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IYUM200709
Philosophy of Communication
Whenever people communicate, questions of right and wrong arise. People always wonder if the
statement was said right or not, they scrutinize others statement more than their own.
development of relationships and communities within and across contexts, cultures, channels,
and media. Moreover, ethical communication enhances human worth and dignity by fostering
truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for self and others.
Unethical communication threatens the quality of all communication and consequently the well-
being of individuals and the society in which we live. We should be committed to practicing the
This is the basis of proper ethical communication. Everything begins with honesty. I believe
communication would be of no value in most cases if it were not for the factor of truthfulness
and honesty. One has to posses these ethics in order to even think about trying to convey an idea
by communicating with individuals as well as the public in general. Lies beget lies; A well
known fact indeed. It would only seem probable that a lie is something that could threaten an
entire pyramid of truths in the form of communication. Accuracy the level to which one
describes the truth could be as important as the truth itself. What if an inaccurate description of a
truth during communication falsifies the idea in the first place? This would bring us to reason.
Reason is what I think makes sense of the accuracy with respect to the level of honesty involved
Umar Mohamed Iyoob COM146
IYUM200709
in a respective communication. Without reason expressing logically the truth of the
One needs to be able to express one’s ideas, feelings and thoughts. One needs to voice them out
or communicate them in one way or another to the other so that the message is clear. First there
comes the ability of expression which is followed closely by the freedom to do so. One may have
the ability to converse and convey messages fluently to one another but without the freedom to
do so, all these thoughts and feelings could be left unattended. Then again this freedom could be
held for better or for worse. For example : Voicing out opinions against the government is very
beneficial but it could also get one in trouble especially in corrupt countries. One needs to
diversify and broaden ones view one different matters while communicating.
• Understand and respect other communicators before evaluating and responding to their
messages.
This will enable one to understand others views on certain matters and smoothen the process of
communication. One would not reply hastily when one has a broad mind and a broadened
perspective on matters being discussed. One should create a 3 – tier process of communication in
which the major ideas would be listening intently, where one lets the other communicate without
hindrances. Then the diverse perspectives would help one think on a matter and thereafter
evaluate one’s answer before finally responding to the statement at hand. I believe these few
communication the ability and freedom goes hand in hand. So does access to information and
communication sources. One would then be able to make informed decision on personal and
forgotten as it is through efficient communication done with the right ethics that one would be
able to get the best of every situation and hence come out successful whenever faced with a
problem of some kind. This in turn would save the problems between families. Proper ethics in
hand would solve most of the disputes in the world. This is due to the unknown fact that the most
humungous dispute in the world might have started from some unethical communication at
home. Many families have separated due to unethical and underdeveloped communicative skills.
Families in turn create communities and eventually the society and habitat one lives in. This way
• Communication climates of caring and mutual understanding that respect the unique
Mutual understanding is one of those common senses that is very uncommon these days.People
are always ready to misunderstand someone in order to satisfy their somewhat sadist natures than
being optimistic and always giving the other the benefit of the doubt. One needs to create an
environment conducive to understanding and optimism around one’s self in order to promote
positive communication and deliver fruitful products of sharing messages such as caring and
understanding. This is what people want in life and this is what individual look for in the need of
Umar Mohamed Iyoob COM146
IYUM200709
communication. This is the WANT of their NEED. The fulfillment of satisfying one’s needs and
the comfort at fitting properly into an environment lies in the art of proper ethics in
communication.
coercion, and violence, and through the expression of intolerance and hatred.
Communication should not be used for extents such as the abuses mentioned above. This would
give communication a bad vibe and lead to an era of silence; an era where everyone is scared that
someone is listening to their conversations and personal thoughts. We can observe such a
situation going on at the moment in the world and mainly in the west wherein people are scared
to mention credit card numbers on a normal phone call to a certified call center, or where one just
doesn’t feel right talking to a loved one wondering who might be listening on the other side. The
patriot act in the USA that was enacted after the WTC attacks allowed the Government to listen
to everything. Since then Money has been extorted from people to keep secrets that would have
As mentioned above as voicing out ones opines against a certain institution or in favour of a
belief or standing for a right, one needs to be courageous in such cases. Intimidation and
coercion will be harder to deal out by the pillagers of communication explained above if more
and more people are courageous with their views and opines. The Ethics will help many
courageous and the freedom of communication will guard the many. But for that the masses need
to get stronger at communication. Fairness and Justice are just a mile away from one. That mile
Umar Mohamed Iyoob COM146
IYUM200709
is the mile of ethically developed communication. Once that road has been travelled [, only
people like Robert Frost who took ‘The Road Not Taken’ (The path less travelled by) would be
dominated by the intelligence agencies!] more and more people would rush into the era of free
• Sharing information, opinions, and feelings when facing significant choices while also
Privacy and Confidentiality has been mentioned in the above many statements and explanations
if one reads between the lines. Here, we shall discuss it a bit further. Privacy is the sunlight for
the ethical communication flower. Privacy brings out the best in the ethics of communication.
People decide that the less the people hear what they say and convey the more frank they can be.
This is another reason why the masses should move to freely and ethically at the same time.
• Responsibility for the short- and long-term consequences for our own communication and
Finally, Even after one manages to try to follow all steps and statements given above,
communication can never be perfect; ethically at least. One can always improve the message one
is passing and tune out the static while accepting the consequences of unethical and undeveloped
communication and related skills. These consequences must be dealt with and learnt from so as
not to turn these short term consequences into long term or create long term consequences.