Communication Channels
| Author | Marie Flatley |
| Pages | 124-126 |
Page 124
In the basic communication process, a sender puts a message in words and transmits it to a receiver who interprets the message. The medium the sender chooses to transmit the message is called the communication channel.
Traditionally, it was thought that the words chosen and way they were interpreted were solely responsible for a successful message. Beginning in the 1960s with Marshall McLuhan, however, many came to believe that the medium was the message. Today, with the help of media richness theory and its extensions—and variants such as channel expansion theory—most people realize that the appropriate choice of communication channel (medium) contributes significantly, along with the words, to the success of a message. Appropriate choice helps senders communicate clearly, saving them and their businesses time and money. Therefore, examining various communication channels to understand their appropriate use is important.
Media richness theory ranks communication channels along a continuum of richness, defining highly rich channels as those handling multiple inherent cues simultaneously, such as using feedback, nonverbal cues, and several senses simultaneously. A face-to-face meeting, which employs feedback as well as audio and visual senses, is considered extremely rich. A newsletter or brochure is lean, however, involving only the visual sense and slow or no feedback. Several of these channels—brochures and Web pages, letters, electronic mail (e-mail) messages, video e-mail messages, text messaging, instant messaging, telephone conversations, videoconferencing or virtual meetings, and face-to-face meetings—will be reviewed, along with some guidelines for appropriate use.
Writers usually create brochures or Web pages to provide information on a product or service. While often used for persuasive purposes, they are usually presented as routine informational documents. Writers lay out the information carefully, often designing the visual layout as carefully as they compose the text of the content. These lean channels work effectively when one-way communication in a visual medium is needed. In choosing these channels, the sender is eliminating any extraneous information a richer source might include, keeping the content of the message clear and focused.
Letters are primarily printed, formal business documents. They are best used when one wants to convey important, nonroutine information, such as job offers or refusals, promotions, awards and honors, and other kinds of special announcements. Also, they are an appropriate channel for certain attempts at persuasion, such as soliciting contributions to a...
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