SHANNON-WEAVER
MODEL OF
COMMUNICATION
Submitted by:
Marjorie C. Ragas
Archielyn R. Maestrado
Mia Blaise Y. Cutab
Jeff Abbu
Submitted to:
Ms. Dina B. Guinitaran
SHANNON WEAVER’S MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
Overview
The Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication has been called the “Mother of all Models”. It
embodies the concept of information source, message, transmitter, signal, channel, noise,
receiver, information destination, probability of error, encoding, decoding, information rate,
channel capacity and etc.
In 1948, Shannon was an American mathematician, electronic
engineer and Weaver was an American scientist both of them join
together to write an article in “bell system technical journal” and
also called as “Shannon- Weaver model of communication”.
This model is specially designed to develop the effective
communication between sender and receiver. Also they find
factors which affecting the communication process called “noise”.
At first the model was developed to improve the technical
communication. Later it is widely applied in the field of
communication.
WARREN WEAVER
The article was the founding work of the field of information
theory. It was later published in 1949 as a book titled the
“Mathematical Theory of Communication” which was published
as a paper back in 1963. the book contains an additional article by
warren weaver, providing an overview of the theory for a more
general audience. Shannon’s article laid out the basic elements of
communication
SHANNON-WEAVER MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
1. Sender (Information Source)
The model starts with the sender. They are the person (or object, or thing) who has the
information to begin with (the ‘information source’). The sender starts the process by choosing
a message to send, someone to send the message to, and a channel through which to send the
message.
A sender can send a message in multiple different ways: it may be orally (through spoken
word), in writing, through body language, music, etc.
Example: An example of a sender might be the person reading a newscast on the nightly news.
They will choose what to say and how to say it before the newscast begins.
2. Encoder (Transmitter)
The encoder is the machine (or person) that converts the idea into signals that can be sent from
the sender to the receiver. The Shannon model was designed originally to explain
communication through means such as telephone and computers which encode our words
using codes like binary digits or radio waves.
However, the encoder can also be a person that turns an idea into spoken words, written
words, or sign language to communicate an idea to someone.
Examples: The encoder might be a telephone, which converts our voice into binary 1s and 0s to
be sent down the telephone lines (the channel). Another encode might be a radio station,
which converts voice into waves to be sent via radio to someone.
3. Channel
The channel of communication is the infrastructure that gets information from the sender and
transmitter through to the decoder and receiver. We sometimes also call this the ‘medium’.
Examples: A person sending an email is using the world wide web (internet) as a medium. A
person talking on a landline phone is using cables and electrical wires as their channel.
If we’re face-to-face, perhaps we don’t have a channel, except the sound waves from our voice
that carry the sound from the sender’s mouth to the receiver’s ear.
4. Noise
Noise interrupts a message while it’s on the way from the sender to the receiver. It’s named
after the idea that ‘noise’ could interrupt our understanding of a message. There are two types
of noise: internal and external.
Internal noise happens when a sender makes a mistake encoding a message or a receiver
makes a mistake decoding the message. Here’s the two points where it can happen:
External noise happens when something external (not in the control of sender or receiver)
impedes the message. So, external noise happens.
Examples:
Examples of external noise may include the crackling of a poorly tuned radio, a lost letter in the
post, an interruption in a television broadcast, or a failed internet connection.
Examples of internal noise may include someone having a headache so they can’t concentrate,
someone speaking with a heavy accent, or when the sender mumbles when speaking.
5. Decoder
Decoding is the exact opposite of encoding. Shannon and Weaver made this model in reference
to communication that happens through devices like telephones. So, in this model, there
usually needs to be a device that decodes a message from binary digits or waves back into a
format that can be understood by the receiver.
Examples: Decoders can include computers that turn binary packets of 1s and 0s into pixels on a
screen that make words, a telephone that turns signals such as digits or waves back into
sounds, and cell phones that also turn bits of data into readable (and listenable) messages.
6. Receiver (Destination)
The receiver is the end-point of Shannon and Weaver’s original linear framework. This is the
step where the person finally gets the message, or what’s left of it after accounting for noise.
Examples: Examples of a receiver might be: the person on the other end of a telephone, the
person reading an email you sent them, an automated payments system online that has
received credit card details for payment, etc.
7.Feedback
The ‘feedback’ step was not originally proposed by Shannon and Weaver in 1948. Weaver came
up with the feedback step in response to criticism of the linear nature of the approach. (‘Linear’
means that the messages are only going one way).
Feedback occurs when the receiver of the message responds to the sender in order to close the
communication loop. They might respond to let the sender know they got the message or to
show the sender:
Whether they got the message clearly without noise.
How well they understand the message.
Examples: Feedback does not occur in all situations. Sometimes, like when watching TV, we
don’t tend to let the people talking on the TV know what we’re thinking … we simply watch the
show.
Explanation of Shannon Weaver Model
The sender encodes the message and sends it to the receiver through a technological channel
like telephone and telegraph. The sender converts the message into codes understandable to
the machine. The message is sent in codes through a medium.
The receiver has to decode the message before understanding it and interpreting it. The
receptor machine can also act as a decoder in some cases. The channel can have noise and the
receiver might not have the capacity to decode which might cause problems in communication
process.
Here, for instance, brain might be the sender, mouth might be the encoder which encodes to a
particular language, air might be the channel, another person’s ear might be the receptor and
his brain might be the decoder and receiver.
CRITISISM OF SHANNON-WEAVER MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
1.One of the simplest model and its general applied in various communication theories
2.The model which attracts both academics of Human communication and Information theorist
to leads their further research in communication
3.It’s more effective in person-to-person communication than group or mass audience
4.The model based on “Sender and Receiver”. Here sender plays the primary role and receiver
plays the secondary role (receive the information or passive)
5.Communication is not a one way process. If it’s behaved like that, it will lose its strength.
