Communication is a Two Way (and Often Bumpy) Road

 

When I was an undergraduate back in the late 1990's, one of my degrees was in Communications. Now back in this day, the term "communications" had a more limited scope than it does today. This was a time before social media...before Twitter, before Tik Tok, and yes...even before Facebook. The communication we were taught during my course of study focused primarily on face-to-face interpersonal communication. Professors taught us about proper use of rhetoric, the importance of nonverbal communication, and how to effectively and efficiently transmit verbal information. Despite all the hours of classes, stacks of written papers, and time dedicated to reading and studying the craft of communication, decades later I can really recall only one primary lesson..."The message you intend to say is not necessarily the message others hear." As obvious as that sounds, I have found that many people forget this simple fact. All people are products of their environment and experiences, and the way people interpret a message is affected by those factors, and just as no two people share the same personal experiences, no two people interpret messages the exact same way. 

    Every message is open to multiple interpretations, and the vehicle in which that message is delivered affects how those messages are interpreted. For example, if someone were to interpret the sentence, "I am just having a great day," the way another person receives that message and the external experiences of that person will affect its meaning. If the individual receiving the massage was doing so in person, he would notice nonverbals such as vocal tone and facial expressions to realize that this message is sarcastic and that the true meaning of the message is the exact opposite of what is stated in the words alone. If another person sees this message simply written on a social media post, the message may be taken literally. 

    As a result of my background in Communications, I feel that it is important that both the individual delivering the message and the one receiving it share responsibility in its accurate transmission...or to put it into social media terminology, think before you post and question everything you read. Social media possesses a particular danger in misinterpretation because it is often delivered in one channel of communication and the sources of information are often not trustworthy. The MINDFUL heuristic presented in Argument in the Real World offers a good framework for using social media responsibly with this acronym which stands for monitoring what you read, identifying the claim, noting the evidence, determining the framework and the mindset, FACTS (verifying facts and data), and understanding the counterargument (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p. 109-110). 

    Some studies suggest that with social media, the primary factor which determines if someone trusts or dismisses it is simply who posted it. According to research conducted by the Media Insight Project, "people see a post from a trusted person rather than an untrusted person, they feel more likely to recommend the news source to friends, follow the source on social media, and sign up for news alerts from the source."(2017). 

References:

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2017). Argument in the Real World. Heinemann. 

'who shared it?' how Americans decide what news to trust on Social Media. American Press Institute. (2017, May 24). Retrieved November 26, 2021, from https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/trust-social-media/.