Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. -Robert Frost
Introduction
This unit identifies Public speaking as a type of communicative event. Uses and occasions of public speaking. Essentials of public speaking, attitudes required for the same and the paralinguistic and non verbal aspects of pubic speaking.
Distinction between Media and Channel
Media are to be distinguished. Media are concerned with the form or mode into which the message is placed. The channel is the technical transmission of that medium to reach the receiver. Combination of these two put together act as the means of communication. Both are necessary. Selection of media cannot be planned without the channel. In an organization a channel provides a link between various levels. The link may be between individuals, between individuals and departments and between departments. The organization structure may create a formal channel from top to bottom. It is an officially fixed route through which the flow of communication is directed. The channel is based on officially designated positions and functions. Formal channel is official and official messages move. Informal channel called a’ grapevine is an unofficial channel. Thus communication channel has different directions – flat network, tall network, formal channel, informal channel, upward channel, horizontal channel, internal and external channel.
Communication Rules:
Communication rules are such implicit understandings (generally unwritten and unspoken) that allow people to read behaviour in similar ways (in other words, to share meanings) and that specify just and appropriate ways to communicate with others in given roles and contexts.
There are two principal kinds of rules: constitutive rules and regulative rules. Constitutive rules tell us what a certain behaviour means. Regulative rules, on the other hand, tell us what we should and should not do. These rules become instrumental in structuring and coordinating interactions by providing answers to questions such as the following:
1. How should conversations be initiated?
2. How are interruptions handled?
3. What topics will be discussed?
4. How will these topics be discussed?
5. Whose topics get priority?
6. How are conversations terminated?
7. When and where may communication occur? Who may initiate a conversation?
8. Can the rules themselves be discussed?
The regulative rules in organizations are framed and, adopted in order to prescribe:
_ Access,
_ Priority of topics and
_ Interruptions.
You might have noticed that some organizations formulate rules relating to who has access to whom, but the degree of rigidity of the rule, however, may vary from organization to organization. The people at the senior level, who decide what topics need to be discussed, often decide the rules relating to the priority of topics and the order of discussions as determined by the urgency of the topic.
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