PLAN TO CONVERSE
Hello and welcome to my blog!
Time has indeed passed quickly for me during this Covid-19 pandemic and soon I’m in my third year at university. But for now, with my second semester done, I am taking my short term a.k.a summer classes and one of the courses I’m taking inspired me to write this blog.
That course is none other than COMMUNICATION PLANNING. It is defined as a means of communicating effectively by getting the right message at the right time to the right recipient. But how exactly is this done? To further explain what I have been learning so far, here is a mind map to guide us.
Communication Planning’s foundation is in COMMUNICATION. It is our way of creating and sharing meaning through dialogue until MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING is achieved for the persons interacting with each other. In a TEDx talk by Keisha Brewer on Strategic Communication, she emphasized the importance of always identifying a goal in a conversation to ensure that a message reaches its designated receiver. Otherwise, skipping this crucial first step would get a conversation nowhere at all. Strategic Communication is in fact only one of the types of communication situations in need of planning. What she discussed in her talk though clearly summarizes the function of Communication Planning which calls for a goal or a purpose.
As a communicator, especially a planner, the message and the receiver are key elements to consider. While people think communicating is as easy as breathing air, there are certainly times we encounter trouble in expressing our message which could lead to misinterpretations. For example, sending via messenger a kiss emoji to your friend which he/she can assume to mean you might be in love with him/her but actually means you’re just proud of him/her. The point here is, communication requires more than just routinely sending messages to people. It requires careful consideration of what message is sent, how it is constructed and how the receiver might feel or perceive it.
I hope this blog helped understand what Communication Planning is in general and its importance to our thriving society. I truly enjoyed writing this and sharing another piece of knowledge from my experience as a communication student. Let me know if you want more blogs like this in the future. See you soon!
