This model reflects dominant thought on communication,

by proposing communication as a linear process that starts with a sender, creates a message

and somehow ends up with an audience, a receiver.

Lasswell, in 1948, made this model explicit.

To understand the process of communication, according to Lasswell, we need to consider

Who, says What, in which Channel, to Whom, and with what Effect

Of course, many things can go wrong in this process of communication

When I talk to someone and a car drives by, it might cause a distraction

or it's roaring engine might drown out my voice.

My conversation partner can have other things on his mind

and there are many other things that can cause a disruption of effective communication

It's important to note, by the way, that communication, in this linear way of looking at communication

is only effective when the desired effect is reached.

When the message succesfully reaches, and is correctly interpreted by the receiver.

That many things can distort a correct transmission becomes clear

in the transmission model, that Shannon and Weaver created in 1949.

This model of communication embodies five elements, like the model of Lasswell

The first element is Sender, which is obviously the person or persons, that create a message

Then comes the Message itself

Thirdly, the Channel that is used to send the message.

Another word for this channel is of course medium

and the different channels that exist are collectively named media.

The next element is, like in the Lasswell model, the Receiver.

And finally again, we see the Effect.

Here we clearly see that in each of these stages so-called 'Noise'

can disrupt the correct transmission.

In our field we define noise as

'Everything that can cause a disruption in the flow of communication'.

So, in our example, the car that passes by can create many forms of noise.

The sound of it's loud engine causes confusion because someone can't hear me correctly

or miss what I'm saying entirely. So, that's one form of noise.

Another form is the distraction that it creates for my partner

so he doesn't really pay attention to what I'm saying

and therefore misinterprets or forgets my message and the desired effect is not reached.

The important thing with these models is that they see communication as a linear process

and this in itself has led to an emphasis on effects.

We want to know if communication has a desired effect.

This is a very influential way of looking at communication.

It's also very different from another approach that we will explain further

in the next section of this MOOC.