Communication Models

Introduction to the concept of Communication Models

Communication is a theory and a science that is based on laws and logic. This can be studied and made more effective by understanding how it works. The existing studies have used real life situations to explain the phenomenon of communication which can also be done on an academic level. These models are studies and shown in the most simplified manner as metaphors.

Communication models are systematic representation of propagating information, which are depicted as an object or an event in a simpler and more profound manner.

Following work would explain the critical analysis and the comparison of the most recognized and widely accepted communication models which are:

1.       The Lasswell’s Communication Model.

2.       The Shanon and Weaver’s Communication Model (DeFleur’s Development).

3.       The Osgood and Schramm’s Communication Model.

4.       The Dance’s Communication Model.

5.       The Gerbner’s General Communication Model.

6.       The David Berlo’s Communication Model

1.     The Lasswell’s Communication Model.

Harold Dwight Lasswell, the American political scientist states that a convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer the following questions.

·         Who?

·         Says What?

·         In Which Channel?

·         To Whom?

·         With what effect?

This model is about process of communication and its function to society, According to Lasswell there are three functions for communication:

·         Surveillance of the environment

·         Correlation of components of society

·         Cultural transmission between generation

Lasswell model suggests the message flow in a multicultural society with multiple audiences. The flow of message is through various channels. This communication model is similar to Aristotle’s communication model. In this model, the communication component who refers the research area called “Control Analysis”, Says what is refers to “Content Analysis”, In which channel is refers to “Media Analysis”, To Whom is refers to “Audience Analysis”, With What Effect is refers to “Effect Analysis”.

Model

Comment

Lasswell Communication Model (1948)

·         Useful but too simple. ·         It assumes the communicator wishes to influence the receiver and therefore sees communication as a persuasive process. ·         It assumes that messages always have effects. ·         It exaggerates the effects of mass communication. ·         It omits feedback. ·         On the other hand, it was devised in an era of political propaganda ·         It remains a useful INTRODUCTORY model ·         Braddock (1958) modified it to include circumstances, purpose and effect

Advantage of lasswell model:

·         It is Easy and Simple

·         It suits for almost all types of communication

·         The concept of effect

Disadvantage of lasswell model:

·         Feedback not mentioned

·         Noise not mentioned

·         Linear Model

2.     The Shanon and Weaver’s Communication Model (DeFleur’s Development).

Claude Shannon, an engineer for the Bell Telephone Company, designed the most influential of all early communication models. His goal was to formulate a theory to guide the efforts of engineers in finding the most efficient way of transmitting electrical signals from one location to another (Shannon and Weaver, 1949). Later Shannon introduced a mechanism in the receiver which corrected for differences between the transmitted and received signal; this monitoring or correcting mechanism was the forerunner of the now widely used concept of feedback (information which a communicator gains from others in response to his own verbal behavior).

Shannon and Weaver (1949)

·         Highly influential and sometimes described as “the most important” model (Johnson and Klare) ·         Communication is presented as a linear, one-way process ·         Osgood and Schramm developed it into a more circular model ·         Shannon and Weaver make a distinction between source and transmitter, and receiver and destination – ie there are two functions at the transmitting end and two at the receiving end ·         Criticised for suggesting a definite start and finish to the communication process, which in fact is often endless

Advantages of Shannon and Weaver's model:

·         simplicity,

·         generality,

·         quantiability.

Disadvantage is that the model:

·         linear,

·         one way model,

·         ascribing a secondary role to the "receiver", who is seen as absorbing information.

DeFleur’s Development states that it's a mass communication model that uses mass medium device and feedback device. It draws a source, transmitter, receiver, and destination as a departed phase in mass communication process. The function of receiver in Defleur's model is to receive information and encode it. According to Defleur, communication isn't meaning transfer. Communication happens by a set of component operation in some theoretical system, which the consequence is isomorphism between intern response to a set of symbol to source and receiver.

3.     The Osgood Schramm’s Communication Model.

It is a Circular Model, so that communication is something circular in nature

Encoder – Who does encoding or Sends the message (message originates)

Decoder – Who receives the message

Interpreter – Person trying to understand (analyses, perceive) or interpret

From the message starting to ending, there is an interpretation goes on. Solely based on this interpretation only the message is received. This model breaks the sender and receiver model it seems communication in a practical way. It is not a traditional model. It can happen within our self or two people; each person acts as both sender and receiver and hence use interpretation. It is simultaneously take place e.g. encoding, interpret and decoding.

Semantic noise is a concept introduced here it occurs when sender and receiver apply different meaning to the same message. It happens mostly because of words and phrases for e.g. Technical Language, So certain words and phrases will cause you to deviate from the actual meaning of the communication.

When semantic noise takes place decoding and interpretation becomes difficult and people get deviated from the actual message.

Advantage of Osgood- Schramm model of communication

·         Dynamic model- Shows how a situation can change

·         It shows why redundancy is an essential part

·         There is no separate sender and receiver, sender and receiver is the same person

·         Assume communication to be circular in nature

·         Feedback – central feature.

Disadvantage of Osgood- Schramm model of communication

This model does not talk about semantic noise and it assume the moment of encoding and decoding.

4.     Dance’s Helical Model of Communication

An individual’s history of communication and its importance is illustrated in Dance’s Helical model (1967) which depicts communication as forever moving forward. Whilst the circular model may be viewed as adequate to describe the process of communication, it has it short comings; communication cannot be depicted sufficiently at a fixed level, it is forever evolving. The Helical model attempts to show the growth of communication and how it influences future communication. Dance’s model is a spiral that starts at birth and widens as life progresses, right through till death. It illustrates the development of an individual throughout life as their knowledge base deepens and expands through communication; thus the helical model can be seen as dynamic.

Advantages

·         It is important to approach models in a spirit of speculation and intellectual play.”

·         communication is continuous

·         unrepeatable

·         additive and accumulative

·         no break in the action and no fixed beginning

·         no pure redundancy

·         learned and nonrepeatable

·         evolving process that is always turned inward in ways that permit learning, growth, and discovery.

Disadvantages

·         May not be a model at all: too few variables.

·         If judged against conventional scientific standards, the helix does not fare well as a model. Indeed, some would claim that it does not meet the requirements of a model at all. More specifically,

·         it is not a systematic or formalized mode of representation.

·         Neither does it formalize relationships or isolate key variables.

·         It describes in the abstract but does not explicitly explain

·         make particular hypotheses testable.”

·         Generates Questions, but leaves much unaswered. Such as

Do we necessarily perceive all encounters as actually occurring in an undifferentiated, unbroken sequence of events? Does an unbroken line not conflict with the human experience of discontinuity, intermittent periods, false starts, and so forth? Is all communication a matter of growth, upward and onward, in an ever-broadening range of encounters? Countless other questions could be raised. And that is the point. The model brings problems of abstraction into the open.

5.     Gerbner’s General Communication Model

Similarly to the Schramm & Osgood Circular Model, Gerbner's General Model emphasizes the dynamic nature of human communication. It also, in common with other models, such as, say, David Berlo's S-M-C-R model, gives prominence to the factors which may affect fidelity.

Understanding the Model

• The event (E) is perceived by M (the man (sic) or machine).

• The process of perception is not simply a matter of 'taking a picture' of event E. It is a process of active interpretation.

• The way that the E is perceived will be determined by a variety of factors, such as the assumptions, attitudes, point of view, experience of M.

• E can be a person talking, sending a letter, telephoning, or otherwise communicating with M. In other words, E could be what we conventionally call the Source or Transmitter.

• Equally, E can be an event - a car crash, rain, waves crashing on a beach, a natural disaster etc. In this case, we could be applying the model to mass media communication, say the reporting of news.

The model is a useful starting-point for the analysis of wide variety of communication acts. Note that the model, besides drawing our attention to those factors within E which will determine perception or interpretation of E, also draws our attention to three important factors:

• Selection: M, the perceiver of the event E (or receiver of the message, if you prefer) selects from the event, paying more attention to this aspect and less to that. This process of selecting, filtering is commonly known as gatekeeping, particularly in discussion of the media's selection and discarding of events or aspects of them.

• Context: a factor often omitted from communication models, but a vitally important factor. The sound represented by the spelling 'hair' means an animal in one context, something that's not supposed to be in your soup in another. Shouting, ranting and raving means this man's very angry in one context, raving loony in another.

• Availability: how many Es are there around? What difference does availability make? If there are fewer Es around, we are likely to pay more attention to the ones there are. They are likely to be perceived by us as more 'meaningful'. What sort of Es are there - for example, in the UK's mainly Conservative press, how many non-Conservative messages are available to us?

Gerbner (1956)

·         Special feature of this model is that is can be given different shapes depending on the situation it describes ·         There is a verbal as well as visual formula (like Lasswell): 1 someone 2 perceives an event 3 and reacts 4 in a situation 5 through some means 6 to make available materials 7 in some form 8 and context 9 conveying content 10 with some consequence ·         The flexible nature of the model makes it useful. ·         It also allows an emphasis on perception ·         It could explain, for example, the perceptual problems of a witness in court and, in the media, a model which helps us to explore the connection between reality and the stories given on the news

6.     The David Berlo’s Communication Model

While the Aristotle model of communication puts the speaker in the central position and suggests that the speaker is the one who drives the entire communication, the Berlo’s model of communication takes into account the emotional aspect of the message. Berlo’s model of communication operates on the SMCR model. In the SMCR model

    S - Stands for Source

    M - Message

    C - Channel

    R – Receiver

Criticism of berlo’s smcr model of communication:

·         No feedback / don’t know about the effect

·         Does not mention barriers to communication

·         No room for noise

·         Complex model

·         It is a linear model of communication

·         Needs people to be on same level for communication to occur but not true in real life

·         Main drawback of the model is that the model omits the usage of sixth sense as a channel which is actually a gift to the human beings (thinking, understanding, analyzing etc).