The forms of human Communication include Intra- Personal Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Group Communication, Organizational Communication, Public Communication, and Mass Communication.
(A) Intra – Personal Communication
Intra – Personal Communication is Communication within or with oneself. It makes use of all the sensory organs. This type of Communication takes the cognitive and perceptual process into cognizance in encoding and decoding messages. It involves one’s feelings, thoughts, and how one views self. Also, this helps one to develop a conviction of opinion. It comes before other forms of Communication.
(B) Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal Communication occurs between two or more people engaged in a communication exchange. It can take the following forms, verbal (speaking face-to-face, oral interview, debate, meeting, teleconferencing), written (letter, email), and non-verbal (facial expressions and body language).
(C) Group Communication
Group Communication is sending and receiving messages among the members of a group. It can be sub-divided into small group communication and large group communication.
The small group involves a few people (three or more people) that interact face-to-face. They come together to achieve one main goal. They exchange ideas, determine goals, motivate one another, and interact to accomplish a particular purpose. Some examples are a football team, a science class project group, and a relay team.
The number of the large group is more than the small group. It can start from a dozen to even a thousand people. Sometimes they are too large to maintain a conversation. Their purpose is different from the small group. They communicate more than one thing in this group. The group makes decisions, manage conflicts, and builds rapport among themselves. They also allow feedback between the audience and the senders of the message. Some examples are lectures, rallies, congregations, and concerts.
(D) Organizational Communication
Organizational Communication encompasses a communication exchange within an organization. It involves how people Communicate in a communication network. This type of Communication accommodates large organizations such as government agencies and companies. It is, in most cases, formal.
(E) Public Communication
Public Communication happens when a person communicates with an audience. He delivers a message(speech) while the audience listens. The speaker is empowered to plan his message and even use additional visual channels like PowerPoint. Public Communication requires a public speaker, an audience, and a medium for message delivery. Public Communication includes religious sermons, conferences, lectures, and public speaking events.
(F) Mass Communication
Mass Communication is the simultaneous dissemination of identical messages through electronic, print, or other media, to a mass or diverse audience that retrieves the news simultaneously, not minding the distance. It involves creating, sending, receiving, and analyzing messages for large audiences (millions) by the communicators, utilizing the verbal and written media. Some examples are newspapers, television, radio, books, social networks, etc.