Models of communication

Models of communication are conceptual models used to explain the

human communication process. The first major model for communication was developed in 1948
by Claude Elwood Shannon and published with an introduction by Warren Weaver for Bell
Laboratories.[1] Following the basic concept, communication is the process of sending and
receiving messages or transferringinformation from one part (sender) to another (receiver).[2]
In 1960, David Berlo expanded the linear transmission model [3] with the Sender-Message-Channel-
Receiver(SMCR) Model of Communication. [4] Later, Wilbur Schramm introduced a model that
identified multiple variables in communication which includes the transmitter, encoding, media,
decoding, and receiver. [5]

Contents

 Shannon-Weaver Model
 Berlo
 Schramm
 Barnlund
 Constructionist
 Linear
 Interactive/convergence
 Communication theory framework
 Ontology
 10Epistemology
 11Axiology
 12Some realms of communication and their theories
 13Notes
 14References

Shannon-Weaver Model[edit]
Elwood Shannon and Warren Weaver were engineers that worked for Bell Telephone Labs in the
United States. Their goal was to make sure that the telephone cables and radio waves were working
at the maximum efficiency. Therefore, they developed the Shannon-Weaver model which had an
intention to expand a mathematical theory of communication.[6] The Shannon–Weaver model was
developed in 1949 which is referred as the 'mother of all models'.[7] The model is well accepted as a
main initial model for Communication Studies which has grown since then.[8]
As well, the Shannon-Weaver model was designed to mirror the functioning of radio and telephone
technology. Their initial model consisted of four primary parts: sender, message, channel,
and receiver. The sender was the part of a telephone a person speaks into, the channel was the
telephone itself, and the receiver was the part of the phone through which one can hear the person
on the other end of the line. Shannon and Weaver also recognized that there may often be static or
background sounds that interfere with the process of the other partner in a telephone conversation;
they referred to this as noise. Certain types of background sounds can also indicate the absence of
a signal.[6]
The original model of Shannon and Weaver has five elements: information source, transmitter,
channel, receiver, and destination. To illustrate the process of the communication the first step is the
information source where the information is stored. Next, in order to send the information, the
message is encoded into signals, so it can travel to its destination. After the message is encoded, it
goes through the channel which the signals are adapted for the transmission. In addition, the
channel carried the noise course which is any interference that might happen to lead to the signal
receive a different information from the source. After the channel, the message arrives in the
receiver step where the message reconstruct (decode) from the signal. Finally, the message arrives
at the destination.[9]
In a simple model, often referred to as the transmission model or standard view of
communication, information or content (e.g. a message in natural language) is sent in some form
(as spoken language) from an emissor/ sender/ encoder to a destination/ receiver/ decoder.
According to this common communication-related conception, communication is viewed as a means
of sending and receiving information. The strengths of this model are its simplicity, generality, and
quantifiability. The mathematicians Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver structured this model on
the basis of the following elements:

 An information source, which produces a message.

 A transmitter, which encodes the message into signals
 A channel, for which signals are adapted for transmission
 A receiver, which reconstructs the encoded message from a sequence of received signals and
decodes it.
 An information destination, where the message arrives.
Shannon and Weaver argued that this concept entails three levels of problems for communication:

1. The technical problem: how accurately can the message be transmitted?

2. The semantic problem: how precisely is the meaning 'conveyed'?
3. The effectiveness problem: how effectively does the received meaning affect behavior?
Daniel Chandler criticizes the transmission model in the following terms:[10]

 It assumes that communicators are isolated individuals.

 It makes no allowance for differing purposes.
 It makes no allowance for differing interpretations.
 It makes no allowance for unequal power relationships.

Berlo[edit]
In 1960, David Berlo expanded Shannon and Weaver's 1949 linear model of communication and
created the Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) Model of Communication.[11] The SMCR
Model of Communication separated the model into clear parts and has been expanded upon by
other scholars.
The Berlo's communication process is a simple application for person-to-person communication,
which include communication source, encoder, message, channel, decoder, and communication
receiver. [12] In addition, David Berlo presented some factors that influence the communication
process between two people. The factors include communication skills, awareness level, social
system, cultural system, and attitude.[13]
The Berlo's Model of Communication process starts at the source. This is the part which determines
the communication skills, attitude, knowledge, social system, and culture of the people involved in
the communication. After the message is developed, which are elements in a set of symbols, [13]the
encoder step begins. The encoder process is where the motor skills take place by speaking or
writing. [12]The message goes through the channel which carries the message by hearing, seeing,
touching, smelling, or tasting.[3] Then the decoding process takes place. In this process, the receiver
interprets the message with her or his sensory skills. Finally, the communication receiver gets the
whole message understood.[12]

Schramm[edit]
Communication is usually described along a few major dimensions: Message (what type of things
are communicated), source / emissor / sender / encoder (by whom), form (in which form), channel
(through which medium), destination / receiver / target / decoder (to whom), and Receiver. Wilbur
Schramm (1954) also indicated that we should also examine the impact that a message has (both
desired and undesired) on the target of the message.[14] Between parties, communication includes
acts that confer knowledge and experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These
acts may take many forms, in one of the various manners of communication. The form depends on
the abilities of the group communicating. Together, communication content and form
make messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be oneself, another personor
being, another entity (such as a corporation or group of beings).
Communication can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three levels
of semiotic rules:

1. Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols),

2. Pragmatic (concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users) and
3. Semantic (study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent).
Therefore, communication is social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a
common set of signs and a common set of semiotic rules. This commonly held rule in some sense
ignores autocommunication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries or self-talk, both
secondary phenomena that followed the primary acquisition of communicative competences within
social interactions.

Barnlund[edit]
In light of these weaknesses, Barnlund (1970) proposed a transactional model of
communication.[15] The basic premise of the transactional model of communication is that individuals
are simultaneously engaging in the sending and receiving of messages.
In a slightly more complex form, a sender and a receiver are linked reciprocally. This second attitude
of communication, referred to as the constitutive model or constructionist view, focuses on how an
individual communicates as the determining factor of the way the message will be interpreted.
Communication is viewed as a conduit; a passage in which information travels from one individual to
another and this information becomes separate from the communication itself. A particular instance
of communication is called a speech act. The sender's personal filters and the receiver's personal
filters may vary depending upon different regional traditions, cultures, or gender; which may alter the
intended meaning of message contents. In the presence of "noise" on the transmission channel (air,
in this case), reception and decoding of content may be faulty, and thus the speech act may not
achieve the desired effect. One problem with this encode-transmit-receive-decode model is that the
processes of encoding and decoding imply that the sender and receiver each possess something
that functions as a [code-book], and that these two code books are, at the very least, similar if not
identical. Although something like code books is implied by the model, they are nowhere
represented in the model, which creates many conceptual difficulties.
Theories of co-regulation describe communication as a creative and dynamic continuous process,
rather than a discrete exchange of information. Canadian media scholar Harold Innis had the theory
that people use different types of media to communicate and which one they choose to use will offer
different possibilities for the shape and durability of society.[16][page needed] His famous example of this is
using ancient Egypt and looking at the ways they built themselves out of media with very different
properties stone and papyrus. Papyrus is what he called 'Space Binding'. it made possible the
transmission of written orders across space, empires and enables the waging of distant military
campaigns and colonial administration. The other is stone and 'Time Binding', through the
construction of temples and the pyramids can sustain their authority generation to generation,
through this media they can change and shape communication in their society.[16][page needed]

Constructionist[edit]
There is an additional working definition of communication to consider[example needed] that authors like
Richard A. Lanham (2003) and as far back as Erving Goffman (1959) have highlighted. This is a
progression from Lasswell's attempt to define human communication through to this century and
revolutionized into the constructionist model. Constructionists believe that the process of
communication is in itself the only messages that exist. The packaging can not be separated from
the social and historical context from which it arose, therefore the substance to look at in
communication theory is style for Richard Lanham and the performance of self for Erving Goffman.
Lanham chose to view communication as the rival to the over encompassing use of CBS
model (which pursued to further the transmission model). CBS model argues that clarity, brevity, and
sincerity are the only purpose to prose discourse, therefore communication. Lanham wrote: "If words
matter too, if the whole range of human motive is seen as animating prose discourse, then rhetoric
analysis leads us to the essential questions about prose style" (Lanham 10). This is saying that
rhetoric and style are fundamentally important; they are not errors to what we actually intend to
transmit. The process which we construct and deconstruct meaning deserves analysis.
Erving Goffman sees the performance of self as the most important frame to understand
communication. Goffman wrote: "What does seem to be required of the individual is that he learn
enough pieces of expression to be able to 'fill in' and manage, more or less, any part that he is likely
to be given" (Goffman 73), highlighting the significance of expression.
The truth in both cases is the articulation of the message and the package as one. The construction
of the message from social and historical context is the seed as is the pre-existing message is for
the transmission model. Therefore, any look into communication theory should include the
possibilities drafted by such great scholars as Richard A. Lanham and Goffman that style and
performance is the whole process. lun
Communication stands so deeply rooted in human behaviors and the structures of society that
scholars have difficulty thinking of it while excluding social or behavioral events.[weasel words] Because
communication theory remains a relatively young field of inquiry and integrates itself with other
disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, and sociology, one probably cannot yet expect a
consensus conceptualization of communication across disciplines.[weasel words]
Communication Model Terms as provided by Rothwell (11-15):

 Noise; interference with effective transmission and reception of a message.

o For example;
 physical noise or external noise which are environmental distractions such as poorly
heated rooms, startling sounds, appearances of things, music playing some where else,
and someone talking really loudly near you.
 physiological noise are biological influences that distract you from communicating
competently such as sweaty palms, pounding heart, butterfly in the stomach, induced by
speech anxiety, or feeling sick, exhausted at work, the ringing noise in your ear, being
really hungry, and if you have a runny nose or a cough.
 psychological noise are the preconception bias and assumptions such as thinking
someone who speaks like a valley girl is dumb, or someone from a foreign country can’t
speak English well so you speak loudly and slowly to them.
  semantic noise are word choices that are confusing and distracting such as using the
word tri-syllabic instead of three syllables.
 Sender; the initiator and encoder of a message
 Receiver; the one that receives the message (the listener) and the decoder of a message
 Decode; translates the sender's spoken idea/message into something the receiver understands
by using their knowledge of language from personal experience.
 Encode; puts the idea into spoken language while putting their own meaning into the
word/message.
 Channel; the medium through which the message travels such as through oral communication
(radio, television, phone, in person) or written communication (letters, email, text messages)
 Feedback; the receiver's verbal and nonverbal responses to a message such as a nod for
understanding (nonverbal), a raised eyebrow for being confused (nonverbal), or asking a
question to clarify the message (verbal).
 Message; the verbal and nonverbal components of language that is sent to the receiver by the
sender which conveys an idea.
Humans act toward people or things on the basis of the meanings they assign to those people or
things. -"Language is the source of meaning". -Meaning arises out of the social interaction people
have with each other.
-Meaning is not inherent in objects but it is negotiated through the use of language, hence the term
symbolic interactionism. As human beings, we have the ability to name things. Symbols, including
names, are arbitrary signs. By talking with others, we ascribe meaning to words and develop a
universe of discourse A symbol is a stimulus that has a learned/shared meaning and a value for
people Significant symbols can be nonverbal as well as linguistic.
-Negative responses can consequently reduce a person to nothing. -Our expectations evoke
responses that confirm what we originally anticipated, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Linear[edit]
This is a one-way model to communicate with others. It consists of the sender encoding a message
and channeling it to the receiver in the presence of noise. In this model there is no feedback or
response which may allow for a continuous exchange of information (F.N.S. Palma, 1993).
The linear model was first introduced by Shannon & Weaver in 1949. In the linear communication
model, the message travels one direction from the start point to the endpoint. In other words, once
the sender sends the message to the receiver the communication process ends. Many
communications online use the linear communication model. For example, when you send an email,
post a blog, or share something on social media. However, the linear model does not explain many
other forms of communication including face-to-face conversation.[17]

Interactive/convergence[edit]
It is two linear models stacked on top of each other. The sender channels a message to the receiver
and the receiver then becomes the sender and channels a message to the original sender. This
model has added feedback, indicating that communication is not a one way but a two way process. It
also has "field of experience" which includes our cultural background, ethnicity geographic location,
extent of travel, and general personal experiences accumulated over the course of your lifetime.
Draw backs – there is feedback but it is not simultaneous.
The Interactive Model.

 For example, – instant messaging. The sender sends an IM to the receiver, then the original
sender has to wait for the IM from the original receiver to react. Or a question/answer session
where you just ask a question then you get an answer.