Context for Communications

What is the context of a communication

Well, context generally refers to the surrounding circumstances or situation in which a communication occurs

So, the first type of context that you might categorize is an interpersonal communication

This is communication within oneself. It might also be referred to as self-talk

Now, this may not be generally recognized as a form of communication as it does not involve two parties or the transmission of information

but this is focused on mental processing of information and the reassertion of that information to oneself such that it affects one's actions, disposition, perceptions, etc

So, interpersonal communication is a context and form of communication in itself

Now, a more readily recognized form of communication or context for communication is interpersonal

and this is between two or more individuals. The conversation can be one-on-one, and this is a two-person communication that follows the formal communication process

That is the encoding of a message, the receipt of a message, the response with feedback, that type of thing

Now, group communication involves three or more people, usually up to a small group of about eight to ten people

Anything more than that crosses into the line of our next type, which is a public communication

But with interpersonal communications you have group communications and you have team communications Group means you have a small group there You communicating with these individuals collectively and there a back and forth with more than two people

The team communication means that you all have a similar objective. So it's a modified form of the group communication

That is, everyone's on the same page with the same type of topic of conversation, if you will

Now, a public communication is where you expand beyond the group. You have a general conversation with a larger group of people

and the conversation may vary based upon who you're talking to in the audience

Obviously, that becomes less apparent as the audience grows, as the public grows who you're talking to

Then the message becomes less individualized and more general or singular in nature

and it's simply being broadcast, which leads us to our next form of communication, which is mass

communication. This is a public communication, again, that is distributed at large. It is a

singular message that is not part of the back and forth that you would traditionally assume in the

formal communication process. It is a one-way delivery of a pre-constructed message to a large

group that message does not change. It is pre-crafted. It is singular so it is not unique to any of the

members of the group. So these are the primary contexts in which communications occur