What Are The Different 
Types Of Communication Medium?

How should we communicate? This depends on which types of communication medium we use. Communication Medium is a huge topic as there are many different types of way we can communicate information and many ways we can receive information. The choices we have on the types of communication medium we use is also more than ever before:

Here is a short list and an attempt to group the types there are:

Interpersonal

Interpersonal  This usually involves verbal and non-verbal communication:

Verbal:

Meetings, Interviews, Classrooms, Seminars, Press Conference, Presentations, Speeches, etc. Issues to be highlighted with Verbal communication are tone, choice of words and the placing of emphasis.

Example: Try saying “Mary had a little lamb” and each time you say the sentence, emphasize a different word. You will get a completely different message every time!

Non-Verbal

• Appearance (think of Lady Gaga and what she communicates in comparison to Queen Elizabeth II).
• Body Language – 70% of communication takes place via body language)

Phone

Using the phone: Besides the usual One to One conversation, Conference calls, Skyping, the smartphones nowadays have completely opened up the types of communication medium available to us.

We now have SMSs, MMS, Tweets, Posts, comments on social media, pinning, skyping etc. all via the internet on our smartphones.

Computer, TV, Funk

Computer, TV, Funk. There are many many ways to communicate via these media. Alone the internet has radically changed the speed and availability of types of communication medium – often to the detriment of the quality and also ethics: Cyberbullying to mention just one topic as well as unfounded news reports, lack of privacy for wellknown people; paparazzis, etc.

Social Media are unstoppable in their ride to the forefront in the means by which people communicate: Netmeetings, Hangouts in Google Plus, Pinterest, Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, Ehow. Even Youtube is now enabling Email messages being sent back and forth.

Paper

Paper-form: The old faithful! The different types of communication medium here are the good old letters, reports, white papers, posters, billboards, newspapers, brochures, and books.

Sometimes I think these types of communication medium are on the way out. They are steadily being replaced by Kindle books, e-books, Ezines, (Email Newsletters), advertising within computer games.

Did you ever see the advertising in Mario cart games or the advertising before the video starts on Youtube? Every Website nowadays has some sort of advertising (including this one J) built in.

Ways We Communicate

In advertising there is much use made of combining the way we take in information in order to get their message received by us.

Think of:

Visuals:  The photoshopping that is carried out on Models photos to make them appear more like iconic people to whom we should aspire to be like, buy the same clothes, buy-in to the same lifestyle.

Look at the use of Fibonacci numbers that make certain architectural structures more appealing to the eye and therefore more desirable. The same is carried out with products.

Sounds: The obvious one here is music and the famous elevator or shopping mall jingles. But there is also NLP practices that are often illegal because of the way that sublime messages are integrated into the advertising message that are not obviously evident but attempt to sway our judgement of the situation.

Feeling: Who hasn’t walked into a hotel Lobby and sank into plush carpet that is communicating the luxury of the hotel. Or who doesn’t know the image that is being communicated to us with the red carpet? Have you watched the Oscars? Half of that event is the parading that takes place on the red carpet before the event. The feeling of being a celebrity! 

Especially the soft drink industry plays with our feelings; feeling refreshed, energized, young and spritely. The original coca cola bottle was specially designed in the curvaceous shape of a woman for American soldiers at war, to awaken feelings of being close to home / their women again.

Hotels will want to awaken feelings of homeliness in their country style ambiente, or to communicate luxury with royal colours, plush carpets and gold fittings.

Smell:  In some European cities, it is standard that you will smell the bakery before you come to it. The products in the store are often baked somewhere else completely, but in order to attract customers there are pumps outside the shop front pumping out the smell of freshly baked goods to get the customers to come in. It is also the reason why the perfumery section is usually on the ground floor of a store, closest to the entrance, so that the smell of expensive perfumes can help entice the customer to come in and to encourage them to buy into the idea of “being in the right place”.

Combination of Senses: Remember too that in particular advertising will attempt to awaken responses in several of our senses. The look and feel of something, the scent and shape of a perfume bottle, the sight and smell of food encouraging us to buy and taste, hear the shopping mall music and feel wealthy to spend all around you..

Deciding on Types of Communication Medium

When deciding between the different types of communication medium, remember the basic Rules of Communication:

1. What is the aim of the information? 
2. Which response do you hope to receive? What is the expected reaction?
3.  Is the medium the correct one for this type of message? What is the likelihood of your message being distorted by the medium? 
4. Is the receiver the correct one? i.e. sending the emails to the wrong group or too many.
5. Recognizing the affect of the medium on the message.

Go To Information Flow Diagram for more on this line of thinking.

For More On Communication, check out any of these pages! 

Write A Mission Statement	Effective Email Communication	Intrapersonal Communication	Communication Quotes
Types of Nonverbal Communication	Nonverbal Communication In Business	What Is Communication?	Go To Homepage