MODELS OF COMMUNICATION PROCESS

1. Shannon's Model of Communication

2. The Gatekeeper Model
3. The Interactive Model
4. The Transactional Model
 Shannon's Model of Communication
 Shannon's model of the communication process is, in important
ways, the beginning of the modern field of communication science. It
provided, for the first time, a general model of the communication
process that could be treated as the common ground of such diverse
disciplines as journalism, rhetoric, linguistics, and speech and
hearing sciences.
 Shannon’s Model of Communication
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 Shannon's Model of Communication.
Components
 An information source. Presumably a person who creates a message.
 The message, which is both sent by the information source and received by the
destination.
 A transmitter. For Shannon's immediate purpose a telephone instrument that captures
an audio signal, converts it into an electronic signal, and amplifies it for transmission
through the telephone network. The simplest transmission system, that associated with
face-to-face communication, has at least two layers of transmission. The first, the mouth
(sound) and body (gestures). The second layer, which might also be described as a
channel, is built of the air (sound) and light (gesture) that enable the transmission of
those signals from one person to another.
 Shannon's Model of Communication.
Components
 The signal, which flows through a channel. There may be multiple parallel signals, as is
the case in face-to-face interaction where sound and gesture involve different signal
systems that depend on different channels and modes of transmission. There may be
multiple serial signals, with sound and/or gesture turned into electronic signals, radio
waves, or words and pictures in a book.
 A carrier or channel. The most commonly used channels include air, light, electricity, radio
waves, paper, and postal systems.
 Noise, in the form of secondary signals that obscure or confuse the signal carried. Given
Shannon's focus on telephone transmission, carriers, and reception, it should not be
surprising that noise is restricted to noise that obscures or obliterates some portion of the
signal within the channel.
 Shannon's Model of Communication.
Components
 A receiver. In Shannon's conception, it is the receiving telephone
instrument. In face to face communication it is a set of ears (sound) and eyes
(gesture). In television there are several layers of receiver, including an
antenna and a television set.
 A destination. Presumably a person who consumes and processes the
message.
 The Gatekeeper Model
 This model focuses on the important role that intermediaries often play in the
communication process.
 Many of these intermediaries have the ability to decide what messages others see,
the context in which they are seen, and when they see them.
 Variations of Gatekeeper model are also used in teaching organizational
communication, where gatekeepers, in the form of bridges and liaisons, have some
ability to shape the organization through their selective sharing of information.
The Gatekeeper Model
 The Interactive Model

 The interactive model elaborates Shannon's model with the

cybernetic concept of feedback.
 The key concept associated with this elaboration is that destinations provide
feedback on the messages they receive such that the information sources can
adapt their messages, in real time.
 The source of feedback is an information source. The consumer of feedback is
a destination. Feedback is transmitted, received, and potentially disruptable
via noise sources.
The Interactive Model
 The Transactional Model

 This model acknowledges neither creators nor consumers of messages,

preferring to label the people associated with the model as communicators
who both create and consume messages.
 The model presumes additional symmetries as well, with each participant
creating messages that are received by the other communicator.
The Transactional Model