Before highlighting the main communication models, you need to understand what, in fact, is communication. There are several definitions of this process, each of which characterizes it to one degree or another. In its most general terms, communication is the process of exchanging information between people (and not only) using generally accepted and understandable signs and symbols. G. Gerbner defined it as a social process of interaction with the help of messages, A.P. Panfilova called the process of communication a special exchange of information, during which its participants are transferred to its emotional and intellectual content. Another definition was proposed by I.A. Richards, calling communication a phenomenon in which the consciousness of one individual acts on the consciousness of another in such a way that it engenders in him an experience similar to his own.
Communication as a process of interaction necessarily has at its core some specific scheme or model. Highlighting communication models, it is necessary, first of all, to mention the American researcher G. Lasswell, who has become a textbook model “5W”. It consists of five components:
1) the source of information (who is speaking);
2) the content of the information (what it says);
3) a way of exchanging information (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 are characterized by unidirectionality, direct impact on the recipient, which acts here only as a source of information, in some way reacting to it. Often, such models are criticized for the fact that they are directed only in one direction, and also do not take into account a very important component - the ultimate goal of the process, necessary when analyzing its effectiveness. Linear communication models were also proposed by J. Herbner, W. Schramm, R.O. Jacobson, C. Shannon and other researchers.
The second group of communication models stands out. It includes non-linear communication models: dialogue, field, interactive, etc. The outstanding Russian scholar-philologist M.M.Bakhtin proposed the idea of a dialogical model of communication, which is based on two postulates necessary for understanding this process.
Firstly, Bakhtin pointed out that a very important and significant component of any statement is its targeting, compulsory appeal to someone, i.e. the presence of a listener, without which there can be no speaker.
Secondly, any statement is endowed with meaning only in a certain context, at a certain time and in a certain place. In other words, a word as a code mark in itself does not mean anything and makes sense only in a text read by someone, and each new reading creates a new meaning of the word. Each new reader or listener creates his own text.
Nonlinear dialogue models of communication call into question the very term “information transfer”. Chilean researcher U. Maturana believes that this term only means a more or less similar understanding that arose during joint communication of something third, different, not at all what each of the participants in the process had in mind.
Gestalt therapists use the concept of the field when communicating with the patient and comprehending his story. This is a certain background, behind which the patient’s speech is addressed, addressed to the therapist, their relationship to each other as participants in communication interaction, as well as the attitude to the delivered speech from the standpoint of everyone’s personal life experience. This background is general, neutral in nature. It helps to avoid mistakes in interaction and achieve the desired result in therapeutic activity, despite the different subjective experiences of participants in interpersonal communication.
Mass communication models are also divided into linear and interactive. The differences are observed in the main parameters of the communication process. So, if the sources of interpersonal communication are family, neighbors and friends, then in the mass they are whole social institutions. Interpersonal communication takes place face to face, and mass communication through various technological channels, and at remote distances. Finally, in interpersonal communication, you can observe a direct direct connection between the participants in the process, and see a lively response to it, and with mass communication, such a connection will not be direct, indirect or delayed.