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include all the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This of
course involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial
arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behaviour’.
The view of the authors in this model represented an important expan-
sion of the idea of communication that includes such activities as music, art,
ballet and the theater—in fact all human behaviour—although far reaching
implications were not to be elaborated upon for some time. The Shannon
and Weaver perspective, like that of Lasswell included not only verbal and
mediated channels, but also gestures, body position, and other forms of
nonverbal behaviour.
Shannon and Weaver also advanced the new notion of a correction
channel, which they regarded as a means of overcoming problems created
by noise. An observer operates the correction channel. He compares the
initial signal that was sent with what was received: when the two didn’t
match, additional signals would be sent to correct the error.
Since the Second World War attention to communication problems
per se—as an explicitly practical matter—has been paid by engineering and
social scientists. The concept of electrical engineering in particular, origi-
nally applied to human communication by Shannon and Weaver (1949) have
played a formative role in the development of socio-psychological approaches
to the subject, and continue in currency within media research even today.

comments on shannon and Weaver’s Model (1949)
Both European and American scholars recognize that Shannon and Weaver’s
model provided the basic paradigm for effects—oriented communication
research by setting forth the main elements (source, channel, messages, and
receiver) of a simple linear model of communication. This model became
tremendously popular with communication researchers enabling the field
of communication study to take off about 30 years ago. It formed the main
paradigm for many researchers around the world. Less well known is the
contribution by Shannon and Weaver in defining the concept of information
as a central notion for the field of Communication. Shannon and Weaver’s
model was used in the field of electronics for many purposes from the design
of telephone networks to matrices of computer memories.
An important distinction has been identified by an eminent Finnish
scholar between the two central concepts—(a) communication and (b)
information. These two concepts trace from Aristotle to the Shannon and
Weaver mathematical theory of a single transmission and to other models of
information and communication. Although Shannon and Weaver’s concept
of the probabilistic model of communication has been fruitful in leading to
further research, it was never intended to describe linguistic information
and human communication.

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