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Models of communication

Shannon and Weaver's model of communication

Communication major dimensions scheme

Communication code scheme

Linear Communication Model

Interactional Model of Communication

Berlo's Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver Model of Communication

Transactional Model of Communication

Models of communication are conceptual models used to explain the humancommunication 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 thebasic concept, communication is the process of sending and receiving messages or transferring information from one part (sender) to another (receiver).^[2]

Shannon and WeaverEdit

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 atelephone 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.^[1]

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:^[3]

• 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.

BerloEdit

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.^[4] The SMCR Model of Communication separated the model into clear parts and has been expanded upon by other scholars.

SchrammEdit

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.^[5] 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 person or being, another entity (such as a corporation or group of beings).

Communication can be seen as processes ofinformation 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 ignoresautocommunication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries or self-talk, both secondary phenomena that followed the primary acquisition of communicative competences within social interactions.

BarnlundEdit

In light of these weaknesses, Barnlund (1970) proposed a transactional model of communication.^[6] 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.^{[7][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.^{[7][page needed]}

ConstructionistEdit

There is an additional working definition of communication to consider^{[examples 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 asRichard A. Lanham and Goffman that style and performance is the whole process.

Communication stands so deeply rooted in human behaviors and the structures ofsociety 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.
  • 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.

LinearEdit

It is a one to and way model to communicate with others. It consists of the senderencoding a message and channeling it to thereceiver in the presence of noise. In this model there is no feedback which may allow for a continuous exchange of information. This form of communication is a one-way form of communication that does not involve any feedback or response, and noise. (F.N.S. Palma, 1993)