Why Study Communication Skills

There is a variety of definitions of communication. Some emphasis the transfer or sharing of knowledge; others the mutual creation of meaning, yet others the building of mutual understanding and consensus.

As citizens, students and professionals, we benefit by understanding communication process and strategies, and by developing skills in language use. A theme of this text is the importance of the professional person being conscious of his or her purpose in communicating, and being able to predict the consequences, positive and negative, of various approaches of communication.
In communication, we construct and give meaning to reality both personally and socially. we select from the phenomenon about us those we will attend to. We develop mental sets and frames of reference which are related to our individual cognitive processes and also our social conditioning.

Communication is also affected by our perception of other people. We tend to like people who are like ourselves. Also, we tend to stereotype those with racial or cultural features different from our own, to impose our own theories of personality on others, and to use categorising to give meaning to our relationships. We may develop 'halo' effects around the qualities of people we have already decided to like.

Communication is strongly affected by society and social values. Personal and social values will often be in conflict, leading to inconsistent communication behavior from one situation to another Culture is different from society. It covers our belief structures, work and play organization and beliefs about the nature of the world. All these strongly affect communication and human relationship

Communication professions and teaching must be based on ethical principles. Unethical communication can be dangerous for democracy, personally corrupting and self-defeating. A code of ethics for communication is appropriate.