Introduction Floyd

Defines communication competence as communicating in means that are effective and appropriate in a given situation. Practitioners of competent communication can be observed to share several common characteristics. I will attempt to surface 4 of these characteristics, with specific references made to Mr. Ian Low, flogger of The Silver Chef. Self-Awareness Self-awareness is defined as the awareness of how an individual’s behavior affects others (Floyd, 2010).

An effective communicator must be aware of his individuality and behavior and how others may be affected by his behavior, more specifically, whether it fits within the situation as well as social setting. Emotional intelligence would therefore be key and would allow an Individual to better comprehend the social behaviors and emotions of others, and In turn, translate Into competent communication. The Silver Chef blob was started in 2010 whereas 2 of the blobs he listed in his post, started a year after that in 2011.

Despite being a more established food flogger, he demonstrates self-awareness in his posts and refrains from harboring on this fact. If he had, readers may not find his opinions to be credible. Adaptability This trait is defined as one’s ability to modify one’s own behavior to better suit a changing situation. A competent communicator must be able to adapt to changes in social settings and modify his own behavior appropriately. With reference to the blob, Mr. Low had previously posted a Top 5 Singapore Food Blob when he first started out as a food flogger.

However, after 3 years of blobbing and galling more experience within the food community, Mr. Low Is adaptable enough to make a similar post, demonstrating adaptability as a communicator. Cognitive Complexity Being able to understand a given situation in multiple ways defines cognitive complexity (Floyd, 2010). To better understand what Is occurring In a specific situation, It Is Important for an Individual to be aware of the different perspectives. This would prevent him from misjudging what is going on in the said situation, leading to inappropriate responses.

In his post, Mr. Low highlighted several aspects of The Dirty Stall such as short descriptions, simple cooking and infrequent blob posts. It would be easy to misconceive these facts and describe “alkaline” as lazy but Mr. Low demonstrates s a flogger who priorities quality over quantity. Ethics Floyd (2010) defines ethics as a set of ideas that guides us in deciding what is right or wrong. Fair treatment of others and honest communication are examples of ethical communication but cultural plurality may complicate one’s understanding of ethical communication due to cultural differences.

In his blob, Mr. Low demonstrated this when he admitted to not having met flogger “alkaline” in person before and that “alkaline” does not blob as often. It would have been easy to omit these facts to lend more credibility to his post but instead, he cited to mention this fact. 494 words Question 2 The communication process possesses several key characteristics that would define it as being dynamic in nature. Apart from being irreversible, multi-dimensional and inevitable, communication is also transactional.

Transactional communication involves simultaneous initiation and interpretation of messages by communicators (Dobbin & Pace, 2006). When an individual initiates a message, the initiator will look for feedback from other communicators. The initiator will then adapt his messages to the changing situation. This implies that communication can be a continuously changing process and that people may modify their behavior and messages throughout the process.

With reference to the article, “1 in 2 Singapore residents do not have a close friend from another race: survey’, I will attempt to provide examples to show how messages are coded and decoded effectively, or otherwise, to help me better understand the news reported in the article. Encoding and decoding of messages In the process of communication, encoding and decoding are two processes that enable communicators to initiate and interpret messages (Dobbin & Pace, 2006).

Encoding is further defined as the initiation and creation of messages that enables a communicator to translate feelings, ideas and thoughts into symbols. Decoding refers to the interpretation of messages by deciphering symbols into comprehensible and meaningful feelings, ideas and thoughts by communicators. Effective coding and decoding Ideally, when messages are interpreted in the way they were meant to be conveyed, coding and decoding leads to shared meaning by communicators. This results in successful communication as the symbols would be meaningful and recognizable by

Example 1 (Effective coding of article) Within the article, sub-headlines such as “No inter-racial and religious tension in Singapore” effectively summarizes the following paragraph into an easy-to- comprehend sentence. Effective coding of the article such as this, contributes to the effective decoding of the article by readers. Example 2 (Effective coding and decoding of postings) User Karl commented “the Divide and Conquer tactics deployed sure works, isn’t it? Who is behind all this thing? ” in reply to a post by another user Suffering Singapore.

In reply User Suffering Singapore posted I was having that in mind and wanted to add to my posting but I thought that I should hear from others posters who share the same thoughts YES the divisive policies in the name of ethnic integration have created the reverse effect. What do you think? ” In this example, Karl had effectively encoded his opinion that a “Divide and Conquer” strategy had been implemented leading to the problem previously highlighted by Suffering Singapore. This was then effectively decoded by Suffering Singapore, leading to shared meaning of the topic they were both discussing.

Ineffective coding and decoding When messages are ineffectively coded and/or decoded, this could lead to the miscommunication as messages are misinterpreted. Example 1 (Ineffective encoding of article) When decoding the article’s headline, communicators might misinterpret the article as focusing on an existing racial divide in Singapore. In trying to sensationalist the article to boost readership, the writer may not have effectively encoded the actual content of the article, which highlights several positives found in the survey. A reader may Jump to conclusions, assume the worst and let his opinions and feelings known n a post.

Example 2 (Ineffective decoding of article) The article features a survey carried out with Singapore Residents on the state of racial and religious harmony in Singapore and focuses on several indicators such as inter-racial tension, discrimination and openness to embracing diversity. Several users have misinterpreted this article and user “BRB” in particular, commented the article as being racist in nature. The user posted “Wow.. This article is Just racist.. Why will my bestrides need to be of community something we never really thought much of or cared!.. “