The Numbers Game

The statemebnt "it takes two to tango" has been stated so often and for so long that it - and math - seem to be beyond refute. Still, I do find myself wondering every so often if it would be possible for three to tango. I suppose the choreography might be a bit trickier, but I bet it could be done. This leads me to wondering: how many does it take for communication to occur. One? Two? More than two? My sense is the answer to this question might not be as clear as the tango question. After all, in a pure sense, one person can make noise and therefore be said to be communicating. But if there is no one else around to hear that noise and possibly react to it, then did an act of communication actually occur?

I will leave it to others to wrestle with that. Instead, it seems more beneficial to speculate on the act of communicating itself rather that on whether a verbal or non-verbal act from an isolated individal constitues communication. Such an act, to be purposeful and successful, requires more than one. A sender and receiver need to be part of the mix. An actor and reactor. This is especially the case if one accepts the concept - as I do - that there are two primary purposes of communication: to persuade or to establish/maintain partnership. The scholar James Grunig and Todd Hunt are the ones that set forth this notion. It continues to be relevant today.

This, then, brings me back to numbers. There is the sender - one - and a receiver - two. However, suppose one is attempting to connect with multiple people? Does that grow the number of people it takes to communicate to a potentially unlimited total? My answer, based on the effectiveness of communication, is two. Every act of communication is based on the premise of reaching or connecting with another. One person responds to an overture such as an outreached hand. One person acts buys a product in respond to a fancy advertisement. Depending upon such variables as the range of the communication act first triggered by the sender, the effort can include multiple numbers. But at its most fundamental, communication, like the tango, comes down to one plus one.