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Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication

- Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver developed an influential model of communication in 1949 known as the Shannon-Weaver Model. - The model proposes that all communication involves six key elements: a source, encoder, message, channel, decoder, and receiver. - While initially focused on improving technical communication, the model became widely applied to human communication and established the foundation for communication studies.

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JEROME SEAN MANLANGIT
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221 views4 pages

Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication

- Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver developed an influential model of communication in 1949 known as the Shannon-Weaver Model. - The model proposes that all communication involves six key elements: a source, encoder, message, channel, decoder, and receiver. - While initially focused on improving technical communication, the model became widely applied to human communication and established the foundation for communication studies.

Uploaded by

JEROME SEAN MANLANGIT
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication

The United States applied mathematician Claude Shannon and also Industrial
engineer Warren Weaver produced a new mathematical theory regarding
conversation within 1949 although working at bell Mobile phone Laboratories in
the United States. Afterwards, his style has grown to be well-known because
“information theory”. Shannon and also Weaver’s style is commonly recognized
because the course from which communication studies has exploded.

Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver’s Communication Model

Shannon and Weaver model consists of the following the elements:

1. An information source, which produces a message


2. A transmitter, who encodes the message into signals
3. A channel, to which signals are adapted for transmission
4. A receiver, who ‘decodes’ (reconstructs) the message from the signal
5. A destination, where the message arrives.

In the model, they indicated a sixth element, “noise” as a dysfunctional factor.

The model is shown below:

Advantages of Shannon and Weaver’s model: The strengths of Shannon and


Weaver’s model are:

simplicity
generality, and
quantifiably

Such advantages mode this mode/ attractive to several academic disciplines.


As Shannon was an engineer, this model was first made to improve technical
communication, mainly for telephonic communication. It was made to maximize
telephone capacity with minimum noise. Later, Weaver applied it for all kind of
communications to develop effective communication and the model became
famous as Shannon Weaver model.

This is now known after them as the Shannon-Weaver Model. Although they were
principally concerned with communication technology, their model has become one
which is frequently introduced to students of human communication early in their
study. However, despite the fact that it is frequently used early in the study of human
communication, I think it's worth bearing in mind that information theory, or
statistical communication theory was initially developed to separate noise from
information carrying signals. That involved breaking down an information system into
sub-systems so as to evaluate the efficiency of various communication channels and
codes. You might ask yourself how viable the transfer of Shannon's insights from
information theory to human communication is likely to be. The concepts of
information theory and cybernetics are essentially mathematical and are intended to
be applied to technical problems under clearly defined conditions. After you've read
this section, which, I think, is a reasonable attempt to loosely apply Shannon's ideas to
human communication, ask yourself whether you feel enlightened.

The Shannon-Weaver Model (1947) proposes that all communication must include six
elements:

 a source
 an encoder
 a message
 a channel
 a decoder
 a receiver

These six elements are shown graphically in the model. As Shannon was researching
in the field of information theory, his model was initially very technology-oriented.
The model was produced in 1949, a year after Lasswell's and you will immediately
see the similarity to the Lasswell Formula.

The emphasis here is very much on the transmission and reception of information.
'Information' is understood rather differently from the way you and I would normally
use the term, as well. This model is often referred to as an 'information model' of
communication. (But you don't need to worry about that if you're just starting.)
Apart from its obvious technological bias, a drawback from our point of view is the
model's obvious linearity. It looks at communication as a one-way process. That is
remedied by the addition of the feedback loop which you can see in the developed
version of the model:

A further drawback with this kind of model is that the message is seen as relatively
unproblematic. It's fine for discussing the transformation of 'information', which might
be, say &Hui9%/?PLM, but, when we try to apply the model to communication,
problems arise with the assumption that meanings are somehow contained within the
message.
 

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