MODELS OF

COMMUNICATION
Aristotelian Model
Developed among the Greeks and is
simple and basic, emphasis on
persuasiveness
A speakers quality of persuasiveness
is called ethos
It has three main features:
1. Speaker
2. Message
3. Audience
Public Speaking in Ancient Greece was
useful in:
1. Legislative system/governance
2. Judicial/legal system
3. Celebration of Public Festivals

3. Transmission a function to
hand down values, mores,
customs, and traditions to the
next generation
Introduced the roles of encoder and
decoder:
1. Encoder
Constructs the message
Enconding turns the ideas
into a concrete and symbolic
form
Turns ideas into symbols and
our thoughts are turned into
concrete form
2. Decoder
Transform and converts
Turns symbol into the
intended message of the
speaker and unlock the
symbols

Lasswell Model

Shannon-Weaver Model

The model combines five key elements

in a linear pattern

A model originally designed for

telephone communication,
communication as one way sequence
of transmission and reception

For successful communication, the

message must accomplish its intended
effect
Communication must protect, fortify,
and enhance a nations stability
As a social scientist, Lasswell premised
his model upon three key functions of
communication in human society
1. Surveillance a function
designed to alert society to the
dangers and opportunities it
faces
2. Correlation a function to
gather, coordinate, and
integrate into meaningful form
the responses of society
towards changes in the
environment

Has five basic components:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Information Source
Transmitter
Receiver
Destination
Noise

Schramms Model
He has four models
Schramm highlights the importance of
an overlap of communicators fileds in
order that communication can occur
First person to depict communication
as notions of process and interaction

Berlos Model
Berlo acknowledges the presence of
an all-encompassing system
Source and receiver are influenced by
their personal makeup of four factors:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Knowledge
Attitudes
Communication Skills
Sociocultural System of the
Communicators

Three Areas of Concern on the

Message
1. Message Content the point of
the source/the information
2. Code
representation/shape/form
3. Treatment choose the things
you need to say or the approach
Channels of Communication consist of
five senses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Seeing
Hearing
Touching
Smelling
Tasting

Whites Model
Whites model implies a step-by-step
sequence that starts with thinking in
the mind of the speaker and ends with
monitoring also by the speaker.
Communication is a repetitive, cyclical
event but the dynamic quality of
interaction is not depicted.
Eight Stages of Oral Communication
1. Thinking a desire, feeling, or
an emotion provides a speaker
stimulus to communicate a
need

2. Symbolizing a speaker has to

know the code of oral language
with which to represent his
ideas and in ordero to make his
selection
3. Expressing the speaker then
uses his vocal mechanism to
produce the sounds of language
accompanied by his facial
expression, gestures, and body
stance
4. Transmitting waves of sound
and waves of light carry the
speakers message to his
listener
5. Receiving the listeners ears
and eyes
6. Decoding the listener
interprets the language symbol
he receives and thinks further
7. Feedbacking the listener may
manifest over behavior like a
nod, smile, or yawn
8. Monitoring the speaker
watches for signs of reception
or understanding of his
message among his listeners
Dance Model
This model is represented by the helix
It depicts the process of
communication as one that progresses
or moves forward in cyclical fashion
moving forward but coming back upon
itself.
Shows that communication is linear,
circular, dynamic, and its process can
never be repeated.
A person can never cross the same
river twice.

A Symbolic Interaction Model

(Wood)

Language is a system of symbols and

words are symbolic
This model reflects the nature of
communication as a dynamic system
process in which communicators
construct personal meanings through
their symbolic interactions.
The model emphasizes the temporal
dimension of communication
There is also the systemic quality of
communication; several levels of
systems are represented within the
model
Both communicators live within a vast
social system or social world.
The model presents the feature of
constraints, which can come in the
form of conditions beyond our control
and in the communicators as well.

The Speech Communication

Transaction Model (Gronbeck et
Al)
Premised on speech making, this
model is comprised of the following:

1. Speaker
a. Purpose
b. Knowledge
c. Attitude
d. Credibility
2. Message
a. Content
b. Structure
c. Style
3. Listeners
a. Purpose
b. Knowledge and Interest
c. Command of Listening
Skills
d. Attitudes
4. Feedback two-way flow of
ideas, feelings, and information
from listener to speaker and
speaker back to listener.
5. Channels
a. Verbal channel
b. Visual channel
c. Aural/paralinguistic
channel
d. Pictorial channel
6. Situation affected by physical
setting and social context
7. Cultural Context elements of
communication may have
different meanings depending
upon the culture