User:Abigaelclark/Communication

Lasswells Model of Communication
Harold Lasswell was a major theorist in the world of communications. However before then he was a political science student studying propaganda and public policy making at the University of Chicago studying under Charles Merriam Professor of political science. He graduated from University of Chicago in 1922 and received his PH.D in 1926. He completed his graduate studies from university of London, Paris, Berlin and Geneva. It was during his graduate studies he argued that the audience did not fully understand messages and did not make the most informed choices in the political sphere. He explored propaganda through his doctoral dissertation "Propaganda Technique In the World War " (1927) which has become apart of communication theory.

He is considered to be one of the primary founders of communication theories. Lasswell has written 4 million to 6 million words in academic lifetime. He has also helped communications become a respected and legitimate study.

He was a professor at Yale teaching law and political science from 1946 to 1970 as well at University of Chicago from 1922 to 1938. It was during his time at Yale, he developed the Laswell model of communication.

Harold Lasswell is known for the Lasswell Model of communication, it is now used as an umbrella term for other models of communication due to its simplicities to allow for multiple and very different interpretations to theorize with. It was published in "The Structure and Function of Communication in Society" essay in 1948. Lasswell was thinking about mass media and the role radio played in the 1930's. It was extremely popular after the second world war.

The Lasswell model is broken into five parts-the five W's, it focuses on the "who", "what", "whom", "which Channel" and "what effect".


 * The Who: Communication is not only one person, it is newspapers, websites, television stations and radio stations. This communication is developed by people who run this organized institutions, reporters, editors etc.


 * Says What: This refers to analyzing and identifying the content that was given.


 * To Whom: Who is the audience and how does the audience receive this information.


 * Which Channel: Refers to the media and how it is going to analyzed.


 * What effect: Refers to what is taken from this piece of information.

Advantages
There are advantages as well as some critiques mentioned about the Lasswell Model. Some of the advantages are the the concept is easy and simple, it suits most types of communication and its the main concept of effect.

Critiques
Some scholars believe that the Lasswell model of communication is no longer relevant, although at the time it was extremely significant. The critiques that have been brought up for the Lasswell model is the concept of feedback not mention, and the concept of noise is not mentioned. It was there where other theories started to come out to make up for the Lasswells method not having these factors in it, specially the Shannon and Weaver model. Another critique was the the Lasswell model is a linear model, it goes against other types of communications that show that it is more of a back and forth experience. Lastly, another critique mentioned was that this model does not mention power in the communication process. Power was highlighted specially in Sturat Halls methods and concepts. Hall took parts from the Lasswell method and started reworking it to fit the idea of power in media, who has power and what message are they putting out. Hall examines how we view organizations and mass media and how they enforce certain meanings to appease their agenda.