The essentials
Communication is the process by which a sender shares information, ideas or feelings with a receiver so that both arrive at a common meaning. The word comes from the Latin "communis", meaning common. Every act of communication has a source (sender), a message, a channel (medium), a receiver and usually feedback. Anything that disturbs the message is called noise.
Key points
- Intrapersonal communication: communication within oneself, such as thinking, planning or talking to oneself.
- Interpersonal communication: between two or a few people, usually face to face, with immediate feedback.
- Group communication: within a small or large group, such as a class discussion or a meeting.
- Mass communication: a message sent through a medium (newspaper, radio, TV, film, Internet) to a large, scattered and mostly unknown audience; feedback is delayed and limited.
- Aristotle's model: speaker, speech, audience; one of the earliest, focused on persuasion.
- Lasswell's model (1948): "Who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect?"
- Shannon–Weaver model (1949): information source, transmitter, channel, receiver, destination; introduced the idea of noise.
- Schramm's model: communication works only where the sender's and receiver's field of experience overlap; the Osgood–Schramm model shows communication as a circular process in which both sides encode and decode.
- Encoding is turning an idea into a message; decoding is interpreting it.
Exam tips
Linear models (Aristotle, Lasswell, Shannon–Weaver) show one-way flow; circular or interactive models (Osgood–Schramm) include feedback. Match the key phrase to the model: "noise" points to Shannon–Weaver, "with what effect" to Lasswell, "field of experience" to Schramm.
Common mistakes
Noise is not only sound. A spelling error, poor signal, unfamiliar jargon or a distracted listener are all forms of noise.