Hed comm

• Model


  An abstracted representation of reality that effectively shows how communication works
• Models of communication


  • Provide insight into the working and understanding of the dynamic process of communication
  • Developed from simple to more complex over time

  
• Development of communication models

  1. Earlier models were simple but inadequate

  2. Models became more elaborate and adequate by 1950s

  3. Influenced by models of Shannon-Weaver, Lasswell, Osgood, Schramm, Gerbner

  
• Early communication models


  • Aristotle's model (speaker-speech-audience)
  • Bullet model (one-way transfer of ideas)

  
• Characteristics of early communication models

  • Focused on face-to-face situations
  • Viewed communication as one-way transfer of ideas
• Evolution of communication models

  1. Shifted from simple to more complex

  2. Incorporated feedback and interaction between sender and receiver

  3. Explained communication as a dynamic two-way process
• Schramm's model


  • Visualizes communication as a process of sharing of experiences between source and receiver
  • Emphasizes that message 'acts' upon receiver as much as receiver 'acts' on the message

  
• Communication models are mostly linear (one-directional)
• Communication models can explain the communication process at both interpersonal and mass communication levels
• Purpose of communication


  • To speak and to listen
  • To persuade the other party
  • To defeat the other persons
• Communication model during World War-II

  • A bullet
  • A pistol
  • A gun
• Communication models developed in 1950s


  • One directional
  • Non-directional
  • Multi-directional

  
• The purpose of presenting some models of communication is to illustrate the range of approaches to an investigation of the communication process

  
• Shannon and Weaver's and Gerbner's models are considered to be universally applicable for they can explain any example of communication

  
• The widely quoted model of Lasswell verbalizes communication in terms that can be applied to mass media
• Osgood emphasizes the dynamic relationship between source and receiver
• Schramm visualizes communication essentially as a process of sharing of experiences on the basis of commonness of social context and stresses the importance of feedback and noise in the process

  
• Newcomb's triangular linear form of model is designed specifically in the interpersonal and social communication context
• Westley and MacLean's 'gatekeeper' model is considered useful to the mass media and is often associated with news
• Lasswell's model components


  • Who
  • Says What
  • In Which Channel
  • To Whom
  • With What effect

  
• Noise


  Disturbances in the channel that may interfere with the signals transmitted and produce different signals
• Osgood's model


  Communication is a dynamic process where each participant sends as well as receives messages and encodes, decodes, and interprets messages

  
• Schramm's model


  Stressed the importance of feedback and noise as essential elements of communication process
• Schramm viewed communication as a process of sharing of experience, and how the shaping and reshaping of experience is

  
• Schramm's model takes into account the wider societal situation and relationship both of which influence the communication process

  
• Wilbur Schramm's model


  1. Activity 2

  2. Suppose you have attended a lecture of an eminent scholar on the communal situation in the country. Describe pictorially the process of communication between the speaker and the audience based on Schramm's model. Highlight the role of feedback and noise.

  
• George Gerbner's Model (1956)

  1. Selection

  2. Context availability

  3. Percept

  4. Means and control (or Communicating dimension)

  5. Perceptual dimension

  
• Gerbner's model


  Communication process can be explained in three stages:

  1. Horizontal dimension - Event E perceived by M, M selects E according to perception

  2. Vertical dimension - Meaning given to perceived event, converted into signal SE, selection of appropriate medium

  3. Horizontal dimension - M2 interprets meaning of message SE based on own needs and concepts

  
• Theodore M. Newcomb's Model (1953)


  1. A (communicator)

  2. B (receiver)

  3. X (part of their social environment)

  
• Newcomb's model


  • Communication maintains equilibrium within the social system. A-B-X system will be in equilibrium only if A and B have similar attitude to X. The more important X is, the more urgent A and B's drive to share an orientation towards it.

  
• Newcomb's model assumes significance in the light of people's increasing need for information in a democracy
• Bruce H. Westley's and M.S. MacLean's Model (1957)


  1. A (sender/reporter)

  2. C (gatekeeper/editor)

  3. B (audience)
• Westley and MacLean's model


  • Messages in mass communication pass through 'gatekeepers' before reaching the audience. Gatekeepers decide which messages are transmitted and how their content is modified.

  
• The drawback of Westley and MacLean's model is that it applies only to mass media and fails to account for the relationship between mass media and other social systems