Communication Theory

1. Active Model (by Shannon and Weaver)

Information Source a person who creates a message
Message is both sent by the information source and received by
the destination
Transmitter - encodes the message into signals
Signal
Channel travel medium
Receiver the result of the message from the sender to the
destination
this 'decodes' or reconstructs the message from the signal
Destination a person who consumes and processes the
message

2. Interactive Model

3. Intermediary Model

VISUAL LITERACY
Visual Literacy is the ability to construct meaning from visual images
interpreting images from past and present and producing
the images effectively to communicate to the audience

Why is visual literacy important?

Speed
How quickly do you get the message?
How quickly can you get your point across?
The proliferation of images means
Visual literacy is crucial for obtaining information
Visual literacy is crucial for constructing knowledge
= Meaning is formed by seeing and thinking.
Lower Level Thinking being able to only see and read
Higher Level Thinking studies the thinking that went behind the visual
SEMIOTICS
Communication Science technical study of how messages are transmitted
which include the mathematical and psychological laws
Semiotics focuses on
What the messages mean
How these messages have been put together with signs
Semiotics is a science that attempts to answer the following questions:
What does X mean
What does X = Y mean
Describing and Investigating the central task of semiotic analysis
= X can have multiple Ys.
Sign is anything that stands for something other than itself
Hippocrates is the founder of the word semiotics that means science of
symptoms
= Semiotics came from the Greek word semeion which means physical
mark or sign.
Essence of semiotics:
Meaning what a symptom stands for
Components how it manifests itself physically
Roots why it is indicative of certain ailments or conditions

= We are regulated by force of history.

= The distinguishing characteristics of our species is its remarkable ability to
portray the word using signs (X) to refer to things.
= Signs are both personal and cultural.
Referent (Y) is the thing to which the sign refer to
Concrete Referent
Abstract Referent
= Signs allow us to refer to things and ideas, even if they arent physically
tangible.
3 dimensions of a sign:
Physical
o Sound of C-A-T
o Phonemes
Concept
o Type of feline
Culturally-conditioned Form
o Sacred Animal
Sign something that stands to someone for something else in some respect
or capacity
Ferdinand Saussure languages
Charles Pierce meanings
Both

Saussure and Pierce are concerned with:

Model
Relationship between components
From signals into messages

Saussures Binary Structure a sign is produced when the signified and

signifier are combined

Language has an arbitrary nature

Neither sound nor word bears any resemblance to the object.
o Duality divorce between meaning and form
Onomatopoeia
Peirces Triadic Structure
Object the external reality referred to by the sign
Representamen the physical evidence of the sign or the sign itself
Interpretant the mental concept of the sign
Interpretation the entire process of finding the SR/SD
Semiosis
Active

by

is the transfer of meaning or the act of signifying

process between the sign and the reader
Meaning of a sign is
affected
the viewers
background,
culture,
education, and
experiences

Unlimited Semiosis Pierce considered that the

interpretant resulting from our mind from an initial representamen can
become further sign and thus trigger an infinite chain of associations
the interpretant of one sequence becomes the
representamen of the next
Sassure
Iconic
Arbitrary
Pierce
Icon
Index

Symbol

Icon a sign designed to represent a referant by resemblance, imitation, or

simulation
physically resembles the sign
Index a sign that stands for a referant by pointing to it or relating it to other
referants
points to the existence and location of other objects in time-space
Symbol a sign that stands for its object by convention or agreement in
specific context
no logical connection between the sign and what it means
Semiosis transfer of meaning
Semiosphere culture as a system of signs
Cultures are both restrictive and liberating:
Liberating: Provides the textual resource that allow is to seek new
meanings
Restrictive: We are born to a culture
= These artistic, religious, scientific and political texts open our minds and
stimulate creativity.
= New meanings come from old things. Every generation has its own
version.
= Because of new demands, new ideas, and new challenges, we become
restless. Thus new codes are being constantly modified by new generations.
= All new news is old news happening to new people.
= The semiosphere well always have gaps, offering only a portion of what is
potentially knowable about the world. Even if we have gaps, we also have
the ability to fill them any time - by borrowing sings from other cultures.
Values inform how your minds and emotions react
determine your decisions
what we engage with and harbor
what we reject