1.

MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

In this section, you will learn about three models of communication:

a. Linear model
b. Interactive model
c. Transactional model

1.2.1 Linear Model

The linear model views communication as a one-way or linear process in which the speaker speaks and the listener
listens. Laswells (1948) model was based on the five questions below, which effectively describe how communication
works:

Shannon and Weavers (1949) model includes noise or interference that distorts understanding between the speaker
and the listener. Figure 1.3 shows a linear model of communication:

Figure 1.3: A linear model of communication

Source: Wood, J. T. (2009). Communication in our lives (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth
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1.2.2

Interactive Model

The main flaw in the linear model is that it depicts communication as a one-way process where speakers only speak
and never listen. It also implies that listeners listen and never speak or send messages.
Schramm (1955) in Wood (2009) came out with a more interactive model that saw the receiver or listener providing
feedback to the sender or speaker. The speaker or sender of the message also listens to the feedback given by the
receiver or listener. Both the speaker and the listener take turns to speak and listen to each other. Feedback is given
either verbally or non-verbally, or in both ways.
This model also indicates that the speaker and listener communicate better if they have common fields of experience,
or fields which overlap (please refer to Figure 1.4):

Figure 1.4: An interactive model of communication

Source: Wood, J. T. (2009). Communication in our lives (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth

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1.2.3

Transactional Model

The main drawback in the interactive model is that it does not indicate that communicators can both send and receive
messages simultaneously. This model also fails to show that communication is a dynamic process which changes
over time.
The transactional model shows that the elements in communication are interdependent. Each person in the
communication act is both a speaker and a listener, and can be simultaneously sending and receiving messages.
There are three implications in the transactional model:
i.
Transactional means that communication is an ongoing and continuously changing process. You are
changing, the people with whom you arecommunicatingare changing, and your environment is also
continually changing as well.
ii.
In any transactional process, each element exists in relation to all the other elements. There is this
interdependence where there can be no source without a receiver and no message without a source.
iii.
Each person in the communication process reacts depending on factors such as their background, prior
experiences, attitudes, cultural beliefs and self-esteem.
Figure 1.5 shows a transactional model of communication that takes into account noise or interference in
communication as well as the time factor. The outer lines of the model indicate that communication happens within
systems that both communicators share (e.g., a common campus, hometown, and culture) or personal systems (e.g.,
family, religion, friends, etc). It also takes into account changes that happen in the communicators fields of personal
and common experiences. The model also labels each communicator as both sender as well as receiver
simultaneously.

Figure 1.5: A transactional model of communication

Source: Wood, J. T. (2009). Communication in our lives (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth.

Schramm[edit]
Communication is usually described along a few major dimensions: Message (what type of things are
communicated), source / emissor / sender / encoder (by whom), form (in which form), channel (through
which medium), destination / receiver / target / decoder (to whom), and Receiver. Wilbur Schramm (1954)
also indicated that we should also examine the impact that a message has (both desired and undesired)
on the target of the message.[5] Between parties, communication includes acts that confer knowledge and
experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts may take many forms, in one of
the various manners of communication. The form depends on the abilities of the group communicating.
Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards a destination. The
target can be oneself, another person or being, another entity (such as a corporation or group of beings).
Communication can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three levels
of semiotic rules:
1. Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols),
2. Pragmatic (concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users) and
3. Semantic (study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent).
Therefore, communication is social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set
of signs and a common set of semiotic rules. This commonly held rule in some sense
ignores autocommunication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries or self-talk, both
secondary phenomena that followed the primary acquisition of communicative competences within social
interactions.

Helical Model of Communication

in COMM UNI CA T I ON MO DE LS

Introduction
In 1967, Frank Dance proposed the communication model called Dances Helix Model for a better
communication process. The name helical comes from Helix which means an object having a threedimensional shape like that of a wire wound uniformly around a cylinder or cone. He shows
communication as a dynamic and non-linear process.
Theory
Dances model emphasized the difficulties of communication. Frank Dance uses the form of a Helix to
describe communication process. He developed this theory based on a simple helix which gets bigger and
bigger as it moves or grows. The main characterstic of helical model of communication is that it is
evolutionary.

Frank Dance explains the communication process based on this Helix

structure and compares it with communication. In the Helix structure, the
bottom or starting is very small then its gradually moves upward in a back
and forth circular motion which form the bigger circle in the top and its still
moves further. The whole process takes some time to reach. As like helix, the
communication process starts very slowly and defined small circle.
Communicators share information only with small portion of themselves to
their relationships. Its gradually develops into next level but which will take
some time to reach and expanding its boundaries to the next level. Later the
communicators commit more and share more portions themselves.
Example
When a child is born the only means of communication is crying, he/she
cries for everything like hunger, pain, cold etc.. As the child grows the means of communication become
wider and broader. He learns to makes noises then he learns language to obtain attention and to fulfil his
needs. As a Helix the process of communication in this case started from crying and later it developed
into a complex and compound means.
The Helical model of communication is largely dependent on its past. A child learns to pronounce a word
in his elementary classes and throughout his life he uses that word in the same way he learnt. Just like
that we used to react to certain things in a certain way in our childhood and such reactions and habits
lasts with us forever. The communication evolves in the beginning in some simple forms then the same
process of communication develops based on the past activities. It develops further with modifications.
Conclusion
Frank Dance included the concept of time in his theory. Something happens over the other will always be
based on the first event according to him. This theory of communication was a subject to a number of
experimental researches. Even though this model of communication clarifies everything there is a
problem of over simplification. According to this theory a communication process is the product of what
we learnt.