Audience & Challenges to Communication Competence

In chapter 2 of McEwan’s Communication Competence and Identities in Networked Location, the author discusses the importance of competence when using communications technologies to send messages due to their potential audience, a challenge to communication competence, “communication apprehension” and how to get around it, and examines the argument of anti-social media.

When deciding how to communicate a message, the intended and actual target(s) affects how we choose to deliver that message. Communication technologies facilitate communication through one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many, and McEwan relays the notion that these technologies, particularly those that aid many-to-many communication, gave rise to a new form of communications called masspersonal communication. This kind of communication most often takes place when people engage in mass and interpersonal communication simultaneously, like through social networking sites. Technologies like these sites allow us to exchange messages in a way that we think is interpersonal, but due to the lasting imprint of our words and consequential shareability as well as our privacy settings, the audience can become larger than anticipated. What we must also look out for with masspersonal communication is the discrepancy between the intended receiver(s) and the actual audience of the message; a message that seems appropriate for one receiver might be viewed differently by others. Having knowledge of this potential discrepancy is key because it’s when senders don’t think deeply about their potential audience that new challenges to competency are introduced.

One challenge to communication competence cited by McEwan is communication apprehension. Communication apprehension is defined as fear or anxiety experienced by an individual reacted to either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons, with the definition later expanding to include feelings of apprehension related specifically to communication technologies. The challenge here is that an individual’s communication apprehension can carry over into the online world, hindering them from using CMC (computer-mediated communications. People generally experience social anxiety when they aren’t confident in their social skills and the same can be said of CMC apprehension. It’s suggested that if one’s CMC skills can be improved, their apprehension may lessen. 

Many argue today that the internet and social media is actually making us anti-social. This “anti-social media” is discussed as McEwan explores the argument that CMC may lead to a reduction of interpersonal communication skills. Early research in this area suggested a link between heavy internet usage with lower levels of extroversion and smaller social networks. What furthers this perception is that individuals who are less-skilled at face-to-face communication choose mediated channels. However, more recent data seems to support a different assertion. The activities individuals engage in on the internet are primarily social and engaging in online interaction can actually improve offline communication competence. Lower-skilled communicators adopted online communication in greater numbers before more highly-skilled communicators, meaning that the earlier studies that found correlations between low sociability and internet usage may have been picking up on the masses of individuals with low communication skills who sought out forms of communication more comfortable to them. 

As communication technologies expand, the type of individual who frequents the internet broadens. We live in a society that’s based on building and maintaining connections through the internet. Thus, one’s ability to communicate competently through CMC use becomes increasingly important as the ability to build sufficient and effective networks is dependant on the use of these mediated channels.

- Katrina Robertson