Elements of Speech Communication: The Speaker
-- Example image of a speaker
The Speaker
Quite simply, if you're delivering your speech: that's you!
The communication cycle offers a model for communication. In its simplest form, the cycle consists of a sender, a message, and a recipient. Other models include the channel, which is the vehicle in which your message travels. For the purposes of speech communication, the speaker is you!
The speaker is perhaps the second most important factor in the speech communication model, second only to the message (your speech) itself. Let's take a step back and look at a very specific definition of the message speaker, or sender:
A sender is someone who encodes and sends a message to a receiver through a particular channel. The sender is the initiator of communication.
When you think about how you craft your speech, you're actually encoding your message. This doesn't mean that your speech is laced with cryptic clues for your audience to determine the meaning and purpose, rather, it gives you a way to think about your speech in a new light. Your message's recipient, the audience, will have to decode your message. With their brainpower, experience and intellect, they need to make sense of the very message you're trying to deliver. This is why it's so valuable to understand the importance of your role as speaker, as the initiator of communication in the delivery of your message.
When you are able to successfully communicate your message, that is, when the audience can decode your message, then you have become a successful communicator.