Schramm's Model of
Communication
Wilbur L.
Schramm was a forefather in the development of a basic model of communication.
His model is a derivation of the Shannon-Weaver transmission model of
communication. The Shannon-Weaver model proposed six elements of communication:
• source
• encoder
• message
• channel
• decoder
• receiver
Wilbur Schramm's
1954 model expands on this thinking by emphasizing the process of encoding and
decoding the message. Schramm envisioned this process as a two-way circular
communication between the sender and receiver. Where the Shannon-Weaver model
is a more mathematical and technological one, Schramm incorporates the study of
human behavior in the communication process.
In addition to
the six elements above, Schramm has included these concepts:
• Feedback - information that comes
back from the receiver to the sender and tells him how well he is doing.
Diagram of
Schramm's feedback loop
• Field of Experience - an individual's
beliefs, values, experiences and learned meanings both as an individual or part
of a group.
Diagram of
Schramm's field of experience
Dr. Schramm
suggests that the message can be complicated by different meanings learned by
different people. Meanings can be denotative or connotative. Denotative
meanings are common or dictionary meanings and can be roughly the same for most
people. Connotative meanings are emotional or evaluative and based on personal
experience. A message can also have surface and latent meanings. Other
characteristics of messages that impact communication between two individuals
are: intonations and pitch patterns, accents, facial expressions, quality of
voice, and gestures. The successful transmission of a message depends on
whether this message will be accepted over all the competing messages.
Schramm's model
of communication also allows for the process of interpreting the message. This
process is influenced by the presence of both physical (phone, tv, sirens,
etc.) and semantic (distractions, age, attitudes, etc.) noise.
Dr. Schramm
believed that all of these elements were important functions of communication
in society. He felt that people in a society need information on their
environment and methods of communicating in order to make decisions. Most
importantly we need "places to store the accumulated knowledge and wisdom
of a society and this is why we have libraries" (Schramm, 1963, pg. 14).
Within a library, all of these elements of Wilbur Schramm's communication model
are useful in addressing problems with conducting a reference interview. This
model provides the rationale to solve the problem presented in this project.
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