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UNIT 2 MODELS OF COMMUNICATION
Structure
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Learning Outcomes
2.2 Communication Models
2.3 Shannon and Weaver’s Mathematical Model
2.4 Osgood and Schramm’s Models
2.5 Berlo’s Model
2.6 Gerbner’s Model
2.7 Newcomb’s Model
2.8 Westley and Maclean’s Model
2.9 Jakobson’s Model
2.10 A Critique of Transmission Perspective
2.11 Let Us Sum Up
2.12 Keywords
2.13 Further Readings
2.14 Check Your Progress: Possible Answers
2.0 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will study various models of communication. With their help, we will try to understand the process of communication with various steps and stages. We will start with some basic communication models and then move to the more complex models of communication. Alongwith them, we will uncover various concepts of noise, feedback, context, shared experience and equilibrium.
We will further discuss how these concepts affect and impact the process of communication and effectivity of a message. Towards the end of unit, we will try to critique the perspective adopted by these models and explore other ways of understanding the process of communication from other angles.
2.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES
After completing this model you should be able to:
explain why we need models to understand communication;
describe the basic and more complex models;
discuss how these models are relevant in the contemporary social and media environment;
Introduction to Communication (^) enumerate the basic elements that are an essential requirement (SMCR) for
communication and understand the interrelationship between these different elements.
explain how these models can be applied to interpersonal communication and which of these models are useful to better understand mass communication;
understand and critique the notion of ‘transmission perspective’ in communication models.
2.2 COMMUNICATION MODELS
Communication is a complex process, involving many stages, many participants, formation and consumption of a message. Communication studies use communication Models to understand and discuss the process of communication. Now the question arises why communication models?
Models visualise the process of communication. In other words we are able to understand the communication process by representing it in a graphic form. Models are thus abstractions of larger and complex processes and ideas of communication. They should be seen as maps that guide us to better understand human as well as technology driven communication. Some models are more detailed than others, while others are more basic and rudimentary. As the communication studies as a paradigm evolved, so did the attempts at learning and depicting the process.
According to Harold Lasswell, (1948) a convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer these questions:
Who
Says what
In which channel
To whom
With what effect
If we focus on this model carefully we can observe that the emphasis has been placed on the effect of communication on the receiver. The whole process is understood as a means of creating an effect on the receiver by ‘transmitting’ some information. Its quality is judged by the end result, which in this case is if the message was accepted favourably. Let us look at some other variations of transmission models.
2.3 SHANNON AND WEAVER’S MATHEMATICAL
MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
Our journey began at the Bell Telephone laboratories where Shannon and Weaver worked on the mathematical model of communication. They were not social science researchers but engineers working on the process of communication. Let us look at this model as given in Figure 1:
Introduction to Communication (^) world examples where someone says something very eloquently, but is misread
by the intended audience? Shannon and Weaver also argued that there could be three levels of problems in this suggested model of communication:
The technical problem: Where there is a problem in the channel or decoding. This will affect the accuracy of the message. For e.g. if the pages of this book are torn, or the ink is illegible, you may not understand what is written.
The semantic problem: Where there is a discrepancy in the meaning understood by the receiver. For e.g. if you do not understand English, reading and comprehending this text would be impossible.
The effectivity problem: Where there is a question of the message being received, comprehended, but still not effective. Many social messages fail to work as they do not bring about the intended change in the behaviour of the audience. Going by the same analogy again, if you find this text boring, you may not learn anything, which is the intended result of this book.
2.4 OSGOOD AND SCHRAMM’S MODEL OF
COMMUNICATION
Charles E. Osgood (1954) developed a model in which the sender and the receiver enter into a dynamic relationship with each other in the process of communication. The process according to them is bilateral instead of being unilateral and is equally important.
Fig. 2
In this model the source or the sender encodes a message which gets decoded and interpreted by the receiver. But the process does not end here. Now it is the receiver’s turn to encode a message and send it to the source. This message is now decoded and interpreted by the source. The strength of this model is that it looks at communication as a far more dynamic and interactive process in which both the source and receiver or A and B participate by responding to each other and picking up cues from each other. Wilbur Schramm (1971) further elaborated on the idea of the processual nature of communication. He added another very significant element to the process of communication which is known as feedback.
Fig. 3
So when A is in conversation with B, the following chain of events take place: A encodes a message and sends it through a channel. B receives the message, decodes it and responds by sending his feedback. This feedback can in the form of a gesture or a word or even a long sentence. The sender will be able to understand the effectivity of his message by the help of feedback which in turn would lead to better communication. The element of feedback makes Schramm’s model reciprocal and extremely interactive in nature. According to Schramm, “it is misleading to think the communication process as starting somewhere and ending somewhere. It is really continuous.”
Schramm also emphasised that the source begins with pictures in his head, but these cannot be transmitted unless they are encoded into signs for transmission.
Fig. 4
So the first stage is the encoding of the message in words or other symbols. Once encoded the message is free of the sender. In other words, the sender has no control over the message. Even before we consider the effectiveness of the message, we need to consider whether the message will bring out the desired meaning? For this the message has to be decoded by the receiver.
According to willber schramme the important question is, ‘’whether the picture in the head’ of the receiver will bear any rememberance to that in the head of the sender.’’. In other words, the receiver and the sender have to be in tune with each other. This is similar to the need for a radio transmitter and receiver to be on the same frequency for the signal to get transmitted.
Fig.
Encoder
Translator
Decoder
Message
Models of Communication
Fig. 2.6: A source encodes a message for a channel to a receiver who decodes the message: S-M-C-R Model
In Berlo’s model, the source encodes the message according to his communication skills, knowledge, attitude and social and cultural values. The message itself has been understood with the help of various categories like its content, treatment and structure. The channel can be as diverse as hearing, touching, seeing, tasting and smelling. Finally the receiver decodes the message according to his/her knowledge, communications skills and attitudes.
Check Your Progress 1
Note: 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
- Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
- What is semantic noise?
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- What is the role of feedback in Osgood and Schramm’s model of communication?
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2.6 GERBNER’S MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
George Gerbner’s model brings another dimension into our understanding of communication. That is the dimension of perception and meaning. By doing so Gerbner makes a clear distinction between ‘reality’ and the message that shapes this ‘reality. According to Gerbner, communication process has two dimensions – the perceptual and the communicating or means and control dimension.
Models of Communication
Culture
Communication Skills Attitudes Knowledge Social System Culture
Communication Skills Attitudes Knowledge Social System Culture
Hearing Seeing Touching Smelling^ Culture
Content Elements^ Treatment Structure^ Code
Introduction to Communication
Fig. 7 The process in this model begins with an event E, something in external reality which is perceived as M (M can be a human or a machine such as the camera). M’s perception of E results in E1. This is the perceptual dimension at the start of the process. The relationship between E and E1 involves selection. M cannot possibly perceive the whole complexity of E. If M is a machine this selection is determined by its engineering or its physical capabilities. But if M is human, however the selection is done through interaction and negotiation. In other words, an individual tries to match the external stimuli with internal patterns of thought to arrive at some perception of the event. This process involves the social and cultural experience of the individual. M brings into the process of perception his own experience and point of view. This also means that different people will have perceptions about the event E.
In the second stage in this model which is the vertical dimension, E1 turns into a signal or SE (signal about the event). This is in the form of a message or a statement about the Event or E. SE includes S, the form and shape of the message as well as E, or the content of the message. In this vertical dimension it is important to select the medium or channel of communication. This process of selection required M to have some control over the media or channels of communication. Just as E1 can never be a complete response to E similarly SE can never be a complete and comprehensive response to E1. There are bound to be some distortions or exclusions.
In the third stage we once again come back to the horizontal dimension. In this the receiver or M2 is making a perception of SE. Once again the receiver (M2) perceives SE through interaction and negotiation. M2 brings to SE his own needs as well as his social and cultural experience and finds meaning in the message accordingly to turn it into SE1.
What is important about Gerbner’s model is that reality and our perception of reality are seen as distinct. That is why there is a difference between E the event and the percept E1. Similarly there is a difference between the message SE and how it is perceived by the receiver as SE1.
Activity
The Metro Rail is going to make its first ever trip in your neighbourhood, connecting it to the other parts of the mega city. How will you apply Gerbner’s model to this event?
2.7 NEWCOMB’S MODEL
Newcomb’s model is shaped like a triangle and its importance lies in the way it introduces us to the idea of the role that communication plays in a society. For Newcomb this role is to maintain equilibrium in society.
MVE 1 Peroept
MZ: MEZ : Percept of statement about event
SE 1: Form Content E: Event
Selection Context Availability
Access to Channels Media Control
Selection Content availability
Reception Consumption
Introduction to Communication (^) X = Source of information
A = Sender
C = Gatekeeper
B = Audience
F = Feedback
In this model, A is the sender and B is the receiver or the audience. A relies on various sources (X) for information. Thus X or the social environment is closer to A than to B in this model. The arrows are now one way as in earlier linear models. What is significant about this model is the multifarious nature of X which is accessed by A. A the reporter writes her story by her interactions with X at various levels which are depicted as X1, X2, X3, X4 and so on. What is interesting here is that X can be interpreted in its plurality, representing several voices and events, thus providing several options of selection and negotiation to A. Thus mass media are extending the social environment (X) to be accessed by A, which B needs to relate to. But B has no direct contact with X. C acts as the Gatekeeper and decides which information that has been provided by A should ultimately reach the audience.
We can take the example of a newspaper reporter A, who sends a story to her editor C to get published in the newspaper. The editor may use the story but in a modified manner or take it as it is. It is also possible that the editor decides not to use the story at all. So the editor or C as shown in figure 10 is acting as a filter. After going through this filtering process, the message reaches B or the audience. B is very much at the mercy of both A and C. Even in terms of feedback, C acts as a filtering mechanism. The audience here is seen as dependent on mass media for information, while the means to satisfy this need for information is severely restricted through the process of selection as carried out by A and the process of gate-keeping carried out by C.
According to Dennis McQuail, Westley and Maclean’s model is important since it makes an assertion that, “mass communicators do not originate messages or communication. Rather they relay to a potential audience their own account (news) of a selection of events occurring in the environment.” This selection is done on the basis of an assessment of what the audience might find interesting.
Activity
A reporter working for a newspaper daily is sent to a temple town where several people have lost their lives in a stampede at the site of the temple. Apply the gate keeping model and show how the news will reach the reader in this situation, keeping in mind all the actors involved as envisaged in this model.
Even though this model is useful for mass media like newspapers, it would work equally well for television, the internet or can be applied to film festivals, cultural festivals and diverse media forms like the animation industry. In the case of a film festival, a festival coordinator may receive several films to be considered for screening at a film festival. The curators of the festivals will have to then go through a process of selection and elimination to select a certain number of films
that can be shown at the festival. They may set up the guidelines for the selection criteria according to the theme and the focus of the festival.
Westley and Maclean’s model can thus be applied to various media technologies and networks. But the model is not concerned with the criteria for selection and elimination. It does not tell us on what grounds the process of gate-keeping takes place, but makes us aware of the role of gatekeepers in mass media.
2.9 JAKOBSON’S MODEL
This model draws from both linear and triangular models. Jakobson was a linguist and therefore frames his model on questions of meaning and the internal structure of a message. The importance of this lies in the fact that it moves far beyond the transmission perspective in communication. The model gives importance to the context and the codes involved in communication. The model enumerates six factors of communication with six corresponding functions.
Fig. 2.
The (1) addressor sends a (2) message to the (3) addressee. To be effective, the message requires a (4) context which performs the referential function. The other factor is the (5) contact which keeps the physical and psychological connections between the addressor and the addressee open. The last element is the (6) code which is shared by the addressor and the addressee. Each of these elements performs an important corresponding function in verbal communication.
Factor Type of Function Function
Addressor Emotive Expresses feelings and attitudes of the addressor. Context Referential Gives the factual information or the ‘reality.’ It is concerned with the descriptive or the denotative part of communication. Message Poetic Gives importance to the style and aesthetics of communication Contact Phatic It keeps the channels of communication open and point s t owards t he relationships that are created through the interaction.
Models of Communication
James Carey, a communication scholar introduced the Ritual or Expressive model of communication that depends on shared meanings and culture. The purpose of communication as conceptualised in the ritual perspective is not to bring out an ‘effect’ or to persuade someone, but rather to bring out the pleasures of a shared culture. Communication is not seen to perform a utilitarian function but is seen as a symbolic process whereby ‘reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed.’ The purpose of communication is not for the purpose of control but for the representation of shared beliefs. In the ritual model importance is given to the performative quality of communication rather than its efficiency. Therefore, meanings may be ambiguous and latent, drawing from a timeless shared culture which everyone is familiar with.
In this context it is interesting to see the way advertisements use the ritual model of communication ultimately to persuade the viewers to buy their products. For example, a familiar image in a commercial for cooking oil is a mother frying pooris for her children. This image draws upon the idea of purity and authenticity through the notion of ‘mother’s love’ thus reinforcing the idea of women as nurturers. So the commercial is not just about selling cooking oil but equally about creating symbolic associations which are familiar and part of a shared culture.
Transmission models usually suspect the audience to be passive, and the meanings exist only waiting to be decoded correctly. It severely underestimates the dynamic act of interpretation. It also shifts the power fulcrum in favour of the sender. Alternative models are described as constructivist models. They acknowledge that meanings can be generated and deconstructed by all parties involved, rather than just being reliant on senders and receivers. But scholars of this field reject the idea of producing scaled diagrams or structuring the process of communication. They instead opine that act of attaching meaning to a set of symbols is situated in the socio-cultural and political context.
2.1 1 LET US SUM UP
The purpose of this unit is to help us better understand the process of communication with the help of models which have been devised by several scholars. By using models as a tool we are able to map the communication process in a graphic form; this helps us understand better the flow of communication. Each model gives importance to different elements that are essential for communication. We notice that as we go along, the models become more and more complex leading us to ask different kind of questions. This leads us towards more research and further need for models.
2.12 KEYWORDS
Mathematical model : Linear or telephone model of communication. Also known as engineering model.
Encoder : Sender of message.
Decoder : Receiver of message.
Semantics : Meanings attached to words.
Fields of experience : Periphery of total human experience.
Gatekeeping : Filtering mechanism of messages.
Ritual model : Focusses on shared meanings and culture.
Models of Communication
Introduction to Communication (^) Agenda setting : The theory that the media provide topics of
discussion and importance for consumers.
Codebook : A menu or list of responses used in coding open- ended questions.
Construct : A combination of concepts that is created to describe a specific situation (for example, “authoritarianism”).
Degrees of freedom : An intentional and predetermined reduction in sample size to provide a conservative data adjustment to compensate for research error.
Homogeneity : Equality of control and experimental groups prior to an experiment; also called point of prior equivalency.
Longitudinal Study : The collection of data at different points in time.
Scientific Method : Asystematic, controlled, empirical, and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about the presumed relationships among natural phenomena.
Open-ended Question : A question to which respondents are asked to generate an answer or answers with no prompting from the item itself (for example, “What is your favourite type of television program?”).
Proposition : A statement of the form “if A, then B” that links two or more concepts.
Sample : A subgroup or subset of a population or universe.
Secondary Analysis : The use of data collected by a previous researcher or another research organisation; also called data re-analysis.
2.13 FURTHER READINGS
Wilbur Schramm and Donald F. Roberts (ed) 1971, The process and Effects of Communication, University of Illinois Press
John Fiske, 1982, Introduction to Communication Studies
Dennis McQuail, 2000, (fourth Edition) Mass Communication Theory, London, Sage
Baran and Davis, Mass Communication Theory
Harold Lasswell, 1995, “The Structure and Function of Communication in Society.” In Approaches to Media: A Reader Edited by Oliver Boyd Barrett and Chris Newbold, London, Arnold
Lakoff, George & Mark Johnson (1980): Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
McQuail, Denis & Sven Windahl (1993): Communication Models for the Study of Mass Communication. London: Longman
