By popular demand (of maybe two or three people) I am sharing my recollection of one of the early foundational concepts in Communication Theory. This came about when cotterperson raised some questions about communication studies and noted that “Communication is a relatively new academic field”. Since my Bachelor’s degree was in that field back in the 1970’s I had to smart off, and mentioned the possibility of doing a diary. Well, it’s `put up or shut up’ time. If very basic Communication Theory floats your boat – keep going.
Even way back then increasingly complex and sophisticated models of how communication works were being developed. However, Chapter 1 always had the cornerstone of models. It was actually stolen from the phone company.
“In 1948, a model of communication was proposed by Claude Shannon. Shannon worked for the Bell Telephone Company in America, and was concerned with the transmission of speech across a telephone line. Warren Weaver, in association with Shannon, wrote a preface to this model and it was published as a book in 1949. Weaver saw the applicability of Shannon’s model of communication to a much wider sphere than just telephony, and it has served as a basis for explaining communication since that time.”
If you want to dig deeper, you can go here
As promised, here is the “quick and dirty”
Shannon’s model described a sender, a receiver, and a line between them that was subject to noise. From a telephone perspective it means that when I talk I am trying to send information that I hope you will receive; but there may be static on the line that interferes with the clarity of my message. If my message as sender is too garbled by the noise then you, the receiver, will not get the full message. Land lines have gotten better since 1948; but modern cell phones give currency to the example. I’m trying to set up a meeting with you and drive through a tunnel where my cell transmission goes dead. You get to hear “I’ll expect you to meet me at 6 PM sharp at garble, garble, garble, dead air but if you aren’t there I’ll cancel our contract and get bids from XYZ”
It doesn’t take much of a mental stretch to imagine “noise” in a face to face dialogue. Consider trying to talk in a bar with a loud band, or on a street corner when a dump truck goes by. “Noise” doesn’t have to be auditory. If the Seussian parade down Mulberry Street is just outside my window I’m probably paying more attention to the “Rajah, with rubies, perched high on a throne” that is passing by than I am your words. There’s also “noise” on the line between us when I really, really, really neeeed to go to the bathroom; or when it’s an hour past my lunch-time and the guy down the hall is eating a pizza. Obviously, we don’t have to be face to face for these kinds of noise to interfere with our communication. We could be on the phone or on e-mail.
A more subtle kind of noise comes from the varying denotations and connotations of words. Denotation is the literal definition. Connotation brings in feelings, experiences, and other more uniquely individual levels of meaning. Google the definition of each word if you want to explore the distinction further.
Take a nice, simple word we all understand. Dog. We all know what a dog is, right? So when I tell you I’ll stop by your place this Saturday to pick up the newsletters on my way to the lake, and I’ll have my dog with me…. we all know what’s what – right? Unless the word “dog” conjures up that memory of the Rottweiler who bit you on the butt when you were 5. So you will offer to meet me at the curb with the newsletters and I will end up wondering why you are so stuck up you can’t invite me in for a beer. Or maybe you are OK with dogs in general, and you ask me what kind I have and I tell you “my precious is just the cutest poodle doodle – yes he isms” and you picture your aunt’s toy poodle curled up in his little bed and go “Awww. Come by a little early and we’ll have a beer”. And then I show up with my full size standard poodle who is bigger than the kitchen in your efficiency.
Look at all the ways we can have communication “noise” over a word we all learned in pre-school. Dog. No wonder we have communication “noise” on the line when we talk about politics, religion, sex. All those connotations for all those words – feminist, conservative, Christian, politician, peace, gay, right (or right-to-xxxxx) – the whole damn dictionary practically.
Two key things to take away from this:
1. Keep the dialogue open and active until you figure out what’s causing the “noise” in the communication. What does “dog” mean to me? To you? What does “feminism” mean to me? To you? Or “marriage”? Or “support the troops”?
2. This is part of why everybody is talking about “framing” these days – Privatization, personal accounts, ownership, etc. If I know you got bit on the butt by that Rottweiler I’m going to “frame” my pooch as cute, cuddly, well-trained and well-behaved.
Part 2 coming soon. We will explore why Aristotle, if he were alive today, would most likely be a front page poster.
