14 Role of the Communicators

T. Radha

epgp books

 

 

 

 

Communicator

 

A communicator may be individual, a group or a social system. In each case ,the source may either represent itself or may communicate on behalf of someone else. The communicator in the context of extension education refers to all those change agents, extension workers, scientists, administration, planners, key communicator etc, who individually or as a group are communicating in person or through a mass medium, with rural people on behalf of an extension agency.

 

Who the communicator is, what he says, or does not say, his status, his position vis-à-visreceivers , his credibility, reputation, and receivers expectations and past communication experience with him etc-all these are likely to influence his communication performance

 

The communicator is that person who initiates the process of communication. He is the source, originator or sender of messages. He is the first to give expression to a message intended to reach an audience.

 

Communication behaviour

 

The communication behaviour of a communicator may be defined as his expression of results from information seekig, information processing and information deissemination behaviour.

 

There are several factors which affect his communication behaviour, some of these have been listed by Berlo (1960), others by Thayer (1968), Cherry (1958) etc. important among these factors are

  •  Communication skills
  • Attitude
  • Knowledge level
  • Position within a social cultural system
  • Relationship with the receiver
  • Purpose or intention
  • Roles and rules
  • Law of large numbers
  • Implication of on-behalf of
  • Communication competence.

Some of these factors are likely to overlap.

 

Communication skills

 

As Berlo (1960) pointed out there are five verbal communication skills. Two of these are encoding skills, writing and speaking while two of them are decoding skills, reading and listening. The fifth is crucial to both encoding and decoding i.e., thought or reasoning. There are other encoding skills also, such as painting, drawing and gesturing. What we say about writing and speaking can be generalized to the other encoding skills as well.

 

As source-encoders our communication skills determine our communication behaviour in three ways:

  • They affect our ability to comprehend or understand what others are saying and expecting
  • They affect our ability to analyse our purpose and intentions
  • They affect our ability to encode messages that express precisely what we intend to express.

Factors affecting communication

 

Attitude

 

The attitude of a communication source affects the ways in which he communicates. We can argue that the source’s attitudes affect communication in atleast three ways:

  • Attitude towards self: Attitude towards self is important. A favourable attitude leads to self-confidence, while a negative attitude will reflect pessimism.
  • Attitude towards subject matter: Listener is likely to pickup the attitude of a speaker towards his subject matter. Quite often it is reflected in his message. If he does not believe in the value of his subject matter, convincing communication is difficult to achieve.
  • Attitude towards receiver: The source’s attitude towards his receiver(s) also affects communication. When listeners or readers realize that the source is really speaking or writing for them, they are much less critical of his message, and much more likely to accept what he says.

 

Besides the above three kinds of attitudes, the communicatior’s attitude towards any person, object, or channel relevant to the communication situation may also affect his communication behaviour.

 

Knowledge level

 

It is obvious that the amount of knowledge a source has about his subject matter will affect his message. The source needs to know his subject matter as well as how to communicate effectively. Knowledge on the communication process itself affects source behaviour.

 

Position within a social- culture system

 

No source communicates as a free agent, without being influenced by his position in a social cultural system. People in differing social classes communicate differently. People from different cultural backgrounds communicate differently. Social and cultural systems partly determine

  • The word choices which people make
  • The purpose they have for communicating
  • The meanings they attach to certain words
  • Their choice of receiver
  • The channels they use for this or that kind of message

Relationship with the receiver

 

Interpersonal communication requires some sort of interdependence among the participants. The way each participant in a communication event comprehends the other, is likely to govern what each says and the manner in which it is said. As Thayer (1968) points out, if each person in a two person encounter has a different conceptual model of the relationship, it is fairly easy to image the obstacle that would be to their communication.

 

Purpose or intention

 

Thayer (1968) points out that although talking may serve no useful purpose, communication always occurs in the service of some need of the psychological system. So communication will occur to the extent that purpose or intentions of both the communicator and the reciver match each other.

 

Roles and rules

 

All individual involved in human encounter follow certain roles and rules, whether consciously or otherwise. There are rules governing the use of language, rules regarding place and time, rules of protocol and rules about meeting mutual expectations. These are psychological, sociological and anthropological rules. It would take us somewhat a out of field to attempt to explore in depth the prerequisites and the consequences of rules followed in every sort of human communication.

Law of large numbers

 

Whenever a change agent communicates to a relatively large number of persons, as he usually does, another factor comes to influence his communication behaviour. Communicating to a large number of people requires what Thayer (1960) calls a different orientation, based on the properties of that aggregate, which may or may not be discernible properties of any individual in that aggregate. This may also require different manipulation of voice and treatment of the message.

 

Extension communicators are not free to express just anything nor in any way they like because they are working for an extension organization and are in communication with farmers on behalf of this organization. The contents of their message are largely determined by the roles and rules of their extension organization. The operational limitation is likely to have several implications for their communication behaviour.

 

Communication competence

 

In spite of all the progress made in understanding the process of communication, there is still lack of consensus regarding the concept of competence in communication. Hymes(1972) and spltzberg and Cupach(1984) have made effort to take stock of the various views expressed in literature about defining, understanding and measuring competence. They have identified atleast six distinguishable categories for classifying competence. Fundamental competencies are all concerned with achievement of outcomes. Linguistic competences and communication competence are message-focussed rather than outcome focused and attempt to explain message behaviour.

 

Nature of communication competencies

 

Communication competencies in an interpersonal situation has been reffered to as the ability to engage in appropriate and effective communication, the ability to convey accuracy in meaning, purposive, strategic message formation, the ability to adapt message appropriate to the interaction context etc. as such it is clearly broader in scope than linguistic competencies.

 

According to Hymes(1972) communication competence is an individual ability and hence extends beyond knowledge of language. It includes the ability to process information cognitively and the ability to explain and predict human behaviour. In otherwords it is the ability to perform as well as the knowledge of how to perform.

 

Sequences of extension communicator’s roles

 

According to Rogers and Shoemaker (1971), the sequence through which an extension communicator introduces new ideas comprises seven stages:

 

1.Develops need for change : An extension worker is often initially required to help his clients become aware of the need to alter theirbehaviour. This is especially true in developing countries.

 

2. Establish a change relationship : Once a need for change is created, the extension worker must develop rapport with the audience. He may enhance his relationship with his receivers by creating an impression of creditability, trustworthiness and empathy with their needs and problems. Farmers must accept the extension worker before they will accept the innovations he promotes.

 

3.Diagnoses the problem : The extension worker is responsible for analyzing his clients problematic situation in order to determine why existing alternatives do not meet their needs .

 

4.Creates intent to change in the clients : After an extension agent explores various avenues of action that his clients might take to achieve their goals, he should encourage anintent to change, a motive to innovate. But the change must be client- centered, rather than a change for change sake. Here, theextension agent’s role is to provide repeated motivation to farmers.

 

5.Translates intent into action : An extension worker seeks to influence his clients behaviour in accordance with his recommendations, which are in line with the client’s needs. In essence the extension agent works to promote compliance with the programme he advocates. This involves not only establishing comprehension and acceptance of the message by farmers ,but motivating them to effect behavioral changes .

 

6. stabilities change and prevents discontinuance: Extension workers may effectively stabilize new behaviour by directing reinforcing message to those farmers who have adopted his recommendations, thus freezing the new behaviour. This assistance frequently is given when the client is at the trial-decision or confirmation function in the adoption process.

 

7. Achieves a terminal relationship: The end goal for any extension communicator is development of self-renewing behaviour on the part of his clients. He should seek to put himself out of business by developing his clients ability to be their own change agents. In other words, he must seek to shift the clients from a position of reliance on him to reliance on themselves.

Communication activities

 

Bhanja (1987) has reported communication activities of agricultural administrators as a percentage of their time utilization. According to him, their communication activities include

  • Writing and reading routine official communications (21.17%)
  • Interpersonal communication with staff and visitors (16.11%)
  • Reading and writing other than routine work (13.57%)
  • Formal and informal official meetings (12.23%)
  • Restful thinking intrapersonal communication (11.46%)
  • Giving dictation (11.14%)
  • Attending incoming and outgoing telephone calls (5.57%)
  • Others (9.16%).

Communication I.Q.

 

Bhanja (1987) has also studied the communication I.Q of agricultural administrators using Paul Preston’s(1979) communication I.Q test. Communication intelligence quotient refers to an extension executive’s understanding of the intricacy of communication effectiveness. The test includes ten statements with a maximum possible score of ten. Bhanja observed that the average communication I.Q. score of agricultural executive was 5.39, which was equal to that of civil servents and forest officers, but slightly better than those of bank and commercial organization executive (5.0).

 

Organizational leadership

 

A good communicator, who is in intimate communication with his workers, is likely to be a better leader in an organization. In order words, communication effectiveness determines organizational leadership to a large extent. Using Arthur Paul’s Leadership Quotient Test with appropriate modifications, Bhanja (1987) reported that 85.7 percent of the agricultural extension administrators scored medium organizational leadership.

 

Communication effectiveness

 

Some of the factors likely to affect the communication effectiveness of a communicator in the technology – transfer model of communication are as follows;

 

1.Communication behaviour: As already stated, the communication behaviour of extension workers will itself largely depend upon their communication skills, attitudes, knowledge level, position within a social-cultural system, purpose or intention, roles and rules, law of large numbers and implication of an extension worker is likely to affect his communication effectiveness.

 

2.Role, perception and role performance: To the extent an extension worker is clear about his role expectations, and to the extent he puts in efforts to perform his role, he is likely to be effective in his communication effort.

 

3.Relationship with audience: The nature of the relationship of the extension communicator with his audience is also likely to affect his effectiveness. However, the concept of relationship here is taken in a broader sense. Implied therein is the perceived or psychological relationship as well as the actual contacts. More specially, it is reffered to as an extension worker’s

  • Orientation towards clients
  • His empathy (especially his compatibility with clients needs)
  • His credibility in the minds of the audience and
  • His homophily with the clientele, especially his cultural and language compatibility. It also refer to the extent he Makes actual contacts Uses opinion leadership Allows feedback etc.

 

4.Programme content: The communication effectiveness of an extension worker will also depend on:

  • The nature and characteristics of the programme content and
  • Its compatibility with the existing needs of the people.

Some of the programmes or messages are very complex and some may need heavy investment in terms of money and time. On the otherhand, some messages are quite simple and easy to adopt. Whereas it may be relatively easy to communicate effectively programmes that are simple, communication of complex message is difficult, challenging and time-consuming.

 

Improving oral communication

 

Extension workers depend very heavily on oral communication for technology transfer to farmers. Oral communication refers to not only to the use of spoken language, but also facial expressions, body movements, gestures and voice manipulations in terms of intensity, pitch, tone etc. for communication. An effective oral communication should be able to achieve comprehension, under-standing, perceived utility and validity and a lasting impression of the message in the mind of the listener

 

Clear objectives

 

In order to be effective in oral communication one must first of all be clear about the objectives to be achieved. This will help him knit his message around that objective. It is assumed that an extension worker, because of his training, expression, role expectations etc., has the ability to use appropriate language for communicating his message and is able to clearly perceive the objectives he wants to achieve in any communication situation.

 

Good relationship with receivers

 

In any communication encounter, the communicator and the receiver are independent both physically and mentally. It is therefore pertinent for an extension worker to establish a good functional relationship with the receivers in order to secure a good response to his message. For this, a number of factors, such as good rapport, positive attitude, pleasing personality, language compatibility, degree of previous contacts, ability to listen and analyze problems and perceived credibility etc., are likely to influence reception, interpretation and response to the message on the part of the receiver.

 

Effective delivery

 

Having clearly understood the objective of a communication situation and having established a sound functional relationship with the receiver, an extension worker can follow some simple rules of effective oral communication. Some of these rules are talk less, talk sweet, talk truth, talk slow, talk loud, talk clearly, give examples, repeat key ideas, use stories to elaborate, quote sources of information, use local proverbs, local terms, be up-to-date, specific, timely, ask questions for clarification, and draw conclusion about the expected actions on the part of the receivers.

 Conclusion

 

In oral communication, an extension worker should appear to be talking to people he knows and cares about, on a subject he knows well, in the language of the listeners and in line with their needs and interests. The information should look clear, specific, timely, accurate and up-to-date. The communicator limits his communication to a few ideas, repeats key points and even draws conclusion for the listeners. He keeps the communication interesting by adding proverbs, stories and by asking questions.

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References and Web links

  • Ray G L. 1999. Extension Communication and Management. Nayaprakash publications, Calcutta.
  • Ganesan R., I Mohamed Iqbal and N Anandaraja, 2003. Reaching the Unreached:
  • Basics of Extension Education. Associated Publishing Company, New Delhi.