Basic Models of Communication

Basic models —SMR, SMCR Communication is a complicated affair. Words seem to vanish into the air and touch the listener’s ear. On one hand communication means to talk meaningfully, whereas on the other hand, individual experience depicts that people get easily confused about the kind of communication that occurs in the real world. It is a fact that a few people are unable to answer meaningfully to questions put to them. In such a situation it is not possible to understand each others actions as well. A few factors are required to be considered when understanding the basic communication model. In a communication process there must be a sender, a receiver and a message. It is called the SMR model. SMCR Model This is very basic and simple model which is nothing but an extension of SMR model developed by Greek philosopher Aristotle in his book ‘Rhetoric’ some 2300 years ago. This model explains that the messages are transmitted through a medium called ‘channel’. Hence, four elementsSender, Message, Channel and Receiver are involved in this process and thus it is called SMCR model. But this SMCR model was represented in more advanced and elaborate form by David Berlo in 1960, in his book “Process of Communication”. David Berlo for the first time described communication as a process and included the concept of feedback in the communication process. He explained the four basic components of communication, i.e.,Source, Message, Channel and Receiver. For each of these four components, there are five aspects that need to be considered. The source and the receiver are treated in the same way. To study both, we need to consider their communication skills (speaking and writing for the receiver), their attitude, their knowledge, their social system of which they are part and the culture in which they operate. consists of both elements and structure, each of which may be broken down into content, treatment and code. For channels, Berlo insisted that the message may be set or received through any or all of the five senses. Berlo model is significant. This is because it emphasises the importance of “thorough understanding of human behaviour as a pre-requisite to communication analysis.” It gives emphasis on the role of the source and the receiver. The background of the source depends on so many variables. In the same way, the receiver also interprets the message depending upon the background-knowledge, skill, attitude, culture, etc. If both the source and the receiver are matched in their standing, the communication will be useful and fruitful. Or else it will go on creating gaps. Aristotle’s Communication Model Aristotle, a great philosopher initiative the earliest mass communication model called “Aristotle’s Model of Communication”. He proposed model before 300 B.C who found the importance of audience role in communication chain in his communication model. This model is more focused on public speaking than interpersonal communication. Aristotle Model of Communication is formed with 5 basic elements (i) Speaker, (ii) Speech, (iii) Occasion, (iv) Audience and (v) Effect. Aristotle advises speakers to build speech for different audience on different time (occasion) and for different effects. Speaker plays an important role in Public speaking. The speaker must prepare his speech and analysis audience needs before he enters into the stage. His words should influence in audience mind and persuade their thoughts towards him. Example: Alexander gave brave speech to his soldiers in the war field to defeat Persian Empire. Speaker – Alexander Speech – about his invasion Occasion – War field Audience – Soldiers Effect – To defeat Persia Lasswell’s model Harold Dwight Lasswell (February 13, 1902 — December 18, 1978) Harold Dwight Lasswell, the American political scientist states that a convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer the following questions      Who Says What In Which Channel To Whom With what effect? This model is about process of communication and its function to society, According to Lasswell there are three functions for communication: 1. Surveillance of the environment 2. Correlation of components of society 3. Cultural transmission between generation Lasswell model suggests the message flow in a multicultural society with multiple audiences. The flow of message is through various channels. And also this communication model is similar to Aristotle’s communication model. In this model, the communication component who refers the research area called “Control Analysis”, Says what is refers to “Content Analysis”, In which channel is refers to “Media Analysis”, To Whom is refers to “Audience Analysis” With What Effect is refers to “Effect Analysis” Example: CNN NEWS – A water leak from Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear power station resulted in about 100 times the permitted level of radioactive material flowing into the sea, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Saturday. Who – TEPC Operator What – Radioactive material flowing into sea Channel – CNN NEWS (Television medium) Whom – Public Effect – Alert the people of japan from the radiation. Advantage of lasswell model:  It is Easy and Simple  It suits for almost all types of communication  The concept of effect Disadvantage of lasswell model:  Feedback not mentioned  Noise not mentioned  Linear Model Shanon & Weaver Model In 1948, Shannon was an American mathematician, Electronic engineer and Weaver was an American scientist both of them join together to write an article in “Bell System Technical Journal” called “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” and also called as “Shannon-Weaver model of communication”. This model is specially designed to develop the effective communication between sender and receiver. Also they find factors which affecting the communication process called “Noise”. At first the model was developed to improve the Technical communication. Later it’s widely applied in the field of Communication. The model deals with various concepts like Information source, transmitter, Noise, channel, message, receiver, channel, information destination, encode and decode. Sender : The originator of message or the information source selects desire message Encoder : The transmitter which converts the message into signals Note: The sender’s messages converted into signals like waves or Binary data which is compactable to transmit the messages through cables or satellites. For example: In telephone the voice is converted into wave signals and it transmits through cables Decoder : The reception place of the signal which converts signals into message. A reverse process of encode Note : The receiver converts those binary data or waves into message which is comfortable and understandable for receiver. Otherwise receiver can’t receive the exact message and it will affect the effective communication between sender and receiver Receiver : The destination of the message from sender Note : Based on the decoded message the receiver gives their feed back to sender. If the message distracted by noise it will affect the communication flow between sender and receiver Noise: The messages are transferred from encoder to decoder through channel. During this process the messages may distracted or affected by physical noise like horn sounds, thunder and crowd noise or encoded signals may distract in the channel during the transmission process which affect the communication flow or the receiver may not receive the correct message Note : The model is clearly deals with external noises only which affect the messages or signals from external sources. For example: If there is any problems occur in network which directly affect the mobile phone communication or distract the messages Practical Example of Shannon-Weaver model of communication : Thomson made call to his assistant “come here I want to see you”. During his call, noise appeared (transmission error) and his assistant received “I want” only. Again Assistant asked Thomson (feedback) “what do you want Thomson”. Sender : Thomson Encoder : Telephone (Thomson) Channel : Cable Noise : Distraction in voice Reception : Telephone (Assistant) Receiver : Assistant. Due to transmission error or noise, Assistant can’t able to understand Thomson’s messages. *The noise which affect the communication flow between them. Levels of Communication Problems There are three levels of problems of communication according to Shannon Weaver. They are: 1. Technical problem –How a channel causes a problem 2. Semantic problem –Is the meaning of message sent and received very different 3. Effectiveness problem –How effectively does the message cause reaction Advantages of Shannon Weaver Model    Concept of noise helps in making the communication effective by removing the noise or problem causing noise. This model takes communication as a two way process. It makes the model applicable in general communication. Communication is taken as quantifiable in Shannon Weaver model. Criticism of Shannon-Weaver model of communication : 1. One of the simplest model and its general applied in various communication theories 2. The model which attracts both academics of Human communication and Information theorist to leads their further research in communication 3. It’s more effective in person-to-person communication than group or mass audience 4. The model based on “Sender and Receiver”. Here sender plays the primary role and receiver plays the secondary role (receive the information or passive) 5. Communication is not a one way process. If it’s behaved like that, it will lose its strength. For example: Audience or receiver who listening a radio, reading the books or watching television is a one way communication because absence of feedback 6. Understanding Noise will helps to solve the various problems in communication Osgood and Schramm Model Osgood-Schramm’s model of communication is known as a circular model because it indicates that messages can go in two directions.24 Hence, once a person decodes a message, then they can encode it and send a message back to the sender. They could continue encoding and decoding into a continuous cycle. This revised model indicates that: 1) communication is not linear, but circular; 2) communication is reciprocal and equal; 3) messages are based on interpretation; 4) communication involves encoding, decoding, and interpreting. The benefit of this model is that the model illustrates that feedback is cyclical. It also shows that communication is complex because it accounts for interpretation. This model also showcases the fact that we are active communicators, and we are active in interpreting the messages that we receive. It is a Circular Model, so that communication is something circular in nature Encoder – Who does encoding or Sends the message (message originates) Decoder – Who receives the message Interpreter – Person trying to understand (analyses, perceive) or interpret Note: From the message starting to ending, there is an interpretation goes on. Based on this interpretation only the message is received. This model breaks the sender and receiver model it seems communication in a practical way. It is not a traditional model. It can happen within our self or two people; each person acts as both sender and receiver and hence use interpretation. It is simultaneously take place e.g. encoding, interpret and decoding. Advantage of Osgood- Schramm model of communication 1. Dynamic model- Shows how a situation can change 2. It shows why redundancy is an essential part 3. There is no separate sender and receiver, sender and receiver is the same person 4. Assume communication to be circular in nature 5. Feedback – central feature. Disadvantage of Osgood- Schramm model of communication This model does not talk about semantic noise and it assume the moment of encoding and decoding. Semantic noise is a concept introduced here it occurs when sender and receiver apply different meaning to the same message. It happens mostly because of words and phrases for e.g. Technical Language, So certain words and phrases will cause you to deviate from the actual meaning of the communication. Note: When semantic noise takes place decoding and interpretation becomes difficult and people get deviated from the actual message. Helical Model of Communication In 1967, Frank Dance has proposed the communication model called Dance’s Helix Model for a better communication process. The name helical comes from “Helix” which means an object having a threedimensional shape like that of a wire wound uniformly around a cylinder or cone. He shows communication as a dynamic and non-linear process. Theory Dance’s model emphasized the difficulty of communication. Frank Dance uses the form of a Helix to describe the communication process. He developed this theory based on a simple helix which gets bigger and bigger as it moves or grows. The main characteristics of a helical model of communication is that it is evolutionary. Frank Dance explains the communication process based on this Helix structure and compares it with communication. In the Helix structure, the bottom or starting is very small then it gradually moves upward in a back and forth circular motion which forms the bigger circle in the top and it is still moves further. The whole process takes some time to reach. As like helix, the communication process starts very slowly and defined small circle only. The communicators shared information only with a small portion of themselves to their relationships. Its gradually develops into next level but which will take some time to reach and expanding its boundaries to the next level. Later the communicators commit more and shared more portions by themselves. Example When a child is born the only means of communication for him is crying, he cries for everything like hunger, pain, cold etc.. As the child grows the means of communication become wider and broader. He learns to make noises then he learns a language to obtain attention and to fulfil his needs. As a Helix, the process of communication, in this case, started as crying and later it developed into a complex and compound means. The Helical model of communication is largely dependent on its past. A child learns to pronounce a word in his elementary classes and throughout his life he uses that word in the same way he learnt. Just like that, we used to react to certain things in a certain way in our childhood and such reactions and habits lasts with us forever. The communication evolves in the beginning in some simple forms then the same process of communication functions and develops based on past activities. Thus, his way of communication or his reactions may also different from the past behavior and experiences. It develops further with modifications according to the situations. Therefore the model concludes that the process of communication is like a continuous curve with some changes or flexibility. The base of the helical curve (lower level) can be affected and/or altered at any time accordingly the experience of an individual. Conclusion Frank Dance included the concept of time in his theory. The lifetime experience gained over the issue will always be based on the similar event/incident happened in the past according to him. This theory of communication was subject to a number of experimental researches. Even though this model of communication clarifies everything there is a problem of oversimplification. According to this theory, a communication process is the product of what we learnt.