Definitions

What is communication?

How do we define communication? Em Griffin, in an earlier edition (3rd ed., 1997) of his book A First Look at Communication Theory, first provides us Claude Shannon’s definition: “Communication is the transmission and reception of information.”

Then he gives us I. A. Richards’s definition: “Communication is the generation of meaning.”

According to Griffin, while not contradictory, the two definitions seem to point us to two different things. One looks at communication through scientific lenses while the other looks at the same from a humanistic viewpoint.

Then he furnishes us a definition, which he favors as it doesn’t lean toward one or the other perspective, formulated by Lawrence Frey, Carl Botan, Paul Friedman, and Gary Kreps: “Communication is the management of messages for the purpose of creating meaning” (19).

Stephen Littlejohn likewise points to several definitions of communication, particularly Frank Dance and Carl Larson’s 1976 listing of 126 definitions. Littlejohn concludes that coming up with a single and absolute definition of communication may be an impossible task.

He, however, also mentions Dance’s attempt to narrow down these varied definitions by categorizing 15 conceptual concepts common in all. These include:

Symbols/verbal/speech
Understanding
Interaction/relationship/social process
Reduction of uncertainty
Process
Transfer/transmission/interchange
Linking/binding
Commonality
Channel/carrier/means/route
Replicating memories
Discriminative response/behavior modifying response
Stimuli
Intention
Time/situation
Power

Moreover, Littlejohn shows how Dance listed three points by which differences in definitions can be distinguished:

Level of observation/abstraction
Level of intentionality
Level of judgment (normative level)

Julia Wood echoes Littlejohn’s idea about the impossibility of arriving at a single definition for communication. She also points to Dance’s list of definitions, but she summarizes commonalities to four concepts: