Framework for

Communication
• Who
• Says what,
• To whom,
• Through which channel,
• With what effects, and
• How can this be measured?
 Models of Communication
• Mathematical Model – Shannon & Weaver
• Field of Experience Model – Schramm
• Feedback – de Saussure
• Process and Fidelity – Berlo
• Communication as Ritual – Carey
Schramm’s Model (1954)
• Derived from Shannon and Weaver
• Encoding and decoding together with
interpretation
• Feedback
 Schramm’s Model (1954)

field of field of
experience Message experience

Source encodes decodes Receiver

feedback

noise
Source: adapted from W. Schramm (1971) “How communication works”, in Schramm
& Roberts (eds), The process and elements of mass communication
Schramm’s Model (1954)
Message
Encoder Decoder

Feedback
Interpreter Interpreter
Feedback

Decoder Encoder
Message
Schramm’s Model (1954)
“We can accurately think of communication
as passing through us – changed, to be
sure, by our interpretations, our habits, our
abilities and capabilities, but the input still
being reflected in the output.”
Wilbur Schramm (1954)
Schramm’s Model (1954)
• Sign systems such as language are
abstractions from an object
• A word is a referent to something else
• Schramm contended that no two people
have exactly the same meanings
for particular symbols – “Field of
experience”
Schramm’s Model (1954)
• Feedback from self
• Feedback from the recipient
• Feedback is immediate and simultaneous
in face-to-face communication
• Feedback is delayed and indirect in mass
communication