Communication is the transactional process by which people, interacting in a particular context, negotiate the meanings of verbal and nonverbal

symbols in order to have important implications for understanding the communication process. It is an ongoing and continuous process that is not static or an individual event. It is transactional and involves exchanges that both parties are responsible for. Communication occurs within a context, or the situation in which the communication takes place, and affects how we communicate. Context refers to a broad diversity of environments and categories, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational, public, and, lastly, mass communication. Communication involves negotiated meanings of symbols, such as a word, vocal tone, gesture, or behavior that represents or stands for sometimes else such as an idea, concept, or feeling through mediums of verbal and nonverbal communication. Basic communication processes can be modeled as visual representations of the basic elements of the real processes. There are action models, viewing communication as a linear or one-way transmission of messages beginning with the sender and ending with the receiver, interaction models, viewing communication as a circular process involving feedback, and transaction models, the most accepted model, viewing communication as a transactional process in which both parties are responsible for creation of meaning and each party affects and is affected by the other. The transactional model is a combination of different elements, including the sender, the receiver, the message, encoding symbols, decoding those symbols, frames of reference (perspective), a channel, and, most importantly, the feedback, or response to a message. Another way to consider context is to think of rules, standards of acceptable behavior in a given situation, and norms, standards of acceptable behavior that are implied. A final component of the communication process that was included in even the early models of communication was the element of noise, which is anything that interferes with successful sending and receiving of messages or hinders creation of shared meaning. There are two types of noise, External, which refers to distractions in your environment such as sounds or unusual movement, and internal, which is anything that is happening within you that gets in the way of effecting sending or receiving of communication. Within Internal noise there are three types: Physiological, any aspect of your physical condition that compromises your effectiveness as a communicator like hunger, fatigue, pain, and illness; Psychological, refers to factors related to your thoughts and emotions that get in the way of effective sending or receiving of messages like anxiety and depression; Semantic, refers to when people use language for which meanings are not shared. Culture can be defined as a system of values, beliefs, attitudes, rules, and norms shared by a group of people. People are also members of co-cultures, which are small groups of people who are bound by shared values, beliefs, attitudes, rules, and norms. Cultures differ in two main ways, individualistic and collectivistic. High-context culture is one in which peoples understand of what is being communicated is based less on the words spoken and more on the communication context. 1. What is the most important part of communication according to the transactional model? 2. Define the two types of noise? 3. What is the most cited difference between cultures? 4. What is a challenge communicators must resist when interacting with other cultures? 5. List some environments that could be taken into context when discussing context?