Models are
metaphoric representations of an object or event in an abstract form (often
these are represented by pictures).
·
Models allow
us to question, clarify and discover.
·
Models can
oversimplify.
·
Models can cause
confusion to the viewer if they do not have the correct information to decipher
the chart. The viewer has to understand the metaphor that is being used in the
mode of communication, if it is taken as literal, the viewer will be confused
and wrong.
·
Aristotle’s
Model of Communication
o Aristotle
believed that “Rhetoric” is “the faculty of observing in any given
case the available means of persuasion”
o Quintilian
(ca. 35-95 A.D), was a roman educator who affectively used Aristotle’s
theory of rhetoric to create a training method for a good speaker
§ Discover
the proofs, arrange with purpose, clothe the ideas in a clear and compelling
form then effectively deliver the product.
·
Aristotle’s Model of Proof according to
Kinneavy
a. Logos, inheres in the content or the
message itself
b. Pathos, inheres in the audience
c. Ethos, inheres in the speaker
· Shannon-Weaver
Mathematical Model, 1949
o Claude
Shannon designed the most influential early communication models at Bell
Telephone Company.
o He found
the most efficient way to transmit electrical signals from one location to
another then later created a part in the receiver that corrected differences
between transmitted and received signals.
o Entropy
– how much uncertainty is within a given system.
o Redundancy
– the degree to which information is not unique in a given system.
o Noise –
the amount of information not related to the message. This goes from electrical
to psychological interferences with the original message.
o Channel
Capacity – the maximum amount of information that a channel can transfer.
· From
Stephen W. Littlejohn’s Theories of Human Communication.
o “Information
is a measure of uncertainty, or entropy, in a situation. The greater the uncertainty,
the more the information. When a situation is completely predictable, no
information is present.”
· Berlo’s
Model of Communication
o “the simplest and most influential message-centered
model of our time” - Ehninger, Gronbeck and Monroe
o Adapted
from the Shannon-Weaver model
o Source
encodes the message, message goes to the channel and decodes to the receiver.
o Was
significant post WWII
§ Flexible
system to include oral, written, electronic and other symbolic generated
messages
§ Model
put focus on receivers being very important to communicate
§ Weakness
– implies human communication is just like machine communication
§ Stresses
that most problems in human communication can be solved by simply choosing
correctly
· Schramm’s
Model of Communication, 1954
o One of
first to mathematically alter the model of Shannon and Weaver
§ He
decided that the sender and receiver should both decode and encode activities +
started the way for a two-way message exchange
§ Main
weakness was that the model was still only for two parties, no more.
· Dance’s
Helical Spiral, 1967
o Communication
is depicted as an active process. It is constantly moving forward, yet a bit
dependent on the past. Thus a flexible communication process is created.
o Mortensen: “The helix represents the way
communication evolves in an individual from his birth to the existing moment.”
o Weakness – may not be a model according to scientific
standards, due to few variables
· Westley and MacLean’s Conceptual Model, 1957
o They
realized that communication begins when an individual chooses to respond to
his/her physical surroundings
o Strength
– allowed for more than simply two people to communicate directly, allowed for
feedback
o Weakness
– although it accounted for more variables in typical communication, it did not
account for multiple dimensions of communication
· Becker’s
Mosaic Model, 1968
o Becker
believed that most communication connected messages from more than one social
situations via TV commercials, public debates, coffee-shop banter, daydreaming,
etc.
o The
reference to the receiver that constantly changes cube/mosaic information.
Layers of the cube respond to layers of information.
o Strength
– complexity of communication influenced by constantly changing climate
o Weakness
– does not account for more than 3 dimensions in a communication event
· Functional
model, 1951
o Ruesch
and Bateson believed that communication simultaneously functioned at four
levels of analysis
§ Level 1 –
basic intrapersonal process
§ Level 2 –
interpersonal + focuses on overlapping fields of experience.
§ Level 3 –
is group interaction, encompassing many people in one location
§ Level 4 –
large groups of people
· Barnlund’s
Transactional Model, 1970
o Most systematic functional model according to Mortensen
Strength - The way that transactions are presented,
communicators give meaning to the events in ways that are clear and unique
Weakness – this chart assumes that communication and meaning
are the same
· A Systemic Model of Communication, 1972
o A change
in one part of this model would change the whole system
· Brown’s
Holographic Model, 1987
o An argument
is like a hologram because you are unable to see all sides of the argument at
once – only parts of it are highlighted at once.
· A
Fractal Model
o Benoit
Mandelbrot was interested in using irregular shapes in mathematical formulas
o Thus he
created a term called “Fractual” to be a simple repeating shape that’s created
by the same formula
o This
lead to a change in computer graphics, using the fractal formula natural
looking virtual landscapes could be created
o Fractual
geometry is related to chaos theory (which is used in computer generated
landscapes, washing machines, and the stock market)
o In
relation to communication, we are able to see the almost infinite mass that
makes up a communication event
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