Communication vs Transmitting Information

Its very interesting how breaking down the mechanics of the very thing that guides our lives is proving to be so difficult. Communication can be described as "the interactive transference of shared meaning between intelligences." (Brown, 2000) It is conducted by everyone in every way and in everything we do, at least that is what we believe. But taking the previous definition into consideration, it leads one to question whether the interactions in which we engage can truly be classified as communication or are we simply transmitting information?


 Lets break down the communication process, it includes a sender, encoding, message channel, decoding, receiver, feedback channel and the context in which communication is occurring. The process begins when the sender conceptualizes a message. He/she then selects the manner in which the message will be sent. The receiver then gets the message and accepts it after it is understood or decoded. After that has taken place, the receiver gives feedback, showing that the message has been understood. Now, that constitutes and concludes the communication process. It, therefore, means that 'communication' that does not satisfy and is not in line with this process..isn't really communication after all. I mean how many times have we 'communicated' without establishing any shared meaning? How many times have we relayed information and received no form of feedback?


  Now examples of this can be seen almost everyday. Its like when I was on the train leaving Manhattan last year and two women beside me for some reason got into an argument, apparently someone looked at someone else in a manner they didn't like. Now, if this was a regular argument, then I woulda said communication was taking place. However,  this argument included one woman, only speaking Spanish, and another woman who obviously only understood English. Now it didn't matter how much the Spanish woman believed she was  'telling off' the other...and how in her head she may be communicating, the fact is that no shared meaning was being established. They were probably guessing what was being said based on the tone but it still was not communication!...information was just being transmitted.