Basic Model of Social Communication

Basic model of social communication is based on the communication model common in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT). This model has proved so useful that social psychologists “took it to mercy” and up to today it is often used as a starting model.

Model understands communication as a linear activity as follows:

• Sender (somehow) encodes the idea
• The idea takes the form of a message (spoken, written, non-verbal, graphic …)
• Recipient decodes the message and (somehow) understands it
• Subsequently recipient provides feedback to the sender, whether he understood or misunderstood the message
• Unfortunately, both the sender, the message (transmission) and the recipient are exposed to noise that blurs more or less the message

Despite the usefulness of this model more complex and less technical models of communication arose gradually.