Communication Theory // 7th March 2012
Communication Theory // 7th March 2012
- Lasswell's maxim: "Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect"
Communication Theory is a new concept introduced in the 1940's.
World War I is an example of failure of communication
There are two very different types of communication theory: transmissional and constitutive
Traditions of Communication Theory
•Multiple theories and perspectives shape the field of communication studies.
•Lacking a unifying theory, the field can be divided into seven traditions
•Cybernetic or Information Theory (Transmissional)
•Semiotics (All these are Constitutive)
•The Phenomenological Tradition
•Rhetorical
•Socio-Psychological
•Socio-Cultural
•Critical Theory
Two models:
Transmission (informational) model examines the process of sending and receiving messages or transferring information from one mind
to another. This model’s limitations are that sending and receiving messages sometimes create gaps in communication because
communication signs can be perceived differently by different people.
Constitutive model (the process of production and reproduction of shared meaning)
These models have several limitations, most of which are due to the fact that there can be can be gaps that occur in an understanding
of the communication process either due to socio-cultural diversity and change or due to the limitations of being able to measure
authentic communication between people.
The Information or Cybernetic theory of Communication
- Shannon and Weaver Bel Laboratories 1949
Useful for: researching how as a designer your work makes effective communication.
Useful for: main limitation is that it is a linear process and is not concerned with the production of meaning itself, which is a socially
mediated process.
The 'sketchy' hand-drawn diagram below is the first communication diagram used for communicating the process of a telephone.
There are three levels of potential communication problems:
Level 1 Technical
Accuracy
Systems of encoding and decoding
Compatibility of systems/need for specialist equipment or knowledgeLevel 2 Semantic
Precision of language
How much of the message can be lost without meaning being lost?
What language to use?
Level 3 Effectiveness
Does the message affect behaviour the way we want it to?
What can be done if the required effect fails to happen?
- There is a little test often carried out with typography, where by you hide either the bottom half of the text or the top half of a line of text and try to read what it is saying. The top half is usually much easier to read, and this is all to do with how we communicate with one another.
Systems Theory
- The great advantage is that you can switch between mathematical, biological, psychological and sociological frames of reference.
- The definition of audience keeps on changing and developing
- Graphic Designer = Immediate occupation
Who are we communicating to? Audience and Social Class
- National Readershio Survey
Classification | Description |
A | Upper middle class |
B | Middle class |
C1 | Skilled working class |
C2 | Skilled working class |
D | Working class |
E | Subsistence |
- NS-SEC 2001
Classification | Description |
1 | Managerial & professional |
2 | Intermediate occupations |
3 | Small employers & own account workers |
4 | Lower supervisory & technical |
5 | Semi-routine & routine Never worked & long-term unemployed |
- Registrar General's social Classes
Classification | Description |
I | Professionals |
II | Managerial & technical |
IIIN | Skilled non-manual |
IIIM | Skilled manual |
IV | Partly skilled |
V | Unskilled |
- The JICNAR National Readership Survey classifications (i.e. A, B, C1, C2, D, E) and the Registrar General’s Social Class system (i.e. I, II, IIIN, IIIM, IV, V) are compatible but the National Statistics Social and Economic Classifications [NS-SEC] ) is not.
- This major shift resulted from dissatisfaction with the previous systems, which were felt to be increasingly unrepresentative of UK
society and the new patterns of work and employment within it.
- The key issues in this debate are that, on the one hand, the JICNAR categories are thought to be more commonly understood than
those from the other systems, but on the other hand, the new NS-SEC system was used by the 2001 Census and has been built to
reflect the current shape of employment and occupations.
BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board)
Audience categories
The main audience categories are: individuals, adults, men, women, children, and housewives. These are further subdivided by age
and social class.
Audience sub-categories/sub-demographic groups
The division of the main audience categories is by age and social class. Social class is determined at the household, rather than
the individual, level. The classes are:
AB - higher (A) and middle (B) management, administrative or professional
C1 - supervisory, clerical, and junior management
C2 - skilled manual workers
DE - semi-skilled and unskilled workers and non-wage earners.
AB and C1 audiences are sometimes described as 'upmarket', C2, D and E are correspondingly described as 'downmarket'.
Age divisions generally used are:
4-9 years; 10-15; 16-24; 25-34; 35-44; 45-54; 55-64 and 65+ (although 55-64 and 65+ tend to be replaced by 55+).
Broadcasters may be neutral about which sub-category watches their programmes but advertisers are not and tend to prefer younger
and more upmarket audiences. Both groups watch less television than the population generally, so getting to them appeals to
advertisers. Beyond that, upmarket audiences have more to spend, and the 16-24 age group has no clearly established patterns of
consumer spending, another appealing factor for advertisers.
- Strategies for reaching audiences as target markets. Marketers have outlined four basic strategies to satisfy target markets:
undifferentiated marketing or mass marketing, differentiated marketing, concentrated marketing, and micromarketing/ nichemarketing.
Baywatch
- As the citizens of less developed countries are increasingly viewed through the prism of consumerism, control of their
values and purchasing patterns becomes increasingly important to multinational firms.
- At its peak in mid-1990s, Baywatch was watched by more than 1 billion people a week in nearly 150 countries.
But what was communicated?
"The Baywatch Theory of Art doesn’t distinguish between a work of art and the kind of object that it represents. For example, it doesn’t distinguish between a sculpture that represents a woman with big breasts and a woman with big breasts. John Hyman."
