| Copyright© by Barry Truax (Handbook for Acoustic Ecology). | ||
Following World War II, the study of communication became formalized as a theory concerning the transmission of messages. Although many other models of communication have been proposed since then, the basic terminology of message transmission pervades much of the discourse surrounding the field.
The transmission of information, SIGNALs or messages between a sender and a receiver. The messages exchanged may be verbal, written, visual, aural or involve other sets of sense receptors of engineered devices such as telephone, radio, etc.
The idealized communication system comprises six elements: source, transmitter, CHANNEL, MESSAGE, RECEIVER, and destination. Because communication means a sharing of elements of behaviour or modes of life, it necessarily involves sets of rules for the exchange of such information. Such sets of rules comprise the communication code and are designed to bring about a discriminatory response from the person or device receiving the message. At each stage of the message transfer, NOISE can occur.
See also: ELECTROACOUSTIC, METAcommunication, REDUNDANCY. Compare: FEEDBACK, NETWORK, RADIO SPECTRUM, TRANSMISSION.
The contemporary study of communication has shifted from a model based on signal transfer to one based on information exchange, a shift that is similar to the difference between hearing and listening, or the difference between acoustical engineering and SOUNDSCAPE studies.
See also: silence, SOUND POLLUTION.
Ref.: B. Truax, Acoustic Communication, Ablex Publishing Corp., 1984.
communication about a communication. Digital systems of communication, such as natural language, can refer to themselves, such as 'this is a sentence', even if paradoxically, such as 'this sentence is not true'. Analog forms, such as hand gestures or icons, cannot include such self-references.
See: METALANGUAGE.
The language used by an observer to describe or talk about another language or set of observations, called the object- or referrent-language. Such a language may be used for expressing rules, laws, theories or relationships concerning the object-language; that is, the object-language may be thought of as a text, and the metalanguage as a commentary on it.
See: METAcommunication.
An ordered selection from an agreed set of signs (such as an alphabet) intended to communicate information.
See: communication, REDUNDANCY. Compare: SIGNAL.
The repetition of information in a MESSAGE so that it becomes increasingly unlikely for mistakes to occur in its transmission or reception. Natural languages have a high rate of redundancy. English, for instance, is estimated to be 75% redundant; that is, sentences are 75% longer than if the alphabet were used as efficiently as possible for coding messages.
See: communication. Compare: NOISE.
By extension, many repetitive sounds may be found in the contemporary LO-FI soundscape, where their redundant character reflects their mechanical or electrical origin.
See: DRONE, HUM, KEYNOTE SOUND, STATIONARY SOUND.
The part of a communications system in which electrical waves are converted into perceptible SIGNALs. In particular it refers to any electromechanical TRANSDUCER which converts electrical energy into sound waves, the most common of which are radio and television sets.
See: CHANNEL, DEMODULATION, HETERODYNE, RADIO SPECTRUM, TRANSMISSION. Compare: AMPLIFIER.