Communication Barriers

The greatest ingenuity of the Homo sapiens breed has been development and evolvement of language over time. Looking at the long standing human history of more than 60,000 years, semantics, we can argue is not older than 15,000 years. In the gap of 45,000 years, our ancestors developed sign languages, stone carvings and the likes to communicate with themselves. Such act tells us something that has been inborn with humans—their ability to communicate, and their ability to communicate effectively. It also highlights that communication, since its discovery has been an integral part of human history. It also has become a meter that differentiates us from other living species that inhabit the earth.

While communication has helped us to express ourselves amongst our peers, it also has come with a drawback—the inability of a speaker or a receiver to express and understand the message. This faultiness leads the receiver to

misinterpret the content. The inability of the speaker to express her thoughts into spoken or written words, in turn, also leads to communication gap. Such communication barriers are abundant in our everyday lives where, we, once in a while, falter to express our thoughts or understand the content.

The virtues of effective speaking can be very appealing and its power is greatly realized. However, miscommunication, as shown by a recent communal riot of Muzzafarnagar, an Indian town where many people lost their lives due to a spam video posted on Facebook, gives us a glimpse of what miscommunication could lead to. The incident also brings forward numerous concepts that communication theorists put forward to answer communication barriers.

A person is a reflection of the society that he inhabits. The cultural values, social mores and norms, traditions, upbringing, beliefs, religion and attitudes, all define a person and his thoughts. Such social institutions, then, plays an important role in successful communication or its lack. Moreover, in modern times, the heterogeneous audience that the media attracts across the world further intensifies communication barriers.

Technical jargons, emotional barriers and taboos, inattention, distraction or irrelevance of a subject to the receiver also affects desired content delivery. Moreover, expectations, and prejudices which leads to false assumptions also hinders communication process. Briefly, these hurdles can be categorized into six headings; language barrier, psychological barrier, physiological barrier, physical, systematic and attitudinal barriers.

Language barrier incorporates the inability of the receiver or the speaker to effectively put one’s word to express ideas. This barrier includes technical jargons and abbreviations, regional colloquialism and expressions. For example, a person who is attending a lecture on health issues is unlikely to understand specific words related to medicine.

Moreover, the psychological state of a speaker or a receiver also affects the reception of desired message. To illustrate, a person disturbed by certain incidents is unlikely to listen and grab the news he is hearing on a radio. In doing so, he is likely to recall certain words from the news and react accordingly.

Physical barrier, likewise, could obstruct sound content delivery and its effects. People who have hearing problems are unlikely to grab every word spoken. In turn, he misunderstands the message and reacts differently. For example, I have a relative who has hearing problem. In turn, he, often times, misses the words and replies to what he “thinks to have heard”. Consequently, the message goes undelivered.

A systematic barrier in communication arises in organizations when there are undefined communication channels or when there is lack of understanding in roles and responsibilities of staffs in communication process due to improper management.

Attitudinal barriers comprise behaviors from the receiver or speaker to a specific content. Biases, preconceived notions, and one’s inability to judge contents impartially also hinders communication. Attitudinal barriers also includes a person’s resistance to change. For a successful communication to happen, both the speaker and the receiver should overcome their biases and act consciously.

To sum up, we can therefore say that while communication has played a vital role in expressing oneself, its inability could also affect effective content delivery. Our perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, social values, customs, and rituals also assists or hinders the communication process.