All 8 Models of Communication, Explained!

By Chris Drew, PhD

Since 300BC, theorists have developed communication models in attempts to
explain and understand how to improve communication and rhetoric. As time has
passed, we have developed increasingly more complex models to explain how we
communicate.

Today, the main models of communication are can be split into three
categories:
 Linear models (LInTransac)
 Interactive models
 Transactional models
This post will outline all 9 major models of communication currently studied in
communications courses at college.
Contents hide
The Linear Models
1. Aristotle’s Model
2. Lasswell’s Model
3. Shannon-Weaver Model
4. Berlo’s S-M-C-R Model
The Interactive Models
5. Osgood-Schramm Model
6. The Westley and Maclean Model
The Transactional Models
7. Barnlund’s Transactional Model
8. Dance’s Helical Model

The Linear Models

Quick Summary: Linear models explain one directional communication processes.

1. Aristotle’s Model
One Sentence Overview: 
A framework for thinking about how to improve your communication abilities,
by looking at key aspects underpinning a situation.

Aristotle’s model of communication is the oldest communication model, dating

back to 300BC. The model was designed to examine how to become a better
and more convincing communicator.
Aristotle argues that we should look at five elements of a communication event
to analyse how best to communicate: speaker, speech, occasion, target
audience and effect. (SSOTAE)
He also identified three elements EPL that will improve communication:
ethos (credibility), pathos (ability to connect) and logos (logical argument).
Aristotle’s model does not pay attention to the role of feedback in
communication.
2. Lasswell’s Model
One Sentence Overview: 
A basic framework for analyzing one-way communication by asking five
questions: Who, said what, through which channel, to whom, with what effects?

Lasswell’s model of communication tries to understand a communication event by

asking five important questions. It looks at who created the message (and what
their bias may be), what they said, the channel they said it through (e.g. TV,
radio, blog), whom they said it to, and what effect it had on the receiver.

This model is effective as it provides a very simple and practical way of critiquing
a message and exploring five important elements that can help explain the event
under analysis in more detail.

3. Shannon-Weaver Model
One Sentence Overview:
 The Shannon-Weaver model is the first to highlight the role of ‘noise’ in
communication
Noise can disrupt or alter a message between sender and receiver.

The Shannon-Weaver model sees communication occurring in five key parts:

sender, encoder, channel, decoder, receiver. It emphasizes the importance of
encoding and decoding messages for them to be sent (e.g. turning them into written
words, morse code, etc.).
During the process of encoding, sending and decoding, ‘noise’ occurs that can
disrupt or cloud a message. In the most traditional sense, this may be static on a
radio broadcast, or even extend to mishearing a conversation or misspelling an
email. This model was the first to introduce the role of noise in the communication
process.
The idea of feedback was retroactively introduced to this model.
4. Berlo’s S-M-C-R Model
One Sentence Overview: 
Berlo’s S-M-C-R model explains it in four steps: 
Source, Message, Channel, and Receiver.

Berlo’s model of communication explains it in four steps: 

Source, Message, Channel, and Receiver. The unique aspect of Berlo’s model is
that it gives a detailed account of the key elements in each step that will affect how
well the message is communicated:
 Source: Elements of the source include communication skills of the sender,
their attitude and their culture.
 Message: Elements of the message include its content, structure and code.
 Channel: Elements of the channel include the senses of hearing, seeing,
touching, smelling, etc.
  Receiver: Elements of the receiver include their attitude, knowledge and
culture.
See a summary of all elements in the image below:
The Interactive Models
Quick Summary: Interactive models are best for explaining
impersonal two-way communication processes.

5. Osgood-Schramm Model
One Sentence Overview: The Osgood-Schramm model shows.

The Osgood-Schramm model shows communication is equal and reciprocal. It

does not differentiate between the sender and receiver, but sees each as being in an
equal position as message encoders and decoders.

This model is best for explaining and examining personal synchronous

communication where feedback is immediate (such as face-to-face discussions).
As feedback is immediate, noise can be reduced through ongoing clarification of
messages during the conversation.

6. The Westley and Maclean Model

One Sentence Overview: 

The Westley and Maclean model shows that our communication is influenced by
environmental, cultural and personal factors.

The Westley and Maclean model embraces the importance of feedback in

communication. However, it also emphasizes the important role of environmental
and cultural factors in influencing communication.

It shows that the things we say and communicate are influenced by who we are,
what our background is, and what perspective we are approaching issues from.

The model takes into account the object of orientation (background, culture and

beliefs) of the sender and receiver of messages.

It also considers the message to have been received and sent within a broader
social context that needs to be considered to know and understand the message.
The Transactional Models

Quick Summary: Transactional models explain

direct personal communication processes where two-way feedback is immediate.

7. Barnlund’s Transactional Model

One Sentence Overview: Barnlund’s Transactional Model of Communication
highlights the role of private and public cues that impact our messages.

Barnlund’s Transactional Model of Communication is a model that explores

interpersonal, immediate-feedback communication.

Central to this approach is the idea that feedback for the sender is the reply for the
receiver.
This model also highlights the role of ‘cues’ in impacting our messages. Barnlund
highlights the role of public cues which are environmental cues, and private
cues which are a person’s personal thoughts and background. With this emphasis
on cues, Barnlund’s model highlights the factors that influence what we think and
say.

8. Dance’s Helical Model

One Sentence Overview: 
Dance’s Helical Model sees
communication as a circular process that gets more and more complex as
communication occurs, which can be represented by a helical spiral.

Dance shows Communication as a dynamic and non-linear process. It is

evolutionary.
in COMM UNI CA TION MODE LS

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.

Frank Dance’s Helical Model builds on circular models by explaining how we

improve our messages over time by using feedback. When we communicate with
others, their feedback will influence our next statement.

We become more knowledgeable with each cycle of communication, enabling up

to ‘expand our circle’, as represented by the increasingly wider and wider circles.
The movement up the spiral indicates that each communication practice is new and
different from the previous, as communication does not ever perfectly repeat itself.

Theory

Dance’s model emphasized the difficulty of communication. Frank Dance uses the
form of a Helix to describe the communication process. He developed this theory
based on a simple helix which gets bigger and bigger as it moves or grows.

The main characteristics of a helical model of communication is that it is

evolutionary.
Frank Dance explains the communication process based on this Helix structure and
compares it with communication. In the Helix structure, the bottom or starting is
very small then it gradually moves upward in a back and forth circular motion which
forms the bigger circle in the top and it is still moves further. The whole process takes
some time to reach. As like helix, the communication process starts very slowly and
defined small circle only. The communicators shared information only with a small
portion of themselves to their relationships. Its gradually develops into next level but
which will take some time to reach and expanding its boundaries to the next level.
Later the communicators commit more and shared more portions by themselves.

Example
When a child is born the only means of communication for him is crying, he cries for
everything like hunger, pain, cold etc. As the child grows the means of
communication become wider and broader. He learns to make noises then he learns
a language to obtain attention and to fulfil his needs. As a Helix, the process of
communication, in this case, started as crying and later it developed into a complex
and compound means.

The Helical model of communication is largely dependent on its past. A child learns
to pronounce a word in his elementary classes and throughout his life he uses that
word in the same way he learnt. Just like that, we used to react to certain things in a
certain way in our childhood and such reactions and habits lasts with us forever. The
communication evolves in the beginning in some simple forms then the same process
of communication functions and develops based on past activities. Thus, his way of
communication or his reactions may also different from the past behavior and
experiences. It develops further with modifications according to the situations.

Therefore, the model concludes that the process of communication is like a

continuous curve with some changes or flexibility. The base of the helical curve
(lower level) can be affected and/or altered at any time accordingly the experience of
an individual.
Conclusion
Frank Dance included the concept of time in his theory. The lifetime experience
gained over the issue will always be based on the similar event/incident happened in
the past according to him. This theory of communication was subject to a number of
experimental researches. Even though this model of communication clarifies
everything there is a problem of oversimplification. According to this theory, a
communication process is the product of what we learnt.

Final Thoughts
There are many theories within communication studies (see for example: media
richness theory, relational dialectics theory, muted group theory).

However, the 8 communication models listed in this article are central models of
communication that highlight how communication occurs. They are theories that
are necessary to know for communication studies students as they help you
understand the key components that make up communication in the 21st Century.
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