Models of communication
The first major model for communication was introduced by Claude Shannon and Warren
Weaver for Bell Laboratories in 1949. The original model was designed to mirror the
functioning of radio and telephone technologies. Their initial model consisted of three
primary parts: sender, channel, and receiver. The sender was the part of a telephone a person
spoke into, the channel was the telephone itself, and the receiver was the part of the phone
where one could hear the other person. Shannon and Weaver also recognized that often there
is static that interferes with one listening to a telephone conversation, which they deemed
noise.
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 emission/ sender/ encoder to a destination/ receiver/
decoder. This common conception of communication simply views communication as a
means of sending and receiving information. The strengths of this model are simplicity,
generality, and quantifiability. Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver structured this model
based on the following elements:
1. An information source, which produces a message.
2. A transmitter, which encodes the message into signals
3. A channel, to which signals are adapted for transmission
4. A noise source, which distorts the signal while it propagates through the channel
5. A receiver, which 'decodes' (reconstructs) the message from the signal.
6. A destination, where the message arrives.
Shannon and Weaver argued that there were three levels of problems in communication
within this theory.
The technical problem: how accurately can the message be transmitted?
The semantic problem: how precisely is the meaning 'conveyed'?
The effectiveness problem: how effectively does the received meaning affect
behavior?
Daniel Chandler critiques the transmission model by stating:
It assumes communicators are isolated individuals.
No allowance for differing purposes.
No allowance for differing interpretations.
No allowance for unequal power relations.
No allowance for situational contexts.
In 1960, David Berlo expanded on Shannon and Weaver's (1949) linear model of communication and created the SMCR Model of Communication. The Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver Model of communication separated the model into clear parts and has been expanded upon by other scholars.
Communication is usually described along a few major dimensions: Message (what type of
things are communicated), source / emisor / sender / encoder (by whom), form (in which
form), channel (through which medium), destination / receiver / target / decoder (to whom),
and Receiver. Wilbur Schram (1954) also indicated that we should also examine the impact
that a message has (both desired and undesired) on the target of the message. 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 to communicate.
Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent toward a
destination. The target can be oneself, another person or being, or 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. Pragmatic (concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users)
2. Semantic (study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent)
and
3. Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols).
Therefore, communication is social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a
a common set of signs and a common set of semiotic rules. This commonly held rule in some
sense ignores auto communication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries or self-talk,
both secondary phenomena that followed the primary acquisition of communicative
competencies within social interactions.
In light of these weaknesses, Barnlund (2008) proposed a transactional model of
communication. 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 "communication 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 codebook and that these two codebooks 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 coregulation 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 (Wark,
McKenzie 1997). 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 from generation to generation, through this media they
can change and shape communication in their society (Wark, McKenzie 1997).
Noise
In any communication model, noise is interference with the decoding of messages sent over a
channel by an encoder. There are many examples of noise:
• Environmental noise. Noise that physically disrupts communication, such as
standing next to loud speakers at a party, or the noise from a construction site next to
a classroom making it difficult to hear the professor.
• Physiological-impairment noise. Physical maladies that prevent effective
communication, such as actual deafness or blindness preventing messages from being
received as they were intended.
• Semantic noise. Different interpretations of the meanings of certain words. For
example, the word "weed" can be interpreted as an undesirable plant in a yard, or as a
euphemism for marijuana.
• Syntactical noise. Mistakes in grammar can disrupt communication, such as abrupt
changes in verb tense during a sentence.
• Organizational noise. Poorly structured communication can prevent the receiver
from accurate interpretation. For example, unclear and badly stated directions can
make the receiver even more lost.
• Cultural noise. Stereotypical assumptions can cause misunderstandings, such as
unintentionally offending a non-Christian person by wishing them a "Merry
Christmas".
•Psychological noise. Certain attitudes can also make communication difficult. For instance, great anger or sadness may cause someone to lose focus on the present moment. Disorders such as communication.
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