Communication 1

Lecture 2: Communication Theory

 Quick Review: Two Schools

• The Process School: communication is the transmission of messages.

• The Semiotics School: communication is the production and exchange

of meanings.
 The Process School
• Focus: how senders and receivers encode and decode; and how transmitters use
the channels and media of communication

• Concerned with matters of efficiency and accuracy

• Understands comm as a process by which one person affects the behavior of the
other
• If the effect is different from what was intended by the sender then this is viewed as
communicational failure (then: the aim is to locate the problem on various
stages!)
 The Semiotics School
• Focus: how messages, or texts, interact w/ people in order to produce
meanings

• It does not consider misunderstandings to be proof of communication

failure

• The study of communication is the study of text and culture

 Themes that We will Discuss
• History of the process school.
• The basic linear model.
• The main concerns of those theorists who were working in this
strand of research.
• The most important concepts.
• Examples for further analysis.
 Roots of Communication Studies
• End of 1940s; the book of Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver Mathematical
Theory of Communication (1949)
• Process school: main interest: transmission of messages
• Developed during the WWII in the Bell TelPhone Labs in the US
• Focus: channels (radio wave, phone cable) of communication / how to use
them the most efficiently?
• How to send max amount of info & how to measure the carrying
capacity of a channel
 How to Imagine their Model?
• They view communication as a basic linear process
• Many scholars built on their model and of course its simplicity attracted
many critics as well
Three Levels of Problems
 How does it work?
• Source is the decision maker; the speaker who decides which message to
send
• The message is then changed by the transmitter into a signal
• Then this signal is sent through the channel to the receiver
• In the case of a telephone: channel is a wire, the signal is an electrical
current and the transmitter and receiver are the phone headsets
• In conversation: mouth = transmitter, signal = sound waves, channel = air,
and ear = receiver
 Back to the Problems
• Technical problems: simplest to understand & the model was originally
developed to explain these issues (accurate transmission)
• Semantic problems: easy to identify but because of the cultural factors hard
to solve; S. & W. hold that improving the encoding will improve semantic
accuracy (precisely conveyed meaning)
• Effectiveness problems: it may imply that they see communication as
manipulation or propaganda (A’s message influences B’s behavior in the
way A desires); their model is open to this interpretation (how it affects
conduct)
 Interdependence of Levels

• These levels are interrelated

• Their model works on every level

• Baseline: the goal of studying communication on all of the three levels is to

improve accuracy and efficiency in the process!
 Basic Concepts
• Noise
• Information
• Redundancy and entropy
• Redundancy as technical aid, redundancy and convention, redundancy and social
relationships

• In what ways can we understand these basic concepts according to the model of S.
& W. and how do they relate to each other?
 Making Sense of Noise
• Open concept, broad semantic field: whatever is added to the signal
between its transmission and reception & not intended by the source
• What kinds of noises can we differentiate?
• Distortion of sound in a telephone wire
• Snow on a TV screen
• These noises occur on level A and these are the main concern for S. & W.
• Basically: anything that makes the signal harder to decode accurately.
 Limitations of the Concept
• It is defined to deal with Level A problems, but S. & W. admit that to deal
with the semantic problems it needs extension
• Thus, they suggested a differentiation:
• Semantic noise (Level B)
• Engineering noise (Level A)
• Semantic noise: distortion of meaning during the comm process not
intended by the source & affects the reception of the message
 Understanding Information
• Although S. & W. aim to solve problems on all three levels their main concern
of analysis is on Level A (this is visible from their understanding of
information as well)
• On this level it is used in a specialist & technical sense: a measure of the
predictability of the signal (it has nothing to do with its content!)
• Signal = physical form of a message (i.e. light wave); let’s take a lightbulb as
a sender; the signal may have a code (single flash = yes; double flash = no;
but it could mean anything else as well)
• Information contained by either of these signals are identical – 50
percent predictability
 Measuring Information
• The unit ’bit’ / binary digit / means: Yes / No choice.
• Computers – but psychologists claim that our brains also – work this way.
• Example: We want to assess someone’s age. Then we go through a rapid series of
binary oppositions: (1) old / young; if young: (2) adult / pre-adult; if pre-adult: (2)
teenager / pre-teenager; if pre-teenager: (3) school-age / pre-school age; if pre-school:
(4) toddler or baby: (5) Answer: baby.
• According to this model, the word baby contains five bits of information
because we made five choices along the way.
 Limitations of this Classifying System
• Problem: with the previously detailed decision making we left the level of
technical problems (Level A)
• We are on the semantic level confronted with semantic problems; these categories are
not signals but they entail information that is much closer to our everyday use of
the term
• THUS, the question arises, do we really give five bits of information when we say
someone is a baby? NO. Only if we use the above detailed classifying system.
• Semantic systems are not so precisely defined as the signal systems of Level A; thus
this understanding exposes the difficulty of measuring info on Level B with this
method
 Concluding Remarks
• In this model the focus was on communicational tools such as the telephone
system
• AND the most important question was the number of signals it can carry --- it
was not relevant what people actually say in this system.
• Although as we saw, there are doubts about the value of measuring info and meaning
numerically  no one denies the usefulness of relating the amount of information
to the number of available choices!
• Predictability and choice are vital concepts in understanding communication!
 Concepts that Helps Us Understanding
Predictability: Redundancy and Entropy
• Redundancy is closely related to the concept of information: it refers to what is
predictable or conventional in a message
• Redundancy is the result of high predictability, while entropy is the result of low
predictability
• Entropy constitutes a communication problem, it means maximum unpredictability
• A message with low predictability can said to be entropic and of high information
• Redundant: when we meet someone and say ’hello’ this is highly predictable and
of low information
 Communication without Redundancy?
• In theory it can take place, but in reality it is practically non-existent
• Redundancy is vital in communication / WHY?
• Because in practice it is essential for a meaningful communication!

• Example: it is argued that the English language is 50 percent redundant;

we can delete half of the words and still have a useful vocabulary capable of
transmitting info.
 Further Implications

• Redundancy performs two main functions:

1. Functions as a technical aid

2. Functions in the social dimension

 Redundancy as a Technical Aid
• Redundancy helps the accuracy of decoding and provides a check to identify
errors
• Misspelling: comming v. coming; I only know that it is a misspelling because
language is redundant; if not it would mean two different things; so context,
culture helps; it is a source of redundancy (see comma v. coma)
• Example: ’Spring is …’ when we say this, we create a context which predicts
the use of the word coming; of course it is possible to say something else as well,
it would depend on the larger context, thus cultural factors can help
 Determination of Probability
• Probable meaning is determined by our experience of the
code, context, and the type of message that we receive
• In short: by our experience of convention and usage!

• Exceptions: A speaker or writer who breaks with convention

does not want to be easily understood.
 Benefits of Redundancy
• Redundancy helps overcome the deficiencies of a noisy channel (i.e.
advertisement messages)
• Helps overcome problems of transmitting an entropic message (unexpected
etc.)
• Helps solve problems associated with the audience (larger, heterogenous
audience? We need a message w/ a high degree of redundancy)
• The choice of channel can affect the need for redundancy (speech v. writing)
• Baseline: it helps to overcome practical communication problems.
 How Convention Helps Understanding?
• We must structure our message according to shared patterns or conventions
• Aesthetic pattern or structure does the same thing (rhythmic poetry); when we
impose repeatable & predictable patterns we increase redundancy; in poetry
conventions that can increase redundancy are the form of the verse & syntax
• The more popular and widely accessible a form of art is the more it will contain
redundancies in form and content (traditional folk-songs or soap operas) –
BUT it does not follow that highbrow art is more entropic (Jane Austen,
Beethoven pop highbrow – access is key!)
 Core: Care About Communicating
• Baseline: art and perhaps other social spheres as well are not fixed, they do
change, a form of art may break existing conventions
• Example: Impressionist style of painting; it was rejected, but it became popular and
widely appreciated
• Encoders (artists, preachers, or politicians) who build redundancy in their
messages are audience centered --- they care about communicating.
• They care about the overcoming of communicational problems and getting
their message through!
 Redundancy and Social Relationships
• The concept functions in a similar way in our social sphere
• Let’s return to our previous ’Hello’ example: on the street & sending a
highly redundant message:
• No comm problem, no noise, no entropy, the audience is receptive
• Clear example of phatic communication (i.e. comm that has a social function)
• By this we maintain & strengthen our relationships
• We do not add anything, but we would damage it without saying ’Hello’
 Psychological Side
• Human beings have ego-drive: the need to have our presence noticed
• When we experience that we are not noticed our ego-drive, this basic
human need is frustrated
• Phatic communication is crucial in holding a community together
• PC is highly redundant because it is concerned w/ relationships not with
new information
• Conventional, polite behavior is phatic comm.
 Two Functions of Redundancy
• What we discussed so far points toward similarities between
communcation situations;
• In interpersonal comm a person who uses phatic comm is audience-
receiver centered;
• Similarly the writer/speaker who builds in redundant messages into his
work is receiver centered;
• They communicate in a conventional manner in order to make their
messages and themselves accessible to their receivers.
 Extension of this Understanding to Pop
Culture
• Conventional art form: folk-song; full of redundancy; we sing the song in order
to build ties with our community; we reaffirm our membership
• The same can be said about subcultures; there are various conventions in
different subcultures, if we communicate verbally and non-verbally according to
those rules, then we reaffirm our membership in that subculture
• We listen to and sing the songs and dance using the conventional dance steps; with these
we express our membership
• Counter example: when art forms are entropic – break conventions – they are
rejected initially (Impressionists, avant-garde, contemporary example?)
 Analysis

• Let’s test what we discussed so far about redundancy and entropy.

• We will look at two pictures and then we will compare their differences!
 Questions for Analysis
• Rendundant or entropic?
• In form? In content?
• What do we see in the photo?
• How do these actions influence our interpretation?

• What obstructs the transmission of an accurate message?

 Analysis
• Redundant in form: conventional news photo
• Content: policemen attacking a well-dressed lady; we conventionally think of
the police as the defenders of law and order
• Further general problem: photos are open to various interpretations
• Possible reading: policemen attack black citizens

• The ordinary Daily Mirror reader needs further messages in order to precisely
decode the meaning of the photo.
Front Page Cover
of Daily Mirror
What did they do to decrease
entropy and increase
redundancy?

They decided to make this

image of the police fit more
closely with what we
conventionally think of them.
 They Interpret the Situation for their Readers

• Added another photo: here we can see an injured policeman to balance

the large photo in which police aggression is clearly visible
• ’CONFRONTATION’ this term suggests that the balance of aggression
was equal
• The caption ’Demo blacks clash with London police’ pushes the balance
over the demonstrators; more conventional understanding
• Both types of redundancies are at work here: technical (context) and
social (reinforces social bonds, trust: we see the world in the same way).
 Other Basic Concepts that Help the
Transmission and Interpretation of Messages
• We haven’t discussed the conceptualizations of the following terms:
• Channel
• Medium
• Code
• Feedback
• S. & W. do not use Medium and Feedback but these are crucial
contributions that other theorists made to understand communication
processes!
 Channel & Medium

• Channel: the physical means by which the signal is transmitted (light waves,
sound waves, radio waves, telephone cables, the nervous system)

• Medium: the technical or physical means of converting the message

into a signal capable of being transmitted along the channel (example:
human voice; technology of broadcasting is the media of TV)
 Technological Properties of a Medium
• The nature of the channel determines these physical properties
• & these properties determine the range of codes which it can transmit

• Three main categories of media:

• Presentational
• Representational
• Mechanical
• Classification is important for analytical purposes but these categories do overlap!
 Presentational Media
• The voice, the face, the body
• They use the natural languages of spoken words, expressions &
gestures
• The presence of the communicators is necessary
• And they are restricted spatially and temporarily
• They produce the acts of communication
 Representational Media
• Books, paintings, photographs, writing, architecture etc.
• They use cultural and aesthetic conventions to create a ’text’
• These ’texts’ can record the presentational media & important
difference to category 1 that they can exist independently from
the communicator
• They produce works of communication
 Mechanical Media
• Telephone, radio, television etc.
• Transmitters of presentational and representational media
• Mechanical media use channels created by engineers thus these
are more restricted than representational media
• And also: more affected by Level-A (technical) noise
 Further Implications: Interrelationships of
Mass Media
• Media do leak into each other in various ways
• Comparative study to explore their similarities and differences (Katz,
Gurevitch, and Hass, 1973)
• They compared various mass media from the perspective of human
needs
• Example: people use tv, radio, and newspapers to connect themselves to society; they use
books and films to escape from their reality; books are used for
improving one’s understanding of self
 Making Sense of Codes
• Code = system of meaning common to the members of a community
• It consists of both signs (physical signals) and conventions (or rules) –
conventions determine how and in what contexts these signs are used &
how they can be combined to form more complex messages

• Now we will only look at the basic relationship between codes and channels,
and codes and media.
 Code & Channel
• The physical characteristics of the channel determine the codes that
they can carry
• Example: phone is limited to verbal language and paralanguage (intonation, stress,
volume)
• We can also talk about secondary codes, when the primary codes (i.e. verbal
language) are re-encoded into secondary codes (morse, deaf-and-dumb signs
etc.)
 Code and Medium
• The relationship between these two is not so straightforward.
• Example: TV is a medium that uses the channels of vision and sound;
certain programmes use both channel-specific and medium-specific codes.

• The important question is what and how codes are constrained by the
medium?
 Code & Medium

Channel-spec codes Medium-spec codes in the visual channel

• Visual channel: live action, studio shots, • Codes of lighting, colour, speed, definition,
and graphics framing, camera movement and placing, and
editing

• Aural channel: recorded noises, speech,

and music • Conclusion: technical constrainsts of
the medium define the possible uses of
each code; but their actual use is defined
by the culture of the broadcaster! (ex.:
editing)
 Code & Medium: Further Implications
• Different example: ’dress’ as a medium
• In this case it is difficult to distinguish between the codes and the medium
• Is it useful to talk about different codes of the dress or different messages sent by
the same code?
• Bottomline: all cultures have the medium of dress; communication occurs through
the culturally accepted conventions that the medium conveys
• Dresses or any type of clothing have technological function as well, it protects
our bodies from the elements; defined by their technological function and
secondarily by their communicative function!
 Feedback & Channel
• S. & W.’s model do not use this concept, but scholars later added this term as they
have found it useful
• Basically it stands for: the receiver’s reaction back to the sender
• Feedback enables the communicator to adjust his or her performance to the needs
of the audience --- good speakers are generally sensitive to feedback.
• Channels determine the effectiveness of feedback – in a conversation feedback
is different on phone and in person (nonverbals); and access to channels also limit
feedback (lecture v. seminar)
 Main and Subsidiary Functions of Feedback

• Main: It helps the communicator to adjust his or her messages to the

needs and responses of the receiver.

• Subsidiary:
• It helps the receiver to feel involved in the communication.
• It helps the reception of the message.
• Feedback makes the process of transmitting messages more efficient.
 Application of this Knowledge

• Apply Shannon and Weaver’s levels A, B, and C to the

analysis of different examples of communication.
• Let’s see for example how can we apply it for a job
interview?
• And then let’s analyze a pop song!
 Media and Channels

• Take a number of examples of media and

channels. Clearly one medium can use more than
one channel and one channel can convey more
than one medium: is there therefore any significant
relationship between medium and channel or are
they independent concepts?
 Next Week: Other Process Models
• We will discuss the different contributions to the process school. The models that
we will look at are claimed to be universally applicable (they can explain every act
of communication).
• Gerbner’s model (similar to but more complex than S. & W.’s model): perhaps the broadest
model.
• Laswell’s model: starts out from S. & W.’s model but it is specifically developed to explain
communication in the mass media.
• Newcomb’s model is focused on interpersonal or social communication.
• Westley & MacLean develops N’s model for applications to mass media.
• And lastly Jakobson’s model that is widely regarded as a bridge between the process &
semiotic models.