Schramm’s Model of Communication- An Interactional Model

 

Schramm’s Model of Communication

Notes by Sis P. Michelle Mathias fsp

 

Please Note: DO NOT CONFUSE THIS MODEL WITH THE OSGOOD AND SCHRAMM CIRCULAR MODEL. Many websites show the students the Osgood and Schramm Circular model. For the notes on Osgood and Schramm's model please refer to my Blog titled OSGOOD AND SCHRAMM'S CIRCULAR MODEL

Wilbur Schramm elaborated on the model of Shannon and Weaver and arrived at the conclusion that both the Sender and the Receiver have the encoding and decoding activities occurring simultaneously. He thus made a model that showed a two- way possibility with the concept of a feedback.He also included the concept of the 'field of experience'. 

Schramm’s model views communication as a process wherein the message is transmitted using a medium by a sender to a receiver. 

• The message is encoded by the sender and sent using correct verbal and visual symbols and transmitted. 
• The receiver decodes the message and can respond to this message from the sender which will confirm the correct reception of the message that was sent. Thus, a feedback loop is created.  
•  The concept of noise, interference and field of experience was included in this model by Schramm.

 

Concept of Noise:

Noise is non-intelligent interruptions in the message process: it can happen at any point in the process, and acts to blot out part or all of the message.(Blythe 2009, Sage Publications)

Concept of Interference:

Interference is intelligent interruptions in the message process, in other words alternative messages that confuse the receiver. (Blythe 2009, Sage Publications)

Concept of field of experience:

 It is said the by 1971, Schramm published the updated version of his model wherein, he included the concept of the ‘Field of Experience’ or the ‘Psychological frame of reference’ within which the communication occurs. It is this ‘Field of Experience’ that broadened the concept of a common field of understanding between the sender and the recipient. An individual’s experience, culture, background influences his or her communication. The communication between people can be smooth when “the sender’s field of experience and the receiver’s field of experience must overlap, at least to the extent of having a common language.” (Blythe 2009, Sage Publications). An absence of this common field of experience could contribute to a lack of understanding or varied types of noise that emanate from a misunderstood communication.   

The model which was initially developed as a linear model with the gradual changes that Schramm developed was considered to be an interactional model. Wilbur Schramm stated that communicator’s communicate their message based on their field of Experience. The receivers of this message have their own field of experience while decoding this message and giving a feedback. The more the field of experience’s overlapped, the better was the understanding of the message.