Elements of the Communication Process and Shannon-Weaver model of communication

Communication is the process of sharing information and the elements of the communication consists of a message, a messenger, a receiver, encoding, decoding, channel.

The messenger encode his message according to his intent. The message will go through a channel such as email, face-to-face or phone conversation, letter, poster, presentation, etc. The receiver will then decode the message. However, interference might occurs during the process which misinterpreted the receiver of the intent of the messenger.

Examples of interference could be the message is unclear. Like usage of words, expressions or one’s accents can cause receiver to have trouble decoding the message.

The messenger’s state of mind could also be the cause. Emotions could probably change the way the message will be understood. The body language, tone or moods could cause misinterpretation too.

Another example would be the wrong channel that is used to convey the message of intent and content which they might get lost.

Shannon-Weaver model of communication

A creation by Claude Shannon which expands on Harold Laswell’s theory of communication which states:”Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect”

Elements of the Shannon-Weaver model of communication: a source, an encoder, a message, a channel, a decoder and a receiver.
Three other factors: physical noise, semantic noise and feedback.

“The destination in the journey is the receiver. Without the receiver, there is no one to communicate with. But the destination is not the final step. The final step goes back to the start. The receiver provides feedback. This is the heartbeat of communication.”  -Derek Barry

Stats: Old Media’s Decline, New Media’s Ascent

Article: http://mashable.com/2009/01/29/stats-old-media-decline/

In this article, a survey was conducted among the adult internet users in US. The survey had shown that network TV news is the most widely-used form of media in 2008, followed by local newspaper and local TV news.The trends in the survey tells that media consumption habits are quickly changing as some new media are performing better than others. Example, for the past three years, blogs usage had increased by 11%, social networks usage by 9% and videocasts usage by 4%. Slower growers like RSS feeds usage increased by 2%, podcasts usage by 2% and business news sites usage remain the same. Traditional media on the other hand, some mediums are declining faster than others. Local Tv news usage had decreased by 12%. However, cable network news usage had increased by 2%.

There is a declining usage for traditional media and some form of new media are catching on faster than others.

It’s quite a surprise to see that new media such as internet new sites, blogs, or social networks were not at the top of the list. Although it shows a significant increase in percentage from year 2006 to 2008, traditional media like network TV news, Local newspaper and local Tv news were still widely used for the past three years as shown in the survey. Having said that, the percentage under traditional media had shown a slight decline of comsumption from year 2006 to 2008 while new media shows a significant increase in percentage. This shows that new media has slowly gained acceptance by the consumers.

In conclusion, new media might be a threat towards the traditional media economy as people are getting more dependent on the internet. New media might pose a serious challenge to traditional media in future. The print news declines while online news grow. The chart had sort of tells the story as traditional media usage had declined while on new media, it had show the increased of usage.