Barriers in Communication

 

Barriers in Communication

Communicating is straightforward. What makes it complex difficult, and frustrating are the barriers we put in the way. The top barriers are,

Physical barriers

Physical barriers in an organization includes large working areas that are physically separated from others. Other distractions that could cause a physical barrier in an organization are environment, background noise.

Perceptual barriers

The problem with communication with others is that we all see the world differently. If we did not, we would have no need to communicate: something like extrasensory perception would take its place.

Emotional barriers

One of the chief barriers to open and free communications is the emotional barrier. Your emotions could be a barrier to communication if you are engrossed in your emotions for some reason. It is comprised mainly of fear, mistrust and suspicion. A few of the emotional interferences include hostility, anger, resentfulness and fear.

Cultural barriers

When we join a group and wish to remain in it, sooner or later we need to adopt the behavior patterns of the group. These are the behaviors that the group accept as signs of belonging. The group rewards such behavior through acts of recognition, approval and inclusion.

Language barriers

When a person uses inappropriate words while conversing or writing it could lead to misunderstanding between the sender and a receiver. Language that describes what we want to say in our terms may present barriers to others who are not familiar with our expressions, buzzwords and jargon. When we couch our communication in such language, it is a way of excluding others. In a global marketplace the greatest compliment we can pay another person is to talk in their language.

Gender barriers

There are distinct differences between the speech patterns in a man and those in a woman. A woman speaks between 22,000 and 25,000 words a day whereas a man speaks between 7,000 and 10,000. A man talks in a linear, logical and compartmentalized way, features of left-brain thinking, whereas a woman talks more freely mixing logic and emotion, features of thinking by both sides of the brain. It also explains why women talk for much longer than men each day.

Lack of subject knowledge

 If a person who sends a message lacks subject knowledge then he may not be able to convey his message clearly. The receiver could misunderstand his message, and this could lead to a barrier to effective communication.

Stress

One of the major communication barriers faced by employees in most of the organization is stress. When a person is under immense stress, he may find it difficult to understand the message, leading to communication distortion. At the time of stress, our psychological frame of mind depends on our beliefs, experiences, goals and values. Thus, we fail to realize the essence of communication

 

Components of communication

 

Components of communication

Communication is an experience between speaker and listener. If you want your message to be as clear as possible when delivered , each of these components  need to be taken into consideration

i.                    Context

Context is a broad field that includes country, culture, organization and external and internal stimuli. Every message,  whether oral or written begins with content.

 

ii.                  The message

The message may be in the form of order, opinion, advice, suggestion, instruction, question answer material. It is necessary and important that idea or message received be identical to the idea or message sent. It is possible only when both communicators sender and receiver are skillful in communication and its language.

 

iii.                 The Speaker/ Sender/ Encoder

   Sender is the person who communicates the idea, information, material, etc. He acts in the capacity of speaker, writer or encoder. The speaker also conveys a message with tone of voice, appearance and gestures. The speaker may dress in a certain way to project a specific image, may smile to project friendliness, may raise his or her voice to gain attention.

iv.                Medium

Medium of communication includes letters, reports, fax, cables, telephones, charts, pictures or any other mechanical device. Medium may also be a person as a postman.

v.                  The Audience / Receiver / Decoder

The receiver is the decoder who receives, decodes or interprets the message. The same message, delivered by the same speaker, will not necessarily be received the same way by different audiences. The audience background attitudes and beliefs affect the message they hear.

If you want your message to be as clear as possible when delivered, each of these components need to be taken into consideration

 

Film Appreciation - Mise-en-scene

 

 Film Appreciation

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is a French term derived from drama. It means “putting-on-stage”. It is the basic grammar of film-language. It stands for the particular style or technique of a maker in designing a visual.

Shot

A shot is an uninterrupted filming of an object or an action. It generally is marked by the director’s call ‘start’ and ‘cut’  on a shooting spot. It can also be understood as the ‘camera-distance’. There are six basic shots. They are: i) Close up  ii) Extreme Close-up  iii) Mid-shot  iv) Full shot  v) Long-shot   vi) Extreme –Long shot.

A film uses different shots, not just to keep the viewer engaged through variety. Each and every shot has its specific value and impact.

Close-up

Close-up is a miracle of cinema. Close-up creates an unsurpassable intimacy between the viewer and the visual.

Extreme close-up

 An extreme close-up is as unique to cinema as any fairy-tale exoticism. If cinema is a surrogate with its vicarious experience, an extreme close-up shot is a perspective which one can never have otherwise. Da Vinci  in his precise description of perception points out that the minimum distance required for a clear perception should measure equal to the length of the viewer’s face. So outside filmic experience an extreme close-up is impossible in life. Also, if a close-up creates intimacy revealing features of the object, an extreme close-up presents the minute details of it.

Mid-shot

A mid-shot is closer to everyday reality than the other shots. It gives an impression of being there. It is almost like being a passive participant and a silent spectator of a neighbourhood affair. That’s why this shot is generally used in TV dramas and talk-shows. It is almost like the frame accommodating the viewer and the camera nodding a ‘thanks- for-stepping-in’

Full –shot

A Full –shot or a mid-long shot it like a drama director asking his actor to ‘open-up’. Remember the striking mid-long shot used in the airport scene in ‘Return of the Dragon’ to introduce Bruce Lee.

 

 

Long-shot

A long-shot places the character in the space. Sometimes a character exists in the space and sometimes it struggles against the space. So, in a long-shot both the character and the backdrop are important. That is why to suggest a morbid, unlocalized space  the maker uses a limbo shot in which the background is just painted in white. It is like a colour contrast as the one effectively used in Matrix when Neo calls for weapons.

Extreme long

An extreme long shot is genereally used with wide angle, telefocus lenses in wild life and nature photography. In cinematography it attributes grandeur to the visual. The tone of the shot is always philosophical.

 

Ode to Evening - William Collins

 

Ode to Evening   - William Collins

‘Ode to Evening’ is one of the famous odes written by the English poet William Collins. This transitional poem centers on the natural setting during the evening. William Collins paints a beautiful picture of an evening in his poem, ‘Ode to Evening’.

  It is a beautiful poem of fifty two lines, addressed to a goddess figure representing evening. The poem appeared in Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects in 1747. This poem has mainly three parts; the first one is the opening salutation to the evening, the second one is the center where the poet requests for the guidance in receiving peace, and the last one is his personal point of view to return to the general aspect.

When the poem commences, the speaker humbly requests to the spirit of Evening to grant him the skill of singing so that he could please her. She is an enchanting part of nature who sometimes looks like in a pensive mood. She is also fond of the speaker’s song. The fascinating nymphs in the evening that come from the buds of flowers bring fragrance in the peaceful evening environment. To make the environment more soothing, the speaker’s song should be very soft like that of the murmur of the streams.

The only sound that the speaker listens is that of the cry of the bat and the beetle. He aspires to go to the ruined building in some lonely valley to watch the beauty of the evening, but he is disturbed by the rain and the wind. So, he decides to visit the mountainside to see the descending evening. In the end, the speaker admits that the charm of the evening should continue to bring peace and harmony and to inspire friendship, poets, science and lovers of the peace.

The application of the femininity in describing the evening and characterizing her is one of the strengths of Collins. Words and phrases like ‘chaste Eve’, ‘fancy’, ‘rose-lipped’, ‘nymph reserved’, and ‘maid composed’ are some of the illustrations of the use of the femininity in the poem. These traits to the evening adds the concept of an eye-catching woman who is reserved and patient.

The poet has used the concept of the evening as a way to put his view on the woman as contradictory figure, something mysterious and also generous. The evening is merging point of the sunlight and the sunset, in a way, it is a transition from light to dark, day to night. Depicting the negative side of the evening, the poet says, it symbolically hides all the faces of the daytime whether good or bad. In its darkness, everything is same and mysterious. It is the eve that makes sure that the next day is certainly going to be bright and sunny. In that sense, evening is the seed of the hope and life of the next day.

Collins personifies evening in this poem as ‘chaste Eve’ which is a Biblical allusion to Eve. The comparison of the evening to the Biblical Eve is ambiguous. If the fallen and flawed state of Eve is associated to the evening, then the evening becomes something negative and cursed state of the day when the bright light of the sun is missed and set. But, if the poet is comparing evening with the innocence and purity of Eve, then the evening means a beautiful time of the day when everything comes to the resting point with peace and harmony all around. The intention of the poet is still ambiguous.

 

Plato

 

Plato

His Age and Works

Plato date of birth is generally put down at 427 B.C and died in 348 B.C. He was the most celebrated disciple of Socrates. Plato began his career as a poet and playwright. But after his association with Socrates, he destroyed his poems and plays and devoted himself entirely to philosophical cogitations. After the assassination of Socrates, he founded an Academy in 387 B.C and taught his pupils philosophy, natural sciences, mathematics, practical legislation and jurisprudence. His important works are The Dialogues, Ion, Lysis, Georgics and Republic.

His theory of art

Plato holds that ideas exist as archetypes or originals in heaven. In Republic, Plato gives the example of a carpenter making a table. The ideal table exists as an archetype only in heaven. The carpenter’s table is an imitation of the ideal, flawless, perfect table which exists only in heaven. The poet who describes a table is imitating the carpenter’s table which is itself an imitation of the heavenly table. The poet’s description is an imitation of an imitation and hence is twice removed from reality. The poet has certain other serious limitations. The third rate poet has no serious purpose. His aim is to popularizes himself or to make money.

His attack on poetry

Plato asserts that the poet speaks the divine myth. Poetry is not a craft, which can be practiced by all and sundry. It is the effect of inspiration and the divine speaks through the poet. It cannot be recalled in its original fervor. Such a tool is not dependable, according Plato, reason, which opposed to passion is reliable. Poetry makes the reader feel rather than think. It makes readers adore beauty. They become excessively aesthetic. They lose their capacity for action. Poets speak ‘lies’ about gods. Such a deflation of gods contributes to the spread of atheism and impiety, so Plato banishes poetry from his Academy

His attack on drama

Plato’s attack on drama is as well-known as his attack on poetry. Plato holds that the dramatist has to pander to the low tastes of the spectators. Towards this end, he introduces ribald jokes, low buffoonery etc., in comedies and wars and lamentations in tragedies. Plato’s comments on the effects of bad drama on actors and spectators are quite pertinent. Actors who impersonate wicked characters become wicked themselves. A villain in a drama is likely to become a villain in real life. Exposure to wicked characters may corrupt the audience also. The converse is also true. Portrayal of a noble character will ennoble the actor as well as the audience.

Plato’s contribution to the critical art, thus is considerable. Scattered in fragments though it might be, all together read like a systematic treatise on the art of writing.

 

Communication and its types

 

 

Communication

Communication is the articulation of sending a message through different media, whether it is verbal or nonverbal. Communication of information, messages, opinions, speech and thoughts can be done via different forms of modern communication media like, e-mail, telephone and mobile. Some of the basic ways of communication are by speaking, singing, sign language, body language, touch and eye contact. These basic ways of communication are used to transfer information from one entity to the other. There are many different types of communication. They can be classified into four types. Verbal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Formal Communication, Informal Communication.

Verbal Communication

i) Oral Communication

ii) Written Communication

Oral communication is information spoken by mouth. Some of the examples of oral communication are face-to-face communication, telephonic communication, public address system, audio and visual media, lectures, conferences – interchange of views, meetings, cultural affairs. Oral communication is a unique and learned rhetorical skill that requires you to understand what you say and how you say it. The various forms of oral communication include monologue, soliloquy, short conversation and long conversation

Monologue

Monologue is a speech made by one person on his thoughts to an audience or character. The listener does not respond. There are two types of monologues. They are Exterior monologue and Interior monologue

Soliloquy

It is a form of monologue. The soliloquy reveals his inner thoughts and feelings in supposed self-communion or in a consciously direct address.

Dialogue

It is a formal exchange of ideas between two persons. It is a reciprocal conversation between two or more entities.

Short conversation

It is a short, informal spoken exchange between two persons. It is used when the interaction is with elders and respectable personalities.

Long conversation

It happens in both formal and informal situations. It is an exchange of facts and ideas at random.

Written Communication

Written communication is by means of written symbols. Some examples are orders, instructions, letters, memos, reports, policy manuals, information bulletin, complaint etc.

ii) Nonverbal Communication

it is the process of communicating through sending receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture, body language or posture: facial expression and eye contact.

iii) Formal communication

Here, communication takes place through the formal channels of the organization structure along the lines of authority established by the management. Such communications are generally in writing and may take any of the forms; policy manuals, memoranda and official meetings.

iv) Informal communication

Communication arising out of all those channels of communication that fall outside the formal channels is known as informal communication

Communication is fruitful only if the messages sent by the receiver. If any kind of disturbance blocks any step of communication, the message will be destroyed.

The Hero as Poet - Thomas Carlyle

 

The Hero as Poet   - Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was born in 1795 and died in 1881. His genius matured and came to full flowering on the very threshold of the Victorian era. His writings were influenced considerably by the social, economic, cultural, scientific, technological and religious changes which characterize the era. ‘The Hero as a Poet’ is the third lecture in Carlyle’s series of six lectures published in book form as Heroes and Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History’. The lecture is divisible into three well defined parts: in the first part he considers briefly the history of the heroic ideal, and the essentials of a hero, and in part second and third he examines the heroic qualities of Dante and Shakespeare whom he holds out as model hero-poets.

Part I

He begins by pointing out that in the past a hero was treated as a God or a prophet i.e., either as one having the qualities of a God or as one speaking with the voice of God. However, such fallacies are not possible in the modern age. Science does not permit us to believe that a man can be a God or a prophet. In the modern age, a hero appears in the less ambitious character of a poet. A poet is a heroic figure belonging to all ages. He is a heroic character who does not grow old or outdated.

Hero, poet and prophet, philosopher and thinker are different names for great men who differ from each other not in their capacities but according to their different environment. In the opinion of Carlyle, it is differences of age and environment which are of the utmost importance. All heroes whether we call them prophets or poets are essentially Great Men i.e., men of sympathetic hearts and penetrating vision. They all have the seeing  eye and the understanding heart. That is why in some old languages they are both called ‘Vates’.

A vein of poetry exists in all persons; all grow poetic under the stress of powerful passion. When this vein of poetry is more developed in a man than in his neighbours, the man is called a poet. One who rises above the general level of poets is called a Universal poet. However, it should be remembered that most poets are soon forgotten, and the greatest, not even Shakespeare, will be remembered for ever.

Part II

 Dante, an Italian  poet, writer and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, is widely considered as one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. He was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy. He is described as the "father" of the Italian language. His apprehension of the reality was thorough, and this reality is presented in the three parts of the poem, viz. Inferno, Purgatorio, and ‘Paradiso’. Reality for Dante was not the world in which he lived. He found that the world was full of falsehood as folly, hypocrisy and meanness, and imposters prospered, and honest and sincere people died of starvation. Consequently his eyes were turned heaven-wards where he discovered an eternal truth, a spiritual reality, which promised peace and happiness to the suffering human soul. ‘The Divine Comedy’ is an embodiment of Dante’s vision of spiritual reality. The sinners and the wicked who prosper in life, are thrown in eternal hell. Evil cannot escape punishment, however, great, gaudy, or pompous it may appear to us on the earth. Yet, God gives to the sinners a chance of making amends and improving themselves by sincere penitence. Purgatory is an embodiment of this aspect of God’s mercy. The soul is purged and hallowed by suffering, and ascends to the region of the blessed i.e., Paradise.

Part III

Shakespeare is endowed with a unique intensity of vision. His vision is so keen that it penetrates even to the farthest depth of life. From its penetrating and keen vision no aspect of life remains hidden. ‘Such a calmness of depth; placid, joyous, strength; all things imaged in that great soul of his, so true and clear, as in a tranquil unfathomable sea’. The genius of Shakespeare is shown in his delineation of character. His characterization shows complete command over human psychology. His great soul takes in all kinds of men and objects, a Falstaff, an Othello, a Juliet, a Coriolanus, and sets them all forth us in their rounded perception and completeness. He has a universal sympathy for all and sundry. He portrays the character of people as they really are, without condemning their failings and shortcomings or extolling their virtues. In no other writer do we find such a great catholicity and tolerance as in Shakespeare.

Such are the Carlyle’s views on the heroism of poets. Dante and Shakespeare are used to illustrate his views. Some of his remarks are certainly original and penetrating, and come to us as a revelation, a pleasant surprise. We may not agree with him; still we cannot help admiring him.