The communicative process is a necessary prerequisite for the formation, development and functioning of all social systems, because it is he who ensures the connection between people and their communities, makes possible the connection between generations, the accumulation and transmission of social experience, its enrichment, the division of labor and the exchange of its products, the organization of joint activities, and the transmission of culture. It is through communication that control is carried out, therefore it represents, in addition to all of the above, a social mechanism through which power arises and is realized in society.

There are many definitions social communication. The most common of them are: social communication is the transfer of information, ideas, emotions through signs and symbols; is a process that connects individual parts of social media. systems with each other; - this is the mechanism through which power is exercised (power as an attempt to determine the behavior of another person).

There are several types of social communication:

By nature of the audience:

  • interpersonal (individualized)
  • · specialized (group)
  • · massive

According to the source of the message:

  • · official (formal)
  • · informal

By transmission channel:

  • · verbal
  • · non-verbal

Communication is a complex multicomponent process.

Its main components are:

  • 1. Subjects of the communication process - the sender and recipient of the message (communicator and recipient);
  • 2. Communication means - a code used to transmit information in symbolic form (words, pictures, graphics, etc.), as well as channels through which the message is transmitted (letter, telephone, radio, telegraph, etc.);
  • 3. The subject of communication (any phenomenon, event) and the message reflecting it (article, radio broadcast, television story, etc.)
  • 4. Effects of communication - the consequences of communication, expressed in a change in the internal state of the subjects of the communication process, in their relationships or in their actions.

Social communication in the process of its implementation solves three main interrelated tasks:

  • 1. Integration of individuals into social groups and communities, and the latter into a single and whole system society;
  • 2. Internal differentiation of society, its constituent groups, communities, social organizations and institutions;
  • 3. separation and isolation of society and various groups, communities from each other in the process of their communication and interaction, which leads to a deeper awareness of their specificity, to a more effective performance of their inherent functions.

Models of social communication

In the process of sociological research of communication processes, various models social communication. Any communication activity requires not only knowledge of the characteristics of the communicator, analysis of the content of information, but also analysis of the audience. To carry out such an analysis, the communicator needs psychological competence. Knowledge of psychotypes allows you to determine the strategy of the communication process and predict actions. Psychotype- a model of the behavioral structure of the individual and its interaction with the environment. Psychologists identify five main psychotypes: square, triangular, circular, rectangular and zigzag. Knowing the various psychotypes, the communicator in the communication process uses this information to properly manage the communication process.

The effectiveness of the audience's perception of information is influenced by the cultural, educational, and social levels of the communicant. Important factors for successful communication are knowledge of the audience, respect for it, and the ability to communicate with it on equal terms, i.e. equality of psychological positions of the communicator and the communicant. In the 80s XX century J. Goldhaberg created a charismatic model of communication. He proceeded from the fact that TV affects emotions more than the mind. Therefore, the success of television programs is less related to the information content, and directly depends on the “charisma” of the personality on the screen. D. Goldhaberg identified three types of charismatic personality:

  • · The hero is an idealized personality, looks “what we want”, says “what we want”.
  • · An antihero is a “simple man”, one of us. Looks “like all of us”, says the same “like us”. We feel safe with him. We trust him.
  • · Mystical personality - alien to us (“not like us”), unusual, unpredictable. This type of communicator is suitable for late night broadcasts.

When studying the influence of the intellectual level of the audience on the perception of information, it was found that for an audience with a high level of education, a two-way message is preferable. Such a message is a text that, in addition to the communicator’s arguments, contains the arguments of the opposing party. This is explained by the fact that such an audience needs to compare views and evaluate them independently. For audiences with a low educational level, it is recommended to use a one-way message containing only the communicator’s arguments. A one-way message is also effective when the audience agrees with the communicator and has not been exposed to the opponent's arguments.

The specialist’s goal is to change the communicator’s values ​​and behavior. If it is possible to change the behavior of the communication object, then the actions of the communicator are considered as influence. Influence can be exerted in three ways: by coercion; manipulating the communicant’s consciousness; inviting him to cooperate. Since the specialist does not have formal power, his influence is built either on manipulation, or on cooperation, or on these two methods at once.

Manipulation of consciousness is understood as the actions of a communicator aimed at changing psychological attitudes, value orientations, and behavior of individuals and entire audiences, regardless of their desire. Among the reasons for manipulation are: a person’s conflict with himself (A. Maslow); distrust towards other people (E. Fromm); a feeling of absolute helplessness (existentialism); fear of close interpersonal contacts (E. Bern); uncritical desire to receive the approval of everyone; the desire for symbolic mastery of a communication partner (S. Freud); implementation of the compensatory desire for power (A. Adler).

The purpose of manipulation is control over the audience, its manageability and obedience. To achieve the goal, various manipulative technologies are used: targeted transformation of information (silence, selection, “distortion”, distortion of information, inversion); concealment of impact; targets of influence; robotization. These technologies are used in such types of manipulative influence as:

  • · Manipulation of images - since images have a strong psychological impact, they are widely used in communication practice, especially in advertising.
  • · Conventional manipulation - is based not on personal psychological attitudes, but on social schemes: rules, norms, traditions accepted in society, family.
  • · Operational-subject manipulation - based on such mental characteristics of the individual as the force of habit, inertia, logic of action execution.
  • · Manipulation of the addressee's personality - the desire to shift responsibility for some action to the addressee, while the manipulator remains the winner.
  • · Manipulation of spirituality - manipulation higher levels psyche (meaning of life, spiritual values, sense of duty).

The linear model of communication, developed by the famous American sociologist and political scientist G. Lasswell and including five elements, has become widely recognized and widespread:

  • 1. Who? (transmits message) - communicator
  • 2. What? (transmitted) - message
  • 3. How? (transfer in progress) - channel
  • 4. To whom? (message sent) - audience
  • 5. With what effect? - efficiency

Having found Lasswell's model applicable, although greatly simplified, some researchers began to develop it further. R. Braddock added two more elements of the communicative act to it: the conditions under which communication takes place and the purpose for which the communicator speaks. Lasswell's formula reflects characteristic feature early models of communication - it assumes that the communicator always tries to influence the recipient, and, therefore, communication should be interpreted as a process of persuasion. This assumption orients the model for use primarily in the field of analysis of political propaganda.

The Shannon-Weaver model also describes communication as a linear, one-way process. Mathematician Shannon worked on his communication model in the late 40s, by order of the Bell Telephone laboratory, and this largely determined the “technical” nature of the created model, its “remoteness”. The main goal was to reduce the “noise” and make the exchange of information as easy as possible. The model describes five functional and one dysfunctional (noise) factors of the communication process. Functional elements include: a source of information that produces a message; the sender, who encodes the message into signals; the channel carrying this message; recipient; goal, or destination.

A signal is only as vulnerable as it can be distorted by noise. An example of distortion is the overlap of signals passing through the same channel at the same time.

The advantage of this scheme is that it is obvious that the message sent by the source and the message reaching the recipient do not have the same meaning. Later, the provision on distortion of information was supplemented by other reasons for the initial and final information. In connection with work on the selectivity of perception, it became known that the communication channel includes a sequence of filters, leading to the fact that the amount of information at the input to the system is greater than the information that triggers the output [N. Wiener].

The failure of communication participants to realize that the message sent and received are not always the same is common cause communication difficulties. This important idea contained in the Shannon-Weaver model attracted attention and was developed in the research of DeFluer, who expanded the original model into a more extensive network:


In particular, he notes that in the communication process, “meaning” is transformed into a “message” and describes how the sender translates the “message” into “information”, which is then sent through the channel. The receiver decodes the "information" into a "message", which in turn is transformed into a "meaning" at the destination. If there is a correspondence between the first and second meanings, then communication has taken place. But according to DeFluer, complete compliance is a very rare case.

The DeFluer model takes into account the main disadvantage of the linear Shannon-Weaver model - the absence of a factor feedback. He closed the chain of information from source to goal with a feedback line that repeats the entire path in the opposite direction, including the transformation of meaning under the influence of “noise.” Feedback allows the communicator to better tailor his message to the communication channel to improve the efficiency of information transfer and increases the likelihood of a match between the sent and received meaning.

The inclusion of feedback as a full-fledged element in the model of such seemingly one-sided processes as television, radio broadcasting, and the press at first glance seems problematic. But one should distinguish between first-order feedback, when the communicator can receive it during the influence, and second-order indirect communication, obtained on the basis of an assessment of the results of the influence. In addition, the communicator begins to receive feedback not only from the recipient, but from the message itself (for example, from the sound and image on the monitor). The fundamental lack of feedback can be noted only in exceptional cases of communication between large social groups - for example, when sending probes with information into space, “towards” extraterrestrial civilizations.

But the final overcoming of the simplified interpretation of communication as a one-way linear process was the Osgood-Schramm circular model. Its main distinguishing feature is the postulation of the circular nature of the process of mass communication. Another feature of it is determined by the fact that if Shannon was primarily interested in the channels - mediators between the communicator and the audience, then Schramm and Osgood turned their attention to the behavior of the main participants in communication - the sender and the recipient, whose main tasks are encoding, decoding and interpreting the message.


A review of the definitions of “communication” conducted by U. Schramm made it possible to highlight the common thing that unites them - the existence of a set of information signs. This set may include not only facts and objects, but also emotions, latent meanings (“silent language”).

The adequacy of message perception presupposes the existence of an area in which the experience of the communicator and the recipient is similar, in which certain signs are recognized by them in the same way. The communicator and the recipient have a "fund of used meanings", a "framework of correspondence" and the area in which they can successfully communicate is in the "overlap" of their "frameworks". The success of communication also depends on the expectations presented by the participants in communication to each other. Professor of the Department of Journalism at the University of Memphis J. DeMott points out that there is a kind of tacit agreement between the media and their audience, an agreement (Mass Comm Pact), which defines the responsibilities of the QMS in relation to the audience, and the responsibilities of the audience in relation to the QMS. The imperfection of this agreement lies in the fact that the points of view of information consumers and its producers on the scope of these responsibilities are not the same.

According to Schramm, it is wrong to think that the communication process has a beginning or an end. In fact, it is endless. “We are small switches that continuously receive and distribute an endless stream of information...” (Some researchers go even further in this direction, arguing that all inner life a person is made up solely of a unique combination of what he saw, heard and remembered throughout his life.)

A possible criticism of this model is that it creates the impression of “equality” of the parties in the communication process. Meanwhile, this process is often unbalanced, especially when it comes to mass communication. Under these conditions, the recipient and the sender are not such equal participants in communication and the circular model, which equates them as links in one chain, does not adequately reflect the share of their participation in the communication process.

Dance's spiral model does not claim to be a full-fledged model and arose only as a striking argument in discussions devoted to the comparison of linear and circular models of communication. Dance notes that at present, most researchers would agree that the circular approach is more adequate for describing communication processes. But the circular approach also has some limitations. It assumes that communication comes full circle to the point where it begins. This part of the circle analogy is clearly wrong. The spiral shows that the communication process is moving forward, and what is currently in the communication process will influence the structure and content of communication in the future. Most models provide a so-called “frozen” picture of the communication process. Dance emphasizes the dynamic nature of this process, which contains elements, relationships and conditions that continuously change over time. For example, in a conversation, the cognitive field is constantly expanding for those involved in it. Participants receive more and more information on the issue under discussion, about the partner, and his point of view. Knowledge in the discussion expands and deepens. Depending on the course of the conversation, the spiral takes various shapes in different conditions and for different individuals.

Dance's model is certainly not a convenient tool for detailed analysis communication process. The main advantage and purpose of Dance's spiral model is that it recalls the dynamic nature of communication. According to this model, a person in the process of communication is an active, creative individual capable of storing information, while many other models describe him rather as a passive being.

The goal of the American mass communication researcher G. Gerbner was to create a model with a wide scope of application. It was first introduced in 1956.

A specific feature of this model is that it takes on different forms depending on what type of communicative situation is being described. The verbal description of Gerbner's model is similar in form to Lasswell's: Someone perceives an event and responds in a given situation by some means to create content accessible to others in some form and context and conveys a message with some consequences. The graphical representation of the model already has its original appearance:


This model implies that human communication can be viewed as a subjective, selective, changeable and unpredictable process, and the human communication system as an open system.

What people select and remember from a communication message is often related to how they intend to use the information. The behavioristic approach connects selectivity of perception with categories of reward and punishment. The probability of selecting information within the framework of this concept is determined by the formula:

Selection probability = ( V - N) / U

B is the expected measure of remuneration,

N - intended punishment,

Y is the expected expenditure of effort.

In addition to the variables mentioned in this formula, many other factors play a role in the choice of messages: random interference, impulsiveness, audience habits, etc. - what Gerbner calls context.

Gerbner believes that the model can be used to describe a mixed type of communication, including both humans and machines, is dynamic, visual, and applicable to communication interactions of various scales - both at the level individuals, and at the level of large social communities.

Let us take a closer look at the simplest linear communication model of Lasswell. He identified three main functions of the communication process as an inherently managerial process:

  • 1. monitoring the environment to identify threats to the represented society and identify opportunities to influence value orientations this society and/or its components
  • 2. correlation of the ratio of the components of this society in its response to the “behavior” of the environment;
  • 3. transfer of social heritage from generation to generation.

So, this model identifies the following components of the communication process:

  • · communication source (switch)
  • · content
  • · communication channel
  • target (audience)
  • · Effect

Social communication

Since human beings have to adapt to their environment, they need the ability to communicate with each other. Indeed, any social interaction involves communication. Communication– it is the process by which people communicate information, ideas, opinions, and states of mind to each other. It includes all those verbal and nonverbal processes by which a person sends and receives messages. Without the ability to communicate, a person would be locked in his own private world. Communication allows us to establish “community” with each other by uniting the “sender” and “receiver” of a message. It is an integral mechanism by which people achieve social goals. Communication helps people coordinate complex group activity and is an expression of institutional life.

Verbal communication. Language has enabled human beings, alone of all animals, to transcend the boundaries of biological evolution. If biological evolution carried out only through genes, then cultural occurs through the verbal transmission of information.

For many years, social scientists have argued that babies are born without the innate ability to use language. But then linguists began to trace similarities in different languages. Apparently, all languages ​​of the world have nouns and verbs, and in all languages ​​people can ask questions, give commands and deny statements. Moreover, children master their language almost without difficulty, although they have to learn a whole set of extremely complex and abstract rules, with the help of which the semantic transformation of sound chains occurs. Even deaf children have a strong desire to communicate using language. People are also capable of understanding and reproducing countless sentences, even ones they have never heard or spoken before.

In 1957 ᴦ. The renowned linguist Noam Chomsky summarized all these observations and proposed that human beings have an innate speech mechanism, which Chomsky defined as language acquisition techniques. According to Chomsky, the basic structure of language has biological channels; they form something of an innate “filler” system, responsible for ordering the words and phrases that make up human language. The child can only learn the features of the language accepted in his society.

Chomsky's hypothesis has generated both interest and opposition. Sociologists have pointed out that people's biological predisposition to language acquisition must be rooted in the human brain, but this does not mean that environmental factors do not play any role in the process of language acquisition. For example, it doesn't seem like children can learn a language simply by listening to someone speak that language. The following two examples illustrate this point.

A boy with normal hearing, but born to deaf parents who communicated using American Sign Language, was left to play next to the television on a daily basis in the hope that this would teach him to speak English. The child had asthma, and therefore he was forced to constantly sit at home, where his communication was limited to people communicating with him and among themselves in sign language. By the age of three, the child had mastered sign language well, but never learned to understand or speak English (Moscovici, 1978).

One more example.
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The child, born with a non-functioning immune system, was kept in the sterile conditions of a special isolation ward for the first four years of life. When the boy was four years old, a bone marrow transplant provided him with a normal immune system and enabled him to return home. During the years of forced isolation, the child communicated with the outside world through gestures. Having exchanged the hospital environment for a home environment, the boy experienced significant difficulties with verbal communication and rarely started a conversation first. Although attempts were made to encourage the boy's desire to speak during his hospitalization, his isolated life did not predispose him to use language (Holland, 1983).

The cases described suggest that in order to learn a language, children must be able to communicate with other people in that language. In general, the acquisition of language skills cannot be understood unless studied genetic factors and learning processes in isolation from each other. Biochemical processes, maturation factors, learning strategies and social environment are in constant complex and dynamic interaction. No single aspect by itself can make a person speak his or her own language. native language. Although infants have a genetic blueprint for language and speech, this ability must only be acquired in a social context.

Nonverbal communication. In life, we receive a huge number of nonverbal messages and “read” into them, without always even realizing it. Based on his experiments, psychologist Albert Merabyan concluded that the total impact of a message consists of 7% speech signals, 38% vocal signals and 55% facial signals. Another expert, Raymond L. Birdwhistell, suggested that “no more than 30-35% of the social meaning of a conversation or interaction is conveyed through words.” Nonverbal communication can very often be observed at a party or in a bar where meetings are held for single people.

For example, if, while wandering their eyes around the room, a man and a woman notice each other and show mutual interest, they signal each other about this with their eyes. For example, a man will glance at a woman, then look away, and then give her a few more quick glances. If the woman shows reciprocal interest, these two can, as if by chance, get close enough to each other to start a conversation.
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A woman can also send a “flirting” signal - a sudden smile or a slight tilt of her head down or to the side.

If you make and maintain eye contact with stranger on a subway escalator, this is perceived as a sign of threat. In Russian culture, it is customary to look a person directly in the face in this way only when speaking. You can make eye contact with people who are quite a distance away from you, but when approaching them, you look away.

There are many nonverbal communication systems. Let's introduce some of them.

Body language. Body movements and gestures act as signals. A good example may serve as the “preening behavior” that accompanies courtship. Women often fluff their hair, check their makeup, adjust their clothes, or brush their hair out of their face. Men can smooth their hair, straighten their tie, straighten their clothes, or pull up their socks. All these signals say: “I like you. Pay attention to me. I'm an attractive person."

“Paralanguage.” The nonverbal sound cues that shape speech—pitch, voice volume, rate of speech, pauses, and sighs—are a rich source of information. “Para-language” has to do not with what is said, but with how it is said. The least obvious type of “paralanguage” is silence. Through silence, people are able to convey feelings such as contempt, hostility, challenge and severity, but also respect and kindness.

Accommodation. The way we use social and personal space also sends a message. For example, students seated in the front rows of the classroom are generally considered to be the most interested in the class; those sitting in the back rows are more prone to all sorts of tricks and disruption of order; Students who sit close to the aisle are perceived by the teacher as wanting to quietly leave before the end of the lecture.

Touching. Through physical contact, such as touching, stroking, patting and shaking hands, we convey our feelings to other people. In this case, touching should be a violation of individual rights or become a symbol of power when people want to emphasize differences in status. For example, a high-ranking person has the right to patronizingly pat a subordinate on the back or shoulder, but the subordinate cannot afford anything like that.

Artifacts. We tend to use objects, incl. certain types of clothing, cosmetics, wigs, monocles, jewelry, perfumes and jewelry to give others an idea of ​​your gender, rank, status and tastes. For example, in a singles bar, clothing and hairstyles can tell potential partners what we are like and send a “pay attention to me” or “stay away from me” signal.

Some aspects of nonverbal communication, such as many gestures, are particularly susceptible to cultural influence. The American gesture, meaning “okay” and consisting of the thumb and index finger bent into a circle, has completely different meanings in different cultures. different meanings: if in America it is a friendly gesture, then in France and Belgium it has an offensive connotation: “You’re just a zero!”, in the southern part of Italy it means “you’re stupid”, and in Greece and Turkey it is an insult or a vulgar sexual invitation.

However, some facial expressions have universal meaning. For example, in situations of threat and intimidation, people often use gazes that closely resemble the threatening gaze typical of monkey behavior. In order to explore this aspect, Paul Ekman and his collaborators selected a series of photographs of people whose faces showed feelings such as surprise, disgust, fear, anger, sadness and happiness. They showed these photographs to people from five different cultures and asked them how the people in each photograph felt. The vast majority of subjects identified emotions in exactly the same way. Even the Fore, the indigenous people of remote areas of New Guinea who have little contact with foreigners and little exposure to the media, identified the emotions reflected in the photographs in the same way as representatives of other cultures.

However, the ways of expressing and interpreting certain feelings are universal, which suggests the presence of a strong biological component. But each culture has its own “rules of expressing feelings” that determine how and when it is appropriate to express certain emotions and what consequences this will lead to.

Social communication - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Social Communication" 2017, 2018.

For large or small audience groups. It is conveyed through symbols and signs. With the rapid development of technology, this has acquired various forms, which, unfortunately, does not mean an increase in its effectiveness. Also, some theorists consider this phenomenon as a way of influencing large audience groups, with the help of which the goals of those who broadcast information are realized.

Social communication: characteristics

The communication process involves 5 elements, without which it cannot be realized:

  • Communicator - the one who initiates the transmission and forms it into speech, text, audio and video form;
  • The message itself;
  • A channel through which communication with the audience is established;
  • The audience to which the information is sent;
  • The purpose of the transmission and the level of effectiveness of the message (impact).

Thus, social communication is characterized by the presence of certain information that is disseminated through a wide audience, its purpose is to influence the behavior, emotions and feelings of people. There is also a presentation of information that is focused exclusively on intellectual development the masses and broadening their horizons. This presentation is characterized by neutrality and the maximum possible objectivity without evaluative elements.

Types of social communication

Some researchers understand social communication not only as the large-scale dissemination of a message, but also as an individual exchange occurring between two people. Its usual form is conversation. Despite the fact that this fits the “social” characteristic, the social group is most often used in this meaning when talking about a group or mass of people. Therefore, in this article we use the more common meaning.

  • Based on the type of audience, social communication is divided into specialized and mass. The second category does not imply any specifics and is ready to perceive any socially significant information.
  • According to the source of the message, it can be formal or informal: official statements from the authorities correspond to the first type, and, for example, rumors about stars belong to the second.
  • The transmission channel can be verbal and non-verbal.

Social communication and its intention

Intention is a goal. Very important element because the quality of perception depends on it. In modern communication there are several types of intentions:

  • Spread knowledge about the environment, inform people;
  • Popularize ideas of goodness, draw the attention of the audience to disseminate culture and reliable information about it;
  • Impact on public opinion and consciousness, as well as the audience;
  • Support and assistance in solving difficult problems, clarifying situations;
  • Striving for neutral and pseudo-objective coverage of events;
  • Establishing a dialogue between the audience and the broadcast source.

Social communication and criteria for its effectiveness

The basis of any type of communication is the establishment of a dialogue between the addressee and the addressee. If it is poorly established, or if the interpretation of the recipient of information is incorrect, then there is no talk about the effectiveness of communication. Therefore, this topic is important when covering any type and type of communication.

There are a number of criteria by which the effectiveness of this phenomenon is established:

  • A prerequisite is the desire of the communicator to clearly convey to the audience why he is publishing information, what is the purpose of broadcasting certain events.
  • The next criterion is trust. If the audience trusts the author-communicator and the medium through which the message is conveyed, then the dialogue can be successful. The goals of the author and the audience must correspond to each other.
  • The desire to build material based on universal human values, making the right accents.
  • Messages should not be intrusive or presented in an overly neutral form: this violates their naturalness, and therefore reduces the effectiveness of the impact by being associated with lies.

Thus, it is easily achievable if you follow a number of principles for presenting information and clearly indicate your attitude towards the audience. Despite the fact that there are various types of communication, this article describes the most universal characteristics and tips that will be useful to everyone associated with the QMS.

Do not forget that the most important component of social interaction will be social communication. Although in some situations it is possible to interact without communication, the vast majority of social contacts involve communication.

Communication -϶ᴛᴏ mutual exchange of information, which presupposes the orientation of both participants towards the partner’s reciprocal openness. Such an exchange occurs not necessarily in verbal form (verbal), but also in non-verbal form. Nonverbal communication is much older than verbal communication. It is worth noting that it contains gestures and facial expressions, dance, music, art, sculpture and architecture. In fact, the remains of past centuries engineering structures, temples, palaces, sculptures, paintings convey information without words about the life, feelings, relationships of long-dead people.

The essence of the communication process, as follows from the definition, is the transmission of a message containing information to another participant. The very act of revealing the content of one’s consciousness in the course of communication in sociology is called signal.

But a signal is not always a message or information. For example, if a passer-by asks us on the street foreign language, whom we do not know, then we will receive such a signal, but will not receive a real message. Of course, in this case there will be no communication or receipt of information. If something is said that we already know, we will receive a message, but it will not be information for us. A message will only be information if it contains something unknown to us.

The transfer of information during the communication process requires certain media - symbols and signs, since communication by its nature is a symbolic process. Symbols and signs are objects that reveal the meaning that they contain not by themselves, but due to the fact that society has endowed them with this meaning. This meaning is the meaning of the sign. Therefore, we can say that communication is a process of deciphering signs and reading their social meanings.

Signs will be words, gestures, postures, facial expressions, and sometimes expressive behavior (laughter, smiles, tears, sighs, etc.)

Language - the most important sign system, institutionalized by society and therefore having a historical character. An individual is born and formed in a specific social context, where the specific structure of language is already given. Therefore, the language of any society indirectly demonstrates the structure of society itself and, as it were, sets the specifics of social communication.

Do not forget that an important characteristic of any communication process will be the intention of the participants to influence each other. Influence can be achieved through the use of such mechanisms of psychological influence as:

  • persuasion is a process of targeted communicative influence, characterized by the logical justification of a message (or several messages) in order to achieve the agreement of the interlocutor (or audience) with the expressed point of view;
  • suggestion is a method of communicative influence designed for uncritical perception of information; This nature of perception does not require detailed logical analysis, evaluation, or deep reflection, but is realized through the influence on feelings and emotions, which in turn influence the intellectual and volitional characteristics of an individual who is unaware that he is being exposed to external influence.

Suggestion is used to create a state in the interlocutor that encourages him to take certain actions. The effectiveness of this process directly depends on the individual characteristics of the individual, his level of education, culture, mental state and degree of exposure to influences. Except for the above, the power of impact largely depends on the visibility, accessibility, imagery and conciseness of information. The effectiveness of communication means is largely determined by the extent to which the content of the suggested message, in general, corresponds to the interests and needs of the audience.

Types of communication are, in a general sense, forms of interaction processes between different people; This is a multifaceted process of exchange between individuals and groups of people with different interests, ideas, and information.

A communication action is a completed operation of semantic interaction that occurs without changing areas of communication. “Communication activities include not one, but two social subjects, in contrast to labor and cognitive activities, which have one performer. It follows that communication activity is a social relationship, the poles of which are cooperation and conflict.”

The number of communication participants may vary. Depending on this, several types of communication can be distinguished: microcommunication, midicommunication and macrocommunication.

Microcommunication is communication where an individual acts as an active recipient or active communicator; communication partners can be either another individual or social group, or a mass aggregate. Microcommunication has 7 forms. Namely:

1) Copying a model - assimilation of forms of behavior, skills, external attributes of the chosen role model (at the interpersonal level).

2) Conversation – exchange of ideas, arguments, proposals between interlocutors (at the interpersonal level).

3) Command - instructions for execution by a subordinate (at the interpersonal level).

4) Reference – imitation of a social group (at the group level).

5) Team management – ​​leadership in a group (at the group level).

6) Socialization – a person’s mastery of generally accepted norms (at the mass level).

Note that dialogue between an individual and a group or mass is excluded, because dialogue is possible only between equal-level partners.

The second type of social communication is called midicommunication. Mid-communication is communication where social groups act as the communicant and the recipient. Midicommunication has five forms: fashion, negotiations, group hierarchy, adaptation to the environment, and social leadership.

Let us characterize each of these forms.

1) Fashion is the transfer in social space of material forms, patterns of behavior and ideas that are emotionally attractive to social groups, based on imitation.

2) Negotiation is a common way of resolving conflicts and reaching agreements between social groups.

3) Group hierarchy develops in large institutions, according to the “managers - workers” scheme. As an example, we can name army units, class and caste societies. There, contacts between groups are clearly regulated.

4) Adaptation to the environment turns into a communication problem for national diasporas living among foreigners; for non-believers, etc.

5) The leadership of society is carried out by creative groups that produce ideological meanings that determine the spiritual life of society. It should be noted that ideological meanings are knowledge that explains observed phenomena, the origin of man and the universe, the meaning of human life, ideals, norms and incentives for social activity. Social groups that develop these meanings and the communication messages in which they are imprinted find themselves at the center of the spiritual life of society. These centers shift in the course of socio-cultural evolution.

The next type of social communication is macrocommunication. Macrocommunication is communication where societies as a whole or state entities, civilizations, etc. act as objects. This type of communication has three forms:

    Borrowing achievements

    Interaction of cultures

    Information aggression (a relatively new phenomenon, it appeared only in the 20th century).

Summarizing the above, it should be noted that all types of social communication are aimed at building relationships, mutual influence, and the exchange of information between communicants. Communication action is the exchange of information. Depending on the goal of the participants, communication action can be carried out in three forms: imitation, control, dialogue. Those types of communication activities where an individual person acts as an active, purposeful subject are called microcommunication, where a social group acts - midicommunication, where a mass aggregate (up to society as a whole) acts - macrocommunication. Those types where an individual person, or a social group, or a mass aggregate act as an object of influence are called, respectively, the interpersonal, group and mass levels of communication.

Having understood the types of social communications, it is necessary to pay special attention to the functions, since they are of great importance for the formation and development of personality, continuity and transfer of social experience and the organization of joint activities. The idea of ​​the purpose of social communications is related to their global social functions.

The main subject of communication is a person who, in order to ensure his life, enters into relationships with other people. A person cannot free himself from communication interaction with other people. It is impossible to live in society and be free from social communication. The system of human relationships is mediated by culture, which determines the nature and effectiveness of human communication. But in the course of various types of human activity, there is a need to search for more advanced and effective forms communication, which gives rise to different roles and purposes of certain forms of communication. In other words, depending on various reasons, various forms of communication acquire a corresponding purpose in people’s life, that is, a function. Functional analysis of communication makes it possible to identify the social role it plays in society and helps to more accurately understand its essence.