WESTLEY & MACLEAN’S TRANSACTIONAL MODEL OF
COMMUNICATION
D O M I N I C PA L C O N - H E R N A N D E Z
N E I L A L F O N S E S O L E R - L U N A S
MALCOLM S. MACLEAN JR.(1920-1974)
Earned Ph.D. in the University of Wisconsin (1954)
He is a teacher, researcher, public opinion analysts and a consultant.
In the year 1956, he became the Associate Director and Director of the Michigan State University Research Centre , consultant to the government and other institutions.
He became also the George H. Gallup Professor of Communication Research at the University of Iowa School of Journalism
President of the International Communication Education
He is considered as one of the most Influential teacher in the field during the past decade.
Unexpected death on February 20,1974, at the age of 53
BRUCE WESTLEY
Introduced their communication model to help describe interpersonal communication as well as mass media communication, explaining that through their theory, any form of communication, simple or complex, can be modeled and studied.
It also explored communication as defined as feedback, sent from the receiver to the presenter, to aid the speaker in adjusting their communication so as to further enhance the receiver's understand of the information conveyed.
They realized that communication does not begin when one person starts to talk, but rather when a person responds selectively to his immediate physical surroundings.
PROCESS
(Receives message)
Environment Sender then sends
message
(Communication starts)
Signals coming from the surroundings are intentionally sent to start the process of communication. Sometimes events might accidentally occur or the thought can be accidentally received.
VARIABLES:
1. The various X variables- represent the information that is to be delivered
through the communication, and can also define different stimuli that are directed at the receiver of the communication.
2. A- represents a person or object with an advocacy role in the communication, in that they are
trying to purposely transmit the information along the communication model.
3. B -the receiver or audience of the communication.
4. C- represents of information. Acting like a channel for the information
5. F- represents the feedback
FOUR VERSIONS
INTERPERSONAL MODEL
There is 5 parts in this model on interpersonal communication :
• object orientation
• messages
• source
• receiver and;
• feedback.
PROCESS E1
E2
E3
E4
S RMESSAGE
feed back
EXAMPLE:
At night, when suddenly an individual experiences the shaking and trembling of the earth’s crust or indications of an earthquake, he immediately wakes up and conveys to his family that they immediately need to vacate the house.
MASS COMMUNICATION MODEL
There is 6 parts in this model on mass communication :
• object orientation(X)
• Messages(x’)
• Source(A)
• Receiver(B)
• Feedback(F) and;
• Channel-called a gatekeeper, because they open the gates for some advocates to talk about some ideas, and close the gates for the same advocate on other ideas. (C)
PROCESS
E1
E2
E3
E4
S C R
FEEDBACK
FCS FRC
There are two other important elements of this model and they have to do with feedback.
1.FRC- This represents the ways in which the audience tells the media what they think, what they do, and how they want to be informed or entertained.
2. FCS -feedback represents the kinds of socialization processes that go on in and among the media industries.
EXAMPLE
The Gatekeepers at NBC Nightly news have been deciding what to broadcast every night for nearly 50 years. If you are a reporter working for NBC, it is your job to be finding stories (the X's in the Westley MacLean Model) that will be passed on through the gates of the channel role -- Tom Brokaw and the show's producers. If you are a reporter and don't find out what your editor or producer think that the audience wants and what they don't want, you probably won't work for NBC very long.
STRENGTHS
i. Accounts for Feedback
ii. Accounts for a sensory field or, in Newcomb’s (1953) words, “objects of co-orientation.”
iii. Accounts for non-binary interactions—more than just two people communicating directly.
iv. Accounts for different modes. E.g. interpersonal vs. mass mediated communication.
WEAKNESSESi. Westley and MacLean’s model
accounts for many more variables in the typical communication interaction. It is, however, still two-dimensional. It cannot account for the multiple dimensions of the typical communication event involving a broad context and multiple message.
SOURCES:
Deutsch, K. “On Communication Models in the Social Sciences,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 16:356-380, 1952.
Lackman, R. “The Model in Theory Construction,” Psychological Review, 67:113-129, 1960.
Sereno, K. K., and Mortensen, C. D. Foundations of Communication Theory. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
www.docstoc.com
Reported by:
DOMINIC PALCON-HERNANDEZ NEIL ALFONSE SOLER-LUNAS
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