Wilbur Schramm's Model of Communication-Mba Notes(Advertising Management)

     Schramm’s 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 it’s your turn to talk.

c.)   Still other kinds of feedback are completely indirect.

2.)   For example,

a.)   politicians discover if they’re 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).

.      Weaknesses

i.       Schramm’s 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.