Wilbur Schramm Model

It is a two way circular communication between sender and receiver. It is derived from
Osgood Model who gave a circular form of communication.

He emphasis on encoding and decoding of message . A message is only sent when

encoded by sender and decoded after its receiving by the receiver, so it is called
decoder.

He gave 6 elements of communication:

 Source
 Encoder
 Message
 Channel
 Decoder
 Receiver

This model shows how meaning is transferred from one person or group to another. Here
he added Field of experience: are based on individual beliefs, values, experiences and
learned meanings both as an individual or part of group.

He suggest that message can be complicated by different meaning learned by

different people.

Thus Schramm says Message meaning can be Denotative or Connotative.

Denotative meaning: it is based on Dictionary meaning of word. Which is universally

same and accepted by all?

Connotative meaning : based on one’s Emotional or Personal experiences, thus can be

different for different persons , based upon their evaluation.

Thus incorporating the study of human behavior.

Schramm's model of communication is used in both Intrapersonal and Interpersonal

communication.

The model takes communication as a never ending process which constitutes

messages and feedbacks.

Each person is both sender and receiver, so there must be interpretation of the
message on each turn. The interpreted data is known as information. This makes
communication effective but might cause problems too as the message sent after
encoding might not be the same when decoded by the receiver. So, this model is not
conventional like other models that only talk about sender and receiver.

Feedback is also a very important component as it lets the sender know if the receiver
has interpreted the message as required or not. The message becomes useless if the
receiver does not understand it making feedback different than the expected
outcome.
Background of the Author

Wilbur Schramm, (born August 5, 1907, Marietta, Ohio, U.S.—died December 27,
1987, Honolulu, Hawaii), American scholar of mass communications who played an
important role in founding and shaping the discipline of communication studies.

Schramm received a B.A. from Marietta College in 1928 and an M.A. in American
civilization from Harvard University in 1930. He worked as a reporter and desk editor in his
early 20s. He also wrote fiction and poetry, which he continued to do throughout his life.
He received a Ph.D. in American literature from the University of Iowa in 1932. He was a
professor of English at the University of Iowa from 1934 to 1941. During that time, in 1935,
he and Norman Foerster founded the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, which developed into
one of the most prestigious creative writing programs in the United States.

After the outbreak of World War II, Schramm served for two years as director of
education in the federal government’s Office of Facts and Figures and then at its Office
of War Information. Schramm’s wartime research, which concerned propaganda,
contributed to the deepening of his interest in the uses of mass communication as a
tool for influencing public opinion.

In 1943 Schramm returned to the University of Iowa, with a new appointment as director
of the school of journalism. Schramm moved to the University of Illinois in 1947, where he
founded the Institute of Communications Research and served as its director. Schramm
moved again in 1955, founding another communications research institute at Stanford
University. After retiring from Stanford in 1973, Schramm became the director at the
East-West Communication Center at the University of Hawaii.

Schramm’s research interests included audience behavior, persuasion, propaganda,

and the educational uses of mass media. Among his 25 books, his best-known works
include Mass Communications (1949; 2nd ed. 1960), Process and the Effects of Mass
Communication (1954), Television in the Lives of Our Children (1961), Mass Media and
National Development (1964), and The Story of Human Communications: Cave Painting
to the Microchip (1987).
Background of the model

Schramm’s model of communication has its roots from the Shannon weaver model
itself. Wilber Schramm proposed the model of communication in 1954.

Wilbur Schramm’s models present a complete treatment of the fundamentals of

communication. This model offers a classic general explanation of the nature of
communication. According to Wilbur Schramm , to know how communication works. It
would be necessary to study the communication process in general when two people
communicate with each other there occurs a aring of information, idea, or an attitude.
In this process of sharing at least three elements are involved the source or the
communicator , the message or the content and the destination or the receiver.
Schramm’s Model of Communication
Applications of the Model in your Field of Specialization