Elements, Process and Models of Communication

• Sender / source / communicator: originates the message.

• Encoding: converting ideas into symbols (words, signs, images).

• Message: the content, the idea or information being shared.

• Channel / medium: the route (speech, writing, phone, email, TV, internet).

• Receiver: the person who gets the message.

• Decoding: interpreting the symbols to extract meaning.

• Feedback: the receiver's response that tells the sender how the message was understood.

• Noise: anything that distorts or interferes with the message at any stage (physical, psychological, semantic, technical).

• Context / environment: the situation in which communication occurs.

Sequence to remember: Sender → Encoding → Message → Channel → Decoding → Receiver → Feedback (noise can act at any point).

• Aristotle's model (c. 4th century BCE): the earliest, a linear model focused on public speaking. Elements: speaker, speech, occasion, audience, effect. Persuasion rests on ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion) and logos (logic).

• Lasswell's model (1948): "Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?" Linked to control analysis, content analysis, media analysis, audience analysis and effect analysis. A linear model for mass communication.

• Shannon and Weaver's model (1949): the mathematical / information theory model developed for telephone engineering. Components: information source, transmitter, signal, channel, noise source, receiver, destination. Linear and one-way, with the idea of noise. Weaver later added semantic noise. Originally lacked feedback.

• Schramm's models (1954): the idea of the field of experience (overlapping experiences needed for communication to occur) and the Osgood–Schramm circular model, in which each party is both encoder and decoder, with an interpreter role. It stresses circular, equal, interactive communication and feedback.

• Berlo's SMCR model (1960): Source, Message, Channel, Receiver. The source and receiver are influenced by communication skills, attitudes, knowledge, social system and culture. The message has content, elements, treatment, structure and code. Channels correspond to the five senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting).

• Newcomb's ABX model (1953): the sender (A) and receiver (B) are oriented toward an object (X) and seek symmetry / balance (a sociopsychological model).

• Westley and Maclean's model (1957): adds the gatekeeper / channel role (C) between source (A) and receiver (B), with objects of orientation (X) and feedback. Useful for mass communication.

• Gerbner's model (1956): a general model that includes perception and the selection of events.

• Dance's helical model (1967): communication as a helix, spiralling and evolving over time; it shows that communication is never a closed circle.

• Two-step flow model (Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet, 1944): see topic 9.

Classification quick-check: Aristotle, Lasswell, Shannon–Weaver, Berlo = linear. Osgood–Schramm, Westley–Maclean (with feedback) = interactive/circular. Dance = helical/transactional.

Developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (1955). Four panes: Open (Arena) known to self and others; Blind spot unknown to self but known to others; Hidden (Façade) known to self but not to others; Unknown unknown to both. Self-disclosure and feedback enlarge the open area, which improves interpersonal communication.

Priya wants to tell Ravi to bring his class notes tomorrow.

• Sender: Priya.

• Encoding: she turns her thought into words ("Please bring your notes tomorrow").

• Message: the request itself.

• Channel: a phone call (it could be a text or a face-to-face chat).

• Noise: poor network signal makes parts of the sentence unclear (this is physical/technical noise).

• Decoding: Ravi interprets the words. If Priya meant "class notes" but Ravi thinks of "currency notes", that mismatch is semantic noise.

• Receiver: Ravi.

• Feedback: Ravi replies "Which notes? Maths?" Now Priya knows how her message landed and can correct it.

This is why encoding and decoding are described as the two "translation" steps: ideas to symbols, then symbols back to ideas. Errors can creep into either step.

Types of noise (simple): physical (loud sound), technical (bad network), psychological (anger, worry), semantic (words with different meanings).

Aristotle's model (speaker-centred persuasion). Imagine a speaker on a stage persuading a crowd. Three tools: ethos (the speaker's credibility, e.g., a doctor speaking about health), pathos (appeal to emotion, e.g., a moving story) and logos (appeal to logic, e.g., data and reasoning). Weakness: the audience is treated as passive and there is no feedback. Cue: "oldest", "public speaking", "ethos, pathos, logos".

Lasswell's model (five questions). A reporter's checklist: Who? Says what? In which channel? To whom? With what effect? Useful to analyse a news broadcast or advertisement from five angles (communicator, message, medium, audience, effect). Weakness: ignores noise and feedback. Cue: "who says what...", "mass communication", "1948".

Shannon and Weaver's model (the telephone line). Picture a phone call with crackling static on the line. The source sends a signal through a channel, noise interferes, and the receiver gets a slightly different signal. It was built by engineers for telephones, so it treats people like machines. Weaver described three levels of problems: technical (is the signal sent accurately?), semantic (does the message carry the intended meaning?) and effectiveness (does it change the receiver's behaviour as intended?). Weakness: linear, no feedback. Cue: "noise", "mathematical model", "1949".

Osgood and Schramm's model (a ping-pong game). Both players hit and receive the ball. Each person is both sender and receiver, and each interprets before replying. There is no fixed start or end, which is why it is called circular. Cue: "circular", "encoder-decoder-interpreter", "equal participants".

Berlo's SMCR model (a four-part checklist). Source, Message, Channel, Receiver. Berlo adds that both source and receiver are shaped by five factors: communication skills, attitudes, knowledge, social system and culture. A teacher with strong skills and the right attitude who knows the subject and understands the students' culture communicates better. Channels = the five senses. Cue: "SMCR", "five senses", "1960".

Westley and Maclean's model (the editor in the middle). In mass communication, a news channel does not send everything. A gatekeeper (C), like an editor, selects what reaches the audience. Cue: "gatekeeper", "mass media version".

Newcomb's ABX model (two friends and a movie). A and B are friends, X is a film. If both like X, they are in harmony. If A loves it and B hates it, there is tension, and they will talk (communicate) to restore balance. Cue: "balance", "symmetry", "social-psychological".

Dance's helical model (a growing spiral). Communication does not go round in the same circle. Each conversation builds on previous ones, so the circle widens into a helix as knowledge and experience grow, like a student whose understanding deepens each class. Cue: "helix", "spiral", "evolving".

Linear vs circular vs transactional (very easy to confuse):

• Linear: one direction, sender to receiver (Aristotle, Lasswell, Shannon-Weaver, Berlo).

• Circular / interactive: messages go back and forth in turns (Osgood-Schramm).

• Transactional: both people send and receive at the same time and keep changing each other (a real conversation; Dance's helix is closest).

Imagine a window with four panes:

• Open: things you and others both know (your name, your subject).

• Blind: things others notice about you but you do not (you say "you know" too often).

• Hidden: things you know but keep private (your fear of public speaking).

• Unknown: things nobody knows yet (a talent you have not discovered).

When you share about yourself (self-disclosure) and receive feedback, the Open pane grows and the others shrink. Better communication means a bigger Open pane.