Communication conceptsDavid Phillips

Shannon and Weaver – Linear model of Communication

Source EncodeDecode

DestinationReceiver

Message received

SignalreceivedSignal

Transmitter

Message

Problems with the Linear Model

• But do senders and receivers have the same mindset? (McQuail 1987)

• Assumes that information is neutral – without intrinsic meaning (Dervin 1989)

• Reduces meaning to something delivered like a parcel (Reddy 1979)

Passengers must carry dogs on

escalators

Passengers must carry dogs on

escalators

Customer information

MASS MEDIA MASS MEDIA

Isolated individuals constituting a mass

Opinion leaders

Individuals in social contact with an opinion leader

Hypodermic model Two-step flow model

Hypodermic approach and two-step flow

Westley and Maclean model - the role of the communicator

EVENTS

feedback

Windhal and Sigtnitzer with Olsen (1994)

Advocacy: A aims to influence people, either directly or indirectly (eg PR people, pressure groups)

Channel: C aims to provide the public with information, acting as an intermediary between A and the public. Non-purposive role – individuals are not furthering their own personal interests. (Mass media)

Behavioural: B members of the public

Reading or watching the news

1. The audience consists of people…..each person is subject to many influences, of which the communicators’ message is typically only one small source of influence

2. People tend to read, watch, or listen to communications that present points of view with which they are sympathetic or which they have a personal stake

3. Careful framing must take account of both the intended and unintended effects of message content.

Cutlip, Center and Broom, (2000)

too simpleso what?apathy

lost interest

too complex???

too much effortlost interest

Connection with personal experience

helps understandinggenerates interestwill tip the balance

People will put a certain amount of energy into understanding a message

Adapted from Fruh, 1980

Transparent Communication

Many communication efforts have failed because the publics are aware of the facts but not reasons behind those facts.Today’s publics aren’t inclined to trust blindly.When organisations engage in transparent communication they provide the kind of information that:

▫ identifies the problem▫ gets people interested in it▫ airs the various options▫ and otherwise creates a climate of understanding and

involvement before plans are announced that affect the publics.

Smith, R. D. (2005)

Media uses and gratification theory of communication

“The audience is made up of individuals who demand something from the communication to which they are exposed”

So the communication process is interactive. People use the mass media for different reasons:

1. To find out what is happening that has some impact on them2. Entertainment and diversion3. Reinforcement of opinions4. Decision making about buying a product or service

Uses and gratification theory assumes that people make highly intelligent choices about which messages require their attention and fulfil their needs.

Wilcox et al (2005)

Agenda-setting Theory

“The press is significantly more than a purveyor of information and opinion. It may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling readers what to think about.”

Cohen, in McCoombs and Protess 1991

1. Awareness – new idea introduced in news story

2. Interest – more information sought

3. Evaluation – feedback from family, colleagues

4. Trial – idea tried out with others, e.g. “I read….”

5. Adoption – idea integrated into belief system, “I read…..becomes I think…..”Wilcox et al (2005)

Five Stage Adoption Process

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

“With all the sophisticated mental apparatus we have used to build world eminence as a species, we have created an environment so complex, fast-paced, and information-

laden that we must increasingly deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago

transcended.”

Robert B. Cialdini

The consistency principle

Communication objective: to increase the number of people who will agree to go door to door collecting donations for a charity.

How to gain commitment: call a sample of residents and ask them to predict what they would say if asked to spend 3 hours collecting money for a cancer charity. Not wanting to appear to be uncharitable many people will say that they will volunteer.

In the US when this was followed up by an actual request for volunteers this generated a 700 per cent increase.

Cialdini, R B (2007: 67-8)

Fear is one of the most studied emotional appeals in communication and social influence research.

Pictures of a diseased lung, rotting teeth and the effects of throat cancer are to appear on cigarette packets from 1 October 2008

Use of Fear

High fear messages about the dangers of smoking, when combined with believable recommendations, produce high scores on intended compliance.Three factors affect the impact of fear messages:

1. Seriousness or harmfulness of the subject

2. Likelihood or probability of the feared event

3. Efficacy of the recommended course of action

Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000)

Messages: Use of Fear

The Department of Health launched the latest in a line of anti-smoking ads last year (31 October).

The advert opens on a darkened children's bedroom and a young girl is heard saying: "I'm not scared of the dark.”

The ad then cuts through a series of images, including a crawling spider and the leering face of a clown, with the young girl saying "I'm not scared of spiders", and "I'm not scared of clowns".

It ends with a group of young mums who are chatting together and smoking; the girl says: "I'm scared of my mum smoking."

Anti-Smoking Campaign

“The white paper on public health has generated significant column inches focusing on the proposed ban on smoking in public places, which presents both an opportunity and a challenge for PR professionals.

On the one hand, it creates increased media interest in smoking cessation, but it also turns smokers off from the health message.We’ve been more successful in the past by taking more of a health and beauty approach rather than a strict health message to communicate more directly with women who smoke”

Cohn & Wolfe Healthcare account manager, quoted in PR Week, 7 Jan 2005

Messages: Using a health & beauty approach

 From The Sunday TimesNovember 2, 2008

Now the buyer must bewareMartin Lindstrom, the boy wonder of branding, tells that the future of shopping is all in the mind

Researchers in the US approached 217 sunbathers and gave them either “gain” (protect yourself from the sun and you will help yourself stay healthy) or “loss” (not using sun-cream increases your risk of early death) messages. They then gave coupons to hand in for free sun-cream.

71% of people given a gain message picked up sun-cream

Only 50% of people given a loss message picked up sun-cream

Observer magazine, 17 October 2004

Using the Right Language

The Reciprocation Principle

The Social Proof Principle

Binge drinking in the UK – how can communications help to solve the problem?

Semiotics

How systems of signs (language, symbols, images) are used in the social construction of meaning. How we make things and events signify (or carry meaning), e.g. in ‘spin’.

Rather than things and events having an inherent meaning given by nature, language is socially constructed. Meanings are never ‘given’, ‘natural’ or ‘obvious’.

Signs are read in relation to codes - wider systems of meanings.These codes require broad cultural and social agreement, for meaning to be produced.

Semiotics – a receiver perspective

Denotative

The literal, dictionary meaning.

Connotative

The internal associations each reader/viewer brings to the message

Ambiguous

Perhaps the messages have multiple dictionary meanings

Tench and Yeomans (2009:261)

Polysemic

Multiple associations, varying from person to person, and from culture to culture

What is “meant” is invariably more than what is “said.”(Smith 1988, Olson 1994)

Binary opposition is one of the most important principles governing the structure of language.Lyons 1977

Left Right

Boom Bust

Success Failure

“It’s prejudice that’s queer.”

“My son’s homophobic, but I hope it’s just a phase.”

Terrence Higgins Trust 1999 campaign against homophobia

Narratives help to make the strange familiar. They provide structure, predictability and coherence.Chandler 2002

The Quest (Source: Romantic)

Where a progressive hero-adventurer, challenges the status quo or conventional wisdom, experiences set-backs, but ultimately succeeds

The Downfall (Source: Tragedy)

Where a hero is pitched from success to danger and humiliation, primarily as a result of fate or external events

The Contest (Source: Melodrama)Where a polarised struggle between two heroes characterised as good and evil, leads to a climactic battle in which the opposition is defeated

The Scam (Source: Irony)

Where a hero is exposed as incompetent, corrupt or a fool, apparently heroic actions are reinterpreted as a scam to fleece others

Four Plots

The Language of Colours

Colour Symbolises Used By

RedPower, Activity,Rescue

Pink Calm, Feminism

OrangeMovement,Construction, Energy

YellowLight, Future,Philosophy

GreenMoney, Growth,Environment

BlueTrust, Authority,Security

PurpleRoyalty, Spirituality,New Age

whiteprotection, purification, moon work, clarity of vision and insight, healing, pure focused energy, strengthens the powers of other colours, sincerity, calm, blessing, simplicity

silverfluidity, psychic gifts, clarity of inner vision, purifying, calm, the mysterious (think of the moon)

gold connection with higher powers, divine inspiration, spiritual energy, attraction and abundance, leadership (think of the sun)

red passion, courage, ernergy, sex, attraction and magnetism, sensuality, the opposite sex, forcefulness, self assertion, love, physical vitality, warmth, action (think of fire)

pink affection and romantic love, compassion, friendship, benevolent forces, understanding, diplomacy, purity, healing of the feminine

orange energy, attraction, self-control, organisation, self esteem, warmth, adaptability, vitality, joy, kindness, alertness, creativity, harvest, maturity (think of the harvest sun and moon)

purple power, healing, magic, combatting disease and infections, spirituality, psychic healing, meditation, judgement, flamboyance, ceremony (think of royal purple)

yellow attraction and activity, communication, eloquence, intellect, confidence, travel, concentration, agility, inspiration, happiness, luck, optimism, faith, balance

green money, prosperity, healing, growth, employment, fertility, success, health, harmony, new beginnings, renewal (think of green plants)

blue healing, relaxation, peace, truth, wisdom, clarity of expression, serenity, meditation, harmony, calm, devotion, spiritual understanding, introspection (think of a clear blue sky or the ocean)

brown earthy, grounding, steady, stable, concentration, healing, cleansing, working with animals and the home, the feminine (think of the earth)

grey neutrality, balance