MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

1.) ARISTOTLES MODEL OF COMMUNICATION

Aristotle, a great philosopher initiative the earliest mass communication model called
Aristotles 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
an

plays

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
Speech
Occasion
Audience
Effect

Alexander
About his invasion
War field
Soldiers
To defeat Persia

2.) BERLOS SMCR MODEL OF COMMUNICATION

In 1960, David Berlo postulated Berlo's Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR)

Model of Communication from Shannon Weaver's Model of Communication (1949).

Source: The source is where the message originates.

Communication skills It is the individuals skill to communicate (ability to read, write, speak,
listen)
Attitudes The attitude towards the audience, subject and towards one self for e.g. for the
student the attitude is to learn more and for teachers wants to help teach.
Knowledge The knowledge about the subject one is going to communicate for e.g. whatever
the teacher communicates in the class about the subject so having knowledge in what you are
communicating.
It is not talking about the general knowledge it is all about the knowledge of the subject,
so it is the familiarity of what you are communicating.
Social system The Social system includes the various aspects in society like values, beliefs,
culture, religion and general understanding of society. It is where the communication takes
place.
For e.g. class room differs from country to country like behaviors, how we communicate etc.
We can communicate only to the extent that the social system allows, when we
communicate take social system into account.
Culture: Culture of the particular society also comes under social system.
All to this model, only if you have the above in the proper or adequate proportion v can
communicate.
Encoder: The sender of the message (message originates) is referred as encoder, so
the source is encoding the message here.
Message

Content The beginning to the end of a message comprises its content for e.g. From
beginning to end whatever the class teacher speaks in the class is the content of the
message.
Elements It includes various things like language, gestures, body language etc, so
these are all the elements of the particular message. Content is accompanied by some
elements.
Treatment It refers to the packing of the message. The way in which the message is
conveyed or the way in which the message is passed on or deliver it.
When it is too much treatment also the communication will not happen properly.
Structure The structure of the message how it is arranged, the way you structure the
message into various parts.
Message is the same but if the structure is not properly arranged then the
message
will not get to the receiver.
Code The code of the message means how it is sent in what form it could be e.g.
language, body language, gestures, music and even culture is a code. Through this you
get/give the message or through which the communication takes place or being reached.
Only when the code is proper, the message will be clear, improper use may lead
to misinterpretation.
Channel It is nothing but the five senses through this only we do.
Hearing: The use of ears to get the message for e.g. oral messages, interpersonal etc.
Seeing: Visual channels for e.g. TV can be seen and the message is delivered.
Touching: The sense of touch can be used as a channel to communicate for e.g. we
touch and buy food, hugging etc.
Smelling: Smell also can be a channel to communicate for e.g. perfumes, food, charred
smell communicates something is burning, we can find out about which food is being
cooked etc.
Tasting: The tongue also can be used to decipher e.g. Food can be tasted and
communication can happen.
Despite not mentioning a medium we need to assume that as communication is
taking place channels can be any of the 5 senses or combination.

This model believes that for an effective communication to take place the source and the
receiver needs to be in the same level, only if the source and receiver are on the same level
communication will happen or take place properly. So source and receiver should be similar
For e.g. Communication skills on source side is good then the receiver should equally
have good listening skills.

3) HELICAL MODEL OF COMMUNICATION

Frank Dance proposed a communication model inspired by a helix in 1967, known as
Helical Model of Communication.

Helical model of communication introduces the concept of time where continuousness of

the communication process and relational interactions are very important. Communication is
taken as a dynamic process in helical model of communication and it progresses with age as
our experience and vocabulary increases. At first, helical spring is small at the bottom and
grows bigger as the communication progresses. The same effect can be seen with
communication of humans, where you know nothing about a person at first and the knowledge
grows steadily as you know the person better. It considers all the activities of the person, from
the past and present.
Communication is affected by the curve from which it emerges which denotes past
behavior and experiences. Slowly, the helix leaves its lower levels of behavior and grows
upward in a new way. It always depends on the lowest level to form the message. Thus, the
communicative relationship reaches to the next level in which people share more information.

Example:
A child crying at birth signifies the communication of the child to its parents that he/she is
alive. After some years, the child cries whenever the child needs anything like food or attention.
He/she learns words and starts communicating with words. The child learns specific languages
and communicates with the people who know the language that he/she knows. Communication
becomes more complex as the child grows into adult and to the existing moment. The adult
uses the same pronunciations and use of words or facial expressions that he/she learned when
he/she was a child. Communication is directly dependent on his/her past behavior as a child but
can also modify as the person grows.
In this example, communication evolves with the child crying. This is where the helix is
small at the bottom. And he continues communication, the helix gradually grows. When the
communication becomes more complex, the spiral grows wider. From then on, it grows steadily
as his life goes on.

4) WILBUR SCHRAMMS MODEL

A somewhat same communication model like Shannon-Weaver model was proposed by
Wilbur Schramm is shown below:

Schramm's Model has different components for communications where

Sender (transmitter) is the person who sends the message.

Encoder is the person who converts the message to be sent into codes.

Decoder is the person who gets the encoded message which has been sent by the
encoder and converts it into the language understandable by the person.

Interpreter is the person who tries to understand and analyze the message. Message is
received after interpretation. Interpreter and receiver is the same person.

Receiver is the person who gets the message. He/she decodes and interprets the actual
message.

Message is the data sent by the sender and information that the receiver gets.

Feedback is the process of responding to the received message by the receiver.

Medium or media is the channel used to send the message.

Noise is the interference and interruptions caused during the process. It is also
created when the intended meaning of the message sent by the sender and the meaning
interpreted by the receiver is different which is known as Semantic Noise.

The model suggests that encoding and decoding are the two most important part of a
communication process. Encoding assumes a critical part in starting the procedure of

correspondence by converting data into information. Encoding is done by a sender (transmitter)

and sent to a receiver. When data reaches to the receiver, receiver decodes and interprets the
data. This data is called a message, and it is transmitted through a medium. This model shows
how meaning is transferred from one person or group to another. Schramm's model of
communication is used in both Intrapersonal and Interpersonal communication.
Schramm believed that the background of the individual who is involved plays an
important role in communication. People with various knowledge, experience and cultural
practices interpret message in a different way than other. A sender passes on the information to
the receiver. The receiver interprets it according to his/her knowledge, experiences and gives
feedback to the sender

5) THE SHANNON-WEAVER MODEL:

Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver produced a general transmission model of
communication, which is now known as Shannon-Weaver Model.

The Shannon-Weaver Model as shown has six elements:

1) The source:
All communications have some source, which could include some person or group of
persons with a given purpose, a reason for engaging in communication.
2) The Encoder:
When you communicate, you have a particular purpose in mind:
i. You want to show that youre a friendly person
ii. You want to give them some information
iii. You want to get them to do something
iv. You want to persuade them of your point of view and so on.
You, as the source, have to express your purpose in the form of a message. That
message has to be formulated in some kind of code. How do the sources purposes get
translated into a code? This requires an encoder. The communication encoder is responsible for
taking the ideas of the source and putting them in code, expressing the sources purpose in the
form of a message.

3) The Message:
The message is what communication is all about. Denis McQuail (1975) in his book
Communication writes that the simplest way of regarding human communication is to consider
it as the sending from one person to another of meaningful messages.
4) The Channel:
It is the medium through which communication should be facilitated.
5) The Decoder:
Just as a source needs an encoder to translate her purposes into a message, so the
receiver needs a decoder to retranslate.
6) The Receiver:
For communication to occur, there must be somebody at the other end of the channel.
This person or persons can be called the receiver.
Feedback is defined by the father of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, as follows: In its
simplest form the feedback principle means that the behavior is tested with reference to its
result and success or failure of this result influences the future behavior.
Physical noise:
Shannon is generally considered to have been primarily concerned with physical (or
mechanical or engineering) noise in the channel, i.e. unexplained variation in a
communication channel or random error in the transmission of information. Everyday examples
of physical noise are:
i. Loud motorbike roaring down the road while youre trying to hold a conversation
ii. Your little brother standing in front of the TV set
iii. Mist on the inside of the car windscreen
iv. Smudges on a printed page
However, it is possible for a message to be distorted by channel overload. Channel
overload is not due to any noise source, but rather to the channel capacity being exceeded. You
may come across that at a party where you are holding a conversation amidst lots of others
going on around you or, perhaps, in a Communication lesson where everyone has split into
small groups for discussion or simulations.
Examples of semantic noise would include:
i. Distraction
ii. Differences in the use of the code
iii. Emphasizing the wrong part of the message
iv. Attitude towards the sender
v. Attitude towards the message