Answer:
This had to do with money.
My brother had called me over the phone to request for $20 dollars. He needed it urgently for a payment deadline that was closing in 3 minutes.
It took about 2 minutes to send the loan to him. He called back upon receiving the bank alert screaming that what he asked for $30 and not $20.
Unfortunately, he missed the payment deadline.
Explanation:
Depending on the model you are looking at, there are between 5 to 7 components of the communication process. They are, <em>encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback.</em>
The component where the distortion arose was from the encoding and the channel or medium of transmission. 20 does sound like 30 when pronounced over a muffled channel.
Given that it was a phone call against a noisy background, errors in decoding the message was bound to occur.
What my brother could have done was to encode in such a manner that it would be impossible to miss. Whilst I confirm or decode the message in such a way that both parties are on the same page.
For example, the call could have gone like this:
<em />
<em>Brother: Hello, do me a quick one. I need $20. That is Two-Zero</em>
<em>Me: Do you mean two as in T for time, W for wallet and O for Orange?</em>
<em>Brother: Yes. I have less than 3 minutes to sort this.</em>
<em>Me: You'll get it within the minute.</em>
<em>Brother: Thanks a lot</em>
<em>Me: Its a pleasure</em>
Cheers