SPCH COMM HCC Northwest Fall 2011

Today’s Objective
 Continue to explore the communication
modeling process

 Connect our knowledge of roles and

actions in the linear model to the
transactional model

 Recognize and apply concepts of the

transactional model to our own
communication episodes
 Pages 7-12 of your textbook. Model is Fig 2., page 9
 Recall what we learned about the linear
model of communication
 Shannon and Weaver; 1949; scholarly dialogue in
business, communication, education, psychology
& sociology.
 Critique of S&W’s linear model

 Process explained
 Highlights information transfer
 Identification of roles, roles are rigid
 Opens up process for questions about people

21 years later a more dynamic model emerged

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4RDCy7nBJI&feature=
related
 Dean C. Barnlund submitted this model in 1970
Barnlund’s Transactional Model
of Communication
The language of communication
Two-way, continuous transaction
Communicator
Environment
Noise
Meaning
In a transactional model . . .
 We activate a dynamic, simultaneous
process

 Participants are ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’

at all times

 Encoding and decoding can and will

happen unconsciously
 Communicators give and get simultaneously

 Communicators come into the episode with

personal experiences, personalities and traits,
cultural backgrounds and relational histories

 The background details, along with the

physical location, comprise the environment
of the episode
Three types of noise impact communication in
the transactional model

External Noise: Auditory interference

Physiological Noise: Biological interference

Psychological Noise: Internal noise , thought

interference
 In 1970 Barnlund put forth the Transactional
Model of Communication, a two-way,
communicator and meaning centered model

 Some concepts are revised from the linear model,

including simultaneous roles, impact of channels,
types of noise, communicator background and
shared meaning.

HANDS ON!
Grab a partner. Your team is
making a visual metaphor.