Shannon and Weaver Model and Its Application free essay sample

Them in code, expressing the sources purpose in the form ofa message. Its fairly easy to think in terms of source and encoder when you are talking on the phone (transmitter in Shannons terminology). You are the source of the message and the phone is the encoder which does the Job of turning your sounds into electrical impulses. The distinction is not quite so obvious when you think of yourself communicating face-to-face. In person-to-person communication, the encoding process is performed by the motor skills of the source vocal mechanisms (lip and tongue movements, the vocal cords, the lungs, face muscles etc. muscles in the hand and so on. Some peoples encoding systems are not as efficient as others. So, for example, a disabled person might not be able to control movement of their limbs and so find it difficult to encode the intended non-verbal messages or they may communicate unintended messages. We will write a custom essay sample on Shannon and Weaver Model and Its Application or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A person who has suffered throat cancer may have had their vocal cords removed. They can encode their messages verbally using an artificial aid, but much of the non-verbal messages most of us send via pitch, intonation, volume and so on cannot be encoded. Shannon was not particularly concerned with the communication of meanings. The inclusion of the encoding and decoding processes is very helpful to us since it draws our attention to the possibility of a mismatch between the operation of the encoding and decoding devices, which can cause semantic noise to be set up. With good reason, the source of the message may wonder whether the picture in the receivers head will bear any resemblance to whats in his/her own. Shannon-weaver: The Message The message of course is what communication is all about. Whatever is communicated is the message The Shannon-Weaver Model, in common with many others separates the message from ther components of the process of communication. In reality, though, you can only reasonably examine the message within the context of all the other interlinked elements. Whenever we are in contact with other people we and they are involved in sending and receiving messages. The crucial question for Communication Studies is: to what extent does the message received correspond to the message transmitted? Thats where all the other factors in the communication process come into play. The Shannon-Weaver model and others like it tends to portray the message as a relatively uncomplicated matter. Frequently the messages have meaning that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These considerations are irrelevant to the engineering problem. It may however be a criticism of the application of Shannons model to the more general area of human- to-human communication. Meanings are assumed to be somehow contained within the signs used in the message and the receiver can, as it were, take them out again. Matters such as the social context in which the message is transmitted, the assumptions made by source and receiver, their past experiences and so on are imply disregarded. In this respect, models, which incorporate such factors, are probably more revealing of the complexity of the communication process. Shannon- Weaver: The Channel The words channel and medium are often used interchangeably, if slightly inaccurately. The choice (a pretty stupid one above) of the appropriate channel is a vitally important choice in communication. Its obvious that you dont use the visual channel to communicate with the blind or the auditory channel with the deaf, but there are more subtle considerations to be taken into account as well Shannon- Weaver: Physical noise Shannon is generally considered to have been primarily concerned with physical (or mechanical or engineering) noise in the channel, i. e. unexplained variation in a communication channel or random error in the transmission of information. An example of physical noise is a loud motorbike roaring down the road while youre trying to hold a conversation However, it is possible for a message to be distorted by channel overload. Channel overload is not due to any noise source, but rather to the channel capacity being exceeded. You may come across that at a party where you are olding a conversation amidst lots of others going on around you or, perhaps, in a Communication lesson where everyone has split into small groups for discussion or simulations. Shannon and Weaver were primarily involved with the investigation of technological communication. Their model is perhaps more accurately referred to as a model of information theory (rather than communication theory). Consequently, their main concern was with the kind of physical (or mechanical) noise discussed above. Shannon-weaver: The Decoder Just as a source needs an encoder to translate her purposes into a message, so the receiver needs a decoder to retranslate. The decoder (receiver in Shannons paper) is an interesting and very useful development over, say, the Lasswell Formula. If you take a look at our discussion of the receiver, youll see that we considered how, for example, a blind person would not have the equipment to receive whatever non-verbal messages you send in the visual channel. The notion of a decoder reminds us that it is quite possible for a person to have all the equipment required to receive the messages you send (all five senses, any necessary technology and so on) and yet be unable to decode your messages. Shannon-weaver: The Receiver For communication to occur , there must be somebody at the other end of the channel. This person or persons can be called the receiver. To put it in Shannons terms, information transmitters and receivers must be similar systems. If they are not, communication cannot occur. What that probably meant as far as he was concerned was that you need a telephone at one end and a telephone at the other, not a telephone connected to a radio. In rather more obviously human terms, the receiver needs to have the equipment to receive the message. A totally blind person as the mental equipment to decode your gestures, but no system for receiving messages in the visual channel. So, your non-verbal messages are not received and youre wasting your energy.