Communication Competence

Competent Communicator
 Communication competence
 Communication competence refers both to your knowledge and understanding of how
communication works and to your ability to use communication effectively.
 Your knowledge and understanding would include elements, principles, and ethics
involved in communication.
 Your ability would involve selection and implementation of your knowledge. Keeping
in mind the ongoing feedback (both intrapersonal and interpersonal) to improve
communicating in future.
Competent communicator

 Thinks critically and mindfully

 Is culturally sensitive
 Is ethical
 Is an effective listener
 Is media literate
 1. Thinks critically and mindfully

 An essential communication skill is the ability to think critically about the

communication situations you face and the options of communicating that you have
available.
 This is most crucial to your success and effectiveness.
 Critical Thinking: logical, well-reasoned, unbiased, and clear thinking.
 A special kind of critical thinking is mindfulness; a state of awareness in which you
are conscious of your reasons for thinking or behaving.
 How to be critical and mindful?

1. create and recreate categories; group things and people in different ways. Learn to see people
as belonging to a wide variety of categories.
2. Be open to new information and points of view; absorb new information about new beliefs and
attitudes and change your communication accordingly.
3. Be aware of relying too heavily on first impressions; treat first impressions as tentative or
hypotheses that need further investigation.
4. Think before you act; in delicate situations (such as anger), it is wise to pause and think over a
situation, then to out rightly say something and later regretting.
 Is culturally sensitive
 Communication competence is culture specific.
 The principles of effective communication may vary from one culture to another.
 What proves effective in one culture, may be ineffective in any other culture.
 Example: calling people with their first names, when you are not too intimate
with them, Answering a British person’s how do you do by saying fine or well.
Is ethical

 Human communication involves questions of ethics; the study of good and bad,
right and wrong, moral and immoral.
 Ethics is concerned with actions and behaviours.
 A competent communicator should know how to distinguish between behaviour
that is moral and that is immoral.
 In ethics, two views influence all your ethical decisions; Objective and subjective.
 Objective and Subjective views of ethics

 Objective view; the rightness and wrongness of an act is absolute and exists apart
from the values or beliefs of any individual or culture.
 Example: lying or false advertising are unethical, then they would be unethical
regardless of circumstances, and of cultural values and beliefs.
 Subject View; The absolute statements about right and wrong are too rigid, and the
ethics of a message depends on the cultural values, beliefs, and on particular
circumstances.
 Example: Lying might be wrong to win votes or sell cigarettes, but it might be
ethical if good results from it.
Is an effective listener

 Communication competence is not only about speaking effectiveness, but also

focuses on listening.
 You cannot be a competent communicator, if you are a poor listener.
 Listening is an integral part of your communication, if you cannot listen and
comprehend, you would not be able to answer appropriately.
Is media literate

 Media literacy comprises of both mass media and social media.

 Media literacy can help you to understand, analyse, and evaluate media messages
effectively.
 Media literacy can empower you to interact with media and create your own
media messages.