Understanding the Communication Process: From Thoughts to Feedback

Every day, you send hundreds of messages – a text to a friend, an explanation to a colleague, a question in class. Most of the time, it works. Sometimes, it spectacularly doesn’t. The reason lies in something far more layered than just “talking” or “typing.” Communication is actually a structured, cyclical process with multiple moving parts – and when even one of those parts breaks down, the whole exchange can fall apart. Understanding how this process works, from the moment a thought forms in someone’s mind to the moment it is understood (or misunderstood) by another, is the foundation of effective communication in any context.

What is the communication process? 🔗

Communication is not a single act – it is a sequence of interconnected steps. Communication at Work, an open educational resource published by Kwantlen Polytechnic University, defines communication as a cyclical exchange of messages whose goal is to move an idea from one person’s mind into another’s with accuracy intact. The process does not end when a message is sent; it ends – if it truly ends – when the receiver confirms understanding through feedback.

This process has five core steps: idea formation, encoding, channel selection, decoding, and feedback. Each step presents its own opportunities and its own risks. A breakdown at any point can result in confusion, conflict, or a completely missed meaning.

The SMCR model: a framework for understanding communication 🔗

To map this process more precisely, communication scholars have long relied on theoretical models. The most foundational among these is the SMCR model, developed by American communication theorist David Berlo and first published in his 1960 book The Process of Communication. According to Wikipedia’s overview of the model, SMCR stands for Source, Message, Channel, and Receiver – the four primary components through which any act of communication can be understood and analysed.

Berlo believed that for communication to be effective, the source and the receiver must share common ground – similar communication skills, knowledge levels, attitudes, and cultural contexts. As Toolshero explains, the SMCR model presents communication in its most structured form, with each component influenced by multiple factors that can either facilitate or obstruct the flow of meaning.

Breaking down each element of the process 🔗

Step 1: Idea formation (the source/sender) 🔗

Every act of communication begins with a sender – a person, organisation, or entity with an idea to share. Before anything is said or written, the sender must first clarify the idea internally: What exactly needs to be communicated? What outcome is desired? How is the message likely to be received?

In Berlo’s model, several factors shape the sender’s capacity to communicate: their communication skills (the ability to read, write, speak, or listen), their attitudes (toward the audience, the topic, and themselves), their knowledge of the subject, and their socio-cultural background. A teacher who knows their subject deeply but misjudges the knowledge level of their students will still struggle to communicate effectively – because idea formation must take the receiver into account from the very start.

Step 2: Encoding 🔗

Once the idea is clear, the sender must translate it into a form that can be transmitted. This is encoding – the process of converting thoughts into words, symbols, gestures, images, or any other communicable form.

According to communication scholars, effective encoding requires the sender to understand what verbal and non-verbal symbols the receiver is likely to interpret correctly. The choice of words matters enormously here. Using industry jargon with a non-specialist audience, or using culturally specific references with someone from a different background, are classic encoding failures. As communication researchers note, encoding issues should be identified and resolved as early as possible in the communication process, because a poorly encoded message creates confusion that no amount of good intent can repair.

In Berlo’s framework, the message itself has five sub-components: content (the substance of the message), elements (the non-verbal components like gestures or tone), treatment (the way the message is presented), structure (how it is organised), and code (the form it takes – language, video, music, etc.).

Step 3: Channel selection 🔗

The channel is the medium through which the encoded message travels from sender to receiver. Berlo’s original model described channels in terms of the five human senses – hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting – recognising that communication reaches us through sensory experience. In modern terms, channels include face-to-face conversations, phone calls, video meetings, emails, text messages, social media posts, and broadcast media.

Choosing the right channel is not a minor detail – it is a strategic decision. Communication theorists point out that channel selection should consider reach, accessibility, and the nature of the message itself. A sensitive performance review delivered over a group email is a channel mismatch. An urgent safety alert buried in a long monthly newsletter is another. The channel must suit the message’s purpose and the receiver’s ability to access and process it. In mass communication settings, technical channels like television, radio, or the internet add another layer of complexity, as the sender and receiver are rarely in direct, real-time contact.

Step 4: Decoding 🔗

When the message reaches the receiver, the process of decoding begins. This is the mirror of encoding: the receiver translates the symbols, words, or gestures back into meaning. As described in Communication for Business Professionals, each participant in a communication encounter alternates between the roles of sender and receiver, decoding messages and encoding responses in an ongoing exchange.

Here is where personal experience plays its most critical role. Decoding is shaped by the receiver’s communication skills, cultural background, prior knowledge, shared mental models with the sender, and any psychological or environmental noise present during the exchange. Because no two people interpret information in exactly the same way, the decoded message will almost never be a perfect replica of the original idea. The goal is to get as close as possible.

This concept connects directly to Berlo’s idea of fields of experience – the mental frame of reference each person brings to a conversation, built from their life experiences, values, attitudes, and cultural context. According to Berlo’s framework, communication can only succeed if the message falls within the overlapping fields of experience of both the sender and receiver. A message that lies entirely outside the receiver’s frame of reference simply cannot be decoded into meaningful understanding.

Step 5: Feedback – closing the loop 🔗

Feedback is what transforms communication from a one-way transmission into a genuine exchange. It is the receiver’s response to the message – and it is the mechanism by which the sender learns whether the message was received and understood as intended.

Feedback can be verbal (a spoken reply), non-verbal (a nod, a frown, a raised eyebrow), or written (a reply to an email). It can be immediate – as in a face-to-face conversation – or delayed, as in a formal report submitted in response to a briefing. What matters is that feedback gives the sender actionable information: the receiver understood, or didn’t; the message was clear, or wasn’t; the channel was effective, or needs to change.

This is also the point at which the communication cycle renews itself. The original sender, having received feedback, now becomes a receiver who decodes that feedback, forms a new response, re-encodes it, and transmits it back. As communication researchers describe it, each new message is influenced by feedback from the previous exchange – the process is not linear but cyclical, with each cycle building upon the last.

The role of noise in disrupting the process 🔗

No discussion of the communication process is complete without acknowledging noise – any factor that distorts, interrupts, or interferes with the message at any stage. Communication scholars distinguish between two primary types: environmental noise, which physically distorts the signal (a crackling phone line, a loud café, a pixelated video call), and semantic noise, which occurs during encoding or decoding when words are ambiguous, culturally loaded, or interpreted differently than intended.

There is also psychological noise – the internal distractions, biases, and preconceptions a receiver brings to a message. A listener who has already formed a strong opinion about the speaker may decode the message through a filter of confirmation bias, hearing only what they expect to hear. Managing noise is not always possible, but being aware of it is a crucial first step toward clearer communication.

Why the SMCR model still matters – and where it falls short 🔗

Berlo’s SMCR model remains one of the most widely taught frameworks in communication studies because of its clarity. It gives students and practitioners a clean vocabulary for diagnosing communication failures: Was the problem in the encoding? Did the sender choose the wrong channel? Was there a gap in the receiver’s field of experience? Each question points toward a concrete solution.

However, the model has its limitations. Critics note that the SMCR model is essentially linear – it does not natively incorporate a feedback loop, making it insufficient for describing the dynamic, back-and-forth nature of real conversations. It also assumes that communication will succeed if the sender and receiver are sufficiently similar, which overlooks the many ways in which noise, power dynamics, and systemic barriers can impede understanding even between people who share the same language and culture.

Later models – including interaction models and transaction models – have addressed these gaps. Interaction models introduce a feedback loop, making communication bidirectional. Transaction models go further, proposing that sending and receiving happen simultaneously, and that meaning is created in the process rather than transmitted whole from one mind to another. Each evolution of the model reflects a richer understanding of how complex human communication actually is.

How understanding the process makes you a better communicator 🔗

Knowing the mechanics of the communication process has immediate practical value. When a message fails, the framework gives you a structured way to diagnose why. Was the idea poorly formed before encoding began? Did the chosen channel suit the message and the audience? Did the receiver’s field of experience lack the context needed to decode the message accurately? Was there noise – environmental, semantic, or psychological – interfering at some point in the chain?

For senders, awareness of the process encourages more deliberate message construction: considering the receiver’s background, choosing the right channel, structuring the message clearly, and actively soliciting feedback. For receivers, it encourages active listening – interpreting not just the words but the intent behind them, checking one’s own assumptions, and providing clear, timely feedback so the sender knows whether the loop has closed successfully.

Communication, at its best, is not about talking – it is about being understood. And being understood, as the SMCR model and its successors make clear, takes deliberate, structured effort from everyone involved in the process.

What do you think? Think about a recent miscommunication you experienced – at which step in the process do you think it broke down, and what could have been done differently at that stage? And considering how much of our communication today happens asynchronously – over email, messaging apps, or social media – how does the absence of immediate feedback change the way we should think about encoding our messages?

References

1. https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/communicationsatwork/chapter/1-3-the-communication-process/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source%E2%80%93message%E2%80%93channel%E2%80%93receiver_model_of_communication
3. https://www.toolshero.com/communication-methods/berlos-smcr-model-of-communication/
4. https://www.communicationtheory.org/berlos-smcr-model-of-communication/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encoding/decoding_model_of_communication
6. https://www.pharmaguideline.com/2021/10/communication-process.html
7. https://www.businesstopia.net/communication/berlo-model-communication
8. https://fourweekmba.com/berlos-smcr-model/
9. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/commbusprofcdn/chapter/1-2/
10. https://fourweekmba.com/decoding-in-communication/
11. https://lis.academy/information-communication-society/decoding-communication-process-steps-elements/
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Models_of_communication
13. https://study.com/learn/lesson/smcr-model-components-process.html