Communication Diary: A Critical Discussion

Question

Task: Topic: Communication Diary Task details: At work, and personally, we are bombarded with business related messages on a daily basis. These messages come from a range of people/companies and may be through any number of formats including radio, television, email, telephone/mobile, computer, face to face meetings or even hand-written notes. They may be communicated to everyone, everyone at work, people in your team or just you. Some of these messages are memorable and others are not.

For this assignment you are required to keep a diary for four different types of work/personal and/or study related communications you received.
1. Submit a record of the communications you received in a word table.
2. Choose two of these communications that you feel were well constructed or were able to get the message across and analyse why this was the case.
3. Choose two of these communications that you feel were poorly constructed or did not get the message across and analyse why this was the case.
4. Using your knowledge of theory taught in class, suggest methods that could improve the poorly constructed communications.

Answer

1. Record for communication diary

2. Well-constructed communication sets E-mail communication:
E-mail or electronic mail is a communication mode wherein messages are sent through texts through the computer network with the help of internet technology. The e-mail received on 9th May, 2020 on payment of the credit card is quite effective as it has relevance to me. The e-mail is a reminder from the credit card company to pay off the dues before the due date. I am a credit card holder, so this mode of communication very relevant as it serves as a reminder in my timeline so that I does not miss the due dates (Meredith, 2012). The communication is well-constructed with an effective subject line like “Reminder for Credit Card Payment” to get my attention. So a concise sentence like this is very purposeful in communicating the matter and save the reader from plausible financial loss on missing the due date and pay late fine.

The mode of communication serves to be effective for its due content giving a break-up of the bill details enabling the customer to understandthe intricacies of the credit card statement(Baccon, et al., 2019). Again, the message is a concise on and not bombarded with unnecessary information making it very effective for the reader. It also depicts higher level of professionalism doing away with sorts of miscommunication or confusion about the due payment details and date. The email comes straight to the point showing the credit card details along with the due amount, due dateand the credit card statement in the mail attachment. So the credit card company has effectively chosen email as its preferable mode of communication to reach out to the targeted audience(Andrews & Shimp, 2017). The most important thing is that due to its content and usefulness, the reader does not feel it as a burden and prefers to have this kind of communication.

Telephonic communication:
Telephonic communication till date is considered as an effective mode of communication which is based on listening and depicts a strong form of interpersonal communication. The phone call was received on 6th May, 2020 to communicate the matter that a dinner party organised by a social group in which I am a member got cancelled. I received the call from another volunteer who sincerely apologiseddue to the fact that the supposed dinner for the weekend got cancelled owing to the outbreak of COVID-19. The call was effective as it communicated the matter clearly to the receiver that the dinner got cancelled and the apparent reason owing to social distancing. So there is no scope of ambiguity about the happening of the event and there was a sincere apology from the caller due to unexpected unfolding of the events (Adler, et al., 2015).

The exchange of information was on a cordial note rendering clarity of speech, conveying of information and willingness to engage in the conversation. The caller was specific on verifying whether the targeted receiver had accepted the call and then gave her introduction. So the call started on a positive note by providing proper introduction of each other. Then the caller mentioned about the scheduled dinner on the weekend and the subject matter of her call. The clarity of the call is to be highlighted as the subject matter made sense to the receiver and provided extensive logics for the cancellation of the event(Conrad & Newberry, 2012). The phenomenon was quite convincing as the caller was very constructive in her approach to communicate the matter well and leaving no hard feelings about the phone call.

3. Poorly constructed communication sets Face-to-face communication:
It was an advertisement of a fairness cream which was due to be introduced in the market during a visit to the supermarket on 9th May, 2020. The sales personnel approached for a free demonstration of the fairness cream to me meant for both the genders. It is ineffective to me as I does not have any such requirement. Though the sales personnel was doing her job to pursue those visiting the stores to try the product and eventually buy it. But to me,it did not went well as I have no such interest in those matters. It is undoubtedly an effective means of interpersonal communication by interacting with the targeted customers directly(Urios-Aparisi, 2013).The intention for the communication mode was strictly professional but I did not like the informal and friendly attitude of the sales personnel which might go well with other targeted persons.

The interpersonal communication taken up for this purpose is not relevant to me, so I disliked the thought. So the approach of communication varies from person-to-person and the product advertised might not be suitable for the targeted person but useful to another one. Again, the concerned person might not be comfortable due to the intercultural connotations of the fairness cream as non-white persons are supposed to have a complex owing to their skin colour(Hooker, 2012). This sort of communication mode might be suitable for a particular section of people but there are a substantial population who dislikes this sort of communication for theproduct. Therefore, the face-to-face communication mode set for promoting the beauty products didnot appealed to me owing to wrong choice of targeted population (Cubbison, 2018).

Social media:
Social media has emerged as a new form of communication in the 21st century and I think, the most irritating aspect is that it has done away with the distinction of private and public matters. I got a notification that a close friend of mine has posted some images on the social media platform of Instagram. So as a curiosity, I checked those images and find out that he shared some of his personal moments on the public platform. It was really shocking, though it has been a trend to share those kinds of pictures and images on the public platform. I really find it very distasteful and it tends to be a very poor form of communication. I think there should be certain code of conducts to abide by before posting such kind of images (Adler, et al., 2015). This sort of communication are unethical and irritating hurting sentiments of the people associated with those posts. It is seen that people to be a social media sensation or get due attention of the people around might come up such kind of notorious things. It is definitely a kind of communication but not meant for the public domain, it could be suitable for a private network but not at all for the public sphere(Meredith, 2012). Social media communication seems to be effective in connecting with people or to build a professional network. But there is a section of people who exploits the platform to serve their narrow means making it as a poor and unstructured way of communication.

4. Means to improve communication:
It is a fact that there are various forms of communication but a communication could be effective or ineffective based on its purpose and this could be well explained by the AIDA model. AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire and action to get attention of the targeted audience. The various aspects of AIDA could be elaborated in the following manner-

• Attention–The communication mode should have an attractive title or connotation to get attention of the reader. For instance, in the email communication the subject would be effective to get attention of the readers.

• Interest – After creating interest, it is necessary to create an interest for the readers, say it would have information beneficial to him (Cubbison, 2018). The aspect of interest varies from person-to-person and relevant to their choice of things and way of livelihood.

• Desire –There should be a desire for the matter, say men generally would be more interested in shaving materials over beauty products(Meredith, 2012). So a desire would be there while establishing communication to get it to the targeted audience successfully.

• Action –The purpose of communication would be to act like email on the credit card payment tends the communicator to pay his dues for the month.So a communication would be purposeful when it leads to an action on insistence of the communicator.

References
Adler, R. B., Rosenfeld, L. B. & Proctor, R. F., 2015. Interplay: the process of interpersonal Communication. 13th ed. Perth: Oxford University Press.

Andrews, J. & Shimp, T., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated marketing communications. Sydney: Nelson Education.

Baccon, L., Chiarovano, E. & MacDougall, H., 2019. Virtual Reality for Teletherapy: Avatars May Combine the Benefits of Face-to-Face Communication with the Anonymity of Online Text-Based Communication. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 22(2), pp. 158-165.

Conrad, D. & Newberry, R., 2012. Identification and instruction of important business communication skills for graduate business education. Journal of Education for Business, 87(2), pp. 112-120. Cubbison, T., 2018. Council Post: Bringing The Humanity Back To Business Communication. [Online]

Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeslacouncil/2018/05/03/bringing-the-humanity-back-to-business-communication/#1b2775566d7d [Accessed 16 January 2020].

Hooker, J., 2012. 19 Cultural Differences in Business Communication. The handbook of intercultural discourse and communication, 29(1), p. 389.

Meredith, M., 2012. Strategic communication and social media: An MBA course from a business communication perspective.Communication diaryBusiness Communication Quarterly, 75(1), pp. 89-95.

Urios-Aparisi, E., 2013. Dramatizing intercultural communication: Metaphors of city and identity in film. Intercultural Communication Studies, 22(3), pp. 80-94.