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Models of Communication | 85

Communication models allow the researcher to account for different
variables in different communication situations. Models only represent
systems or processes. Since they are not real, they are just symbolic ways of
looking at systems to help us to think about them more lucidly. Again since
models do not show every part of a system, they are usually incomplete in that
sense. Even those that are shown are represented only in enough detail to
help us look at the processes or features in which we are interested. Models
give us an idea of complicated objects or events in a general way. They enable
us to see how a particular communication event fits into the general pattern.
They provide a classification for an orderly nature of events and suggest new
ways of looking at old problems and familiar events. They help us by providing
a structure of reference for purposes of study. Theories are not models and
the most fundamental difference between a theory and a model is that, the
former is an explanation whereas the latter is a representation.

definitions of Model

In social science research, a model is a tentative description of social process.
In the similar way, communication model is also the description of commu-
nication process or a system. It is a tool of explanation and analyses, very
often in a diagrammatic form. It shows how various elements of a situation
being studied relate to each other. Models are not statements of reality. Only
after much further research and testing would the model be considered
viable. It could then be developed into a theory.
Additionally, the model can be a person whose behaviour others wish to
emulate or who they wish to model themselves after.
The simplest definition of a model is that it is an analogue. A model is
a relatively well-developed analogy. Given two objects or processes, which
are dissimilar in many respects, one is an analogue of the other to the extent
that the physical or logical structure of one represents the physical or logical
structure of the other.

introduction to Models of coMMunication

In the following pages, twenty-two models of communication will be discussed
briefly. They cover a period of about 2,300 years, commencing with the Greek
philosopher and orator Aristotle and concluding with present day commu-
nicologists. The aim of the exercise is to examine how different sociolgists
down the years have approached the theory and process of communication.
A summation of all of their approaches will perhaps give us the most accurate
concept of this process called communication.

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