What Is the Process of

Communicating?
SPEAKER

MESSAGE

CHANNEL

ME

S SA

GE

&F

EED

B AC

FEEDBACK

AUDIENCE

COMMON
GROUND

BACKGROUND
NOISE

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OVE RVI EW OF P U BL I C SP E AK IN G

SITUATION

Public speaking is a communication process

and best understood when represented as
a model where several parts interact and
in uence each other.
The speaker is the person who initiates
and is responsible for most of the message.
The audience is the person or persons
receiving the speaker s message and
contributing feedback.
The message consists of the verbal
and nonverbal ideas encoded by the
speaker and decoded by the audience.
In the diagram on the previous page,
encoding (the process of conveying) and
decoding (the process of interpreting)
are illustrated by the double arrows on
either side of the Message & Feedback
element.
Feedback consists of the verbal or
nonverbal messages encoded by the
audience and decoded by the speaker.
The channel is the means of getting the
message across, such as a voice over the
airwaves or visual messages in the form
of nonverbal or visual aids.
Noise is anything that interferes with the
message or feedback, such as external
sounds or internal fear or illness.
The situation is the location and time in
which the communication takes place.

If you have the ability to carry on an ordinary

conversation, you have the ability to speak
publicly. The difference between public
speaking and everyday conversation is that
public speaking requires a more formal
structure, use of language, and delivery style.
For years, we considered the process of
communicating like a one-way street
information owed from the sender to the
receiver, but not the other way around.
Then we viewed it as a two-way street with
information traveling separately on each
respective side of the street but not at the
same time to and from, back and forth.
Today, we view communication as a much
more complex process that is transactional. It
is a transactional process because:
The people involved in the act of
communicating are actively and
simultaneously sending as well as
receiving information.
Participants view their communication
as intentional.
The transfer of information between
them takes place within a particular
situation bound by relationship and culture.
You should view the speaker and the
audience as co-communicators in the
process, giving them almost equal
responsibility and power to create as well as
understand the message.

Background refers to the speaker s

and the audience s identities and life
experiences.
Common ground refers to the overlap
within the speaker s and audience s
identities and life experiences.

W HAT IS TH E P RO CE S S O F CO M M UN IC AT IN G?

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