Sekolah Mondial

English XI : JOURNALISM
Lesson 1 The Communication Model

Name : ____________________________ Class: ________________ Date:

______________

Reading Text

Communication allows person to survive, it allows for the expression of

feeling and strengthens togetherness with others through the exchange of
messages.
Generously gifted with diverse innate faculties for communication, a
person has improved, developed, and extended these natural gifts. One of
these is the ability to give, receive, and assimilate information about the
environment. History has shown that a person has devised methods to
transmit information. Starting with the simplest vocal and gestural signals,
he/she developed a whole range of nonverbal means to convey messages:
music and dance, drum messages, signal fires, drawings, and other forms of
graphic symbols like the pictogram and ideograms. All these became
necessary to create awareness of dangers that might be lurking and more
importantly, to share a vision of the ways of meeting those dangers.
With the development of language, human communication became
more precise. It became a necessary tool for survival as people then were
organizing themselves into communities and societies where interpersonal
and intercommunal methods of exchanging information were necessary.
Forms and content of communication developed and varied
continuously. Different languages were born due to lack of contact among
peoples of distant regions, but especially due to differences in economic, ,
moral, and cultural traditions. These required vocabularies specific to their
needs. Some languages acquired a special status like the languages
introduced by conquerors. For instance, English and French still hold this
position in some nations of Asia and Africa.
From the spoken word, the human being developed the skill and the
tool to ensure that his/her ideas would be recorded. Writing permitted the
preservation of the most meaningful , symbol-laden messages. Initially they
were put in clay tablets, stone carvings, or scrolls. Later, there were the
books and pamphlets, and then the newspapers.
Clearly then, history has shown the importance of communication in
the human beings history.
Below is the schematic diagram of a general communication system.
This model was first designed by Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver in
1949. This communication model has four elements: a source of information,
a transmitter or sender, a receiver, and a destination.

SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF A GENERAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Information Source Transmitter Receiver

Destination

Signal

Message
Message

Received Signal
 Noise Source

Sekolah Mondial
English XI : JOURNALISM
Lesson 2 The Mass Communication Model

Name : ____________________________ Class: ________________ Date:

______________

Reading Text

The invention of printing in China in the ninth century and then in

Europe in the fifteenth century made possible the production of numerous
copies of the same book. However, this development was considered a
threat by some political and religious leaders then. Printing presses were
frequently forbidden to print dangerous thoughts. For instance, Socrates, a
Greek philosopher, was sentenced to die for corrupting the young.

Books were followed in the seventeenth century by topical pamphlets,

then by newspapers. Some of the early newspapers were founded to give
information about trade, commodities, shipping movements, and the like.
Others contained satirical information and comments on the social and
political scene, and some gave opinion in support of a popular or democratic
cause. Thus was born the types of journalism we have today: the business
press, the sensational press, and the opinion press.

With the development of technology, the fight for freedom of the press
became a battle against authoritarian rulers who were fully aware of the
dangers of the free dissemination of opinions and ideas. In the nineteenth
century until the early years of the twentieth, there was no real press
freedom in Asia and Africa which had been reduced to colonial states. The
newspapers that were started in these regions were owned and edited by
Europeans and existed to serve the information need and reflect the outlook
of the ruling community. Gradually, newspapers owned by Asians and
Africans appeared. But they met with all kinds of repressive measures. For
publishing articles against the rulers, the newspapers were either seized or
banned. The colonial rulers exerted a strong influence over the structures of
communication. As a result, Journalism became a mission. Papers were
passed from hand to hand or read aloud by the literate to the illiterate.

In wealthier nations, newspapers were produced in large numbers. This

brought about what is called the mass-circulation press. Advances in
education enabled people to read and since newspapers were cheap, people
bought them as reading materials. People became better informed and could
form their opinions on issues of controversy. Public opinion became a
growing reality. Then press became an integral part of the nations.

While the mass-circulation press was developing, The growth of

communication media such as the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and
the cinema was even faster. Technological advances in communication in
transmitting signals and messages developed faster than the press. One
discovery followed another. Edison invented the phonograph. Sir Charles
Wheatstone and Samuel Morse invented the telegraph. In 1876, Alexander
Graham Bell sent the first telephone message by wire. In 1895, Marconi and
Popoff succeeded in transmitting and receiving wireless messages. In 1906,
Fessenden transmitted the human voice by radio. In 1839, Daguerre devised
a practical method of photography. The first film was screened in 1894. The
first radio broadcasting began in the 1930s, and the regular transmission of
colour television began in 1934. In 1956, the first transatlantic telephone
cable was set up, and Early Bird, the first commercial communication
satellite, was launched in 1962. And more recently, the new science of
informatics has made possible more access to more information. Computers
and data banks can be used to collate, store and transmit millions of items of
information. The invention of the silicon chip has reduced the space required
to very minute proportions. Indeed, these new technologies have opened
paths for a new era in communication.