of holding up your art work mean anything to the people around you? How do you think people would react to you? How do you think you would feel?
It is more than likely that people would perceive you as a little ‘odd’ and, consequently, having had a little peek at you (we are all curious beings after all) the people around you would ignore you and get on with their shopping and perhaps you would be left feeling a little foolish.
Now imagine that you are a referee on a football pitch. That little piece of red paper, all of a sudden, takes on new meaning. It has a symbolic function. It is seen as a Red Card. The Red Card symbolises that one of the players is judged by the referee to be guilty of a serious misdemeanour and is to be sent off the pitch. If you were the referee it is likely that you wouldn’t feel foolish in this situation at all; rather you would feel noticed, validated, powerful and in charge. Although, perhaps, my perceptions of what it is to be a referee are a little at odds with reality. But whose reality? This is an important issue. It seems that we all share common realities and understand symbols that are meaningful to us but each of us also has our own interpretations of the world and these interpretations are influenced by some of the factors that Littlejohn and Foss (2005) outline in relation to values, social groups and culture.
I am going to follow this through a little more as it raises important issues for us to understand. If we were observers of the football match, regardless of how big the stadium was or how many people were there, we would easily spot a small piece of red card in the hand of the man dressed in black, and we instantly recognise the meaning of the action and the symbolism of the card. Knowing the Red Card’s function we will respond, but our response isn’t always absolutely predictable, even if we all interpreted the symbolic action the same way. Our response to observing the Red Card will be in accordance with whether or not we support the referee’s decision to give a Red Card. Our interpretation of the referee’s action is likely to reflect where our support lies; is it someone on our own team who is being sent off or someone on the opposite side? Our response could be predicted by the colour of the team colours or scarf that we wear and/or by the end of the stadium at which we stand or sit while the game is being played. However, our responses to symbols are not always this clear cut.
So, something as simple as a Red Card triggers all sorts of communications and interactions among people. We all see the same symbol and we all understand the meaning, but we interpret the referee’s behaviour differently. Some of us may cheer ecstatically while others boo and jeer as loudly as possible, and then there are those who would go on to discuss the ins and outs of the decision for ever (can you detect from my communication that I dislike post-mortems of football matches? How did you detect that?).
| REFLECTION 1.2 |
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1 Can you think of other examples of symbols and symbolic actions in everyday life and how we attribute meaning to them?
2 How does that attribution of meaning influence our behaviour?
3 What are the possible consequences of symbols and symbolic actions being misinterpreted by others?
I’m sure that you were able to think of many circumstances where symbols influence your behaviour. Road traffic signs are a good example of how a symbol can influence our behaviour. The speed camera sign always makes me check my speed and traffic signage uses simple symbols to convey a whole host of messages targeted at influencing our driving behaviour. Symbols can create unity and symbols can create tension. Symbolic acts have started wars, sparked revolution and changed lives, and whether those changes were good or bad is down to your interpretation of them.
The definition offered by Wood (2004) raises some essential issues in studying communication that I was not able to raise in my definition earlier. It is important that we stop and make the time to explore definitions and try to see the world as others perceive it to be. It will enrich our understanding and enable us to make more positive decisions about how we communicate. Communication is about who we are. It isn’t a single one-off thing. It is a very complicated process and to assist you in understanding some of the complexities involved in communicating with yourself and with others, it has been broken down into different areas of study in Chapters 2 and 3.
MODES OF COMMUNICATION
Messages are communicated in many different ways. New methods of transmission and new channels of communication are developing at an incredibly rapid pace as we progress into the digital age. Over the last 50 years the developments in technology have had a massive impact on how we communicate with each other. We can connect online with someone on the other side of the world in an instant and with someone in space at the flick of a switch. Since the publication of the first edition of this book, smartphones have further revolutionised the way that we connect with others. Information technology has changed the world we live in more than any other technical phenomenon. When studying in any field of health and social care you will find that ICT plays a vital role in how we deliver, record and monitor care. As practitioners in whatever field you work in, you have a responsibility to develop and update your skills accordingly.
| WRITING ACTIVITY 1.2 |
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Think of all the different ways your grandparents and your great-grandparents may have communicated with each other and the rest of the world as young people, and draw up a list of these.
If you have the opportunity, speak with a person aged 80 years plus and see if they can confirm the ways you have identified. They may be able to add to your list with some very interesting examples of means of communication. No doubt some of their methods were quite innovative, particularly if they involved speaking with boyfriends and girlfriends without their parents being aware and, of course, communicating during the war years.
Perhaps your list will have included some of the following:
• face-to-face, person-to-person conversation;
• whistling, singing and calling out loud;
• telephone, via the operator of course;
• writing, including letters, postcards, poetry and song;
• handwritten records and ledgers and typed correspondence;
• telegraphy, telegrams and couriers;
• sign language and ticktack, and secret gestures;
• secret codes and messaging banners, flags and semaphore;
• flickering lights, and opening and shutting curtains;
• pigeon post and go-betweens, flares and other pyrotechnics;
• radio, television and cinema.
These are only the examples we could come up with but no doubt there are many more.
| WRITING ACTIVITY 1.3 |
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Cover the next section of text and extend your list to include all modes and methods of communication that you have seen or taken part in, either in your personal
