Chapter 1: Communication
In the 1940s, engineers at a large American telephone research laboratory faced a stubborn problem. Long-distance calls kept arriving full of crackle, hiss, and dropped words, even when the sender’s voice had been perfectly clear at the start. A young mathematician working there decided to strip the problem down to its bones. He was not interested, at first, in what people were saying to each other. He wanted to know something narrower and stranger: what happens to a message, mathematically, between the moment it leaves one machine and the moment it reaches another.
His answer, published in 1948, treated a message as something that travels through a system with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that can be corrupted at any point along the way. He gave a name to the corruption itself. Engineers had always known that lines picked up static. He was the first to treat that static as a formal part of the communication process, worth studying as closely as the message.
His model was built for telephone wires. Within a few years, teachers of human communication had borrowed it almost unchanged, because a classroom, a newsroom, and a telephone line, it turned out, break down in surprisingly similar ways.
This chapter answers the questions his work, and the work of thinkers before and after him, raises about how communication actually happens.
Diagram
Fig 1.0-1 – a generic 1940s-style illustration of two telephone handsets connected by a long cable strung between poles, with faint jagged static lines crossing the cable partway along its length; label one handset “message sent” and the other “message received”, and label the static lines “interference along the way”
1.1 Understanding Communication
1.1.1 Meaning and Nature of Communication
You share something with another person almost every waking minute. A nod at a friend across a crowded corridor, a text message tapped out in a hurry, a teacher explaining a difficult sum on the board — each of these is an act of communication: the continuous process through which people share information, ideas, or feelings with one another using words, symbols, or actions.
The word itself comes from the Latin communicare, meaning “to share” or “to make common”. This origin is worth holding onto, because it points to what communication is actually trying to do: not simply to send something across, but to make an idea common to two or more minds.
Elements of Communication
To talk about communication clearly, it helps to name its working parts. A sender is the person who starts the process by forming an idea and putting it into a shareable form, a step called encoding. The message is the idea, feeling, or information being shared. The channel is the route the message travels along — spoken words, a handwritten note, a phone call, a social media post. The receiver is the person who gets the message and interprets it, a step called decoding. Feedback is the receiver’s response, which tells the sender whether the message landed as intended.
Not every message arrives exactly as it was sent. Noise is any disturbance that distorts or interrupts a message somewhere between sender and receiver — a dog barking during a phone call, a word the receiver does not know, or simply not paying attention. All of this happens inside a context: the physical, social, and cultural setting in which the exchange takes place, which shapes how a message is framed and understood.
Diagram
Fig 1.1-1 – flow: sender (encodes message) → message → channel → receiver (decodes message) → feedback, with a small jagged noise symbol placed on the arrow between channel and receiver to show it can distort the message at that point; label the return arrow from receiver back to sender as “feedback loop”
Nature of Communication
Communication is rarely a single, finished event. It is continuous, building on everything said before it; dynamic, changing shape as the people involved respond to each other; and interactive, moving back and forth rather than in only one direction. A conversation with a friend, for instance, keeps adjusting itself — your next sentence depends on what they just said.
This is why communication also demands adaptability. The same idea has to be expressed differently for a younger sibling, a teacher, and a stranger, because each of these people brings a different background and different expectations to the exchange. Recognising this need to adjust — to the audience, the setting, and the purpose — is central to what it means to communicate well, and it is the thread that connects every level and model discussed later in this chapter.
1.1.2 Communication as a Science and an Art
The ISC syllabus for this subject describes communication as being both a science and an art, and this is not a throwaway phrase. It points to two genuinely different ways of studying and practising the same activity, and a good communicator, whether a journalist, a radio jockey, or a public relations officer, ends up needing both.
Communication as a Science
Communication behaves like a science whenever it is studied in a structured, testable way. Researchers observe how people send and receive messages, collect data through surveys or experiments, and build theories that predict how communication is likely to succeed or fail under given conditions. The models you will meet later in this chapter — proposed by Aristotle, by Shannon and Weaver, by Lasswell, and by Schramm — are themselves the product of this scientific approach: each one is an attempt to describe, in an orderly and repeatable way, exactly what happens when one person communicates with another.
This scientific side is what allows communication to be improved deliberately. A radio station that studies listener data to decide when to air its news bulletin, or a teacher who notices that visual explanations work better than verbal ones for a particular topic, is applying communication as a science.
Communication as an Art
Communication also behaves like an art whenever it depends on creativity, emotional sensitivity, and personal judgement rather than on measurable rules. Choosing the right word, timing a pause in a speech, or framing a difficult piece of news gently are not things a formula can fully specify. They call for imagination and an intuitive sense of what a particular audience, in a particular moment, needs to hear.
This artistic side is what makes a message memorable rather than merely accurate. A well-told story, a striking headline, or a speech that moves an audience to act all succeed because of choices that are creative as much as they are correct.
Neither side works well without the other. A speech built entirely on logic and data can still fail to move anyone if it is delivered without warmth, and a beautifully told story can still mislead if it is not grounded in accurate information. This is why the sections ahead move between the two: they describe communication scientifically, level by level, while also showing the creative choices that make any given message land.
1.2 Levels of Communication Transactions
Communication does not happen at only one scale. Sometimes it happens entirely inside your own head; sometimes it happens between two people; sometimes it happens across a room, and sometimes it reaches millions of people at once. These different scales are called the levels of communication, and each one follows its own patterns of interaction, feedback, and purpose. This chapter looks at four such levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and mass communication.
Diagram
Fig 1.2-1 – a horizontal scale with four labelled points arranged left to right showing increasing number of participants: a single generic figure with a thought bubble labelled “Intrapersonal”; two generic figures facing each other labelled “Interpersonal”; a cluster of five to six generic figures labelled “Group”; and a single broadcasting icon (a simple tower or screen) with arrows fanning out to a large crowd of generic figures labelled “Mass”
1.2.1 Intrapersonal Communication
Intrapersonal communication is the communication that takes place within a single individual: the internal dialogue, thinking, reflection, and self-evaluation that happens before a person ever speaks or acts. When you weigh up two options before making a decision, or silently rehearse what you are about to say, you are engaging in intrapersonal communication.
This level is often called the foundation of every other level of communication, because thoughts and meanings are processed internally before they are ever expressed outwardly. A person’s internal dialogue shapes their decision-making, their emotional regulation, and how thoughtfully they respond to the people around them.
1.2.1.1 Self as a Concept
At the centre of intrapersonal communication sits the self, and how a person understands their own self is called their self-concept: their overall understanding of who they are, including their beliefs about their abilities, personality, values, and social roles.
Self-concept is not fixed at birth. It develops gradually, shaped by lived experience, by personal reflection, and by feedback from people such as family, friends, and teachers. A student who comes to believe that ability grows with effort, for instance, is more likely to attempt a difficult problem and to keep trying after a mistake, because that belief is part of how they see themselves.
1.2.1.2 Self-Disclosure and Self-Esteem
Two related ideas complete this picture of the self. Self-disclosure, in the intrapersonal sense, means being honest with oneself about one’s own thoughts, fears, and feelings, rather than avoiding or denying them. Self-esteem means the value or worth a person places on themselves.
1.2.2 Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal communication is the exchange of information, ideas, and feelings between two or more individuals through both verbal and non-verbal means. Unlike intrapersonal communication, it moves outward: it is direct, and it depends on a continuous exchange between participants who can each respond to the other.
This level matters because it is the basis of nearly every human relationship — a conversation at home, a discussion between classmates, an exchange with a shopkeeper. Unlike mass communication, which addresses a large and often unknown audience, interpersonal communication is personal: the sender knows who they are speaking to, and can adjust the message as the exchange unfolds.
1.2.2.1 Types of Interpersonal Communication
The simplest and most direct type is dyadic communication: communication between exactly two individuals, whether face to face, over a phone call, or through a video call. Because only two people are involved, dyadic communication allows for immediate feedback and close emotional connection, which is why it forms the basis of close personal relationships. Two classmates discussing a shared worry before an exam are engaging in dyadic communication.
Interpersonal communication also occurs inside larger settings without losing its personal character. Within a small group working on a task, members still exchange messages interpersonally with one another even while the group as a whole pursues a shared goal. Even within a public speech, a speaker who notices a listener’s puzzled expression and pauses to explain further is drawing on an interpersonal skill — reading and responding to one person’s reaction — even while addressing a crowd.
1.2.2.2 Functions of Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal communication does several kinds of work at once, and naming these functions makes it easier to see why the level matters so much in everyday life.
Information exchange is the sharing of facts, ideas, and opinions so that people can stay informed and make decisions — two colleagues comparing notes before a meeting, for instance.
Relationship building is communication that creates and strengthens trust and emotional closeness over time, such as friends who grow closer by regularly sharing what is happening in their lives.
Emotional expression allows a person to communicate feelings such as happiness, worry, or frustration, and to be understood and supported in turn.
Persuasion and influence is communication aimed at shaping another person’s attitude or behaviour, whether through reasoning, emotional appeal, or personal credibility.
Feedback and clarification is the exchange that checks whether a message has actually been understood, and corrects it if it has not — a question asked, a point repeated in different words.
Conflict resolution is the use of communication to work through a disagreement, by expressing concerns clearly, listening to another point of view, and reaching an outcome both sides can accept.
1.2.3 Group Communication
Group communication is the process through which three or more individuals interact to exchange information, ideas, and opinions in order to achieve a shared goal. It takes place in settings such as classrooms, committees, and clubs, and unlike interpersonal communication between two people, it involves several participants whose contributions influence one another at the same time.
The success of a group depends on how well its members coordinate: on mutual respect, clarity about who is doing what, and a willingness to listen and adjust. Group communication is usually further divided by size into small groups and large groups, because the two behave quite differently.
1.2.3.1 Small Group Communication
Small group communication usually involves between three and twelve members, small enough that every participant can take part actively. Because the group is small, interaction tends to be informal, collaborative, and flexible: leadership can shift between members depending on who has the relevant knowledge, and feedback is immediate, since anyone can respond to anyone else at any point. A project team of five students planning an assignment together is a typical example.
1.2.3.2 Large Group Communication
Large group communication involves more than twelve participants, and it behaves very differently. Because the audience is larger, interaction becomes limited and often one-directional, with one or a few speakers addressing the rest of the group. Leadership tends to be clearly defined and centralised, feedback is delayed and usually confined to specific moments such as a question-and-answer session, and the communication itself becomes more formal and structured. A school assembly, where a single speaker addresses the entire student body, is a typical example.
1.2.4 Mass Communication
Mass communication is the process by which information, ideas, and messages are created and transmitted to a large, heterogeneous audience — a diverse public made up of people of different ages, backgrounds, and locations — through mass media channels such as newspapers, television, radio, and digital platforms.
Unlike the levels discussed so far, mass communication follows a one-to-many pattern: a single source, such as a news channel or a publishing house, communicates with a vast and largely unknown audience at the same time. Feedback is usually delayed or indirect, and the sender rarely knows each individual receiver personally, which is why messages in mass communication tend to be designed for general, wide understanding rather than for one particular listener.
Diagram
Fig 1.2-2 – a single broadcasting source icon (a simple tower or screen) at the centre, with several arrows radiating outward to a wide scatter of small generic receiver icons at varying distances, representing a diverse, dispersed audience; label the source “single sender” and the receivers “large, heterogeneous audience”
Mass communication performs several distinct functions in society. Information dissemination keeps large numbers of people informed about local, national, and global events. Education spreads knowledge beyond the classroom through documentaries and informative content. Entertainment offers relaxation and shared cultural experiences through films, music, and sport. Socialisation and cultural transmission passes on shared values, traditions, and social norms from one generation to another. Formation of public opinion shapes how people interpret political, economic, and social issues, through news coverage and debate.
1.3 Models of Communication
A model of communication is a simplified diagram or description that shows how the elements of communication introduced earlier in this chapter — sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback, and noise — actually fit together in practice. This section looks briefly at four influential models, proposed at different times and for different purposes, by Aristotle, by Shannon and Weaver, by Harold Lasswell, and by Wilber Schramm.
1.3.1 Aristotle’s Model of Communication
One of the earliest attempts to explain communication in a structured way came from the Greek philosopher Aristotle, in the 4th century BCE. His model was built specifically to explain public speaking and persuasion, and it remains a linear model: it shows communication moving in a single direction, from the speaker to the audience.
Diagram
Fig 1.3-1 – a horizontal line of four connected boxes reading, left to right: “Speaker”, “Speech”, “Audience”, “Effect”, with a single forward-pointing arrow running beneath all four boxes to show the one-way direction of the model; a small fifth box labelled “Occasion” sits below the arrow between “Speech” and “Audience”
In Aristotle’s model, the speaker originates the message and must be credible for the audience to accept it; the speech is the message itself, built to be clear and persuasive; the audience is who the message must be shaped for, since the same speech can land differently with different listeners; the occasion is the setting and purpose of the moment of speaking; and the effect is the response the speech produces, whether agreement, motivation, or action.
Aristotle also identified three appeals a speaker uses to persuade an audience. Ethos is the appeal to the speaker’s own credibility and character. Pathos is the appeal to the audience’s emotions. Logos is the appeal to logic, facts, and reasoned argument. A strong speech, in Aristotle’s view, typically draws on all three together, rather than relying on just one.
1.3.2 Shannon and Weaver’s Model of Communication
You met the origin of this next model in this chapter’s opening story: the mathematician working to solve interference on telephone lines. His name was Claude E. Shannon, and working with Warren Weaver at Bell Telephone Laboratories, he published this model in 1948. It is also called the Mathematical Model of Communication, because it was originally built to describe how a signal travels through a technical system, though it has since been widely applied to human communication as well.
Diagram
Fig 1.3-2 – a horizontal line of five connected boxes reading, left to right: “Information Source”, “Transmitter”, “Channel”, “Receiver”, “Destination”, joined by forward arrows; below the “Channel” box, a separate box labelled “Noise Source” connects upward into the arrow between “Transmitter” and “Receiver” to show noise entering the signal in transit
The information source decides what message needs to be sent. The transmitter, also called the encoder, converts that message into a signal suited to the channel — in human terms, turning a thought into spoken words. The channel is the pathway the signal travels along. The receiver, or decoder, converts the signal back into an understandable message, and the destination is the final point the message is meant to reach.
This model’s most significant contribution is treating noise as a formal part of the process rather than an occasional accident. Noise can be physical (a loud sound in the room), semantic (a word the receiver does not understand), psychological (distraction or bias that stops a message registering properly), or technical (a poor phone signal or a broken microphone). The original model does not include feedback, since it was built to describe a one-way signal, though later adaptations of the model often add it to show a response returning to the sender.
1.3.3 Harold Lasswell’s Model of Communication
In the same year as Shannon and Weaver, the political scientist Harold Lasswell proposed a model built specifically for studying mass communication — newspapers, radio, and political messaging aimed at large audiences. He summed up his model in a single, often-quoted question:
Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?
Diagram
Fig 1.3-3 – five connected boxes in a horizontal line reading, left to right: “Who (Communicator)”, “Says What (Message)”, “In Which Channel (Medium)”, “To Whom (Receiver)”, “With What Effect (Effect)”, joined by forward arrows to show the one-way flow of the model
Each part of the question names one component of the process: Who is the communicator originating the message; Says What is the message itself; In Which Channel is the medium the message travels through, whether a mass medium such as television or a personal channel such as a phone call; To Whom is the receiver or audience; and With What Effect is the outcome the message produces. Lasswell placed particular weight on this last component, since his own work was closely tied to studying propaganda and public opinion. He distinguished effects that change what an audience knows (cognitive), what they feel (affective), and what they do (behavioural).
1.3.4 Wilber Schramm’s Model of Communication
By 1954, Wilbur Schramm proposed a model that broke from this linear pattern altogether. Rather than showing a message moving in a straight line from sender to receiver, Schramm described communication as a circular process, in which each participant acts alternately as sender and receiver, continuously exchanging messages and responses.
Diagram
Fig 1.3-4 – a circular arrangement of connected boxes: “Encoder / Sender” at the top, connected by a curved arrow to “Message” on the right, which connects to “Decoder / Receiver” at the bottom, which connects by a return curved arrow labelled “Feedback” back up to “Encoder / Sender” on the left, completing the loop; a shaded overlapping region labelled “Field of Experience” surrounds both the sender and receiver boxes
Central to Schramm’s model is the idea of a shared field of experience: the knowledge, language, culture, and past experience that a sender and receiver bring to an exchange. Communication works best when this field overlaps significantly, since both people can then encode and decode messages in similar ways; when the overlap is small, misunderstanding becomes far more likely. Feedback, the response a receiver sends back, is what turns the exchange into a genuine two-way process, allowing the sender to check whether the message actually landed as intended and to adjust it if it did not. Schramm’s model also carries forward the idea of noise from Shannon and Weaver’s work, recognising that interference can disrupt understanding at any stage of this ongoing exchange.
1.4 Summary
- Communication is the continuous, dynamic, and interactive process by which a sender shares a message with a receiver through a channel, so that meaning is created and responded to.
- Its basic elements are the sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback, noise, and context; the sender encodes a message and the receiver decodes it.
- Noise is any interference — physical, semantic, psychological, or technical — that distorts a message between sender and receiver.
- Communication is both a science, studied through systematic observation, evidence, and theory, and an art, dependent on creativity, emotional sensitivity, and personal judgement.
- Communication operates at four levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, and mass communication, distinguished mainly by the number of participants involved.
- Intrapersonal communication is the internal dialogue within an individual, built around self-concept, and, in brief, self-disclosure and self-esteem.
- Interpersonal communication is the direct, two-way exchange between two or more individuals; its main type is dyadic communication, and its functions include information exchange, relationship building, emotional expression, persuasion, feedback and clarification, and conflict resolution.
- Group communication involves three or more people working toward a shared goal, and takes two forms: small group communication, which is informal and interactive, and large group communication, which is formal, centralised, and largely one-directional.
- Mass communication transmits messages to a large, heterogeneous audience through mass media, following a one-to-many pattern; its functions include information dissemination, education, entertainment, socialisation and cultural transmission, and the formation of public opinion.
- Aristotle’s model explains communication as persuasion, moving from speaker to speech to audience to effect, built on the appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos.
- Shannon and Weaver’s model treats communication as a signal moving through a system — information source, transmitter, channel, receiver, destination — and formally introduces noise as a factor that can distort a message.
- Lasswell’s model summarises communication as five questions — who says what in which channel to whom with what effect — with particular emphasis on mass communication and its effects.
- Schramm’s model departs from the earlier linear models by describing communication as a circular, ongoing process built on feedback and a field of experience shared between sender and receiver.
1.5 Key Terms
- Adaptability — the ability to adjust a message to suit a particular audience, setting, or purpose.
- Affective effect — a change in an audience’s feelings or attitudes produced by a message.
- Art (of communication) — the creative, emotionally sensitive side of communication that depends on personal judgement rather than fixed rules.
- Behavioural effect — a change in an audience’s actions produced by a message.
- Channel — the route a message travels along from sender to receiver.
- Cognitive effect — a change in an audience’s knowledge or understanding produced by a message.
- Communication — the continuous, dynamic, and interactive process of sharing meaning between a sender and a receiver.
- Context — the physical, social, and cultural setting in which communication takes place.
- Decoding — the process by which a receiver interprets a message.
- Destination — the final point a message is meant to reach, in Shannon and Weaver’s model.
- Dyadic communication — direct communication between exactly two individuals.
- Encoding — the process by which a sender turns an idea into a shareable message.
- Ethos — a rhetorical appeal based on the credibility and character of the speaker.
- Feedback — the receiver’s response, which shows whether a message was understood.
- Field of experience — the shared knowledge, language, and background that sender and receiver bring to an exchange, central to Schramm’s model.
- Group communication — the interaction of three or more individuals working toward a shared goal.
- Heterogeneous audience — a large, diverse audience made up of people of different backgrounds.
- Information source — the originator of a message, in Shannon and Weaver’s model.
- Interpersonal communication — the direct, two-way exchange of information between two or more individuals.
- Intrapersonal communication — communication that takes place within an individual, through internal dialogue and reflection.
- Large group communication — group communication involving more than twelve participants, usually formal and centrally led.
- Levels of communication — the different scales at which communication takes place, from within one person to across a mass audience.
- Linear model — a model that shows communication moving in a single direction, from sender to receiver.
- Logos — a rhetorical appeal based on logic, facts, and reasoning.
- Mass communication — the transmission of information to a large, heterogeneous audience through mass media, following a one-to-many pattern.
- Message — the idea, feeling, or information being communicated.
- Model of communication — a simplified diagram or description of how communication works.
- Noise — any interference that distorts or interrupts a message.
- One-to-many — a communication pattern in which a single source reaches a large audience at once.
- Pathos — a rhetorical appeal based on emotion.
- Physical noise — interference caused by an external disturbance, such as a loud sound.
- Propaganda — communication designed to spread a particular idea or opinion, often to a mass audience.
- Psychological noise — interference caused by distraction, bias, or a receiver’s mental state.
- Receiver — the person who receives and decodes a message.
- Science (of communication) — the structured, evidence-based study of how communication works and can be predicted.
- Self-concept — a person’s overall understanding of who they are.
- Self-disclosure — being honest with oneself about one’s own thoughts and feelings.
- Self-esteem — the value or worth a person places on themselves.
- Semantic noise — interference caused by unclear or unfamiliar language.
- Sender — the person who originates and encodes a message.
- Small group communication — group communication involving three to twelve members, usually informal and interactive.
- Technical noise — interference caused by a fault in the equipment or channel carrying a message.
- Transmitter — the part of Shannon and Weaver’s model that converts a message into a signal for transmission; also called the encoder.
1.6 Points to Ponder
- If a speaker uses only logos, with no pathos at all, can a speech still be called persuasive?
- Aristotle’s model shows no arrow running back from the audience to the speaker. Does that mean a public speech really involves no response from listeners, or does the model simply choose not to show it?
- Schramm’s model suggests communication works best when sender and receiver share a similar field of experience. Does this mean two people from very different backgrounds can never fully understand each other?
- A mass media message has to be built for a large, unknown audience rather than for one particular person. What is gained by this, and what is lost?
- If noise can never be fully removed from any channel, can a message ever really be said to arrive exactly as it was sent?
- Self-esteem is shaped partly by a person’s own self-talk. Does this mean a person has full control over their own self-esteem, or are there limits to what intrapersonal communication alone can change?
1.7 Objective Questions
Which of the following best describes the nature of communication as explained in this chapter?
- Static and one-time
- Continuous, dynamic, and interactive
- Random and unpredictable
- Limited only to spoken words [1 mark]
In Shannon and Weaver’s model, which term names any interference that distorts a message on its way to the receiver?
- Feedback
- Channel
- Noise
- Decoding [1 mark]
Assertion (A): Aristotle’s model of communication does not show feedback from the audience. Reason (R): The model was designed only for written communication and never for spoken speeches.
- Both A and R are true and R explains A
- Both A and R are true but R does not explain A
- A is true but R is false
- A is false but R is true [1 mark]
Match the model in Column A with the idea most closely associated with it in Column B. | Column A | Column B | |—|—| | a. Aristotle | i. Field of experience and feedback loop | | b. Shannon and Weaver | ii. Persuasion through ethos, pathos, and logos | | c. Lasswell | iii. Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect | | d. Schramm | iv. Noise in technical transmission | [1 mark]
Fill in the blank: The exchange of information between exactly two individuals is called __________ communication. [1 mark]
State whether true or false: Large group communication usually allows for immediate and continuous feedback from every participant. [1 mark]
Which rhetorical appeal in Aristotle’s model is based on the credibility and character of the speaker?
- Pathos
- Logos
- Ethos
- Occasion [1 mark]
Fill in the blank: A person’s overall understanding of who they are, including their beliefs about their abilities and values, is called their __________. [1 mark]
Assertion (A): Communication is described as being both a science and an art. Reason (R): It can be studied systematically through theories and evidence, while also depending on creativity and emotional sensitivity.
- Both A and R are true and R explains A
- Both A and R are true but R does not explain A
- A is true but R is false
- A is false but R is true [1 mark]
Group communication involving three to twelve members, marked by close interaction and shared leadership, is called:
- Large group communication
- Mass communication
- Small group communication
- Interpersonal communication [1 mark]
1.8 Check Your Concepts
Define self-esteem, and give one example of how it might be expressed through a person’s self-talk. [2 marks]
State any two functions of interpersonal communication, giving one example of each. [2 marks]
Differentiate between small group communication and large group communication with reference to interaction, leadership, and feedback. [3 marks]
Explain briefly, with an example, how noise can disrupt communication according to Shannon and Weaver’s model. [3 marks]
Explain the three rhetorical appeals in Aristotle’s model of communication, giving one example of each in a school context. [4 marks]
Describe Schramm’s model of communication in detail, and explain how it differs from Aristotle’s and Lasswell’s models in its treatment of feedback. [6 marks]
1.9 Analyse the Media Text
- A school principal has a notice put up on the school noticeboard announcing new library timings. Two days later, several students are seen asking the librarian in person to clarify what the new timings actually are.
- Identify the level of communication shown by the noticeboard notice, and state one reason for your answer.
- Explain why the students’ questions to the librarian are an important part of the overall communication process.
- Name one type of noise that could explain why the notice’s message was unclear to some students. [6 marks]
- Aarav and Rhea are planning a class project together. They discuss it over a phone call, correct each other’s misunderstandings as they talk, and finally agree on a plan of action.
- Identify the level of communication shown in this exchange.
- Name the specific type of communication within that level.
- List two functions of interpersonal communication that are visible in this exchange. [4 marks]
- A local radio station broadcasts a public health message encouraging listeners across an entire city to wash their hands regularly.
- Identify the level of communication shown here, and justify your answer using one of its defining features.
- Using Lasswell’s model, identify the “who”, the “says what”, and the “to whom” in this example. [5 marks]
1.10 Craft Practice
Using Shannon and Weaver’s model as your guide, write a short imagined dialogue of six to eight lines between two speakers in which a message is disrupted by one clearly named type of noise, and the misunderstanding is cleared up only through feedback. Label which lines represent the message, the noise, and the feedback. [4 marks]
Design a short intrapersonal “self-talk” monologue of 80 to 100 words for a student preparing to give a class presentation, showing how self-concept and self-esteem might shape what they silently say to themselves. Submit the monologue along with a two-line note identifying which phrases reflect self-concept and which reflect self-esteem. [5 marks]