Although adapted and updated, much of the information in this lecture is derived from C.

David
Mortensen, Communication: The Study of Human Communication (New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Co., 1972), Chapter 2, Communication Models.

A. What is a Model?
1. Mortensen: In the broadest sense, a model is a systematic representation of
an object or event in idealized and abstract form. Models are somewhat
arbitrary by their nature. The act of abstracting eliminates certain details to
focus on essential factors. . . . The key to the usefulness of a model is the degree to
which it conforms--in point-by-point correspondence--to the underlying
determinants of communicative behavior.
2. Communication models are merely pictures; theyre even distorting pictures,
because they stop or freeze an essentially dynamic interactive or transactive
process into a static picture.
3. Models are metaphors. They allow us to see one thing in terms of another.

B. The Advantages of Models

1. They should allow us to ask questions.
Mortensen: A good model is useful, then, in providing both general perspective
and particular vantage points from which to ask questions and to interpret the
raw stuff of observation. The more complex the subject matterthe more
amorphous and elusive the natural boundariesthe greater are the potential
rewards of model building.

2. They should clarify complexity.

Models also clarify the structure of complex events. They do this, as Chapanis
(1961) noted, by reducing complexity to simpler, more familiar terms. . . Thus,
the aim of a model is not to ignore complexity or to explain it away, but rather to
give it order and coherence.

3. They should lead us to new discoveries-most important, according to Mortensen.

At another level models have heuristic value; that is, they provide new ways to
conceive of hypothetical ideas and relationships. This may well be their most
important function. With the aid of a good model, suddenly we are jarred from
conventional modes of thought. . . . Ideally, any model, even when studied

casually, should offer new insights and culminate in what can only be described
as an Aha! experience.

C. Limitations of Models
1. Can lead to oversimplifications.
There is no denying that much of the work in designing communication models
illustrates the oft-repeated charge that anything in human affairs which can be
modeled is by definition too superficial to be given serious consideration.
Some, like Duhems (1954), believe there is no value in models at all:
We can guard against the risks of oversimplification by recognizing the fundamental
distinction between simplification and oversimplification. By definition, and of necessity,
models simplify. So do all comparisons. As Kaplan (1964) noted, Science always simplifies;
its aim is not to reproduce the reality in all its complexity, but only to formulate what is
essential for understanding, prediction, or control. That a model is simpler than the subjectmatter being inquired into is as much a virtue as a fault, and is, in any case, inevitable [p.
280]. So the real question is what gets simplified. Insofar as a model ignores crucial
variables and recurrent relationships, it is open to the charge of oversimplification. If the
essential attributes or particulars of the event are included, the model is to be credited with
the virtue of parsimony, which insists-where everything is equal-that the simplest of two
interpretations is superior. Simplification, after all, is inherent in the act of abstracting. For
example, an ordinary orange has a vast number of potential attributes; it is necessary to
consider only a few when one decides to eat an orange, but many more must be taken into
account when one wants to capture the essence of an orange in a prize-winning photograph.
abstracting. For example, an ordinary orange has a vast number of potential attributes; it is
necessary to consider only a few when one decides to eat an orange, but many more must be
taken into account when one wants to capture the essence of an orange in a prize-winning
photograph.

Models can miss important points of comparison. Chapanis (1961), A model

can tolerate a considerable amount of slop [p. 118].

2. Can lead of a confusion of the model between the behavior it portrays

Mortensen: Critics also charge that models are readily confused with reality.
The problem typically begins with an initial exploration of some unknown
territory. . . .Then the model begins to function as a substitute for the event: in
short, the map is taken literally. And what is worse, another form of ambiguity is
substituted for the uncertainty the map was designed to minimize. What has
happened is a sophisticated version of the general semanticists admonition that
the map is not the territory. Spain is not pink because it appears that way on
the map, and Minnesota is not up because it is located near the top of a United
States map.
The proper antidote lies in acquiring skill in the art of map reading.

3. Premature Closure
The model designer may escape the risks of oversimplification and map reading
and still fall prey to dangers inherent in abstraction. To press for closure is to
strive for a sense of completion in a system.
Kaplan (1964):
The danger is that the model limits our awareness of unexplored possibilities of
conceptualization. We tinker with the model when we might be better occupied with the
subject-matter itself. In many areas of human behavior, our knowledge is on the level of folk
wisdom ... incorporating it in a model does not automatically give such knowledge scientific
status. The majority of our ideas is usually a matter of slow growth, which cannot be
forced.... Closure is premature if it lays down the lines for our thinking to follow when we do
not know enough to say even whether one direction or another is the more promising.
Building a model, in short, may crystallize our thoughts at a stage when they are better left
in solution, to allow new compounds to precipitate [p. 279].

One can reduce the hazards only by recognizing that physical reality can be
represented in any number of ways.

D. Classical Communication Models

1. Aristotles definition of rhetoric. Ehninger, Gronbeck and Monroe: One of the
earliest definitions of communication came from the Greek philosopher-teacher
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).
a. Rhetoric is the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of
persuasion (Rhetoric 1335b).
b. Aristotles speaker-centered model received perhaps its fullest development in the
hands of Roman educator Quintilian (ca. 35-95 A.D.), whose Institutio Oratoria was filled
with advice on the full training of a good speaker-statesman.

2. Aristotles model of proof. Kinnevay also sees a model of communication in

Aristotles 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

3. Bitzers Rhetorical Situation. Lloyd Bitzer developed described the

Rhetorical Situation, which, while not a model, identifies some of the classical
components of a communication situation (The Rhetorical Situation,
Philosophy and Rhetoric, 1 (Winter, 1968):1-15.).
Bitzer defines the rhetorical situation as a complex of persons, events,
objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be
completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can
so constrain human decision or action so as to bring about significant
modification of the exigence.
See more of Bitzer's approach here.

E. Early Linear Models

1. The Shannon-Weaver Mathematical Model, 1949
a. Background

i. Claude Shannon, an engineer for the Bell Telephone Company, designed the most influential of all early
communication models. His goal was to formulate a theory to guide the efforts of engineers in finding the
most efficient way of transmitting electrical signals from one location to another (Shannon and Weaver, 1949).
Later Shannon introduced a mechanism in the receiver which corrected for differences between the
transmitted and received signal; this monitoring or correcting mechanism was the forerunner of the now
widely used concept of feedback (information which a communicator gains from others in response to his own
verbal behavior).

b. Strengths

i. This model, or a variation on it, is the most common communication model used in low-level
communication texts.
ii. Significant development. Within a decade a host of other disciplinesmany in the behavioral sciences
adapted it to countless interpersonal situations, often distorting it or making exaggerated claims for its use.
iii. Taken as an approximation of the process of human communication.
iv. Significant heuristic value.
1.) With only slight changes in terminology, a number of nonmathematical schemas have elaborated on the major theme. For example, Harold
Lasswell (1948) conceived of analyzing the mass media in five stages: Who? Says what? In which channel? To whom? With what
effect? In apparent elaboration on Lasswell and/or Shannon and Weaver, George Gerbner (1956) extended the components to include the notions
of perception, reactions to a situation, and message context.

v. The concepts of this model became staples in communication research

1.) Entropy-the measure of uncertainty in a system. Uncertainty or entropy increases in exact proportion to the number of messages from which
the source has to choose. In the simple matter of flipping a coin, entropy is low because the destination knows the probability of a coins turning up
either heads or tails. In the case of a two-headed coin, there can be neither any freedom of choice nor any reduction in uncertainty so long as the
destination knows exactly what the outcome must be. In other words, the value of a specific bit of information depends on the probability that it
will occur. In general, the informative value of an item in a message decreases in exact proportion to the likelihood of its occurrence.
2.) Redundancy-the degree to which information is not unique in the system. Those items in a message that add no new information are
redundant. Perfect redundancy is equal to total repetition and is found in pure form only in machines. In human beings, the very act of repetition
changes, in some minute way, the meaning or the message and the larger social significance of the event. Zero redundancy creates sheer
unpredictability, for there is no way of knowing what items in a sequence will come next. As a rule, no message can reach maximum efficiency
unless it contains a balance between the unexpected and the predictable, between what the receiver must have underscored to acquire
understanding and what can be deleted as extraneous.
3.) Noise-the measure of information not related to the message. Any additional signal that interferes with the reception of information is noise.
In electrical apparatus noise comes only from within the system, whereas in human activity it may occur quite apart from the act of transmission
and reception. Interference may result, for example, from background noise in the immediate surroundings, from noisy channels (a crackling
microphone), from the organization and semantic aspects of the message (syntactical and semantical noise), or from psychological interference
with encoding and decoding. Noise need not be considered a detriment unless it produces a significant interference with the reception of the
message. Even when the disturbance is substantial, the strength of the signal or the rate of redundancy may be increased to restore efficiency.
4.) Channel Capacity-the measure of the maximum amount of information a channel can carry. The battle against uncertainty depends upon the
number of alternative possibilities the message eliminates. Suppose you wanted to know where a given checker was located on a checkerboard. If
you start by asking if it is located in the first black square at the extreme left of the second row from the top and find the answer to be no, sixtythree possibilities remain-a high level of uncertainty. On the other hand, if you first ask whether it falls on any square at the top half of the board,
the alternative will be reduced by half regardless of the answer. By following the first strategy it could be necessary to ask up to sixty-three
questions (inefficient indeed!); but by consistently halving the remaining possibilities, you will obtain the right answer in no more than six tries.

vi.

Provided an influential yet counter-intuitive definition of communication.

From Littlejohn, Stephen W. Theories of Human Communication. Second Ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1983, p 116.

Information is a measure of uncertainty, or entropy, in a situation. The greater the uncertainty, the more the information. When a situation is
completely predictable, no information is present. Most people associate information with certainty or knowledge; consequently, this definition
from information theory can be confusing. As used by the information theorist, the concept does not refer to a message, facts, or meaning. It is a
concept bound only to the quantification of stimuli or signals in a situation.
On closer examination, this idea of information is not as distant from common sense as it first appears. We have said that information is the
amount of uncertainty in the situation. Another way of thinking of it is to consider information as the number of messages required to completely
reduce the uncertainty in the situation. For example, your friend is about to flip a coin. Will it land heads up or tails up? You are uncertain, you
cannot predict. This uncertainty, which results from the entropy in the situation, will be eliminated by seeing the result of the flip. Now lets
suppose that you have received a tip that your friends coin is two headed. The flip is fixed. There is no uncertainty and therefore no
information. In other words, you could not receive any message that would make you predict any better than you already have. In short, a
situation with which you are completely familiar has no information for you [emphasis added].

vii. See Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1949). For a number of excellent brief secondary sources, see the bibliography.

Two sources were particularly helpful in the preparation of this chapter: Allan R. Broadhurst and Donald K.
Darnell, An Introduction to Cybernetics and Information Theory, Quarterly Journal of Speech 51 (1965):
442-53; Klaus Krippendorf, Information Theory, in Communication and Behavior, ed. G. Hanneman and
W. McEwen (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975), 351-89.

c. Weaknesses

i.

Not analogous to much of human communication.

1.) Only a fraction of the information conveyed in interpersonal encounters can be taken as remotely corresponding to the teletype action of
statistically rare or redundant signals.
2.) Though Shannons technical concept of information is fascinating in many respects, it ranks among the least important ways of conceiving of
what we recognize as information.

ii. Only formaldoes not account for content

1.) Mortensen: Shannon and Weaver were concerned only with technical problems associated with the selection and arrangement of discrete
units of informationin short, with purely formal matters, not content. Hence, their model does not apply to semantic or pragmatic dimensions of
language.
2.) Theodore Roszak provides a thoughtful critique of Shannons model in The Cult of Information. Roszak notes the unique way in which
Shannon defined information:

Once, when he was explaining his work to a group of prominent scientists

who challenged his eccentric definition, he replied, I think perhaps the
word information is causing more trouble . . . than it is worth, except that
it is difficult to find another word that is anywhere near right. It should be
kept solidly in mind that [information] is only a measure of the difficulty
in transmitting the sequences produced by some information source
[emphasis added]
3.) As Roszak points out, Shannons model has no mechanism for distinguishing important ideas from pure non-sense:

In much the same way, in its new technical sense, information has come to
denote whatever can be coded for transmission through a channel that
connects a source with a receiver, regardless of semantic content. For
Shannons purposes, all the following are information:
E = mc2
Jesus saves.
Thou shalt not kill.
I think, therefore I am.
Phillies 8, Dodgers 5
Twas brillig and the slithy roves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
And indeed, these are no more or less meaningful than any string of
haphazard bits (x!9#44jGH?566MRK) I might be willing to pay to have
telexed across the continent.

As the mathematician Warren Weaver once put it, explaining the strange
way in which, in this theory, the word information is used .... It is
surprising but true that, from the present viewpoint, two messages, one
heavily loaded with meaning and the other pure nonsense, can be
equivalent as regards information [emphasis added].
iii. Static and Linear
1.) Mortensen: Finally, the most serious shortcoming of the Shannon-Weaver communication system is that it is relatively static and linear. It
conceives of a linear and literal transmission of information from one location to another. The notion of linearity leads to misleading ideas when
transferred to human conduct; some of the problems can best be underscored by studying several alternative models of communication.

2. Berlos 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 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 messagethe 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 accuracyby 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 arent 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.

3. Schramms Interactive Model, 1954

a. Background

Wilbur Schramm (1954) was one of the first to alter the mathematical model of Shannon and
Weaver. He conceived of decoding and encoding as activities maintained simultaneously by
sender and receiver; he also made provisions for a two-way interchange of messages. Notice
also the inclusion of an interpreter as an abstract representation of the problem of
meaning.
(From Wilbur Schramm, How Communication Works, in The Process and Effects of
Communication, ed. Wilbur Schramm (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1954), pp. 3-26):

b. Strengths

i. Schramm provided the additional notion of a field of experience, or the psychological frame of
reference; this refers to the type of orientation or attitudes which interactants maintain toward each other.
ii. Included Feedback
1.) Communication is reciprocal, two-way, even though the feedback may be delayed.

a.) Some of these methods of communication are very direct, as when you talk in direct response
to someone.
b.) Others are only moderately direct; you might squirm when a speaker drones on and on,
wrinkle your nose and scratch your head when a message is too abstract, or shift your body
position when you think its your turn to talk.
c.) Still other kinds of feedback are completely indirect.
2.) For example,

a.) politicians discover if theyre getting their message across by the number of votes cast on the
first Tuesday in November;
b.) commercial sponsors examine sales figures to gauge their communicative effectiveness in
ads;
c.) teachers measure their abilities to get the material across in a particular course by seeing how
many students sign up for it the next term.
iii. Included Context
1.) A message may have different meanings, depending upon the specific context or setting.
2.) Shouting Fire! on a rifle range produces one set of reactions-reactions quite different from those produced in a crowded theater.

iv. Included Culture

1.) A message may have different meanings associated with it depending upon the culture or society. Communication systems, thus, operate
within the confines of cultural rules and expectations to which we all have been educated.

v. Other model designers abstracted the dualistic aspects of communication as a series of loops, (Mysak,
1970), speech cycles (Johnson, 1953), co-orientation (Newcomb, 1953), and overlapping psychological
fields (Fearing, 1953).

c. Weaknesses
i. Schramms model, while less linear, still accounts for only bilateral communication between two parties.
The complex, multiple levels of communication between several sources is beyond this model.

F. Non-linear Models

1. Dances Helical Spiral, 1967

a. Background

i. Depicts communication as a dynamic process. Mortensen: The helix represents the way communication
evolves in an individual from his birth to the existing moment.
ii. Dance: At any and all times, the helix gives geometrical testimony to the concept that communication
while moving forward is at the same moment coming back upon itself and being affected by its past behavior,
for the coming curve of the helix is fundamentally affected by the curve from which it emerges. Yet, even
though slowly, the helix can gradually free itself from its lower-level distortions. The communication process,
like the helix, is constantly moving forward and yet is always to some degree dependent upon the past, which
informs the present and the future. The helical communication model offers a flexible communication
process [p. 296].

b. Strengths
i. Mortensen: As a heuristic device, the helix is interesting not so much for what it says as for what it
permits to be said. Hence, it exemplifies a point made earlier: It is important to approach models in a spirit of
speculation and intellectual play.
ii. Chapanis (1961) called sophisticated play:
The helix implies that communication is continuous, unrepeatable, additive, and accumulative; that is, each phase of
activity depends upon present forces at work as they are defined by all that has occurred before. All experience
contributes to the shape of the unfolding moment; there is no break in the action, no fixed beginning, no pure
redundancy, no closure. All communicative experience is the product of learned, nonrepeatable events which are
defined in ways the organism develops to be self-consistent and socially meaningful. In short, the helix underscores the
integrated aspects of all human communication as an evolving process that is always turned inward in ways that
permit learning, growth, and discovery.

c. Weaknesses
i.

May not be a model at all: too few variables.

Mortensen: If judged against conventional scientific standards, the helix does not fare well as a model. Indeed, some
would claim that it does not meet the requirements of a model at all. More specifically, it is not a systematic or
formalized mode of representation. Neither does it formalize relationships or isolate key variables. It describes in the
abstract but does not explicitly explain or make particular hypotheses testable.

ii. Generates Questions, but leaves much unaswered.

Mortensen: For example, does not the helix imply a false degree of continuity from one communicative situation to
another? Do we necessarily perceive all encounters as actually occurring in an undifferentiated, unbroken sequence of
events? Does an unbroken line not conflict with the human experience of discontinuity, intermittent periods, false
starts, and so forth? Is all communication a matter of growth, upward and onward, in an ever-broadening range of
encounters? If the helix represents continuous learning and growth, how can the same form also account for
deterioration and decay? What about the forces of entropy, inertia, decay, and pathology? And does not the unbroken
line of a helix tacitly ignore the qualitative distinctions that inevitably characterize different communicative events?
Also, what about movements which we define as utterly wasted, forced, or contrived? Along similar lines, how can the
idea of continuous, unbroken growth include events we consider meaningless, artificial, or unproductive? Countless
other questions could be raised. And that is the point. The model brings problems of abstraction into the open.
rtificial, or unproductive? Countless other questions could be raised. And that is the point. The model brings
problems of abstraction into the open.

2. Westley and MacLeans Conceptual Model, 1957

a. Background

i. Westley and MacLean realized that communication does not begin when one person starts to talk, but
rather when a person responds selectively to his immediate physical surroundings.
ii. Each interactant responds to his sensory experience (X1 . . . ) by abstracting out certain objects of
orientation (X1 . . . 3m). Some items are selected for further interpretation or coding (X) and then are
transmitted to another person, who may or may not be responding to the same objects of orientation (X,b),

A conceptual model of communication.

(Reprinted with permission from
Westley and MacLean, Jr., 1957.)
(a) Objects of orientation (X 1 ... X) in
the sensory field of the receiver (B) are
transmitted directly to him in abstracted

form (XZ ... X 3) after a process of

selection from among all Xs, such
selection being based at least in part
on the needs and problems of B. Some
or all messages are transmitted in more
than one sense (X3m, for example).

(b) The same Xs are selected and

abstracted by communicator A and
transmitted as a message (x') to B, who
may or may not have part or all of the
Xs in his own sensory field (X1b).
Whether on purpose or not, B transmits
feedback (fBA) to A.

(c) The Xs that B receives may result

from selected abstractions which are
transmitted without purpose by encoder
C, who acts for B and thus extends B's
environment. C's selections are
necessarily based in part on feedback
(fBC) from B.

(d) The messages which C transmits to

B (x") represent C's selections both
from the messages he gets from A (x')
and from the abstractions in his own
sensory field (X3c, X 4), which may or
may not be in A's field. Feedback
moves not only from B to A (fBA) and
from B to C (f BC) but also from C to A
(fCA). Clearly, in mass communication,
a large number of Cs receive from a
very large number of As and transmit to
a vastly larger number of Bs, who
simultaneously receive messages from
other Cs.

b. Strengths
i.

Accounts for Feedback

ii. Accounts for a sensory field or, in Newcombs (1953) words, objects of co-orientation.
iii. Accounts for non-binary interactionsmore than just two people communicating directly.
iv. Accounts for different modes. E.g. interpersonal vs. mass mediated communication.

c. Weaknesses

i. Westley and MacLeans model accounts for many more variables in the typical communication
interaction. It is, however, still two-dimensional. It cannot account for the multiple dimensions of the typical
communication event involving a broad context and multiple message.

3. Beckers Mosaic Model, 1968

a. Background
i. Mortensen: Becker assumes that most communicative acts link message elements from more than one
social situation. In the tracing of various elements of a message, it is clear that the items may result in part
from a talk with an associate, from an obscure quotation read years before, from a recent TV commercial,
and from numerous other dissimilar situationsmoments of introspection, public debate, coffee-shop banter,
daydreaming, and so on. In short, the elements that make up a message ordinarily occur in bits and pieces.
Some items are separated by gaps in time, others by gaps in modes of presentation, in social situations, or in
the number of persons present.
ii. Mortensen: Becker likens complex communicative events to the activity of a receiver who moves through
a constantly changing cube or mosaic of information . The layers of the cube correspond to layers of
information. Each section of the cube represents a potential source of information; note that some are blocked
out in recognition that at any given point some bits of information are not available for use. Other layers
correspond to potentially relevant sets of information.

b. Strengths
(from Mortensen)

i.

It depicts the incredible complexity of communication as influenced by a constantly changing milieu.

ii. It also accounts for variations in exposure to messages. In some circumstances receivers may be flooded
by relevant information; in others they may encounter only a few isolated items. Individual differences also
influence level of exposure; some people seem to be attuned to a large range of information, while others miss
or dismiss much as extraneous.
iii. Different kinds of relationships between people and messages cut through the many levels of exposure.
Some relationships are confined to isolated situations, others to recurrent events. Moreover, some
relationships center on a particular message, while others focus on more diffuse units; that is, they entail a
complex set of relationships between a given message and the larger backdrop of information against which it
is interpreted.
iv. It may be useful to conceive of an interaction between two mosaics. One comprises the information in a
given social milieu, as depicted in the model; the other includes the private mosaic of information that is
internal to the receiver. The internal mosaic is every bit as complex as the one shown in the model, but a
person constructs it for himself.

c. Weaknesses
i. Even though this model adds a third dimension, it does not easily account for all the possible dimensions
involved in a communication event.

G. Multidimensional Models

1.

Ruesch and Bateson, Functional Model, 1951

a. Mortensen: Ruesch and Bateson conceived of communication as functioning
simultaneously at four levels of analysis. One is the basic intrapersonal process (level 1).
The next (level 2) is interpersonal and focuses on the overlapping fields of experience of two
interactants. Group interaction (level 3) comprises many people. And finally a cultural level
(level 4) links large groups of people. Moreover, each level of activity consists of four
communicative functions: evaluating, sending, receiving, and channeling. Notice how the
model focuses less on the structural attributes of communication-source, message, receiver,
etc.and more upon the actual determinants of the process.
b. Mortensen: A similar concern with communicative functions can be traced through
the models of Carroll (1955), Fearing (1953), Mysak (1970), Osgood (1954), and Peterson
(1958). Petersons model is one of the few to integrate the physiological and psychological
functions at work in all interpersonal events.

2. Barnlunds Transactional Model, 1970

a. Background

i. Mortensen: By far the most systematic of the functional models is the transactional approach taken by
Barnlund (1970, pp. 83-102), one of the few investigators who made explicit the key assumptions on which his
model was based.
ii. Mortensen: Its most striking feature is the absence of any simple or linear directionality in the interplay
between self and the physical world. The spiral lines connect the functions of encoding and decoding and give
graphic representation to the continuous, unrepeatable, and irreversible assumptions mentioned earlier.
Moreover, the directionality of the arrows seems deliberately to suggest that meaning is actively assigned or
attributed rather than simply passively received.
iii. Any one of three signs or cues may elicit a sense of meaning. Public cues (Cpu) derive from the
environment. They are either natural, that is, part of the physical world, or artificial and man-made. Private
objects of orientation (Cpr) are a second set of cues. They go beyond public inspection or awareness.
Examples include the cues gained from sunglasses, earphones, or the sensory cues of taste and touch. Both
public and private cues may be verbal or nonverbal in nature. What is critical is that they are outside the
direct and deliberate control of the interactants. The third set of cues are deliberate; they are the behavioral
and nonverbal (Cbehj cues that a person initiates and controls himself. Again, the process involving deliberate
message cues is reciprocal. Thus, the arrows connecting behavioral cues stand both for the act of producing
them-technically a form of encoding-and for the interpretation that is given to an act of others (decoding).
The jagged lines (VVVV ) at each end of these sets of cues illustrate the fact that the number of available cues
is probably without limit. Note also the valence signs (+, 0, or -) that have been attached to public, private,
and behavioral cues. They indicate the potency or degree of attractiveness associated with the cues.
Presumably, each cue can differ in degree of strength as well as in kind. t each end of these sets of cues
illustrate the fact that the number of available cues is probably without limit. Note also the valence signs (+, 0,
or -) that have been attached to public, private, and behavioral cues. They indicate the potency or degree of
attractiveness associated with the cues. Presumably, each cue can differ in degree of strength as well as in

kind."

b. Strengths
Mortensen: The assumptions posit a view of communication as transactions in which
communicators attribute meaning to events in ways that are dynamic, continuous, circular,
unrepeatable, irreversible, and complex.

c. Weaknesses
Mortensen: The exception is the assumption that communication describes the evolution of
meaning. In effect, the model presupposes that the terms communication and meaning are
synonymous and interchangeable. Yet nowhere does the model deal in even a rudimentary
way with the difficult problem of meaning. The inclusion of decoding and encoding may be
taken as only a rough approximation of the evolution of meaning, but such dualistic
categories are not particularly useful in explaining the contingencies of meaning.

H. Suggestions for Communication Models

1. A Systemic Model of Communication, 1972
a. Background

Some communication theorists have attempted to construct models in light of General

Systems Theory. The key assumption of GST is that every part of the system is so related
to every other part that any change in one aspect results in dynamic changes in all other
parts of the total system (Hall and Fagen, 1956). It is necessary, then, to think of
communication not so much as individuals functioning under their own autonomous power
but rather as persons interacting through messages. Hence, the minimum unit of
measurement is that which ties the respective parties and their surroundings into a coherent
and indivisible whole.

b. A Systemic Communication Model would have to address the following axioms by

Watzlawick and his associates (1967).
i.

The Impossibility of Not Communicating

Interpersonal behavior has no opposites. It is not possible to conceive of non-behavior. If all behavior in an
interactional situation can be taken as having potential message value, it follows that no matter what is said and done,
one cannot not communicate. Silence and inactivity are no exceptions. Even when one person tries to ignore the
overtures of another, he nonetheless communicates a disinclination to talk.

ii. Content and Relationship in Communication

All face-to-face encounters require some sort of personal recognition and commitment which in turn create and define
the relationship between the respective parties. Communication, wrote Watzlawick (1967), not only conveys
information, but ... at the same time . . . imposes behavior [p. 51]. Any activity that communicates information can be
taken as synonymous with the content of the message, regardless of whether it is true or false, valid or invalid. . . .
Each spoken word, every movement of the body, and all the eye glances furnish a running commentary on how each
person sees himself, the other person, and the other persons reactions.

iii. The Punctuation of the Sequence of Events

Human beings set up between them patterns of interchange (about which they may or may not be in agreement) and
these patterns will in fact be rules of contingency regarding the exchange of reinforcement [pp. 273-274].

iv. Symmetrical and Complementary Interaction

A symmetrical relationship evolves in the direction of heightening similarities; a complementary relationship hinges
increasingly on individual differences. The word symmetrical suggests a relationship in which the respective parties
mirror the behavior of the other. Whatever one does, the other tends to respond in kind. Thus, an initial act of trust
fosters a trusting response; suspicion elicits suspicion; warmth and congeniality encourage more of the same, and so
on. In sharp contrast is a complementary relationship, where individual differences complement or dovetail into a
sequence of change. Whether the complementary actions are good or bad, productive or injurious, is not relevant to
the concept.

2. Browns Holographic Model, 1987

a. Background

i. Rhetorical theorist, William Brown, proposed The Holographic View of Argument (Argumentation, 1
(1987): 89-102).
ii. Arguing against an analytical approach to communication that dissects the elements of communication,
Brown argued for seeing argument or communication as a hologram which as a metaphor for the nature of
argument emphasizes not the knowledge that comes from seeing the parts in the whole but rather that which
arises from seeing the whole in each part.
iii. The ground of argument in a holographic structure is a boundaryless event.

b. A model of communication based on Browns holographic metaphor would see

connections between divided elements and divisions between connections.

3. A Fractal Model
a. Background
i. Polish-born mathematician, Benoit Mandelbrot, while working for IBM in the 1960s and 70s, became
intrigued with the possibility of deriving apparently irregular shapes with a mathematical formula. "Clouds
are not spheres," he said, "mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor
does lightning travel in a straight line." So if these regular geometric forms could not account for natural
patterns, what could?
ii. To solve the problem, Mandelbrot developed the fractal, a simple, repeating shape that can be created by
repeating the same formula over and over.

I coined fractal from the Latin adjective fractus. The corresponding Latin verb frangere means
to break: to create irregular fragments. It is therefore sensibleand how appropriate for our
needs!that, in addition to fragmented fractus should also mean irregular, both meanings
being preserved in fragment. Benoit Mandelbrot

Construction of a Fractal Snowflake

A Koch snowflake is constructed by making progressive additions to a simple triangle. The
additions are made by dividing the equilateral triangles sides into thirds, then creating a new
triangle on each middle third. Thus, each frame shows more complexity, but every new triangle
in the design looks exactly like the initial one. This reflection of the larger design in its smaller
details is characteristic of all fractals.
iii. Fractal shapes occur everywhere in nature: a head of broccoli, a leaf, a snowflakealmost any natural
form. See http://math.bu.edu/DYSYS/explorer/index.html.
iv. Mandelbrots discovery changed computer graphicsby using fractal formulas, graphic engines could
create natural-looking virtual landscapes. More importantly, fractal formulas can account for variations in
other natural patterns such as economic markets and weather patterns.

Mandelbrot Set
Polish-born French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot coined the term fractal to describe
complex geometric shapes that, when magnified, continue to resemble the shapes larger
structure. This property, in which the pattern of the whole repeats itself on smaller and smaller
scales, is called self similarity. The fractal shown here, called the Mandelbrot set, is the graphical
representation of a mathematical function.

v. Fractals allow for almost infinite density. For example, Mandelbrot considered the deceptively simple
question: How long is the coast line of Britain? A typical answer will ignore inlets and bays smaller than a
certain size. But if we account for these small coastline features, and then those smaller still, we would soon
find ourselves with a line of potentially infinite and constantly changing length. A fractal equation could
account for such a line.
vi. Fractal geometry is in some ways related to chaos theory, the science of finding pattern in apparently
random sequences, like a dripping faucet or weather patterns. Chaos theory has been applied to computergenerated landscapes, organizational structures
(http://www.cio.com/archive/enterprise/041598_qanda_content.html), and even washing machines. Of course,
it has also been applied to economics and the stock market, in particular:

The stock markets are said to be nonlinear, dynamic systems. Chaos theory is the mathematics of studying such nonlinear, dynamic systems.
Does this mean that chaoticians can predict when stocks will rise and fall? Not quite; however, chaoticians have determined that the market prices
are highly random, but with a trend. The stock market is accepted as a self-similar system in the sense that the individual parts are related to the
whole. Another self-similar system in the area of mathematics are fractals. Could the stock market be associated with a fractal? Why not? In the
market price action, if one looks at the market monthly, weekly, daily, and intra day bar charts, the structure has a similar appearance. However,
just like a fractal, the stock market has sensitive dependence on initial conditions. This factor is what makes dynamic market systems so difficult
to predict. Because we cannot accurately describe the current situation with the detail necessary, we cannot accurately predict the state of the
system at a future time. Stock market success can be predicted by chaoticians. Short-term investing, such as intra day exchanges are a waste of
time. Short-term traders will fail over time due to nothing more than the cost of trading. However, over time, long-term price action is not
random. Traders can succeed trading from daily or weekly charts if they follow the trends. A system can be random in the short-term and
deterministic in the long term (http://www.duke.edu/~mjd/chaos/chaos.html).

vii. One key premise in both chaos theory and fractals is "sensitive dependence on initial conditions." One
early chaos theorist studying weather patterns stumbled on this when he was using a simple computer
program to plot the course of only 12 weather variables. The computer printout ran out of paper, so he noted
the status of the variables at an earlier point, stopped the process, replaced the paper and restarted the
process at the earlier point. Even though the variables started at the same point, the patterns quickly
diverged, demonstrating the similar or even identical initial conditions can lead to radically different
outcomes (This story is in James Gleick, Chaos: Making A New Science).
This phenomenon led researchers to talk about "the butterfly effect" to illustrate how a very small change
can produce significant changes in a system. The butterfly effect refers to the fact that a butterfly flapping its
wings over Beijing can result in a change in the weather patterns in New York two months later.

b. Applying Fractals to Communication

i. Like Dances Helix, seeing communication as a fractal form allows us to conceptualize the almost infinite
density of a communication event.
ii. Margaret J. Wheatley has attempted to apply Fractal theory and the science of chaos to management.
(Leadership and the New Science: Learning about Organization from an Orderly Universe. San Francisco, CA:
Berrett-Kohler Publishers, 1992.) You can read some of Wheatley's ideas here.
iii. The significance of this for the topic at hand is this: First, the patterns of complexity in natural systems, of
which human beings are a part, is profoundly complex and not easily captured in any formula. Therefore, any
predictions about the outcome of these systems are necessarily limited because of the difficulty of being
sensitive to initial conditions. A model of communication drawn from fractals and chaos theory would have to
reflect this complexity and respond to variations in initial conditions.
iv. In addition, if we marry the fractal to other mathematical constructs, we can develop an even richer
heuristic.
1.) The mathematician Rudy Rucker, in a way that only mathematicians can, said Life is a fractal in Hilbert space. (Mind Tools: The Five
Levels of Mathematical Reality (Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1987) 248.)
2.) Hilbert Space is a theoretical multi-dimensional space. Rucker is saying that life is an infinitely variegated entity that exists in multiple
dimensions.
3.) So, we can borrow Ruckers phrase and say that communication is a fractal in Hilbert space.

I. SUGGESTED READINGS
1. Barnlund, D. C. Interpersonal Communication: Survey and Studies. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
2. Chapanis, A. Men, Machines, and Models, American Psychologist,
16:113131, 1961.
3. Deutsch, K. On Communication Models in the Social Sciences, Public
Opinion Quarterly, 16:356-380, 1952.
4. Gerbner, G. Toward a General Model of Communication, Audio-Visual
Communication Review, 4:171-199, 1956.
5. Kaplan, A. The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science. San
Francisco: Chandler, 1964.
6. Lackman, R. The Model in Theory Construction, Psychological Review,
67:113-129, 1960.
7. Sereno, K. K., and Mortensen, C. D. Foundations of Communication Theory.
New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

8. Watzlawick, P., Beavin, J., and Jackson, D. Pragmatics of Human

Communication. New York: Norton, 1967.