (the structure of communication flows); group influence and the degree of identification of a person with a group; making a group decision; the formation of consent, the folding of a special culture of the group. A specific feature of group communication is its lexical homogeneity, as well as the norms and rules of acceptable communication tactics. Considering the concept of "mass communication", some researchers just have in mind this "narrow" aspect of communicative interaction, emphasizing the influence of new information transfer technologies. Considering mass communication as the main form of dissemination of information in the human community, they associate it with the linguistic (oral and written) communication of people. It is assumed that initially, in the early stages of the development of human civilization, in the pre-industrial era, social communication was potentially mass in nature, and together with the emergence and development of the media - the press, radio, cinema, television - it actually acquired a mass form. However, mass communication expresses not only the formal characteristics of modern communication processes, but also indicates a qualitative change in the content parameters of social communication in the industrial and post-industrial era, expressed in the most general terms in the emergence and spread of the phenomenon of mass consciousness 8
When defining "mass communication", its special characteristics are distinguished, such as:
1. social information addressed to the masses;
2. information born, formed in a mass audience;
3. information disseminated through mass channels;
4. information consumed by the mass audience. Along with mass communication, it is legitimate to single out specialized communication, the main feature of which is an appeal to specialists, a specialized audience, a specialized consciousness. The totality of sources, distributors, organizers of information consumption by specialized and mass consciousness constitutes the content of information and communication (communicative and information) structures.
One of the most powerful components of this structure is the mass media system (media). At the same time, we note that the system of mass communication (MSC) has a broader content than the media. The mass media include the press, radio, television, cinema, show business, video production, the Internet and technical and technological means that provide specialized and mass communication. It is necessary to highlight the following general conditions for the functioning of mass communication:
1. mass audience (it is anonymous, spatially dispersed, but divided into interest groups, etc.);
2. social significance of information;
3. availability technical means, providing regularity, speed, replication of information, its transmission over a distance, storage and multi-channel (in the modern era, everyone notes the predominance of the visual channel). Mass communication performs a number of important social and psychological functions in the life of a mass society:
Social features:
1. information function - the immediate task of mass communication;
2. socializing function - associated with the formation or change in the intensity and direction of the socio-political attitudes, values or value orientations of the audience with which the communication process is taking place, is the teaching of norms, values and patterns of behavior;
3. organizational - behavioral function is associated with the termination or vice versa provoking some action of the audience, as well as changing its activities;
4. emotional and tonic function is the management of the emotions of the audience, through which mass communication awakens optimism or drives one into depression, it creates and maintains a certain emotional level of the audience;
5. The communicative function is associated with influencing the audience in order to strengthen or vice versa weaken the ties between individual members or groups of the audience.
Psychological functions:
1. the function of the formation of mass psychology is the main psychological function of mass communication, through which the psychology of the masses is formed as a subject of socio-political processes;
2. integrative and communication function is associated with the creation of a general emotional and psychological tone of the audience;
3. information function provides the audience with a certain set of information, creates a single coordinate system in its perception;
4. socializing educational function - forms common attitudes, values and value orientations;
5. The function of organizing behavior stimulates the actions of the formed mass in a certain direction.
The term "communication" (lat. communicatio, from communico - I make common, I connect, I communicate) originally meant the ways of communication, transport, communication, the network of the underground urban economy. In the broadest possible sense communication is a means of communication of any objects of the world. However, in relation to social objects, this term acquires a special meaning. The communicative process is a necessary prerequisite for the formation, development and functioning of any social systems. Social communication provides a link between people and their communities, makes it possible to link between generations, the accumulation and transfer of social experience, its enrichment, the division of labor and the exchange of its products, the organization of joint activities, the transmission of culture. It is through communication that management is carried out, power arises and is realized in society.
There are many definitions of social communication. Let's present some of them. social communication - This:
Ø transfer of information, ideas, emotions through signs, symbols
Ø process that connects separate parts of social systems with each other
Ø the mechanism through which power is realized (power as the desire to determine the behavior of another person).
The mechanistic approach treats communication as a unidirectional process of encoding and transmitting information from the source and receiving information by the recipient of the message. From the point of view of the activity approach, communication appears as a joint activity of communication participants (communicators), during which a common (up to a certain limit) view of things and actions with them is developed.
Communication is a specific form of interaction between people in the cognitive and productive process, carried out mainly with the help of language (less often with the help of other sign systems).
Social communication is a type of social connection based on the directed transfer of information that allows for the socio-cultural interactions of individuals and social communities. Social communication should be understood as the interaction of people, due to a number of socially significant assessments, specific situations, communicative spheres and norms of communication accepted in society, in this society.
Social communication in the process of its implementation solves three main interrelated tasks:
1. Integration of individual individuals into social groups and communities, and the latter into a single and integral system of society;
2. Internal differentiation of society, its constituent groups, communities, social organizations and institutions;
3. Separation and isolation of society and various groups, communities from each other in the process of their communication and interaction, which leads to a deeper awareness of their specifics, to a more effective performance of their inherent functions.
Communication is a process, the main components of which are:
Ø The subjects of the communication process - the sender and recipient of the message (communicator and recipient)
Ø Means of communication - a code used to transmit information in a sign form (words, pictures, graphics, etc.), as well as channels through which a message is transmitted (letter, telephone, radio, telegraph, etc.)
Ø The subject of communication (any phenomenon, event) and the message that displays it (article, radio program, television story, etc.)
Ø Communication effects - the consequences of communication, expressed in a change in the internal state of the subjects of the communication process, in their relationships or in their actions.
