Southwestern College of Maritime, Business and Technology, Inc.

Quezon Drive, Calero, Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro

www.scmbt.edu.ph / [email protected] / [email protected]

SUBJECT: Purposive Communication DATE:

MODULE #: 1 TEACHER: Ms. Judith Mae R. Zamora

I. TOPIC: Communication in the 21st Century

 Communication Models
 Communication Ethics

II. TARGET LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, the student is expected to:
1. Have a thorough understanding of communication models and processes
2. Understand the importance of ethics in communication and academic writing
3. Apply the ethical principles to a communication process.

IV. MATERIALS NEEDED AND REFERENCES

Uychoco, Marikit Tara A., Santos, Maria Lorena.Communication for Society. Nicanor
Reyes Sr. St., Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Book Sore, Inc. 2018.

Pascual, Janet C. et al. Purposive Communication.Barangka Drive, Mandaluyong City:

Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.2016

V. GEAR UP YOUR MIND

Communication involves the four macro skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing;
that is why researchers say that we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of
what we see and 50% of what we see and hear of the message. These same macro skills are
involved in the communication process.
Communication is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, by speech,
signals, writing, or behaviour between a sender and a receiver.

The following are the terms involved in the communication process:

Feedback – A verbal or nonverbal response by a receiver to the sender’s message.
Encoding – Selecting words and their order for a message by a sender.
Decoding – The translation of a message by a receiver.
Noise - Literally or figuratively, anything that interferes with a message.
Message Channel – The conduit or medium that will carry a message from the sender to the
receiver.

Furthermore, communication is both oral and written, so that, if communication is oral, the sender
would be the speaker and the receiver would be the listener. On the other hand, if communication
is written, the sender would be the writer and the receiver would be the reader
Communication Models
 According to Denis Mcquail and Sven Windahl (2013), in their book Communication
Models for the Study of Mass Communication, “a model seeks to show the main elements of any
structure or process and the relationship between these elements… it helps in explaining by
providing in simplified way information which would otherwise be complicated or ambiguous.”
Professor Ramona S. Flores (2016), in her book Oral Communication in Context,
discusses four models of communication in the chapter, “Explaining the Nature of Communication.”
She discusses the different communication models as follows (Aristotle, Shannon-Weaver,
Schramm, and White, 2016).
The earliest model comes from Aristotle at around 5 B.C. In this model, Aristotle explains
that speakers should adjust their messages according to their audience and the occasion to
achieve a particular effect.

The Shannon-Weaver’s Model of Communication was created by Claude Shannon

and Warren Weaver (Flores, 2016). According to Flores (2016), this is also often called the
“Telephone Model,” since it was developed because of the technology of the telephone and the
experience of “noise” coming from the switchboard.
The sender would be the person giving the message, while the encoder would be the
transmitter which converts the message into signals. For instance, the use of mobile phone, the
encoder would be the cell phone, and the sender, of course, would be the person calling. The
decoder, on the other hand, would be the reception place of the signal which converts signals into
message, which is why in modern parlance, when there is “no signal”, there is difficulty in decoding
the message. The receiver would be the destination of the message by the sender which would be
the person who is being called – and when there are problems, or “noise”, that interferes with the
message, then the receiver would give feedback, which is usually phrased as “choppy”, when the
message cannot be heard because of the signal. The messages are transferred through the use of
a channel; in the case of the telephone, the channel would be the cables, while in the case of the
cell phone, the channel would be radio frequencies.

In Schramm’s model of communication, there are two primary models involved. The first
one is built on the theories of Osgood, which is why this is also known as the Osgood-Schramm
model.
 In this model, pay attention to the role of the interpreter. Encoding and decoding are not
automatic processes both go through the filter of the interpreter. Therefore, the message may
succeed or fail, based on the interpreter’s appreciation of the message. There are times when the
sender and the receiver may apply different meanings to the message, and this is termed
“semantic noise”.

His second model, on the other hand, builds this theory about the interpreter into the
different fields of experience of the sender and the receiver. For the message to reach the receiver
there must be a common field of experience between the sender and the receiver.

The last model is Eugene White’s Stages of Oral Communication. According to White, it is
possible to begin at any of the stages outlined in his model. People are under mistaken impression
that when we communicate, we usually start with thinking, but that is not necessarily the case.
Since it is a circular model, it means that oral communication is continuous process with no real
beginning or end. The most important contribution from Eugene White’s model is the concept of
feedback, which can only be processed by the speaker if he or she has been monitoring the
audience or the listener. Hence, the speaker must also pay attention to the listener’s verbal and
non-verbal cues.

Communication Ethics
It is important to understand that whatever we communicate should be guided by certain
ethical principles. The US National Communication Association (NCA, 1999) discusses this in their
Credo for ethical Communication, stating that, “Ethical communication is fundamental to
responsible thinking, decision-making, and the development of relationships and communities
within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and media.
In their Credo, there are four ethical principles of communication that are especially
relevant for students today.
Firstly, they “advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the
integrity of communication” (NCA, 1999).
Secondly, the NCA also endorses “freedom of expression, diversity of perspective, and
tolerance of dissent to achieve the informed and responsible decision-making fundamental to a civil
society” (NCA,1999).
Thirdly, the NCA (1999) states that they “condemn communication that degrades
individuals and humanity through distortion, intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the
expression of intolerance and hatred.” (1999)
Lastly, the NCA (1999) states that communicators should “accept responsibility for the
short and long-term consequences of our own communication and expect the same of others.”