Goals of Communication

Every day, we communicate with a variety of people, for a variety of reasons, in a variety of ways. We have defined communication as a meaning-making system that follows the goal of conveying the intended message from the sender to the receiver as accurately as possible. Communication conveys messages to parties involved through the different mediums such as through speech, email, letters, and so on. In this way, people who believe in a common cause can be linked together with a view to strengthen their relationship. Communication also allows people with opposing views to communicate with one another in order to better understand each other and connect. It also provides opportunity for communicators to disseminate information, to transduce emotions and/or thoughts from one to another. This, however, has the potential to either create harmony or result to dissonance between the sender and receiver. Ultimately, the goal of all communication is to change behavior and that is why people read new books or seek help to understand things or reality.

The aim is to create social and political change, say, by exposing the absurdities and injustices of the courts, schools, prisons, and workhouses of the context. Communication can be deeply political in intent or shaped by a social and political agenda: the desire to normalize certain kinds of human behavior (and incidentally to demonize others), see the world in new ways, and act in new ways as a consequence. Communication shapes the receiver’s behavior in a way that is compatible both with their own goals and the goals of the communicator. By helping people reach their behavioral goals, a communicator wins their consent to behave in ways that favor his /her message too.

Communication is essential for everyday life. The goal is to make group life possible through socialization, enculturation, intergenerational solidarity, nation building, and social change. In more specific terms, the goals of communication are: expressing one’s needs and wants; transferring or conveying information; establishing social closeness or sustaining relationships with others; and facilitating social etiquette, that is, to conform to the social conventions of politeness. Ultimately, when two or more persons interact, the communication structure is erected upon which a system of relationships is formed.