Communication Theory: Origins, Concepts and Importance

This response journal discusses the origins, concepts and importance of Communication Theory. It covers the Shannon and Weaver model, noise, information, feedback and more. The journal provides references for further reading.

Running head: RESPONSE JOURNAL ON COMMUNICATION THEORY
RESPONSE JOURNAL ON COMMUNICATION THEORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1
RESPONSE JOURNAL ON COMMUNICATION THEORY
Date: 20 May 2018
Dear tutor,
Last day I read the paper on Communication Theory and learnt a lot about the origins of
the communication theories and other concepts related to it. Today, I would like to share the
knowledge I gained from my learning.
Communication, as we all know is the sending and receiving of messages through various
media. However, it is important to note that communication has several other elements that must
be noted before explaining it to beginners. In the paper that I read, the first topic mentioned the
origins of the theories of communication with Shannon and Weaver being the first ones to
propose a concrete model. The Mathematical Theory of Communication by Shannon and
Weaver introduced in 1949 stated that communication is a linear process involving the source,
transmitter, signal, receiver and destination. The model was developed to explain the problems
that arose during the process of communication. As McQuail (2013) notes, the Shannon and
Weaver model laid the foundation for all the future works on communication and its process.
The author states, “This is a very simple concept of communication for practical purposes of
planning distribution systems and evaluating their operation”.
Later in the paper, the term ‘noise’ and its role in the communication has been explained
as well. As defined by Shannon and Weaver, noise is the distortion created by any outside source
during the communication process. I found that the noise in the communication process could
occur from any source and not only from technical problems. While hoping to find more
resources on noise, I researched some other articles on the term and found that noise could be

2
RESPONSE JOURNAL ON COMMUNICATION THEORY
psychological as well. Aly, Weimann-Saks and Weimann (2014) describe psychological noise as
emerging from the “preconceived notions we bring to the communication process”.
The article also helped me learn about the concept of information. To students like us,
information simply means the receiving of important knowledge regarding anything. However,
the term has deeper meaning, as I learnt from the reading of the article. Information has a more
technical meaning where I refer to the amount of options that is available to the sender.
Information as content has nothing to do with in this context. The unit ‘bit’ is used to measure
information in the communication process (McQuail & Windahl, 2015). In the second level of
the process however, information attains the meaning that we generally use. The process by
which we reach to a conclusion by making binary choices is information.
The article then delves into the deeper concepts of the communication process that
includes redundancy, entropy, channel, medium, code and feedback. I found the redundancy and
entropy concept quite fascinating as it helped me have a clear understanding of the concept of
information. I learnt that information could be highly predictive (redundant) and least predictive
(entropic).
Feedback is another concept that holds immense importance in the process of
communication. The Shannon and Weaver model did not have the element of feedback. Karl
Ferdinand Braun first used the term in a scientific context (Von Raffler-Engel, 2013). The
introduction of feedback however allowed the receiver of the message to respond to the sender
either positively or negatively. In the field of news media, feedback holds a very important
position.

3
RESPONSE JOURNAL ON COMMUNICATION THEORY
References:
Aly, A., Weimann-Saks, D., & Weimann, G. (2014). Making ‘noise’online: an analysis of the
say no to terror online campaign. Perspectives on terrorism, 8(5).
McQuail, D. (2013). Comm Research—Views from Europe| Reflections on Paradigm Change in
Communication Theory and Research. International Journal of Communication, 7, 14.
McQuail, D., & Windahl, S. (2015). Communication models for the study of mass
communications. Routledge.
Von Raffler-Engel, W. (2013). The unconscious element in intercultural communication. In The
social and psychological contexts of language (pp. 113-142). Psychology Press.