1. FNBE JAN 2013 – FCOM0102
Effective Public Communication
Name: YIP CHIN SENG
Differences between online communication
and face to face communication
Effective Public Communication
(FCOM0102)
Individual essays
YIP CHIN SENG (0311956)
Lecture: Mr. Woon Wai Cheong
FNBE 2012 July intake semester 2

2. FNBE JAN 2013 – FCOM0102
Effective Public Communication
Name: YIP CHIN SENG
Nowadays, technology are getting more advance than before because
modern peoples cannot live without the technology such as internet, smart
phones and other electronic devices. Also, almost everyone own a smart
phone for their daily communication, it is because in their smart phone have a
lot of apps and modern peoples cannot live without the apps. For an example,
Facebook is one of the apps that peoples cannot live without, they use
Facebook to communicate with their friends and family and also many other
things. Beside Facebook, there are still a lot of apps that helping peoples
communicating with each other such as Twitter, Instagram, LINE, whatsapp,
WeChat and so on. Although the technologies nowadays help peoples in their
daily communication, but also lead to many problems such as
misunderstanding and cultural barriers.
Online communication and face to face communication are also known
as verbal communication, according to the text book, Human Communication,
Principles and Contexts, Eleventh Edition by Stewart Tubbs and Sylvia Moss,
the definition for verbal communication is the communication with words,
which is the communication process involves sending messages from one
person to another with the intention of creating meaning. Communication also
will lead to the cultural barriers in verbal communication like I have mentioned
above, people from different cultures often have difficulty communicating. For
an example for cultural barriers, if two people don’t speak the same language,
they will need an interpreter, but even with interpretation, communication
barriers still exist. So, did vocal cues stand an important position in our
communication?

3. FNBE JAN 2013 – FCOM0102
Effective Public Communication
Name: YIP CHIN SENG
According to the text book I have mentioned above, face to face
communication is not only known as verbal communication but also known as
nonverbal communication, nonverbal communication is define as the
communication without words. For an example, gestures, smiling or frowning,
widening eyes, moving closer to another person, wearing jewelry, touching
someone, raising your vocal volume are known as nonverbal communication.
Also, vocal cues are the category of nonverbal communication and it is the
study of vocal phenomena, paralinguistic or paralanguage refers to something
beyond or in addition to language itself. So, what did vocal cues do in our
daily communication? Vocal cues are always being use in our daily
communication. Vocal cues help to adjust our volume when we are speaking
to each other; example is like if we are speaking too loudly, vocal cues will
weaken the volume of our voice, which mean vocal cues have the power to
strengthen or weaken verbal message. Besides that, vocal cues also can
control the rate of speech and fluency of our speech, rate of speech is the
number of words we utter within a specified time, a faster rate of speech can
be linked to fear or anger, a slower rate of speech can be linked to grief or
depression, and fluency is closely relate to rate, pauses and affect fluency, for
an example, the speech is full with of vocalizations. Also, vocal cues also
control our pitch which is the frequency level of the voice, pitch is known an
important element in people’s judgments about a speaker and pitch level does
influence our attitude toward the communicator and the content of the
message. So, vocal cues stand a very important position of communication.
By the way, there are many differences between online communication
and face to face communication. Firstly, the differences between online

4. FNBE JAN 2013 – FCOM0102
Effective Public Communication
Name: YIP CHIN SENG
communication and face to face communication is the way of communication,
as I have mentioned above, online communication is only included verbal
message but face to face communication are included both verbal and
nonverbal message. For an example, we only communicate with each other
by sending messages or words without showing any emotions or feelings in
online communication, but in face to face communication, we communicate
with each other by whispering or transferring our messages and words to the
person with our actions and emotions. So, in online communication, the types
of communication is just pure verbal message because we only transferring
our messages and words to the target person without expressing our
emotions. In face to face communication, verbal and nonverbal messages are
being blended because it transferring messages and words while expressing
our emotions and feeling to the person or listener.
Secondly, the consistencies of information transfer in online
communication and face to face communication. In online communication, we
only receive the messages and words but not the actual feelings from the
person and without the sender’s presence. The human element and context
are absent. For an example, we are chatting with our friends, they want to tell
us their feelings toward something, but them only sending messages and
words to us without expressing their feelings face to face, and online
communication messages are typically short, sequential, and directed, so, we
might missing some of the important part of the information our friends wanted
to tell us because some of the feelings we cannot transfer to our friends by
just sending messages and words. In face to face communication, we can
receive the information accurately from someone because they transferring

5. FNBE JAN 2013 – FCOM0102
Effective Public Communication
Name: YIP CHIN SENG
the information with their messages and words while expressing their feelings
and emotions. Like the example I have mentioned above, if our friends want
to tell us their feelings toward something, we can receive the information more
accurately because we can listen to their feelings by receiving their messages,
words and seeing their emotions like crying, laughing, smiling and others
emotions. So, face to face communication can help us receive the information
more accurately than online communication.
Lastly, the friendship and family love between online communication
and face to face communication. For an example, we are communicate with
our friends or family members who study overseas compare to the friends and
family member who are still studying in local, we will become more closely to
the friends who are studying in local, it is because we only can communicate
with our friends or family members by using online communication but not
face to face communication. Also, in online communication, we communicate
with our friends and family members by just sending texts and words to each
other, in other word, we are just focusing on the object, but not the person,
this will weaken the relationship between us and the target person. In face to
face communication, we can communicate with our friends by looking at each
other faces and emotions, face to face also can strengthen the relationship
between us and the person.
In conclusion, face to face communication is more important than
online communication, there are also certain topics of conversation where
face-to-face communication will be the best way to achieve clarity and
understanding needed for mutual success and beneficial action, but online

6. FNBE JAN 2013 – FCOM0102
Effective Public Communication
Name: YIP CHIN SENG
communication also bring it benefits. For an example, if our close friend or
family member study overseas, the only way we can communicate to each
other is only online communication. Besides that, vocal cues also stand a very
important position in the effective communication.

7. FNBE JAN 2013 – FCOM0102
Effective Public Communication
Name: YIP CHIN SENG
Sources/ Inferences
1. http://www.livestrong.com/article/158524-problems-in-verbal-
communication/
2. http://www.trainingmag.com/article/lost-art-face-face-
communication
3. Text book, Human Communication, Principles and Contexts,
Eleventh Edition, by Stewart Tubbs and Sylvia Moss.