Jornal de Comunicação de Massa e Jornalismo

Communication as a Social Process

Abstract

Helmut Scherer

At first glance, the title of this essay seems to be more than just a little bit tautological. Obviously, communication is a social process that needs at least one agent, usually called communicator, who acts with regard to another agent, the recipient. In the Encyclopedia Britannica on the internet communication is described as a social behavior and defined as “the exchange of meanings between individuals through a
common system of symbols”. The word communication is derived from the latin verb communicare which means to share things or to make things common. All of this makes totally clear that communication is a social process. My argument is, indeed, that we all know this, but tend to ignore this fact in our daily routines as researchers and scholars.