Communication skills:Types and Barriers!

Communication is a process by which two or more people exchange ideas ,feelings,facts or impressions such that each part gains understanding.
For communication to carry more weight and conviction.The communicator (sender) must posses certain qualities that is confidence in the subject matter ,credibility as viewed by the audience reliability.
Messege is the link between sender and receiver or the information the sender wishes the audience to receive.
Causes of poor communication
Failure to prepare and organise the messege
Use of inaccurate words.
Failure to select the messege from supporting materials.
Failure to time the messege properly within a presentation.
Failure to view the messege from the audience view point.
Communication Channel
It is anything which is used by sender(communicator) to connect the audience.The poor choice of channel the messege may fail to reach the audience. Therefore communication may take into considerations:
Audience composition
Geographical location
Type of messege
The audience(receiver) is the consumer of the messege.When the messege reach the receiver must react to the messege.The reaction is called feedback.
Communication Networks
Vertical communication
Lateral communication
Informal communition(Grapevine)
Vertical communication
In a community or organisation there are people on the top who are leaders and the majority on the bottom who are worker or subordinates or subjects depends on where these being referred.The messege mover from top from leaders to the bottom or the messeges can be from bottom to the top.
The messege is usually a directive instruction or general information.
The problem of this communication is that there is no immediate feedback .The messege is likely to be filtered.
Problems with upward communication is that the messege is filtered or altered.

Lateral communication
This is the communication between individuals or departments.It provides a direct channel of communication and problem solving and then enables people to form close relationships.

Informal communication
This is a communication within an organisation or society that is not santioned .(not approved or authorised)The grapevine or rumours is a type of informal communition. This type of communication is common where people work closely together and conveying information.It can travels very faster .The benefits of this communication are that it boast moral and unifying members.
However the shortcomings is that it damages the society especially when the information is not correct.
Barriers of communication
Physiological --emotional reactions,anger ,defensiveness ,hate ,jealous ,embrassment etc
Perceptions--how a person selects ,arrange to process and interpret the information differs from individual to individual.
Attitudes--the tendency to react in a particular manner.
Filtration occurs when the sender modifies certain parts of the messege to highlight strong and weak points.
Physical appearence of the sender or receiver.Physical noise of traffic or people.
Semantics arise as a result of differences in meaning that are attached to the word .It may also be as a result of specialisation which leads to the development of the technical jargon .
The organisational structure dictates the channel which the messege must follow.The increase in hierarchical channel may lead to filtration of information.
Cuturally it is as a result of cultural differences or ethnical background.Ethical centricity where only our customs are the best by judging people according to their culture.
Other Barriers
Poor listening and lack of attention to feedback.This is because the sender assumes that the receiver knows the information more than actually does.
The lack of knwledge of the receiver and possibly the use of wrong media.

Suggestion for good communication
Be brief and use simple words and short sentences.The use of familiar words that everyone understands.It is wise to use one word than a sentence. Do not repeat words unnecessarily,be direct as you get straight to the points ,say what you mean .