Deviprasad Goenka Management college of Media Studies http://www.dgmcms.org.in/ Subject:Communication Lesson : Sociological model of communication2 Faculty Name: Saurabh Deshpande

1. • Communication as a process can be easily
understood in terms of what can be called as
models.
• These models, although aren’t exact replicas of
what communication actually is, tend to give an
understanding into the process of
communication.
• These models are actually concepts that help us
better understand how communication takes
place and what are the elements involved.

2. • The first models that came into existence were
merely technical models which comprised of
simplistic terms for a general understanding of
the process.
• S-M-C-R model developed by Berlo is one of the
examples for this type of a model wherein the
elements are the Source, Message, Channel and
Receiver.
• As the studies progressed, a 5th element was
added to it, ie: the Effect.

3. • Yet, the S-M-C-R-E model wasn’t advanced
enough to explain the complex process of
communication, and thus further theories and
models developed.
• These theories and models have been
classified under categories like Mechanical,
Psychological, Sociological, Socio-pyschological
etc.

4. • When seen as a sociological model, it is
generally governed by how the society
influences a particular set of communication
taking place. Many sociological factors are
taken into consideration in the model. This
includes cultural, economic, social and
political aspects of communication.

5. SOCIOLOGICAL MODEL: A General
Understanding
• Society affects an individual in every instance of
life.
• Communication is no exception to this, and thus
everything communicated is affected by our
surroundings and the state of affairs prevalent
around us.
• This is not just true in the case of a sender of the
message, but also with regard to the receiver.
• Thus, it is extremely essential to understand
social implications when we intend to
communicate with people.

6. • The sociological approach is primarily guided
by four major aspects – Society, Culture,
Politics and Economics.
• Society comprises of accepted relations,
structures, institutions and associations.
• Culture on the other hand, comprises of
differences in between social setups.

7. • This can include identity, values, ethos, religion
and ideologies.
• Politics and economy also have a prominent role
to play in some of the major communication that
occurs in the present day.
• Thus it becomes essential while communicating
to understand that while interacting with diverse
groups, it can have different effects based on the
sociological factors affecting those groups.

8. PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL: A General
Understanding
• A psychological model on the other hand goes beyond
the standard functions defined by communication and
tends to attach a originator-receptor perspective into
the communication process, thereby making it
dynamic and unrestricted.
• The psychological model derives its aspects from the
individuals perspective, basing the communication on a
variety of internal factors of the individual’s psychology
and attempts to explain the thought process and
linguistics involved.

9. • In a psychological model, there is necessarily a
sender and a receiver.
• The number can be as low as a single person
acting both as the sender and receiver or can
go upto hundreds of thousands of people
based on the medium of communication.

10. • The first step in this process begins with the
formation of an idea or a thought that the
sender wishes to convey to the receiver.
• Then the sender now translates this idea or
thought into a tangible form of code that can
be sent to the receiver.
• This process is generally called encoding.
• The code can be in the form of speech,
gesture or written content.

11. • Now this content has to be transmitted via a
certain medium.
• This is generally known as a channel which can
be a telephone line, the air, paper or a
computer.
• At this phase, it is essential to keep noise to a
minimum as it can affect the reception of the
receiver.

12. • The message can be lost or misinterpreted in
the case of excessive noise, here again based
on the capacity of the individual to effectively
decode the message which is sent.
• This is where the psychological aspect of an
individual kicks in.

13. • Once the transmission of the message is done
through a medium, it is sent to the receivers end
where it is decoded.
• This decoding process is very essential as it is the
point where the integrity of the communication is
tested.
• If, based on psychological factors the receiver
makes an error in decoding, then it can have
widespread implications on the communication
process, which may end up as a failure.

14. • Interpretation of the communication is
entirely based on the receivers psychological
set up and hence, the psychological models
are employed to understand the
communication process.

15. • Gerbner’s Model of 1956 on the other hand is a complex
model which deals with psychological aspects of an
individual and his perception of an event which is
occurring.
• Hence, it is a Pyschological model.
• In this model, the process begins with an event E, which is
an external event that is perceived by M (which is to be
interpreted as a receiver, this can be either a human or a
machine like a microphone or a camera).
• Thus, M’s perception of E is taken as E1.
• This relationship is complex in the case that M cannot
perceive the whole complexity of E, and hence there is a
selective difference between E and E1.

16. • “Human perception is not a simple reception
of stimuli, but is a process of interaction or
negotiation.” – Fiske, John.

17. • In this case, the receiver (M) tries to match
the external event (E) with internal patterns of
thoughts and ideas derived out of his/her own
experiences. When this happens, perception
of the event is said to have occurred and this
in itself is termed as a perceived event (or
rather a perceived notion of the event) E1.
Thus, meaning is derived by matching external
events with internal concepts.

18. References
• http://sudyspeaks.wordpress.com/2012/09/1
6/psychological-and-sociological-models-of-communication-
a-distinguishment/