LASSWELL MODEL: ELEMENTS, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The Lasswell model is a communication model proposed in 1948 by Harold Lasswell (1902-1978), a professor at Yale University. This model tries to define communication by looking at the following variables: who has communicated, what said, by what channel it has been communicated, to whom it has been addressed and what result the communication produced.

Despite being one of the first models to deal with the subject of communication, it is also considered one of the most influential. Describe the communication process as linear and unidirectional. The organization of this model has laid the foundations for scientific investigation of the communication process.

Harold Lasswel, creator of the model

Therefore, several disciplines have emerged that are dedicated to examining each of the components described by Lasswell: analysis of control (who), content (what), medium (how), audience (to whom) and effect (effect produced).

What is the Lasswell model?

Although at first Lasswell developed his model to analyze mass media, today his system is also used to analyze interpersonal or group communication.

Effective communication

In principle, the main objective of this thinker was to study the process of so-called effective communication. Therefore, he focused on the different elements of communication and how changing some variables affected the effect that this process had.

Therefore, the main idea of ​​the model was to study the way in which a communicator could change his way of communicating in such a way that the receiver of the message was specifically affected.

Because the model did not initially contemplate the response of the receiver, this classification is usually pigeonholed within the models that consider communication in a unidirectional way.

In his analysis of the media, Lasswell also focused on the issue of propaganda and the motives behind it.

Reasons for the media to communicate

According to him, the media communicate due to three reasons:

Surveillance of the environment

Newscasts and newscasts focus on reporting events that occur throughout the world.

Correlation of components of society

Instead of telling the facts in an objective way, the mass media interpret the reality around them and transmit it filtered by their own thoughts and beliefs.

Transmission of culture between different generations

Viewers collect the information transmitted by the media and interpret it based on their own filter.

In this way, Lasswell believed that the media had the ability to impact the way its viewers saw the world. His model was developed to study the impact that each of the communication components has on the transmission of information by these media.

Elements of the Lasswell model

Lasswell's model focuses on the analysis of five fundamental elements in communication: sender, content, medium, receiver and result.

Transmitter

The emitter in Lasswell's model is the subject who generates the communicative stimuli. Its intention is to produce a specific response in the receiver, so it is considered to have an intentionality. It is the "who" element.

Content

In this model, the content (which in other areas is called a message) is the set of communicative stimuli originated by the action of the issuer. It is also the information transmitted to the receiver and is the "what" element.

Medium

The medium is the way in which the sender transmits his message to the receiver. It can be through speech, written text, images, or other avenues. In this model it is studied by the question "how".

The objective of studying the medium is to discover how information can best be transmitted based on factors such as the content of the message, the purpose or who the receiver is.

Receiver

The receiver is the person who receives the information contained in the message that the sender has transmitted through the medium. It is also the element of communication that seeks to provoke a certain reaction; it is studied by the question "to whom."

In the specific case of the media, understanding the characteristics of the receiver is of vital importance and is carried out through the process of studying the audience.

Effect or result

Also called "effect", it is the element of communication that studies what has been achieved with the transmission of information. In this model it is observed through the question "why".

Lasswell was especially concerned with this element of communication, as he wanted to study the effects that the mass media had on the general population.

Advantages and disadvantages of the model

This model of the study of communication has been one of the most used since it was first proposed, but it has also received a great deal of criticism. Below we will see some of its most important advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage

- It is a simple and easy to understand model, since it does not overload the communication process and focuses on its most basic elements.

- It is valid for practically any type of communication, regardless of the type of medium through which it occurs, who the sender and receiver are, or what type of message is transmitted.

- It was the first model to focus on the effect produced by a certain type of communication and to study its effects.

Disadvantages

- Feedback from the receiver is not mentioned, which has been included in more modern and complex communication models.

- No mention is made of noise, which is any element of communication (normally part of the channel) that can hinder the process of transmitting information.

- It is a linear model of communication, which can be a problem to study information exchanges in which the receiver and the sender exchange roles continuously.

References

1. "Lasswell's Model of Communication" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: March 9, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.
2. "Lasswell Model" in: Comunicólogos. Retrieved on: March 8, 2018 from Comunicólogos: comunicologos.com.
3. "Lasswell's Communication Model" in: Businesstopia. Retrieved on: March 8, 2018 from Businesstopia: businesstopia.com.
4. "Lasswell's Model of Mass Communication" in: Study. Retrieved on: March 8, 2018 from Study: study.com.
5. "Asswell's Model of Communication" in: Mass Communication Theory. Retrieved on: March 8, 2018 from Mass Communication Theory: rahmanjmc.wordpress.com.