Shovak O. I. Fundamentals of the Theory of Speech Communication

Barriers to communication

Anything that prevents understanding of the message is a barrier to communication. Many physical and psychological barriers exist:

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  Culture, background, bias. We allow our past experiences to change the meaning of the message. Our culture, background, and bias can be good as they allow us to use our past experiences to understand something new, it is when they change the meaning of the message then they interfere with the communication process.
  

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  Noise. Noise impedes clear communication. The sender and the receiver must both be able to concentrate on the messages being sent to each other.
  

Types of the noise:
Environmental Noise: Noise that physically disrupts communication, such as standing next to loud speakers at a party, or the noise from a construction site next to a classroom making it difficult to hear the professor.

Physiological-Impairment Noise: Physical maladies that prevent effective communication, such as actual deafness or blindness preventing messages from being received as they were intended.
Semantic Noise: Different interpretations of the meanings of certain words. For example, the word "weed" can be interpreted as an undesirable plant in your yard, or as a euphemism for marijuana.
Syntactical Noise: Mistakes in grammar can disrupt communication, such as abrupt changes in verb tense during a sentence.
Organizational Noise: Poorly structured communication can prevent the receiver from accurate interpretation. For example, unclear and badly stated directions can make the receiver even more lost.
Cultural Noise: Stereotypical assumptions can cause misunderstandings, such as unintentionally offending non-Christian persons by wishing them a "Merry Christmas."
Psychological Noise: Certain attitudes can also make communication difficult. For instance, great anger or sadness may cause someone to lose focus on the present moment. Disorders such as autism may also severely hamper effective communication.

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  Ourselves. Focusing on ourselves, rather than the other person, can lead to confusion and conflict. The "Me Generation" is out when it comes to effective communication. Some of the factors that cause this are defensiveness (we feel someone is attacking us), superiority (we feel we know more that the others), and ego (we feel we are the centre of the activity).
  
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  Perception. If we feel the person is talking too fast, not fluently, does not articulate clearly, etc., we may dismiss this person. Our preconceived attitudes also affect our ability to listen. We listen uncritically to persons of high status and dismiss those of low status.
  
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  Message. Distractions happen when we focus on the facts rather than the idea. Semantic distractions occur when a word is used differently than you prefer. For example, the word chairman instead of chairperson, may cause you to focus on the word and not on the message.
  
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