DEFINITION, PROCESS AND MODELS OF COMMUNICATION.

Others have negative reactions to people who make ethnic

or sexist remarks.

Communication is any process in which people, through the use of 6. Setting. The setting is the environment in which the
symbols, verbally and/or nonverbally, consciously or not consciously, communication occurs. Settings can have a significant influence on
intentionally or unintentionally, generate meanings (information, communication. Formal settings lend themselves to formal
ideas, feeling, and perception) within and across various contexts, presentations.
cultures, channels, and media. (Hybels & Weaver, 2014)
COMMUNICATION MODELS
PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION
a. Aristotle’s Model of Communication
a. Elements of Communication (from Hybels) The first and earliest model is that of Aristotle (5 BC), whose model
1.Sender-receivers. People get involved in communication because is composed of three elements:
they have information, ideas, and feelings they want to share. This
sharing, however, is not a one-way process in which one person (Message) (Listener)
SPEAKER
sends ideas and the other receives them, and then the process is SPEECH AUDIENCE
reversed. First, in most communication situations, people are
sender-receivers—both sending and receiving at the same time. The three settings in Aristotle’s time were legal, deliberative, and
When you are discussing a problem with a close friend, your friend, ceremonial.
may be talking, but by listening closely, you are acting as a receiver.
1. The Legal Setting meant the courts where ordinary people
By paying careful attention, putting your hand on his or her arm, and
defended themselves (there were no lawyers then).
showing genuine concern, you are sending as many messages as you
2. The Deliberative Setting meant the political assemblies,
get, even though you may not say a word. Second, in all situations,
the highest of which was the Roman Senate.
sender-receivers share meaning. In your discussion with a close
3. The Ceremonial Setting meant the celebrations held when
friend, both of you share the language and also share understanding
they won a war, when they lost a leader or had a new one,
of the situation.
and when they welcomed a visiting leader from another
2. Messages. The message is made up of the ideas and feeling that kingdom or country.
sender-receivers want to share.
b. Shannon-Weaver Model
3.Channel. The channel is the route traveled by a message. It is the
means a message uses to reach the sender-receivers. In face-to-face
communication, the primary channels are sound and sight: We listen
to and look at each other. We are familiar with the channels of
radio, television, CDs, newspapers, and magazines in the mass
media.
The second model is that of Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver
4.Feedback. Feedback is the response of the receiver-senders to
(1948), which gave us the concept of “noise.” This is often called the
each other. You tell me a joke and I smile. That’s feedback. You
Telephone Model because it is based on the experience of having
make a comment about the weather, and I make another one. More
the messaged interfered with by “noise” from the telephone
feedback.
switchboard back in the 1940s.
5. Noise. Noise is interference that keeps a message from being
understood or accurately interpreted. Noise occurs between the
C. Schramm’s Model of Communication
sender-receivers, and it comes in three forms: external, internal, and
semantic.

a. External noise comes from the environment and keeps

the message from being heard or understood.

b. Internal noise occurs in the minds of the sender-

receivers when their thoughts or feelings are focused on
something other than the communication at hand.
The third model is that of Wilbur Schramm, who is considered the
c. Semantic noise is caused by people’s emotional “Father of Mass Communication.” The Schramm Model (1955) we
reactions to words. Many people tune out a speaker who are concerned with is the concept that explains why communication
uses profanity because the words are offensive to them. breakdown occurs. Schramm asserts that communication can take
1
place if and only if there is an overlap between the Field of
Experience of the Speaker and the Field of Experience of the
Listener.
What is the Field of Experience? It is everything that makes a person
unique—everything he or she has ever learned, watched, seen,
heard, read, and studied. In other words, it is everything a person
has ever experienced or not experienced, done or not done. It is this
Field of Experience that is used to interpret the Message and create
a Response. It is also this Field of Experience of the Listener that
needs to overlap with the Speaker’s Field of Experience, which can
only happen when the two fields have commonalities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The modern models proposed by Adler and Rodman (2011) do not
only present comparatively simpler structures but also provide
meaningful understanding to communication.
a. The linear communication model is easy to remember if you
think about it in terms of a line. In this linear communication
model, the communication being put out happens in a straight
line, coming from a sender to a receiver. In this model, each
component plays its own role:
 The sender prepares the message
 The message is the information being conveyed
 The message is encoded, or converted, to fit the
channel being used
 Various channels (email, radio, television, etc.) deliver
the message
 The receiver decodes and reviews the message.
This model of communication is also impacted by two other
components: the absence of feedback, meaning the receiver is not
able to immediately respond, and noise, anything that can cause a
disruption in the way the message is received or understood.
 Message: Message is the information sent during the
interaction.
 Feedback: The decoder forms a second message after
receiving the first which is known as feedback.
 Field of Experience: Field of experience is the experience
and knowledge that the source possess which affects the
message formation and interpretation. For example, the
source’s culture, social behavior, etc.
Example:
“A learner is interviewed by the Wellness Office for his
scholarship application in the Ateneo SHS” The interviewer
will be getting feedbacks from the learner and will ask the
next questions. The interviewer may also vary his/her
question depending on the learner’s feedback.
c. Transactional model of communication is the exchange of
messages between sender and receiver where each take turns
to send or receive messages. Here,
both sender and receiver are known as communicators and
their role reverses each time in the communication process as
both processes of sending and receiving occurs at the same
time.
The transactional model is the most general model of
communication. Everyday talk and interactions are also a form of
transactional model communication. It is more efficient for
communicators with similar environment and individual aspects.
Example:
“The class was divided into a group to do brainstorming about their
concept in their upcoming AAT. However, all of the members were
talking at the same time; some want to give their suggestions while
the others were giving their opinion to the ideas with no decorum.”

Examples:

“An Ecoteneo club member is giving a lecture and demonstration

about garbage segregation” is an example of linear communication
model because it is a one way process of sending an information to
the audience. Furthermore, it does not require any feedback from
the audience nor an intended interruption.

b. Interactive model (also known as convergence model) deals

with exchange of ideas and messages taking place both ways
from sender to receiver and vice-versa. It requires different
following components for the communication process to work:

 Encoder-Source-Decoder: The first source where the

message will originate is both the encoder and decoder.
The second source is also the encoder as well as the
decoder. The second source decodes the message, then
originates another message, encodes it and sends it to the
first source. In other words, it is a vice-versa process.