Facilitators & Barriers of

Communication
Selecting appropriate mediums, channels and technologies
This takes place at the level of conceptualization.
When a sender decides to encode a message, he or she must take
two main things into consideration during this stage – the context
and the audience (receiver). These factors influence both choice of
medium and choice of channel. The key word here
is appropriateness. Choice of medium and channel are directly
influenced by the purpose of the message and the
intended audience. Ask yourself the following questions when
determining levels of appropriateness:

i. Who is my receiver?
ii. How best can my message be conveyed?
iii. Where is the communication act taking place?
iv. What is the situation surrounding the communication act?
v. Is my audience one person or several?
vi. What medium should I use, oral or written?
vii. Should I use technology? If so, which technology would most
appropriate?

Scenario 1
Read the scenario below and answer the questions that follow.
Greg is ill and has to be away from school for two weeks. His mother
encodes a letter to the school principal and sends it out in the mail.

In the above situation,

1. How else could Gregʼs mother have gotten the message to the

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 Principal?
2. Why do you think she chose to write a letter?

Answer: The telephone or email could have been used. She chose
the letter because a letter is a more formal medium of
communication and can serve as a permanent record.

Facilitators &; Barriers to Communication

Noise is anything that interrupts or blocks the flow of information.
Whenever the understanding of a message is affected, the
obstruction is considered a barrier to communication.
Some common barriers to communication are:
i. A language barrier
ii. A channel that is inaccessible to the receiver
iii. The message is ineffectively encoded or the meaning is
ambiguous
iv. The medium is inappropriate to the message

Some common facilitators to communication are:

i. Choosing a familiar language
ii. Using an accessible channel
iii. Ensuring that the medium is appropriate to the message
iv. Using audio/visual aids to enhance the encoding of the message

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