Noises and Communication

Communication is an interaction between at least two subjects. This interaction can be visual, verbal or written. Now any type of disruption in this interaction hinders the quality and ease of communication. Especially in verbal communication, any kind of noise even if they are in the far background can result in an unsuccessful business meeting or even losing a client. When we talk about noise, it is used for all types of unwanted sounds and these noises can have different categories as follows:

  • Physical noise: This type of noise comes from the environment or an external source during the communication process. For example, noise from the moving train far from your home in the background, the static noise on the phone, conversations during presentations. Now, sometimes the physical noise can be non-auditory such as a pop-up showing on your window would not create noise for your meeting. Communicators most of the time do not have any control over the physical noises, the most one can do is to ask everyone to mute their calls once they enter the meeting.
  • Technical noise: The noises due to technical difficulties cause issues with the communicator trying to convey the message and the audience understanding the said message. For example, slow net connection, server down e.t.c
  • Physiological noise: This type of noise hinders one’s ability to understand and perceive the information conveyed to them. These types of noises are dependent on several factors like if you are tired, hungry, stressed e.t.c. These depend on the state of the physical health of the person mostly.
  • Organisational noises: This has to deal with the specific organizational cultures. For example, in some organisations employees of a certain level can interact with employees of a specific designation only. And different communication channels are available to communicate with fellow employees. So it is better to ask your supervisors or peers about these channels.
  • Cultural Noise: As we know that the world is an amalgamation of different cultures and nationalities. We have different groups based on gender, age, social positions, regions, creed and race. So as a communicator, it is your responsibility to consider the culture of your audience and respect it.
  • Psychological noises: These noises come from within and are the result of personal biases, attitudes and personalities. Now as a communicator, one needs to understand that whatever message you convey will be perceived by the audience in different manners based on their own perception. To reduce psychological noises, one needs to communicate directly and clearly without any biases.
  • Semantic Noise: These noises deal with language and words. It mainly consists of noises based on the ease and understanding of the language ad the words such as if the target audience is able to understand the language or if they are professional enough to perceive the information in the right manner.

Now other than these noises, interferences are caused during communication over a phone call, a video call, or a video meeting due to problems with signals as the signal may suffer storage, capture, conversion or processing. These will be discussed in the second part of this article. 

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