Unit II

Communication Models

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Aristotle Model of Communication

Aristotle (384-322 B.C) was a Greek philosopher and writer born in Stagira,
Northern Greece. He studied physics, logic, mathematics, etc…. While
exploring the human nature scientifically, Aristotle developed a model of
communication known as Aristotle’s Model of Communication. This is
considered as the first model of communication and was proposed before
300 B.C. It is also the most widely accepted among all communication
models.

Aristotle Model is mainly focused on speaker and speech. It can be broadly

divided into 5 primary elements: Speaker, Speech, Occasion,
Audience and Effect.

The Aristotle’s communication model is a speaker centered model as the

speaker has the most important role in it and is the only one active. It is the
speaker’s role to deliver a speech to the audience. The role of
the audience is passive, influenced by the speech. There is no feedback
in this model. This makes the communication process one way, from
speaker to receiver.

The speaker must organize the speech beforehand, according to the target
audience and situation (occasion). The speech must be prepared so that
the audience be persuaded or influenced from the speech.

It is important to study Aristotle's Model as it is the basis for most western

models of communication. Persuasion is a key concept in mass
communication and Aristotle was one of the earliest to propose this form of
communication.

He believed “Rhetoric” is the study of communication and persuasion and

different message or speech should be made for different audiences at
different situations to get desired effects or to establish propaganda. This
model was highly used to develop public speaking skills and create
propaganda at that time so, it is less focused on intrapersonal or
interpersonal communication.

Even if the model is speaker oriented and focuses on audience interaction

in communication, there is no concept of feedbacks.

For instance, a politician (speaker) gives a speech to get votes from the
civilians (audience) at the time of election (occasion). The civilians only
vote if they are influenced by the things the politician says in his speech so
the content must be very impressive to influence the mass and the speaker
must design the message very carefully.

The speech must be clear as well as the speaker must have a very
good non-verbal communication with the audience like eye contact. This
example is a classic case of Aristotle Model of Communication depicting all
the elements in the model.
Lasswell Model

Lasswell’s communication model was developed by communication

theorist Harold D. Lasswell (1902-1978) in 1948. Lasswell’s model of
communication (also known as action model or linear model or one way
model of communication) is regarded as one the most influential
communication models.

Lasswell states that a convenient way to describe an act of communication

is to answer the following questions

 Who
 Says What
 In Which Channel
 To Whom
 With what effect?

Explanation of different Components of Lasswell’s Model

 Control analysis - helps the sender to have all the power.

 Content analysis - is associated to stereotyping and representation of
different groups politically. It is also related to the purpose or the
ulterior motives of the message.
 Media analysis - represents which medium should be used to
exercise maximum power against the receivers.
  Audience analysis - shows who are the target population to be
manipulated or brain-washed.
 Effect analysis - is done before the process starts. It is used to
predict the effect of message over the target population to be
exploited.

Though Lasswell’s model was developed to analyze mass communication,

this model is used for interpersonal communication or group
communication to be disseminated message to various groups in various
situations. Lasswell’s model was developed to study the media propaganda
of countries and businesses at that time. Only rich people used to have
communication mediums such as televisions and radios back them. It was
made to show the mass media culture.

Lasswell also brought the concept of Effective Communication Process.

He talked about the relation between presentation of facts and how it
generates different effects.

This model is about process of communication and its function to society,

According to Lasswell there are three functions for communication:

1. Surveillance of the environment

2. Correlation of components of society
3. Cultural transmission between generation

Disadvantages and Criticisms

The major criticism of Lasswell’s Model is that it does not include feedback
and it ignores the possibility of noise. Without feedback, a communication
process cannot be fruitful. Lasswell’s model is very linear and does not
consider barriers in the communication process.

The model is also criticized for being very general and only including very
traditional topics. The model is very simplistic. The model is said to be
propaganda based as it is more focused on the resulting outcome and
generally used for media persuasion.
Shanon & Weaver Model of Communication

In 1948, Shannon was an American mathematician, Electronic engineer

and Weaver was an American scientist both of them join together to write
an article in “Bell System Technical Journal” called “A Mathematical Theory
of Communication” and also called as “Shannon-Weaver model of
communication”.

This model is specially designed to develop the effective communication

between sender and receiver. Also they find factors which affecting the
communication process called “Noise”. At first the model was developed to
improve the Technical communication. Later it’s widely applied in the field
of Communication.