Thus intercultural communication is especially prone to errors. Listeners also are sources of communication problems. People often fail to listen carefully. Also, when people are in conflict, they often concentrate more on what they are going to say in response to their opponent's statement, rather than listening to their opponents' words with full attention. The result, again, is misunderstandings, and often unnecessary escalation of a conflict.
Third parties can make communication better, or they can make it worse.
Skilled third parties can help speakers clarify what they are saying, and they can help listeners hear what is really meant. Unskilled third parties, or third parties with a different agenda can make matters worse. The media's goal, for example, is often not helping people understand each other better, but rather, presenting the story to meet the media's own goals which may be to inflame the readers' anger in order to sell more newspapers, or to support the publisher's or government's own interests and views. Click here To read about specific Communication Problems.