Linear and nonlinear models of communication

Before highlighting the basic models of communication, it is necessary to understand what, in fact, is communication. There are several definitions of this process, each of which to some extent characterizes it. In the most general terms, communication is the process of information exchange between people (and not only) using common and understandable signs and symbols. G.Gerbner defined it as a social process of interaction with the help of messages, APPanfilov called the communication process a special exchange of information, during which its participants are given emotional and intellectual content. Another definition proposed by IA Ritchards, calling communication a phenomenon in which the consciousness of one individual acts on the consciousness of the other so that it generates experience in it similar to its own.

Communication as an interaction process necessarily has as its basis some specific scheme or model. Highlighting the model of communication, it is necessary, first of all, to mention the now-popular model of the "5W" American researcher G. Lasswell. It consists of five components:

1) the source of information (who speaks);

2) the content of the information (what it says);

3) the way information is exchanged (language, codes, channels);

4) the consumer of information, the recipient (to whom it is transmitted);

5) the final result of communication (the final effect of the information received).

Such communication models are called linear and characterized by unidirectionality, direct impact on the recipient, which appears here only as a source of information, in some way reacting to it. Often, such models are criticized for being directed only to one side, and also do not take into account a very important component - the ultimate goal of the process, necessary for analyzing its effectiveness. Linear communication models were also proposed by J. Gerbner, W. Schramm, RO Jacobson, K. Shannon and other researchers.

The second group of communication models is also allocated. It includes non-linear communication models: dialog, field, interactive, etc. The outstanding Russian scholar-philologist M.M. Bakhtin proposed the idea of a dialogue model of communication, based on two postulates necessary for understanding this process.

First, Bakhtin pointed out that a very important and significant component of any statement is its targeting, the obligatory turn to someone, that is, The presence of a listener, without which there can not be a speaker.

Secondly, any statement is given meaning only in a certain context, at a certain time and in a certain place. In other words, the word as a code mark itself does not mean anything and only makes sense in the text, by someone read, and every new reading creates a new meaning for the word. Every new reader or listener creates his own text.

Non-linear dialogue models of communication call into question the very term "information transfer". The Chilean researcher U. Maturana believes that this term merely indicates a more or less similar mutual understanding between the third and the other, not all that each of the participants in the process had in mind.

Gestalt therapists use the concept of the field to communicate with the patient and to comprehend his story. This is a certain background, behind which lies the patient's speech addressed to the therapist, their relation to each other as participants in communication interaction, as well as the attitude to the spoken speech from the standpoint of the personal life experience of each. This background has a general, neutral character. It helps to avoid mistakes in interaction and to achieve the necessary result in therapeutic activity, despite the different subjective experience of participants in interpersonal communication.

Mass communication models are also subdivided into linear and interactive ones. Differences here are observed in the basic parameters of the communication process. So, if the family, neighbors and friends are the sources of interpersonal communication, then in the mass one they are whole social institutions. Interpersonal communication occurs face to face, and mass communication - with the help of various technological channels, and at remote distances. Finally, in interpersonal communication one can observe a direct direct connection between the participants in the process, and see a lively response to it, and in the case of mass communication this connection will not be direct, indirect or delayed.