COMMUNICATION

MODELS
What provides the energy in
the communication
process?
COMMUNICATION
MODELS
• Aristotle’s Communication Model
• Lasswell’s Communication Model
• Claude Shannon and Warren
Weaver’s Communication Model
• Schramm’s Communication
Model
• Berlo’s S-M-C-R Communication
Model
 One of the earliest recorded
ARISTOTLE’S models is attributed to the
ancient Greek philosopher
Aristotle (351 BC). He called
the study of communication
“rhetoric” and spoke of three
elements within the process.
 From the figure, Aristotle’s
understanding of communication
ARISTOTLE’S as a verbal activity, in which the
speaker (the one who is speaking)
tries to convince the listener, thus
reaching their own goal, and this
achieved by using a tactical
construct of an argument and
presentation of the speech.
 LASSWELL’S
Harold Dwight Lasswell (1948), a politics
scientist, designed a communication
exchanges type mixing the main elements of
communication exchanges. Lasswell’s model
has become widely discussed. His style of
verbal exchanges consists of several parts-
Sender (who), Message (what), to receiver
(whom). In addition, he included solely the
actual component-channel.
 LASSWELL’S
Same as Aristotle, Lassell focuses on the
oral message emphasizing the terms
such as speaker, message and
audience, even though he uses different
terminology and sees also
communication as a unidirectional
process in which the individual
influences the others with his or her
message. The point in Lasswell’s idea is
that there must ban “effect” if
communication takes place; otherwise,
communication breakdown happens. If
we have communicated, we’ve
“motivated” or produced an effect.
 LASSWELL’S
What distinguishes Lasswell from Aristotle?
a. He offers a wider definition of the channel
by including mass media.
b. He expands the view of the target or
effect
of the process of communication in
general.
c. He suggests diverse results or effects of
communication.
d. He expands the function of “convincing”
by
adding “informing, entertaining, rousing,
CLAUDE SHANNON AND
WARREN WEAVER’S
 CLAUDE SHANNON AND
WARREN WEAVER’S
The applied Mathematician Claude Shannon and Industrial
engineer Warren Weaver produced a new mathematical theory
regarding conversation in 1949 although working at Bell
Mobile phone Laboratories in the United States. About a year
after Lasswell’s presentation of his point of view, Claude
Shannon put out the results of his research in the area of
signal transfer. Shannon and Weaver tried to do two things:

a. Reduce the communication process to a set of

mathematical
formulas.
CLAUDE SHANNON
AND WARREN
WEAVER’S
 CLAUDE SHANNON AND
WARREN WEAVER’S
The model introduces three elements not found in
Aristotle’s model: a transmitter, a receiver, and sources
of noise. The “noise” concept introduced by Shannon
and Weaver can be used to illustrate “semantic noise”
that interferes with communication. This noise can be
troublesome if not properly cleared out. Sematic noise is
the problem connected with differences in meaning that
people assign to words, to voice inflections in speech, to
gestures and expressions and to other similar “noise” in
writing.
 CLAUDE SHANNON AND
WARREN WEAVER’S
Semantic noise is a more serious problem or barrier to
developing effective communications than most realize.
It is hard to detect that semantic noise has interfered
with communication. Too often the person sending a
message chooses to use words and phrases that have a
certain meaning to him or her. However, they may have
an altogether different meanings to individuals receiving
the message. In the interest of good communication, we
need to work to hold semantic noise to be the lowest
level possible.
 CLAUDE SHANNON
AND WARREN
WEAVER’S
Their concept tried to highlight an
awareness that there is a semantic noise
in face-to-face verbal communication just
as there is static noise, for example, in
radio communication.
 SCHRAMM’S
Wilbur Schramm (1954), the well-known
communication theorist, designed an easy
devices communication model in his book
“The course of action in addition to Effects
involving Mass Communication”. In
Schrimm’s model he notes, as did Aristotle,
that communication always requires three
elements – the source, the message and the
destination. Ideally, the source encodes a
message and transmits it to its destination
via some channel, where the message is
 SCHRAMM’S

Schramm highlighted that for understanding to

take place between the source and the
destination, they must have something in
common. One contribution Schramm made was
to consider the fields of experience of the sender
and receiver. The sender encodes the message,
based upon the sender’s field of experience. The
user’s field of experience guides decoding.
 SCHRAMM’S
If there is no commonality in the sender’s and
receiver’s field of experience, then
communication does not take place, hence
communication breakdown occurs. For instance,
a lecture on neurophysiology delivered to an
audience of sixth graders may result in little or
no communication. The lecturer has background
knowledge of chemistry and biology, and
beyond that very specialized knowledge of
biochemical process in the nervous system. The
audience would lack the vocabulary, if nothing
else, to make sense of the information.
 SCHRAMM’S
Wilbur Schramm is also concerned of
the importance of feedback, which he
sees as an effective means to solve
the disturbance problem. The sender
or the source must be cautious of the
feedback from their audience or
receiver who constantly modify their
message according to what they
observe or hear from the other side.
BERLO’S S-M-
C-R
David K. Berlo, a communication theorist
and consultant developed a model named
S-M-C-R model of communication in 1960 in
his book “The Process of Communication”.
Rather than attempting to identify elements
of interest, and relationships, between those
elements, he created what he called “a
model of the ingredients of communication”.
BERLO’S S-M-
C-R
The elements of Berlo’s model are discussed
below:

Source: The first element of Berlo’s

communication model is the source. All
communication must come from some
sources. These sources actively exchange
messages to achieve the maximum form of
communication.
a. Attitudes toward audience, the subject matter etc.
b. Knowledge of the subject, the audience and the
situation.
BERLO’S S-M-
Message:
C-R
Message is the information,
views of thoughts to be sent by
the source. The source must
choose the code or language for
sending the message.
Channel:
The channel is the method such as telegraph, newspaper,
radio, letter, poster or other media through which the
message will be transmitted.
BERLO’S S-M-
Receiver:
C-R
Receiver is the final element
in the communication
process. The receiver is the
audience of the message.
David Berlo mainly emphasized the fact that communication is a
process and that meanings are in people, not in words, in other words
– interpretation of the message depends mainly on the meaning of the
words or gestures for the transmitter and the receiver – more than on
the basic parts of the message.
BERLO’S S-M-
C-R
Communication is imperfect. Like
an iceberg, 10% of what we say
is above the surface while 90% is
below the surface. Failure to
grasp the meaning beneath the
words results in lack of
communication.

Share us your
 GROUP ACTIVITY
Choose, compare and contrast two
communication models using the Venn Diagram,
and explain their strength and weaknesses.
 COMMUNICATION
MODELS QUIZ
Instructions: For each question or statement below,
identify which communication model it best describes.
Choose from the following options:
A. Aristotle's Communication Model
B. Lasswell's Communication Model
C. Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver's Communication
Model
D. Schramm's Communication Model
E. Berlo's S-M-C-R Communication Model
 COMMUNICATION
MODELS QUIZ
1.This model is one of the earliest recorded and defines
communication through three elements: Sender or
Speaker, Message, and Receiver or Listener.
2.This model emphasizes the inclusion of "Who (Sender),
What (Message), Channel, and Whom (Receiver)" and also
suggests that communication must produce an "effect."
3.This model introduces the concept of "noise," specifically
"semantic noise," which interferes with
communication, and includes elements
like a transmitter and a receiver.
 COMMUNICATION
MODELS QUIZ
4. This model highlights the importance of "fields of
experience"
between the sender and the receiver, stating that
commonality
in these fields is crucial for understanding to take place.
5. This model defines communication through the elements of
Source, Message, Channel, and Receiver, and emphasizes
that
meanings are in people, not just in words.
6. This model views communication as a unidirectional
process,
 COMMUNICATION
MODELS QUIZ
7. This model incorporates an "Encoder" and a "Decoder" in its
process, indicating the transformation of a message into a
signal
and back again.
8. This model stresses the significance of feedback from the
audience, allowing the sender to constantly modify their
message.
9. A key focus of this model is to reduce the communication
process
to a set of mathematical formulas and discuss potential
problems.