Communication Research and Writing 601-01
             A Definition and Model of Communication
             If there is one thing that seems to be a commonality to all people, it is the desire to understand and to be understood. The basic way in which we do this is to send out messages and interpret those of others, to include verbal, non-verbal, art, and other forms of communication. In the basic sense, "communication is the transmission of information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc. (i.e. message), by the use of symbols-words, pictures, figures, graphs etc.," (Berelson and Steiner).
             "Communication always requires at least three elements -- the sender, the message and the receiver," (Schramm). Understanding communication can enhance the quality of life for all people because it influences every area of our lives.
             This paper will focus on further defining the key words of this definition, and will give a communication model of this definition to further enhance this definition.
             A sender may be an individual, speaking, writing, drawing, gesturing, or a communication organization like a newspaper, film studio or publishing house. What happens in the communication process is that the sender takes the information or feelings they want to share and puts it into a form that can be transmitted. The message may be in the form of ink on paper or sound waves in the air, or any other signal capable of being interpreted meaningfully. This act of transforming the information into a message is often also called encoding (Schramm 125).
             'Sender' is a good term to define this process because it includes all forms of communication, including media such as film or television. One reason that film and other media are such a provocative source of communicating in our culture is that people love stories. Evidence suggests that stories are the basic way to bring understanding to people. Walter Fisher, Communication professor at the University of Illinois, formulated t...