Interpersonal Communication Modeling Interpersonal Relationship, An Islamic Perspective

Abstract

Introduction
Communication today is increasingly seen as a process through which
the exchange and sharing of meaning is made possible. Commtinication as
a subject of scientific inquiry is not unique to the field of mass communication.
Mathematicians, engineers, sociologists, psychologists, political scientists,
anthropologists, and speech communicators have been taking an interest in
the study of communication. This is not surprising because communication
is the basic social process of human beings. Although communication has
grown into a well developed field of study, Muslim scholars have rdrely hcused
on the study of communication. Thus, a brief introduction to the widely used
communication concepts and a framework for the study of communication
within the context of this paper is provided.
In 1909, Charles Cooley defined communication from a sociological
perspective as:
The mechanism through which human relations exist and develop -
all the symbols of mind, together with the means of conveying
them through space and preserving them in time. It includes the
expression of the face, attitude and gesture, the tones of the voice,
words, writing, printing, railways, telegraph, and whatever else
may be the latest achievement in the conquest of space and time.
In 1949, two engineers, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, defined
communication in a broader sense to include all procedures:
By which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves
not only written and oral speeches, but also music, the pictorial
arts, the theater, the ballet, and, in kct, all human behavior.
Harold Lasswell, a political scientist, defines communication simply as:
A convenient way to describe the act of communication is to answer
the following question: Who, says what, in which channel, to
whom, with what effect?
S.S. Stevens, a behavioral psychologist, defines the act of communication as:
Communication occurs when some environmental disturbance (the
stimulus) impinges on an organism and the organism does
something about it (makes a discriminatory response) . . . The
message that gets no response is not a commnication.
Social psychologist Theodore Newcomb assumes that:
In any communication situation, at least two persons will be
communicating about a common object or topic. A major function
of communication is to enable them to maintain simultaneous
orientation toward one another and toward the common object of
communication.
Wilbur Schramm, a pioneer in American mass communication research,
provides this definition:
When we communicate we are trying to share information, an
idea, or an attitude. Communication always requires three
elements-the source, the message, and the destination (the
receiver).