Transational model – Burnlund’s model

Meaning:
 In 1970 Dean Barnlund developed a transactional communication
model, consisting of a multi layered feedback system. Feedback is
continues throughout the exchange. Feedback for the sender is the
reply from the receiver.

 The Transactional Model of Communication proposed by

Barnlund states that giving and receiving messages is reciprocal..

 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.

 For example – talking/listening to friends. While your friend is

talking you are constantly giving them feedback on what you think
through your facial expression verbal feedback without necessarily
stopping your friend from talking.
Components of Burnlund’s model:

 Cues: Cues refers to the signs for doing something. As per

Barnlund there are: public cues, private cues and behavioral cues.

 Public cues (Cpu) are physical, environmental or artificial

and natural or man-made.
 Private objects of orientation (Cpr) are a second set of cues.
They go beyond public inspection or awareness. Examples
include the cues gained from sunglasses, earphones, or the
sensory cues of taste and touch. Both public and private cues
may be verbal or nonverbal in nature.
 Behavioral cues can be verbal (Cbehv) as well as non-verbal
(Cbehnv)

 Arrows: The arrows and their directions show that the message is
intentionally sent and actively taken where the receiver plays a key
role of giving feedback. Arrows also show the process of
production of technical encoding, interpretation and decoding.

 Jagged lines: It show that the availability of cues can be unlimited

and are denoted as VVVV.

 valence signs (+, 0, or -): They have been attached to public,

private, and behavioral cues. They indicate the potency or degree
of attractiveness associated with the cues. Presumably, each cue
can differ in degree of strength as well as in kind.

 Filters: They are the realities of people engaged in communication.

Here the senders’ and receivers’ personal filters might differ
according to cultures, traditions, content of the message, etc.

 Noise: This is the problem that arises in communication flow and

disturbs the message flow.
Barnlund’s Transactional Model is a multi-layered feedback system. This is a
continuous process where sender and receiver interchanges their places and both
are equally important. The message passing takes place with a constant
feedback being provided from both parties. A feedback for one is the message
for the other
Advantages of Barnlund’s Transactional Model of
Communication
 The model shows shared field experience of the sender and receiver.
 Transactional model talks about simultaneous message sending, noise and
feedback.
 Barnlund’s model is taken by critics as the most systematic model of
communication.

Disadvantages of Barnlund’s Transactional Model

of Communication

 Barnlund’s model is very complex.

 Both the sender and receiver must understand the codes sent

by the other. So they must each possess a similar “code

book”. (The concept of code book is not mentioned in the

model but understood.

 Helical Model

Meaning
 In 1967, Frank Dance proposed the communication model called Dance’s
Helix Model for a better communication process. The name helical
comes from “Helix” which means an object having a three-dimensional
shape like that of a wire wound uniformly around a cylinder or cone.

 The helix represents the way communication evolves in an individual

from his birth to the existing moment.

 Communication is affected by the curve from which it emerges which

denotes past behavior and experiences. Slowly, the helix leaves its lower
levels of behavior and grows upward in a new way. It always depends on
the lowest level to form the message. Thus, the communicative
relationship reaches to the next level in which people share more
information.
Advantages:
 The model assumes sender and receiver to be interchangeable and makes
communication process to be two way.
 The model takes the communication process speculative and
intellectual.

Disadvantages:
 The model is taken as more simple than it should be.
 Some critics don’t take it to be a model as it has very few variables.
 It is not testable because it is abstract.
 It is not represent in a systematic and orderly way.
 Variables cannot be differentiated in this model.
 Continuity may not always be true for communication. There might be
breaks in situations as well as events can be meaningless, forced or
unproductive.
 The purpose of communication is not always growth.