What is the traditional model of communication, and what are the central assumptions?
Linear relationship, focus on mass media: sender (message)–> receiver (effect)
Central assumptions:
- Mass media reaches everyone
- 1-way flow of information
- Direct relation between message - effect
- Receiver is able and willing to process information
- Receiver is passive and uncritical
Who belongs to what?
Who:
- Laswell (1948)
- Shannon-Weaver (1949)
- Berelson (1949)
- Berlo (1960)
What:
- Subjectivity is noise
- SMCR model of communication
- More nuance; importance of context
- Who says what to whom through what channel with what effect?
Laswell - Who says what to whom through what channel with what effect?
Shannon-Weaver: Subjectivity is noise
Berelson - More nuance; importance of context
Berlo - SMCR model of communication
Who do linear models not work?
- Mass media do not reach everyone
- Communication is not a one-way flow
- No direct relation message-effect
- Receivers not always able and willing
- Receivers filter information according to own preferences
How does the public consist of active participants in the communication process?
- They select and modify content based on information needs and preferences
- They actively make sense and meaning by filtering information on the basis of perceptions, assumptions, and judgements
- They interpret and shape messages depending on the context of experience, beliefs, traits, and worldview
How is scientific knowledge constructed?
- Active construction: people do not draw on models, text-book accounts of scientific knowledge, but filter and supplement scientific representations with others
- Contextual use: people select, construct, and use knowledge according to their situation, interest, and involvement
- Credibility: people do not accept knowledge passively, credibility depends on perceived interests
- Sense-making: people integrate scientific elements with ethical views and tact understandings to form a personal position on controversial matters
What are Paul Watzlawick’s (1967) axioms of communication?
- Impossible to not communicate
- Content and relationship levels (how I see you)
- The punctuation of events–> structuring and organizing a sequence of events and behviours (what you’re used to)
- Digital & analogic communication–> digital meaning coded (language etc.), analogic meaning uncoded (non-verbal etc.)
- Symmetrical and complementary interaction (sender and receiver are equal/unequal)
Describe the translational model of communication
- Communication process, senders, and receivers keep changing
- Share a field of experience
What is communication?
- A continuous, transactional process, involving participants operating is specific contexts
- Creating a relationship by simultaneously sending and receiving messages through channels, often distorted by noise
- (Un)intentional, contextual
- Irreversable, unrepeatable
What is framing?
The process by which we make sense of a complex reality based on our exprience and perspective.
It’s how an individual sees and interprets an object on basis of visual data, experience, and worldview. It is a process of selection - organisation - intepretation.
“We see things as we are”.
Why does framing matter in science communication?
- Facts don’t speak for themselves
- Actors rely on frames to make sense of complex phenomena
- Frames are embedded in institutions, practices, values, and interests
