Communication Model: As a
Means of Understanding the
Communication Processes
Communication Models
 Whether we realize it or not we are using
models every time we try to systematically
think about, visualize or discuss any
process
 The effectiveness of such an activity
depends in large measure on how well our
model fits the thing we are supposedly
modeling
Communication Models
 Models are one way to analyze the
communication process
 Communication models try to effectively convey
knowledge of the dynamics (flow and
movements) underlying the communication
process
 A model is nothing but a mechanistic
perspective of human communication that tells
us at a glance how communication works
Communication models
 Models emphasize the physical elements of
communication
 It pictorially represents the structure of the
communication process
 A model tries to show the main
elements/constituents of any structure or
process
 Or/and relationship between these elements
Models of Communication
 Models are an abstraction of reality – it comes
close to reality as possible for a better
understanding of the communication process but
it is not reality
 Models are metaphors
 They allow us to see one thing in terms of
another
Communication Models
 The Advantages of Models
 1. They allow us to ask questions
 2. They clarify complexity by reducing
complexity to simpler, more familiar terms
 3. They lead us to new discoveries-by
positing hypothetical ideas and
relationships
Communication Models
 Limitations of Models
 1. Can lead to oversimplifications.
 2. Can lead to confusion between the model
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and the actual behavior it portrays
Models are readily confused with reality
3. Premature Closure
The model designer may fall prey to dangers
inherent in abstraction
To press for closure is to strive for a sense of
completion in a system
Communication Models
 By looking at a models we hope to:
 1. Represent the main lines of thought
about the process of mass communication
 2. It provides us with a historical review of the
progress in human understanding of how
communication works
Communication Models
 A model is important in unraveling the process of
communication from the simplistic version to a
very intricate complex process of mass
communication
 Models are based on assumption
communication theorist have as to how
communication works and what effect it has on
an individual or on society
Communication Models
 The function of a model is:
 1. Organizing:
Ordering and relating systems
Providing images of the whole that one
may not otherwise be able to see
Thus provide a general picture of
otherwise diverse situations
Communication Models
 2. Helps in explaining information in a
simplified way which would be otherwise
complicated and ambiguous.
 3. Models help to predict/ assign probability of
the course of events or outcomes
 4. Prediction may not be verified but be
heuristic devices that may lead to unknown
facts and method
Communication Models
 Evaluation of Communication Models
 The functions form the basis of evaluation
 1. How general is a model, how much material
does it organize?
 2. How fruitful or heuristic is the model, how
helpful is it in discovering new relationships,
facts or methods?
 3. How accurate and original is the model?
 4. How important is it to the field of inquiry?
Communication Models
 Models are based on:
 A theoretical position
 Existing methods and tools
 An aim based on existing knowledge
 And cannot be said to be valid for all
times.
Communication Models
 The evolution of communication models shows a
gradual progression from non-process viewpoint
to a process viewpoint
 Along with the realization that there is a certain
economic advantage in the manipulation of
symbols rather than objects
Communication Models
 Now every one agrees communication is a
process but the nature of the process and what
it implies varies from one model to another.
 A variety of models exist all of which strive to
explain different components of communication
 The role each part plays in the total process.
Communication Models
 Although the focus of our study is mass
communication it must be recognized mass
communication is a process co-extensive and
interactive with other types of communication
networks and processes
 So the study of models moves from
communication to mass communication
Communication Models
 There is also a necessity to distinguish theory
from model.
 Although models are a prerequisite to the
development of theory a model is not a theory
 Models provide theorist with a structure for
assembling their findings
 Which may subsequently be tested in the real
world.
Communication Models
 “A communication system or a model consists of
an idealized description of what is necessary for
an act of communication to occur
 A model represents or replicates in abstract
terms the essential features and eliminates the
unnecessary details of communication ‘in real
world’
Communication Model
 Linear Models is a one way model with others
 Interactional Models is a two way
communication model which has feedback
 It also has “field of experience” which includes
our cultural background, ethnicity geographic
location and general personal experiences
accumulated over the course of your lifetime
Communication Models
 This would indicate
 Models started with simple source-messagechannel-receiver model but were rapidly
modified during the 50s.
 The decades of 1950s proved fertile period for
model building activity and other critical aspect
to the communication process were added to
develop a more comprehensive picture
Communication Models
 The initial interest in model building during this
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period can probably be related to:
The interest at that time in effects or
effectiveness of mass communication
To its consistency with the stimulus response
and cause and effect model of behavior
Control and learning which was fundamental to
psychology at that time
And growing need to order and codify
knowledge
Communication Models
 During the decades of the 60s and 70s, the
interest in relevant model building has tended to
move away from a search for a general
understanding of the whole communication
process towards research on specific aspects of
this process
 Also increasing complexity of understanding of
process’ made diagrammatic representation
difficult (at times confusing and misleading)
Communication Models
 However, this does not mean models are no
longer useful or relevant to explain the
communication process.
 Models are extremely useful to clarify ideas and
for raising questions for research
Communication Models
 Models fall under two broad heads:
 Symbolic models and physical models
 Symbolic models use signs and symbols to
represent the communication process
 Physical models are diagrammatic or graphic,
they are either iconic or analog
Communication Models
 There are two Kinds of Physical models
 Iconic models look like what they represent but
the scale differs (model of a car or an
architectural model)
 Analog models on the other hand, bear a
structural relationship to the subject they
represent but do not look like them e.g.
computer can be said to the analog of the brain
Communication Models
 Diagrammatic models are said to be better than
any other as they are able to show the
relationship between the parts
 However, models cannot displace theories and
should not lead to oversimplification in the
understanding of the process
Communication Models
 While there are a number of models
 They tend at a broader level fall under four
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Models
Transmission
Ritual or expressive
Display or Attention Model
Reception Model
Communication Models
 Transmission Model at the core of the
dominant paradigm
 A view of communication as a process of
transmission of a fixed quantity of
information – message as determined by
the sender or source
 This represents a linear sequence which is
built into standard definitions
 Lasswell’s Model
Communication Models
 Later attempt were an attempt to extend
and improve on the initial simple versions
of the process
 Westley & MacLean’s Model
Communication Models
 Ritual /Expressive Model
 James Carey (1989) argues the study of mass
communication has been dominated by the
transmission model of communication
 In which communication is a transmission of
signals and messages over a distance for the
purpose of control
 He posits an alternative in the Ritual view of
Communication (cultural perspective)
Communication Models
 This view is not directed towards the
extension of messages in space but
towards maintenance of society over time
 Communication is not the act of imparting
information but the representation of
shared beliefs
 Where a particular view of the world is
portrayed and confirmed
Communication Models
 Also called Expressive Model its emphasis
is also on the intrinsic satisfaction of the
sender (or receiver)
 Rather then some instrumental purpose
 Ritual theory depends on shared
understanding and emotions, timeless &
unchanging
 It is celebratory, consummatory (an end
itself)
Communication Models
 Decorative rather than utilitarian in aim
 With some element of performance
 Medium and message usually hard to
separate
 Not instrumental but has consequences
for society (integration) or for social
relationships
 Some time used and exploited by
advertising
Communication Models
 Attention, Display & Publicity Model
 Often the primary aim of mass media
 To catch and hold visual or aural attention
 Since attention equals consumption for
most practical purposes and indirectly to
sell (probability)
Communication Models
 Adopts transmission model norms
 Ordered transfer of meaning
 Audience spectator rather than participant
 Fact of attention more important than
quality of attention
 Image and awareness – being known
 Agenda setting
 Part of attention getting process
Communication Models
 Media production is devoted to
 Gaining and keeping attention
 Premised on the perception that audience
use media for diversion & passing time
 Escape every day life with media
Communication Models
 Substance subordinated to devices of
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presentation
Morally neutral does not imply transfer or
creation of meaning
Exists only in the present
Competitiveness, actuality/transience
Objectivity/detachment are characteristic
of this model
Communication Models
 Reception Model departure from
transmission model
 Domain of cultural rather than social
science
 Depends on the adoption of critical
perspective, semiology and discourse
analysis
 From perspective of many receivers who
do not perceive or understand the
message as sent or expressed
Communication Models
 Jensen & Rosengreen (1990) Reception
Analysis speak of:
 Power of the audience in giving meaning
to messages
 Essence to locate the attribution and
construction of meaning (derived from
media) with the receiver
 Messages ‘polysemic’ (having multiple
meaning)
Communication Models
 Also Stuart Hall (1980) emphasized the
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stages of transformation through which
media messages pass
Moved away from semiology questioned
the embeddedness of meaning in encoded
text
Media manipulates language for own ends
‘Preferred reading’ put into it (spin)
Production of meaningful discourse
Communication Models
 But decoded according to the different
meaning structures and frameworks of
knowledge of differentially situated
audiences
 Established content genres which have
face value meaning and inbuilt guidelines
for interpretation by an audience
Communication Models
 Audience approached by media
 in terms of meaning structures that have
origin in ideas and experience of the
audience
 Decoding does not necessarily correspond
to encoding despite media mediation and
manipulation
 Receiver can read between the lines &
even reverse meaning
Communication Models
 Key Principles:
 Multiplicity of meaning of media content
 Existence of varied interpretative
communities
 Primacy of the receiver in determining the
meaning