Feb12 Summary(C5 Creating and Using Meaning)

Chapter 5 explores how we learn and design clear message meaning.

Meaning is a process of perception and interpretation. We make meaning according to our social, cultural, historical, interpersonal, and business environments. In meaning making, we receive sensory information from our environment through sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell, and we mentally become aware of, or perceive, the stimuli. We also associate meaning with certain symbols as a type of sign with only an indirect association. Both signs and symbols are socially created to help us share and communicate meaning. We can find this material on the Internet, at a library and in other places. I think these signs and symbols are good for visual aids, it help an audience understand and remember what they hear; they are valuable tools for speakers. Such as PPT, movies, TV, etc.
The type of visual aid you choose depends on several factors, including the information you wish to display and the size of the audience. Visuals must be appropriate for your message and the audience, and be displayed correctly with ease and confidence.

And meaning is also derived through the various contexts in which our communication occurs. The different contexts that create the conditions for our different interpretations of meaning are intrapersonal, personal history, cultural, interpersonal, and business contexts. Understanding each other’s meaning is not always easy because two people rarely see their personal and social worlds in exactly the same way.