An introduction to

communication perspectives
Pradeep Mallik, PhD
Communication perspectives
We will discuss:

What is communication

Some definitions

Approaches

Types

Models
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Definitions
Society is a highly intricate network of partial
or complete understandings between the
members of organisational units of every
degree of size and complexity

Every cultural pattern and every single act of
social behaviour involves communication in
either explicit or implicit sense

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Definitions
Communication is talking to one
another; it is television; it is spreading
information; it is hairstyle or attire, and
also it is literary criticism

The list could be endless
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Definitions
Talking itself could be by means of
language, sound, sign, gesture, colour
and so on.

Similarly, information could be spread
through mass media, a web of
computer network (internet) and other
such means
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Definitions
Communication is also understood as
the exchanging of understanding

Communication consists of transmitting
information from one person to another
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Definitions
Communication also means the sign language
of the hearing impaired, a bill board
Communication has come to include means of
transportation, the system of sending
messages from one point to the other and
receiving the same
and also the system of moving troops and
supply
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Definitions
Some of the more functional definitions of
communication:

the transfer of meaning,

the transmission of social values,

the sharing of experience,

social interaction through messages
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Definitions
Perhaps it would be appropriate to think
of communication as a series of actions
or operations, always in motion,
directed toward a particular goal; not a
static entity fixed in time and space but
a dynamic process used to transfer of
meaning, transmission of social values
and sharing of experiences
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Approaches to study of communication
Broadly two schools:

Transmission or the process school:
It sees communication as the transmission of
messages
It tends to address itself to acts of communication

Semiotic or ritual school
It sees communication as the production and
exchange of meaning.
It tends to address itself to works of communication
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Approaches to study of communication
The transmission school sees
communication as a process by which
information is transmitted between
individuals and/or organisations so that
an understanding response results
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Approaches to study of communication
In the simplest way we can say that this
"understanding response" from a fellow
human being is received as feedback.
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Approaches to study of communication
Communication is an endless current passing
through us -- changed, to be sure, by our
interpretation, our habits, our abilities and
capabilities, but the input still being reflected
in the output.[i]

[i]. De Vito, Joseph A (1976): The Interpersonal
Communication Book, New York, Harper & Row Publishers.
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Approaches to study of communication
Semiotic Approach:

It sees communication as the production and
exchange of meanings.
Concerned with how messages, or texts,
interact with people in order to produce
meanings; that is, it is concerned with the
role of texts in our culture.
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Approaches to study of communication
Semiotic Approach:

Misunderstanding is not necessarily
treated as an evidence of
communication failure in this approach.
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Approaches to study of communication
How do you see 3 Idiots?
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Approaches to study of communication
Semiotic Approach:

It believes that the cultural differences
between sender and receiver may give rise to
misunderstanding
So the focus is on the study of text and
culture with the main method of study being
semiotics
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Approaches to study of communication
Definition of communication:

Social interaction through messages

Interpretation of social interaction through
messages" in their own ways
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Approaches to study of communication
Transmission school: Defines social interaction
as the process by which one person relates
himself/herself to others or affects the
behaviour, state of mind or emotional response
of another and vice versa

Semiotics: Defines social interaction as a
process which constitutes an individual as a
member of his or her culture or society
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Approaches to study of communication
For instance, a person knows that he/she responds to
the budgetary speech of the country's finance
minister or a Satyajit Ray film in broadly the same
way as members of his/her culture.
He or she also becomes aware of cultural differences
if he/she finds a rural youth unable to relate
meaningfully to either of the two.
One expresses one's commonality with other
members of the society by responding "normally" to
a given setting
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Types of communicaiton
What could be the types?
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Types of communicaiton
Intrapersonal
Interpersonal
Group
Mass
Mass line
Interactive communication
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Types of communicaiton
Three stages of interpersonal
communication

The phatic stage
The personal stage
The intimate stage
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Types of communication
Mass-line

Lead by example
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Process of communication
Explained through models of
communication

What are models?
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Classical models of communication
Aristotalian

Rhetoric
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Classical models of communication
Aristotalian

Rhetoric: the faculty of observing in
any given case the available means of
persuasion (Rhetoric)
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Classical models of communication
Aristotle

Speaker-centered model developed by
Roman educator Quintilian (ca. 35-95
AD) whose Institutio Oratoria was filled
with advice on the full training of a
good speaker-statesman
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Models of communication
Laswell's model:

Who says what to whom in what
channel with what effect

-- (Laswell, Herald D (1960) in "The Structure and Function of
Communication" in Society in Mass Communication , (ed) Wilbur
Schramm, Urbana, Illinois, University of Illinois.)
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Models of communication
Shannon and Weaver's model:





(In their book "The Mathematical Theory of Communication)
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Models of communication
Schramm's models:






(In "How Communication Works" in The Process and Effects of Mass
Communication, (1954) Urbana, University of Illinois Press)
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Models of communication
Schramm's models:







(In "How Communication Works" in The Process and Effects of Mass
Communication, (1954) Urbana, University of Illinois Press)
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Models of communication
Schramm's models:







(In "How Communication Works" in The Process and Effects of Mass
Communication, (1954) Urbana, University of Illinois Press)
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Models of communication
Katz and Lazarsfeld's model:

The "two-step flow" concept of
communication
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Models of communication
Hypodermic Needle Model:

Deals with the effects of mass media

Media has power over audience

They can inject consciousness into masses

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Models of communication
Hypodermic Needle Model:

Used in a big way in communication for
development support initiatives

Audience treated impressionable and open to
manipulation



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Models of communication
Westley and MacLean model:







(Ruben in Communication and Human Behaviour, (1984) New York,
Macmillan)
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Westley and MacLean model







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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Basic elements: source, message, channel
and receiver but for each of these he lists a
number of controlling factors
stresses the idea that "meanings are in
people, not in words"

(in "The Process of Communication, 1960)
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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Source:


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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Source:

Comm skills
Attitudes
Knowledge
Social system
Culture
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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Message:

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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Message:

Elements
Structure
Content
Treatment
Code
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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Channel:

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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Channel:

Seeing
Hearing
Touching
Smelling
Tasting

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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Receiver:


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Models of communication
Berlo's model: S-M-C-R model

Receiver:

Comm skills
Attitudes
Acknowledge
Social system
Culture

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Models of communication
Newcombs ABX model:

First to introduce as factor the role of
communication in a society or social
relationships


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Models of communication
Newcombs ABX model:



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A
B
X
Models of communication
Newcombs ABX model:

A and B are communicators

X the situation or social context in which
communication takes place

A, B interact with X and with each other
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Models of communication
Newcombs ABX model:

Balance is maintained in the comm process
through desirable adjustments

Continuous and twp-way feedback ensures
this
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Models of communication
Berger:

Sees media as a metadiscipline

Combines theories from various disciplines:
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Models of communication: Berger
Semiotics
Aesthetics theory
Psychoanalytic theory
Sociological theory
Political theory
Anthropological Theory
Literary theory
Philosophical thought
Historical perspectives
Comparative perspective
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Models of communication: Berger

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Models of communication: Berger

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Medium
Audience
Art work
(text)
America
(society)
Artist
Models of communication
Indian model:

Based on the works of Bharata

Sadharanikaran

Only among sahridayas
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Effectiveness of communication
How can you check effectiveness?
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Effectiveness of communication
How can you check effectiveness?

Survey?
Interview?

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Effectiveness of communication
Let us call it Feedback

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Effectiveness of communication
Three levels of problems in the study of
communication.

What could be these?

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Effectiveness of communication
Three levels of problems in the study of
communication. These are:

Level A: How accurately can the
symbols of communication be
transmitted ?
(Technical problems)
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Effectiveness of communication

Three levels of problems in the study of
communication. These are:

Level B: How precisely do the
transmitted symbols convey the desired
meaning ?
(Semantic problems)
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Effectiveness of communication
Three levels of problems in the study of
communication. These are:

Level C: How effectively does the
received meaning affect conduct in the
desired way ?
(Effectiveness problems)
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Semiotic Approach
Saussures model

Peirces model

Ogden and Richards model
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Communication, Meaning, Signs
Language plays a commanding role; predominant
means of communication

Kristeva (In Hawkes, 1977): Social practices signify
something and hence articulated like a language.

Sapir (in Hawkes, 1977): Every cultural pattern and
every single act of social behaviour involves
communication.
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Sign
Fiske: Something physical; perceivable by
our senses; refers to something other than
itself; depends upon a recognition by its
users

OSullivan: Three essential characteristics:
# Must have physical form;
# Must refer to something other than itself
# Must be recognised by people as sign
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Saussures model
Sign (signe)
Signified (signifie)
Signifier (significant)

Signifier -- signified: Arbitrary relationship
So youve to learn the relationship:
What does it mean: youve to pick up some
structured associations or codes, youve to
learn.
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Saussures model
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Peirce model
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Peirces trichotomy: Three types
of signs
Icon
Index
Symbol
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Ogden and Richards Model
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Conclusion
The two approaches draw on different world
views, involve different priorities, and require
different kinds of methods.
The process approach stresses ways of
communicating
Ritual view gives more weight to the cultural
context
Ritual view orients us much more to the the
messages and meanings than to effects, cultural
and sub-cultural variations within the audience
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Symbolic-Ritual Mechanistic-
transmission
Bias towards
Languages, modes,
forms
Context
Meaning,
interpretation
Expressive use
Interaction, xchange
Sharing and
participation
Ambiguity
Bias towards
Channels, networks

Means, Technology
Causes and effects

Instrumental use
One-directional flow
Control, management
Non-ambiguity
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Symbolic-Ritual Mechanistic-
transmission
Bias towards

The static
Lateral flow
Descriptive method
Open system
Storage of
information
Ideas
The indexical
Bias towards

The dynamic
Vertical flow
Measurement,
quantification
Closed system
Transmission of info
Behaviour
The cognitive