Message - The message is the symbols
and signs which are actually
Sender - The sender is the speaker. A sender starts with
an impulse he or she wishes to express and then must
encode that idea into symbols (words) and signs (facial
expressions, tone of voice, etc).
.1 Berlo’s S-M-C-R, 1960
.a Background
.i Ehninger, Gronbeck and Monroe: “The
simplest and most influential message-
centered model of our time came from
David Berlo (Simplified from David K.
Berlo, The Process of Communication
(New York: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston, 1960)):”
.ii Essentially an adaptation of the
Shannon-Weaver model.
.b Significant after World War II because:
.i The idea of “source” was flexible
enough to include oral, written,
electronic, or any other kind of
“symbolic” generator-of-messages.
.ii “Message” was made the central
element, stressing the transmission of
ideas.
.iii The model recognized that receivers
were important to communication, for
they were the targets.
.iv The notions of “encoding” and
“decoding” emphasized the problems
transmitted. All messages are carried by
a channel (such as face-to-face, over the
phone, email, etc).
Receiver - The receiver is the listener.
The receiver must decode the symbols
and signs of the message sent through
the channel. Decoding involves working
through one's own perceptual filters to
arrive at thoughts which approximate
the sender's original intent.
Feedback - Feedback is the signs the
receivers projects while the sender is
sending a message. Feedback allows the
sender to know how his or her message
is being received.
Environment - Environment is the
physical, social and emotional context the communication
takes place in. Environments can place expectation and
contraints on communication.
we all have (psycho-linguistically) in translating
our own thoughts into words or other symbols
and in deciphering the words or symbols of
others into terms we ourselves can understand.
.c Weaknesses:
.i Tends to stress the manipulation of the message
—the encoding and decoding processes
.ii it implies that human communication is like
machine communication, like signal-sending in
telephone, television, computer, and radar
systems.
.iii It even seems to stress that most problems in
human communication can be solved by
technical accuracy-by choosing the “right”
symbols, preventing interference, and sending
efficient messages.
.iv But even with the “right” symbols, people
misunderstand each other. “Problems in
“meaning” or “meaningfulness” often aren’t a
matter of comprehension, but of reaction, of
agreement, of shared concepts, beliefs, attitudes,
values. To put the com- back into
communication, we need a meaning-centered
theory of communication.”
.2 Aristotle’s model of proof. Kinnevay also sees a model of communication in
Aristotle’s description of proof:
.a Logos, inheres in the content or the message itself
.b Pathos, inheres in the audience
.c Ethos, inheres in the speaker