NAME: MUSTAPHA BABATUNDE KAZEEM

MATRIC NO: PG/19/0430

QUESTION: WRITE ON THE FOLLOWING (1) MODELS COMMUNICATION

OF RESEARCH (2) INFORMATION THEORIES (3) MEASUREMENT OF
READABILITY (4) COMMUNICATION MEDIA IN MODERN SOCIETIES.

1. MODELS COMMUINICATION OF RESEARCH

Introduction
Almost any organization in Latvia has to deal with employees, partners or clients from
different cultures. Such condition can pose challenges, but at the same time it can be beneficial.
In a global and a diverse world, we can leverage these advantages and mitigate the risks through
both awareness and complexity of communication. Communication models from dominant to
alternative ones are being discussed and used continuously, but the problem occurs when we try
to implement the specific communication model in the selected group of people with different
backgrounds. The lack of awareness about communication models and the absence of
multicultural communication competence could be the reasons why people from different
cultures in Latvia annoy each other and cannot find a common language. Question of research:
How to overcome cultural differences in communication using models of communication? In
order to create the new specific model of multicultural communication, authors highlight the
different communication models and examine their usage between people with different cultural
backgrounds.

Communication is not only transportation of messages, nowadays communication is

more of sharing ideas and feelings and willingness to participate. Ancient Greek philosopher
Aristotle provides an explanation of communication that is still worthy of attention. His study of
communication called “rhetoric” speaks about the elements within the process. Aristotle provides
us with this insight: rhetoric falls into three divisions, determined by the three classes of listeners
to speeches. For the three elements in speech-making – speaker, subject, and person addressed –
it is the last one, the hearer that determines the speech's end and object (Aristotle, 350 BC: part
3). Here Aristotle speaks of a communication process composed of a speaker, a message and a
listener. Note, he points out that the person at the end of the communication process holds the
key whether or not communication takes place. Since Aristotle the communication process has
been studied by many promoters of models. They designed certain formats adapted to different
situations and types of communication. The use of models allows the interpretation of
phenomena using certain structures that link the elements and relationships that can exist
between these elements. (Popescu, Pargaru, Popescu, Mihai, 2015) They are vitally necessary
because both biological and social life of society exists through a process of transmission.
Without the communication of ideals, hopes, expectations and practices from those members of
society who are passing out of the group life to those who are coming into it, social life could not
survive. It makes communication both pleasant and essential. The famous communication
scholar from US Joseph DeVito accounted at least five main reasons why we communicate.
They are: 1) to influence people, 2) to establish/maintain interpersonal relationships, 3) to
acquire knowledge, 4) to help people, 5) to play. (DeVito, 2013). The authors of
communication’s definitions have tried to say something unique about this process in which
messages are sent and received with a specific aim via communication channels through noise
which envelops the communication channels, the sender and receiver and feedback. The
communication is primarily understood in the sense of transmission. (McQuail, 2005). However,
the professor emeritus from University of Amsterdam Dennis McQuail agrees with the idea of
American philosopher John Dewey that there is more than a verbal tie between the words in
common, community, and communication. People efforts to put communication into a precise
frame led to development of communication models. At the core of modeling is the fundamental
notion, that models are approximations of the real world. (Sokolowski J.A., Banks C.M., 2010).
In this very first step in modeling, model is created according to the real world, and vice versa –
model can be modified after testing.

Aristotle Model of Communication

According to Aristotle, the speaker plays a key role in communication. He is the one who
takes complete charge of the communication. The sender first prepares a content which he does
by carefully putting his thoughts in words with an objective of influencing the listeners or the
recipients, who would then respond in the sender’s desired way. No points in guessing that the
content has to be very impressive in this model for the audience or the receivers to get
convinced. The model says that the speaker communicates in such way that the listeners get
influenced and respond accordingly (Aristotle, 350 BC, part 3).
The speaker must be very careful about his selection of words in this model of
communication. In other words, think before you act, as advices DeVito (DeVito, 2013:20).
Speaker would explore the target audience and then prepare his speech. For example, the
politician must understand the needs of the people in his constituency like the need of a shopping
mall, better transport system, safety of society and then design his speech. The speech should
address all the above issues and focus on providing the solutions to their problems to expect
maximum votes from them. His tone and pitch should also be loud and clear enough for the
people to hear and understand the speech properly. Stammering, getting nervous in between of a
conversation must be avoided. Voice modulations also play a very important role in creating the
desired effect. Blank expressions, confused looks and similar pitch all through the speech make it
monotonous and nullify its effect. The speaker should know where to lay more stress on,
highlight which words to influence listeners. One will definitely purchase the mobile handset
from that store where the salesman gives an impressive demo of the mobile. It depends on the
salesman what to speak and how to speak in a manner to influence the listeners so that they
respond to him in a way he actually wants i.e. purchase the handset and increase his billing. The
Aristotle model of communication is the widely accepted and the most common model of
communication where the sender sends the information or a message to the receivers to influence
them and make them respond and act accordingly. Aristotle model of communication is the
golden rule to excel in public speaking, seminars, lectures where the sender makes his point clear
by designing an impressive content, passing on the message to the second part and they simply
respond accordingly. Here the sender is the active member and the receiver is passive one.

Shannon and Weaver’s Model of Communication

This model was introduced in the middle of the last century, is particularly designed to
develop the effective communication between sender and receiver. This is however, a model of
signal processing. Shannon and Weaver did not rise the question of the content or message that
was transferred. They found factors which affects the communication process called “Noise”, but
the model also deals with various concepts like information source, transmitter, noise, channel,
message, receiver, channel, information destination, encode and decode. In this model the sender
is the originator of message or the information source selects the desired message. Encoder is the
transmitter which converts the message into signals (Shannon, Weaver, 1948). Nowadays with
“converting” we understand not only signals like waves or binary data which are compact-able to
transmit the messages through cables or satellites, but usage of words, symbols and signs to
express an idea. If the message is distracted by noise, it will affect the communication flow
between sender and receiver. During this process the messages might be distracted or affected by
physical noise like sounds, thunder and crowd noise or encoded signals may distract in the
channel during the transmission process which affects the communication flow or the receiver
may not receive the correct message. Despite on latest findings of Joseph DeVito, who divides
noise into four parts: physical noise, physiological noise, psychological noise and semantic noise
(DeVito, 2013), the Shannon and Weaver model clearly deals with external noises which affect
the messages or signals from external sources. This model helps us to understand the
components, their role and structure of communication.

Berlo’s Model of Communication

While the Aristotle model of communication puts the speaker in the central position and
suggests that the speaker is one who drives the entire communication, the Berlo’s model of
communication takes into account the different aspects of the message (content, elements,
treatment, structure, code) and equalizes both sender and receiver. Berlo’s model of
communication operates on the SMCR pattern (Berlo, 1960). In the SMCR pattern S - Source; M
– Message; C – Channel; R – Receiver; the source also called the sender is the one from whom
the thought originates. Sender transfers the information to the receiver carefully placing his ideas
into words. The ideal communication occurs when both sender and receiver have the common
expertise in communication skills, the same attitude, knowledge, social system and culture.
These factors play a significant role in the communication process and level of encoding and
decoding. Berlo’s model differs from Shannon and Weaver’s model mostly because it
emphasizes the common understanding, which is significant part of communication. Despite on
the criticism of Berlo’s model (model leaves no place for feedback, there is no barriers, filters or
feedback), it has its own preferences. The most important contribution from Berlo can be the
idea that meanings are not in the message are in the message users, and therefore communicators
must be explored from perspective of their background.
Schramm’s Interactive Model of Communication
In his Circular Model Schramm embodied idea that communication is a circular process
by nature. Schramm conceived of decoding and encoding as activities maintained simultaneously
by sender and receiver; he also made provisions for a two-way interchange of messages
(Schramm, 1961). In this model, encoder is who originates and sends the message. Decoder is
who receives the message and interpreter could be any person trying to understand and analyze,
perceive or interpret. From the starting point of communication to the end an interpretation goes
on. This model breaks the traditional sender and receiver models; each person acts as both sender
and receiver and hence uses interpretation. Encoding, decoding and interpretation is going on
simultaneously. Semantic noise is a concept introduced here when sender and receiver apply
different meaning to the same message. It happens mostly because words and phrases are not
understandable, so certain words and phrases will cause you to deviate from the actual meaning
of communication.
Multiculturalism
The man of a postmodern age has been rooted in new orders determining his/her
everyday reality, where existence involves answering many questions of primal nature, including
communication. Alicja Szerlag stresed the role communication into process of understanding and
tolerating other cultures (Szerlag, 2015). The definition of culture has long been a controversy
because culture as a phenomenon on the object level is constructed in the discursive process by
forming various concepts (Budin, Vol.I) . Very popular United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization definition considers the culture as complex which includes
knowledge, beliefs, morals, laws, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a
human as a member of society.
1. Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition from University of Minnesota for
purpose of intercultural studies project defines culture as the shared patterns of behaviors and
interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a
process of socialization.
2. It means, the essence of culture is not artifacts, and different tangible cultural elements but
how the members of specific group interpret, use, and perceive them. It is the values,
symbols, interpretations that distinguish people in modern societies.
 This idea was dominant for Dutch scientist Geert Hofstede to develop his onion model
(Hofstede G., Hofstede G.J., 2005) If for Michelle LeBaron the culture is like underground river
which runs through our lives and relationships, giving us messages that shape our perceptions,
attributions, judgments, and ideas of self and others at the same time, we have to bear in mind
than culture is ordinary (Williams, 1958). Though culture is powerful, it is often unconscious,
influencing conflict and attempts to resolve conflict in imperceptible ways. Culture is more
significant than language, costumes and foods. Cultural groups may share race, ethnicity, or
nationality, but they also arise from cleavages of generation, socioeconomic class, sexual
orientation, ability and disability, political and religious affiliation, language, and gender4.
Multicultural ideology refers to overall evaluation of the majority group addressing the degree to
which they possess positive attitudes toward immigrants and cultural diversity. (Arends-Toth,
Vijver, 2003) Multiculturalism is viewed as a paradox in dealing with the question of how to
construct a society that accommodates universal rights with the rights of minority groups. (Dong,
Day, Collaco, 2005). Any group of people consists of individuals, therefore capacity of
individual plays the main role in intercultural communication, and different individuals have
various values.
These values are communicated through rituals, heroes and symbols. Sometimes, they are
as ordinary as a napkin. However, even ordinary symbols can have a powerful influence on
relationship and the ultimate success or failure of an encounter. It could easily happen, if one
uses the moral standards of one culture to judge the other. That other culture will invariably
appear to be morally inferior. (Hofstede, Pedersen., Hofstede, 2002). The researcher Benjamin
M. Cole suggests that high-context communicators utilize content management practices – which
alter message content characteristics – and context management practices (Cole, 2015) which
rely on, tear at temporarily, or attempt to reprogram more permanently the shared understandings
through which messages are being delivered and interpreted.

2. INFORMATION THEORY

Information theory is the mathematical treatment of the concepts, parameters and rules
governing the transmission of messages through communication systems. It was founded by
Claude Shannon toward the middle of the twentieth century and has since then evolved into a
vigorous branch of mathematics fostering the development of other scientific fields, such as
statistics, biology, behavioral science, neuroscience, and statistical mechanics. The techniques
used in information theory are probabilistic in nature and some view information theory as a
branch of probability theory. In a given set of possible events, the information of a message
describing one of these events quantifies the symbols needed to encode the event in an optimal
way. ‘Optimal’ means that the obtained code word will determine the event unambiguously,
isolating it from all others in the set, and will have minimal length, that is, it will consist of a
minimal number of symbols. Information theory also provides methodologies to separate real
information from noise and to determine the channel capacity required for optimal transmission
conditioned on the transmission rate.

Information theory studies the transmission, processing, extraction, and utilization of

information. Abstractly, information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty. In the
case of communication of information over a noisy channel, this abstract concept was formalized
in 1948 by Claude Shannon in a paper entitled A Mathematical Theory of Communication, in
which information is thought of as a set of possible messages, and the goal is to send these
messages over a noisy channel, and to have the receiver reconstruct the message with low
probability of error, in spite of the channel noise. Shannon's main result, the noisy-channel
coding theorem showed that, in the limit of many channel uses, the rate of information that is
asymptotically achievable is equal to the channel capacity, a quantity dependent merely on the
statistics of the channel over which the messages are sent.

Information theory is closely associated with a collection of pure and applied disciplines
that have been investigated and reduced to engineering practice under a variety
of rubrics throughout the world over the past half-century or more: adaptive
systems, anticipatory systems, artificial intelligence, complex systems, complexity
science, cybernetics, informatics, machine learning, along with systems sciences of many
descriptions. Information theory is a broad and deep mathematical theory, with equally broad
and deep applications, amongst which is the vital field of coding theory.

Coding theory is concerned with finding explicit methods, called codes, for increasing the
efficiency and reducing the error rate of data communication over noisy channels to near the
channel capacity. These codes can be roughly subdivided into data compression (source coding)
and error-correction (channel coding) techniques. In the latter case, it took many years to find the
methods Shannon's work proved were possible.

A third class of information theory codes are cryptographic algorithms (both codes and ciphers).

Concepts, methods and results from coding theory and information theory are widely used in
cryptography and cryptanalysis. 

A key measure in information theory is entropy. Entropy quantifies the amount of

uncertainty involved in the value of a random variable or the outcome of a random process. For
example, identifying the outcome of a fair coin flip (with two equally likely outcomes) provides
less information (lower entropy) than specifying the outcome from a roll of a die (with six
equally likely outcomes). Some other important measures in information theory are mutual
information, channel capacity, error exponents, and relative entropy. Important sub-fields of
information theory include source coding, algorithmic complexity theory, algorithmic
information theory, and information-theoretic security.

Applications of fundamental topics of information theory include lossless data

compression (e.g. ZIP files), lossy data compression (e.g. MP3s and JPEGs), and channel
coding (e.g. for DSL). Its impact has been crucial to the success of the Voyager missions to deep
space, the invention of the compact disc, the feasibility of mobile phones and the development of
the Internet. The theory has also found applications in other areas, including statistical inference,
cryptography, neurobiology, perception, linguistics, the evolution and function of molecular
codes (bioinformatics), thermal physics, quantum computing, black holes, information
retrieval, intelligence gathering, plagiarism detection, pattern recognition, anomaly detection and
even art creation.

Information theory is based on probability theory and statistics. Information theory often

concerns itself with measures of information of the distributions associated with random
variables. Important quantities of information are entropy, a measure of information in a single
random variable, and mutual information, a measure of information in common between two
random variables. The former quantity is a property of the probability distribution of a random
variable and gives a limit on the rate at which data generated by independent samples with the
given distribution can be reliably compressed. The latter is a property of the joint distribution of
two random variables, and is the maximum rate of reliable communication across a
noisy channel in the limit of long block lengths, when the channel statistics are determined by
the joint distribution.

The choice of logarithmic base in the following formulae determines the unit of

information entropy that is used. A common unit of information is the bit, based on the binary
logarithm. Other units include the nat, which is based on the natural logarithm, and the decimal
digit, which is based on the common logarithm.

Information theory is based on a measure of uncertainty known as entropy (designated

“H”). For example, the entropy of the stimulus S is written H(S) and is defined as follows:
H(S) = −∑S P(s)log2 P(s)

The subscript S underneath the summation simply means to sum over all possible
stimuli S=[1, 2 … 8]. This expression is called “entropy” because it is similar to the definition of
entropy in thermodynamics. Thus, the preceding expression is sometimes referred to as
“Shannon entropy.” The entropy of the stimulus can be intuitively understood as “how long of a
message (in bits) do I need to convey the value of the stimulus?” For example, suppose the
center-out task had only two peripheral targets (“left” and “right”), which appeared with an equal
probability. It would take only one bit (a 0 or a 1) to convey which target appeared; hence, you
would expect the entropy of this stimulus to be 1 bit. That is what the preceding expression gives
you, as P(S)=0.5 and log2(0.5)=−1. The center-out stimulus in the dataset can take on eight
possible values with equal probability, so you expect its entropy to be 3 bits. However, the
entropy of the observed stimuli will actually be slightly less than 3 bits because the observed
probabilities are not exactly uniform.
Next, you want to measure the entropy of the stimulus given the response, H(S|R). For
one particular stimulus, the entropy is defined similarly to the previous equation:
H(S|r) = −∑S P(s|r)log2 P(s|r)

To get the entropy H(S|R), you just average over all possible responses:
H(S|R) = −∑R∑S P(r)P(s|r)log2 P(s|r)

Now you can define the information that the response contains about the stimulus. This is known
as mutual information (designated I), and it is the difference between the two entropy values just
defined:
I(R;S) = H(S) − H(S|R) =∑R∑S P(r)P(s|r)log2 [P(s|r)/P(s)]
 Why does this make sense? Imagine you divide the response into eight bins and that each
stimulus is perfectly paired with one response. In this case, the entropy H(S|R) would be 0 bits,
because given the response, there is no uncertainty about what the stimulus was. You already
decided the H(S) was theoretically 3 bits, so the mutual information I(R;S) would be 3 bits – 0
bits=3 bits. This confirms that the response has perfect information about the stimulus.
Suppose instead that you divide the response into two bins, and that one bin corresponds to
stimuli 1–4 and the other bin corresponds to stimuli 5–8. Each bin has four equally likely
choices, so the entropy H(R|S) will be 2 bits. Now the mutual information is I(R;S)=3 bits – 2
bits=1 bit. This means that response allows you to reduce the uncertainty about the stimulus by a
factor of 2. This makes sense because the response divides the stimuli into two equally likely
groups. This also emphasizes that the choice of bins affects the value of the mutual information.
Note that you can use the definition of conditional probability to rearrange the expression for
mutual information. The following version is easier to use with the table of joint and marginal
probabilities computed earlier. Mutual information can also be defined as follows:

I(R;S) = ∑R∑S P(s,r)log2 [P(s,r)/P(s)P(r)]

Applying this equation to the joint distribution of the sample neuron gives a mutual information
of 0.50 bits for a rate code.

3. MEASUREMENT OF READABILITY

Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. In natural

language, the readability of text depends on its content (the complexity of
its vocabulary and syntax) and its presentation (such as typographic aspects like font size, line
height, character spacing, and line length). Researchers have used various factors to measure
readability, such as

 Speed of perception
 Perceptibility at a distance
 Perceptibility in peripheral vision
 Visibility
 Reflex blink technique
 Rate of work (reading speed)
 Eye movements
 Fatigue in reading
 Cognitively-motivated features
 Word difficulty
 N-gram analysis

Readability is more than simply legibility—which is a measure of how easily a reader can

distinguish individual letters or characters from each other. Higher readability eases reading
effort and speed for any reader, but it is especially important for those who do not have
high reading comprehension. In readers with average or poor reading comprehension, raising the
readability level of a text from mediocre to good can make the difference between success and
failure of its communication goals.

Readability exists in both natural language and programming languages though in

different forms. In programming, things such as programmer comments, choice of loop structure,
and choice of names can determine the ease with which humans can read computer program
code. Readability is defined as reading ease, especially as it results from a writing style.
Extensive research has shown that easyreading text improves comprehension, retention, reading
speed, and reading persistence. Ease-of-reading is the result of the interaction between the text
and the reader.

In the reader, those features affecting readability are 1. prior knowledge, 2. reading skill,
3. interest, and 4. motivation. In the text, those features are 1. content, 2. style, 3. design, and 4.
structure. The design can include the medium, layout, illustrations, reading and navigation aids,
typeface, and color. Correct use of type size, line spacing, column width, text-colorbackground
contrast and white space make text easy to read.

Readability Formula
 Readability formulas, are formula for evaluating the readability of text, usually by
counting syllables, words, and sentences. Readability tests are often used as an alternative to
conducting an actual statistical survey of human readers of the subject text (a readability survey).
Word processing applications often have readability tests in-built, which can be deployed on
documents in-editing.

The application of a useful readability test protocol will give a rough indication of a
work's readability, with accuracy increasing when finding the average readability of a large
number of works. The tests generate a score based on characteristics such as statistical average
word length (which is a used as a proxy for semantic difficulty) and sentence length (as a proxy
for syntactic complexity) of the work.

Some readability formulas refer to a list of words graded for difficulty. These formulas
attempt to overcome the fact that some words, like "television", are well known to younger
children, but have many syllables. In practice, however, the utility of simple word and sentence
length measures make them more popular for readability formulas.[citation needed] Scores are
compared with scales based on judged linguistic difficulty or reading grade level. Many
readability formulas measure word length in syllables rather than letters, but only SMOG has a
computerized readability program incorporating an accurate syllable counter.

Since readability formulas do not take the meanings of words into account, they are not
considered definitive measures of readability.

Flesch Reading Ease

Formula is considered as one of the oldest and most accurate readability formulas.
Rudolph Flesch, an author, writing consultant, and a supporter of the Plain English Movement,
developed this formula in 1948. Raised in Austria, Rudolph Flesch studied law and earned a
Ph.D. in English from the Columbia University. Flesch, through his writings and speeches,
advocated a return to phonics. In his article, A New Readability Yardstick, published in the
Journal of Applied Psychology in 1948, Flesch proposed the Flesch Reading Ease Readability
Formula.

The specific mathematical formula is:

 RE = 206.835 – (1.015 x ASL) – (84.6 x ASW)

RE = Readability Ease

ASL = Average Sentence Length (i.e., the number of words divided by the number of
sentences)

ASW = Average number of syllables per word (i.e., the number of syllables divided by
the number of words)

The output, i.e., RE is a number ranging from 0 to 100. The higher the number, the easier
the text is to read. Scores between 90.0 and 100.0 are considered easily understandable by an
average 5th grader. Scores between 60.0 and 70.0 are considered easily understood by 8th and
9th graders. Scores between 0.0 and 30.0 are considered easily understood by college graduates

If we were to draw a conclusion from the Flesch Reading Ease Formula, then the best
text should contain shorter sentences and words. The score between 60 and 70 is largely
considered acceptable. The following table is also helpful to assess the ease of readability in a
document:

RE = 206.835 – (1.015 x ASL) – (84.6 x ASW)

90-100 : Very Easy Grade 5

80-89 : Easy Grade 6

70-79 : Fairly Easy Grade 7

60-69 : Standard Grade 8 & Grade 9

50-59 : Fairly Difficult Rank 10 to Rank 12

30-49: Difficult Undergraduate

0-29: Very Confusing Graduate

Formula B for predicting "human interest": HI = 3.635 pw + .314ps.

 Scores computed by this formula, too, have a range from 0 to 100. A score of 100 has the
same meaning as in Formula A. It indicates reading matter with enough human interest to suit
the reading skills and habits of a barely "functionally literate" person. A score of 0, however,
means here simply that the passage contains neither personal words nor personal sentences!

Formula B for predicting "human interest": HI = 3.635 pw + .314ps. Scores computed by

this formula, too, have a range from 0 to 100. A score of 100 has the same meaning as in
Formula A. It indicates reading matter with enough human interest to suit the reading skills and
habits of a barely "functionally literate" person. A score of 0, however, means here simply that
the passage contains neither persnal words! nor! personal senences!

The Gunning’s Fog Index (or FOG) Readability Formula

The Gunning Fog Index Readability Formula, or simply called FOG Index, is attributed
to American textbook publisher, Robert Gunning, who was a graduate from Ohio State
University. Gunning observed that most high school graduates were unable to read. Much of this
reading problem was a writing problem. His opinion was that newspapers and business
documents were full of “fog” and unnecessary complexity. Gunning realized the problem quite
early and became the first to take the new readability research into the workplace. Gunning
founded the first consulting firm specializing in readability in 1944. He spent the next few years
testing and working with more than 60 large city daily newspapers and popular magazines,
helping writers and editors write to their audience

The Gunning’s Fog Index (or FOG) Readability Formula

Step 1: Take a sample passage of at least 100-words and count the number of exact words and
sentences.

Step 2: Divide the total number of words in the sample by the number of sentences to arrive at
the Average Sentence Length (ASL).
Step 3: Count the number of words of three or more syllables that are NOT (i) proper nouns, (ii)
combinations of easy words or hyphenated words, or (iii) two-syllable verbs made into three
with -es and -ed endings.

Step 4: Divide this number by the number or words in the sample passage. For example, 25 long
words divided by 100 words gives you 25 Percent Hard Words (PHW).

Step 5: Add the ASL from Step 2 and the PHW from Step 4.

Step 6: Multiply the result by 0.4.

The mathematical formula is:

Grade Level = 0.4 (ASL + PHW)

where,

ASL = Average Sentence Length (i.e., number of words divided by the number of sentences)

PHW = Percentage of Hard Words

The underlying message of The Gunning Fog Index formula is that short sentences
written in Plain English achieve a better score than long sentences written in complicated
language.

The ideal score for readability with the Fog index is 7 or 8. Anything above 12 is too hard
for most people to read. For instance, The Bible, Shakespeare and Mark Twain have Fog Indexes
of around 6. The leading magazines, like Time, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal average
around 11..

4. COMMUNICATION MEDIA IN MODERN SOCIETIES

Media is the communication outlets or tools used to store and deliver information or data.
The term refers to components of the mass media communications industry, such as print media,
publishing, the news media, photography, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television), digital
media, and advertising.

The development of early writing and paper enabled longer-distance communication

systems such as mail, including in the Persian Empire (Chapar Khaneh and Angarium) and
Roman Empire, which can be interpreted as early forms of media. Writers such as Howard
Rheingold have framed early forms of human communication as early forms of media, such as
the Lascaux cave paintings and early writing.cg Another framing of the history of media starts
with the Chauvet Cave paintings and continues with other ways to carry human communication
beyond the short range of voice: smoke signals, trail markers, and sculpture.

The Term media in its modern application relating to communication channels was first
used by Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, who stated in Counterblast
(1954): "The media are not toys; they should not be in the hands of Mother Goose and Peter Pan
executives. They can be entrusted only to new artists because they are art forms." By the mid-
1960s, the term had spread to general use in North America and the United Kingdom. The phrase
"mass media" was, according to H.L. Mencken, used as early as 1923 in the United States.

The term "medium" (the singular form of "media") is defined as "one of the means or
channels of general communication, information, or entertainment in society, as newspapers,
radio, or television."

Communication media and other forms of communication technology have an enormous

influence in helping to shape public opinion and underlying sentiment. Newspapers, TV and
radio are all important sources of basic information about other people and other places and this
can itself help to engender understanding if presented in a fair, even-handed and non-
inflammatory way.
The communication media is also an important accountability mechanism: it raises
important issues, corruption for example, that might otherwise never be publicly debated or
addressed. The media also has an important role in stimulating governments to take action on
social policy: although stories about migrants or refugees might reinforce prejudice in some
quarters, they also expose problems that need to be addressed, for example poor living conditions
or lack of access to services, the citizenship status of migrants, the response of local communities
to their settlement and so on.
But the media can also, in some cases, become an instrument for the dissemination of
false and inflammatory messages and values that do not promote respect or well-tempered
dialogue and discussion. Negative messages can divide communities and can help perpetuate the
stereotypes that nurture violence.
Communication media portrayals can sometimes serve to exacerbate the narrative of
oppositional forces and irreconcilable, value-based differences. The media often prefers to dwell
on conflict, since conflict and drama sell newspapers and attract an audience. This inevitably
means that the more extreme points of view get airtime rather than the feelings of the majority of
citizens that may have more accommodating and balanced perspectives. For example, during the
1994 Rwandan genocide, the state-supported Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM)
station broadcast hate propaganda against Tutsis, moderate Hutus, Belgians and the United
Nations, and was used as a tool to organize massacres. And even when the media are truly
independent, there can be a tendency by some (though not all) of the media to oversimplify the
complexity of current problems and reduce the news to catch phrases and sound bytes – on the
assumption that people want drama and entertainment rather than informed analysis. An
emphasis on the constructive role of the media, which we strongly support, has to go with a
realistic recognition of the problems that the media have reason to guard against.

Media technology has made viewing increasingly easier as time has passed throughout
history. Children today are encouraged to use media tools in school and are expected to have a
general understanding of the various technologies available. The internet is arguably one of the
most effective tools in media for communication tools such as e-mail, Skype, and Facebook have
brought people closer together and created new online communities. However, some may argue
that certain types of media can hinder face-to-face. Therefore, it is an important source of
communication.

In a large consumer-driven society, electronic media (such as television) and print media
(such as newspapers) are important for distributing advertisement media. More technologically
advanced societies have access to goods and services through newer media than less
technologically advanced societies. In addition to this "advertising" role, media is nowadays a
tool to share knowledge all around the world. Analysing the evolution of medium within the
society, Popkin (2006) assesses the important role of media, by building connection between
politics, culture and economic life and the society: for instance periodical newspaper has been an
opportunity to first advertise and second to be up-to-date with current foreign affairs or the
nation economic situation. In the meantime, Willinsky (2008) was promoting the role of modern
technology as a way to come across cultural, gender, national barriers. He saw the internet as an
opportunity to establish a fair and equal system of knowledge: as internet may be accessible to
anyone, any published information may be read and consulted by anyone. Therefore, the internet
is a sustainable solution to overcome the "gap" between developed and developing countries as
both will get a chance to learn from each other. Canagarajah (2017) is addressing the issue of
unbalanced relations between the North and South countries, asserting that Western countries
tend to impose their own ideas on developing countries. Therefore, internet is way to re-establish
balance, by for instance enhance publication of newspaper, academic journal from developing
countries. Christen(2013] is the one who created a system that provide access to knowledge and
protect people's customs and culture. Indeed, in some traditional societies, some genders cannot
have access to a certain type of knowledge therefore respecting these customs limit the scope of
dissemination but still allow the diffusion of knowledge. Within this process of dissemination,
media would play a role of "intermediaries", that is say translation an academic research into a
journalistic format, accessible by lay audience ( Levin, 2016]). Consequently, media is a modern
form of communication aiming at spreading knowledge within the whole world, regardless any
form of discrimination.

Media, through media and communications psychology, has helped to connect diverse
people from far and near a geographical location. It has also helped in the aspect of on-line or
Internet businesses and other activities that have an on-line version. All media intended to affect
human behavior is initiated through communication and the intended behavior is couched in
psychology. Therefore, understanding media and communications psychology is fundamental in
understanding the social and individual effects of media. The expanding field of media and
communications psychology combines these established disciplines in a new way.
 Timing change based on innovation and efficiency may not have a direct correlation with
technology. The information revolution is based on modern advancements. During the 19th
century, the information "boom" rapidly advanced because of postal systems, an increase in
newspaper accessibility, as well as schools "modernizing". These advancements were made due
to the increase of people becoming literate and educated. The methodology of communication
although has changed and dispersed in numerous directions based on the source of its
sociocultural impact. Biases in the media that affect religious or ethnic minorities take the form
of racism in the media and religious bias in the media.