Linear Model

Linear Model[edit]
It is a one way model to communicate with others. It consists of the sender encoding a message and channeling it to the receiver in the presence of noise. In this model there is no feedback which may allow for a continuous exchange of information. This form of communication is a one-way form of communication that does not involve any feedback or response, and noise. (F.N.S. Palma, 1993,
Shannon and Weaver[edit]
The new model was designed to mirror the functioning of radio and telephone technologies. Their initial model consisted of three primary parts: sender, channel, and receiver. The sender was the part of a telephone a person spoke into, the channel was the telephone itself, and the receiver was the part of the phone where one could hear the other person. Shannon and Weaver also recognized that often there is static that interferes with one listening to a telephone conversation, which they deemed noise. The noise could also mean the absence of signal.[1]
In a simple model, often referred to as the transmission model or standard view of communication, information or content (e.g. a message in natural language) is sent in some form (as spoken language) from an emissor/ sender/ encoder to a destination/ receiver/ decoder. This common conception of communication views communication as a means of sending and receiving information. The strengths of this model are simplicity, generality, and quantifiability. Mathematicians Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver structured this model based on the following elements:
An information source, which produces a message.
A transmitter, which encodes the message into signals
A channel, to which signals are adapted for transmission
A receiver, which 'decodes' (reconstructs) the message from the signal.
A destination, where the message arrives.
Shannon and Weaver argued that there were three levels of problems for communication within this theory.
The technical problem: how accurately can the message be transmitted?
The semantic problem: how precisely is the meaning 'conveyed'?
The effectiveness problem: how effectively does the received meaning affect behavior?
Daniel Chandler critiques the transmission model by stating:[3]
It assumes communicators are isolated individuals.
No allowance for differing purposes.
No allowance for differing interpretations.
No allowance for unequal power relations.
Berlo[edit]
In 1960, David Berlo expanded Shannon and Weaver's 1949 linear model of communication and created the Source-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) Model of Communication.[4] The SMCR Model of Communication separated the model into clear parts and has been expanded upon by other scholars.
Dance's Helical model of communication
Some communication models portray the communication process as a linear or circular process. But Frank Dance's helical model illustrates the continuousness of the process as represented by the infinity sign (see below) as none of the other models can. Dance's model takes into account the dynamic flow of communication. It depicts the ever-expanding range of the relationships as communicating participants reencounter each other on an ongoing basis that continues indefinitely.

Unlike the helical model, a circular model implies that communication returns to the same place. The helical model, on the other hand, suggests that relational interactions are constantly changing, progressing and evolving. Dance's model embraces the idea that you can’t go back in time and erase the ill will caused by past mistakes and misunderstandings. Each meeting has intractably impacted, for better or worse, the message sender/receiver's relationship with the other message sender/receiver. What's done is done and cannot be wiped from one's experience. However, most people can learn to integrate their history with others effectively through focusing on positives, discussing areas of conflict, and acting in ways that bind them together.

“At any and all times, the helix gives geometrical testimony to the concept that communication while moving forward is at the same moment coming back upon itself and being affected by its past behavior, for the coming curve of the helix is fundamentally affected by the curve from which it emerges. Yet, even though slowly, the helix can gradually free itself from its lower-level distortions. The communication process, like the helix, is constantly moving forward and yet is always to some degree dependent upon the past, which informs the present and the future. The helical communication model offers a flexible communication process”. Quote from Frank Dance's Human communication theory : original essays; 1967; p.296.

What are the helical model's shortcommings? Frank Dance created a model of communication which some claim is not an actual model at all since it has too few variables and particular hypotheses are not testable because of its abstractness. So why include this communication model? As with Osgood and Schramm's model, Frank Dance's helical model conceptually enhances the idea that the message sender and message receiver are interchangeable teachers and students of each other. The helical model also forces upon our attention aspects of the communication process that are not found in other models.