Principles of Communication

As a communications major, you learn the basic functions of all forms of communication pretty early on in your education. One of the most interesting aspects about all these principles is that they can be applied to many different areas in the world. One of the first aspects we learn about is discourse. Discourse is just basic communication through words, talks or or conversation. While this sounds very basic, there are plenty of different kinds of discourse that are appropriate in particular settings. Secondly, ideology is another huge form of communication. Ideology is a set of beliefs that fuel a particular social movement, group, or class. Thirdly, one of the most recent and what I feel to be one of the most important parts of communication is signification. Signification is the act of signifying by using signs of other symbolic means. Many signals are shown in our everyday conversation and media without us even knowing it. That right there shows the true power of communication. When it comes to animation, all of these principles are key to keeping a viewers attention. By understanding all of these different aspects of communication, animators are able to create characters that everyone can relate to. Animators can customize and bring more life to characters when they understand all of these examples. By doing this, they create a successful animation with much more energy and life to them for all audiences to enjoy. How else do you think that they came up with characters such as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck that still remain relevant in today's society? The power of animation is infinitely multiplied when animators can understand all of these concepts.