The document discusses different models of communication including transmission, ritual, and Shannon Weaver models. It describes key aspects of each model such as how communication is viewed as transmitting messages or maintaining social relationships. The document also outlines potential barriers in communication like noise, competing messages, filters, and channel breakdowns. Finally, it discusses how audiences receive, decode, and interpret messages as well as cognitive biases that can occur.

1. Exploring the Communication Process

2. Communication as Transmission of Information
• Definition
• Transmission View of Communication: Communication is the transmission of
signals or messages
• Terms: “imparting”, “sending”, “transmitting”, or “giving information to other”

3. Communication as a ritual
• Ritual View of Communication: Communication is directed not toward the
extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time
• Terms: “sharing”, “participation”, “association”, “fellowship”, and “possession of a
common faith”
• Encoding: Encoding is the process of turning thoughts into
communication( words, pictures).
• Decoding: Decoding is the process of turning communication into thoughts.

4. Shannon Weaver Model of Communication 1948
The Shannon & Weaver model was first proposed in the 1948 article “A Mathematical Theory of
Communication” in the Bell System Technical Journal by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver:
“The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing a message sent from one point, either
exactly or approximately, to another point” (Shannon, 1948, p. 379).

6. Three Levels of Problems
• Technical problems: when the decoder, encoder or channel causes the problems.
For example, when a machine important for the communication of the message
has a fault.
• Semantic problems: This is when the message that was sent is different from the
message that was received. The message is lost somewhere in the retelling.
• Effectiveness problems: This explains how well the message can cause a
response or reaction from the receiver.

7. Barriers in the Communication Environment
• Noise and distractions. External distractions range from uncomfortable meeting rooms to
computer screens cluttered with instant messages and reminders popping up all over the place.
Internal distractions are thoughts and emotions that prevent audiences from focusing on
incoming messages. The common habit of multitasking— attempting more than one task at a
time—is practically guaranteed to create communication distractions.
• Competing messages: Having your audience’s undivided attention is a rare luxury. In most cases
you must compete with other messages that are trying to reach your audience at the same time.
• Filters. Messages can be blocked or distorted by filters, any human or technological interventions
between the sender and the receiver. (Media Example)
• Channel breakdowns. Sometimes the channel simply breaks down and fails to deliver your
message.

8. Inside the Mind of Your audience: How Audiences Receive Messages
• For an audience member to receive a message, three events need to occur: The receiver has to sense the
presence of a message, select it from all the other messages clamoring for attention, and perceive it as an
actual message (as opposed to random, pointless noise)
In general, follow these five principles to increase your chances of success:
• Consider audience expectations. Deliver messages using the media and channels that the audience expects.
If colleagues expect meeting notices to be delivered by email, don’t suddenly switch gears and start
delivering the notices via blog postings without telling anyone. Of course, sometimes going against
expectations can stimulate audience attention, which is why advertisers sometimes do wacky and creative
things to get noticed.
• Ensure ease of use. Even if audiences are actively looking for your messages, they probably won’t see them
if you make them hard to find, hard to navigate, or hard to read

9. • Emphasize familiarity. Use words, images, and designs that are familiar to your audience.
• Practice empathy. Make sure your messages speak to the audience by clearly addressing their
wants and needs—not yours.
• Design for compatibility. For the many messages delivered electronically these days, be sure to
verify technological compatibility with your audience.

10. How Audiences Decode Messages
• Decoding is a complex process; receivers often extract different meanings from messages than
senders attempt to encode in them.
• Selective perception occurs when people ignore or distort incoming information to fit their
preconceived notions of reality.
• Aberrant decoding: how messages can be interpreted differently from what was intended by
their sender.

12. Cognitive Dissonance?
• The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the mental discomfort that results from holding two
conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes and perceptions, so
this conflict causes feelings of unease or discomfort.
• A person might decide that they value smoking more than they value health, deeming the behavior "worth
it" in terms of risks versus rewards. people might try to convince themselves that if they do stop smoking,
they will then gain weight, which also presents health risks. By using such explanations, the smoker is able to
reduce the dissonance and continue the behavior.
• New Information
• Sometimes learning new information can lead to feelings of cognitive dissonance. For example, if you engage
in a behavior that you later learn is harmful, it can lead to feelings of discomfort. People sometimes deal
with this either by finding ways to justify their behaviors or findings ways to discredit or ignore new
information.

13. Selective Exposure
• Selective exposure – people keep away from communication of opposite hue.
• Selective perception – If people are confronting unsympathetic material, they do
not perceive it, or make it fit for their existing opinion.
• Selective retention – refers to the process of categorizing and interpreting
information in a way that favors one category or interpretation over another.
Furthermore, they just simply forget the unsympathetic material.

14. Entropy
• Entropy: refers to messages which convey highly unpredictable information to the receiver.
• Listeners/receivers proceed on a principle of least effort. That is to say, when attempting to
understand what someone is saying, listeners try to balance the effort required to activate any
background knowledge needed to interpret the message with resulting cognitive benefits. The
cognitive benefit for the listener may simply be straightforward understanding of the message.
• The receiver will at best only partially decode the messages and, at worst, not decode them at
all. Under this scenario, the amount of entropy has exceeded the receiver’s capacity to decode
the messages.

15. Redundancy
• Redundancy: refers to messages which convey highly predictable information to the receiver
• If redundancy is too high (i.e., there are too many highly predictable messages) then this requires
almost no effort to decode the messages, as there is little in the way of information that needs to
be decoded.
• If you create redundancy when you communicate, you can decrease the probability of
misunderstanding and be more effective at work.

16. • Redundancy is a text which doesn’t come across as different and what to be expected of everyday
life.
• For example, a policeman walking down the street, who is dressed normally and isn’t different in
any way to a normal everyday officer anyway, this would be redundancy. It doesn’t really have a
meaning or give us any information just what is expected by viewers of the text or in this case the
policeman.
• However, redundancy is vital to everyday life as it gives us the boundaries on what is normal and
what is not and constructs the way many people view things

17. The Social Communication Model
From
(authority and command)
to
(participatory culture)

18. Business Communication (Pre-Social Media)
• Earlier or external communication, a company issued carefully scripted messages to a mass audience that didn’t have many
options for responding to those messages or initiating messages of their own.
• Customers and other interested parties had few ways to connect with one another to ask questions, share information, or offer
support.
• Internal communication tended to follow the same “we talk, you listen” model, with upper managers issuing directives to lower-
level supervisors and employees.
• Social communication model is interactive, conversational, and usually open to all who wish to participate. Audience members
are no longer passive recipients of messages but active participants in a conversation. Social media have given customers and
other stakeholders a voice they did not have in the past. And businesses are listening to that voice. In fact, one of the most
common uses of social media among U.S. businesses is monitoring online discussions about a company and its brands
• The social communication model offers many advantages, but it has a number of disadvantages as well.
• Potential problems include information overload, a lower level of engagement with tasks and other people, fragmented attention,
information security risks, reduced productivity, and the difficulty of maintaining a healthy boundary between personal and
professional lives.