Commissions/committees on the media
and interprets the message, returning a signal
in some way that the message has or has not
been understood – that is, provides feedback.
Th e models of Shannon and Weaver (1949) and
Osgood and Schramm (1956) were early repre-
sentations of this process.
Osgood and Schramm’s model also highlighted
the importance of the process of encoding and
decoding in the exchange of meaning. Commu-
nication requires codes and codes require signs.
Th us semiology/semiotics and the ideas of
theorists such as Charles Pierce or Ferdinand de
Saussure are integral to a study of communica-
tion (see sign; signification).
Shannon and Weaver’s model highlighted
what has been termed noise, or interference,
that may impede the message. Th e concept of
noise points to the potential barriers to eff ec-
tive communication: technical, semantic or
psychological. Noise may be internal (resistance
to the message or to the sender, for example, on
the part of the receiver) or external (actual noise,
distraction, language level, etc.). During the
communication process, sender, message and
receiver are subject to a multitude of cues which
infl uence the message, such as a person’s appear-
ance, his/her known status or the expression on
his/her own face as the message is communi-
cated or responded to (see barnlund’s trans-
actional models).
Schramm’s model, for example, identifies
the importance of common ‘fields of experi-
ence’ on the part of sender and receiver for
successful communication, whilst Berlo’s model
(1960) further provides a useful indicator of
the complex range of factors to be found in
the communication process; these include
psychological and cultural variables. Lack of
shared attitudes, values, knowledge, experiences
or cultural expectations can be a significant
source of noise (see schramm’s models of
communication, 1954; berlo’s smcr model
of communication, 1960).
While interpersonal communication is
that which occurs between two or more people,
intrapersonal communication is what
you say within and to yourself. Inner thoughts,
impressions, memories interact with external
stimuli to create a silent discourse, continuously
changing and renewing itself and influencing
your perceptions of self and the world.
It is important to hold in mind, as Raymond
Williams points out in Keywords (Fontana,
1976), the ‘unresolved range of the original
noun of action, represented at its extremes by
“transmit”, a one-way process, and “share” ...music is the chief fare, news broadcasting is a
requirement. Ofcom guidelines stress ‘localness’,
that is content and approach of specifi c local
relevance ‘which off ers a distinctive alternative to
UK-wide or nations’ service’. All stations ‘should
broadcast local news at least hourly throughout
peaktime’ both on weekdays and weekends.
RadioCentre, the trade body of commercial
radio companies, estimated that in 2009
commercial radio had an audience of over 30
million. Standards are not only monitored by
Ofcom, but celebrated by the Arqiva Commer-
cial Radio Awards, Bauer Radio winning fi ve of
these in 2010. See wi-fi.
Commissions/committees on the media See
topic guide under commissions, commit-
tees, legislation.
Common sense In the study of media communi-
cation and its links with culture and politics, the
term ‘common sense’ connotes an over-readiness
to believe in the apparently obvious. Th e Ital-
ian philosopher Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)
defined common sense as being a composite
of the attitudes, beliefs and assumptions of the
mass of the people, and operating within a hier-
archical social order.
Common sense tends towards conformism
to the ideology of the dominant social order,
and in part is the product of that ideology. It
accepts ‘the way things are’ – the status quo
- as ‘the way things should be’. Indeed such
structures and circumstances are so obvious
(so commonsensical) that they do not warrant
being questioned.
Gramsci believed that what he termed the
‘chaotic aggregate of disparate conceptions’
comprising common sense should be chal-
lenged by intellectuals, and the complacency of
common sense explained and exposed. Many
commentators have focused on the role the
media play in nurturing and reinforcing rather
than unpacking commonsensical visions of soci-
ety. See exnomination; hegemony.
Commons knowledge See genre.
Communication While the definitions of
communication vary according to the theoreti-
cal frames of reference employed and the stress
placed upon certain aspects of the total process,
they all include five fundamental factors: an
initiator; a recipient; a mode or vehicle; a
message; and an eff ect. Simply expressed, the
communication process begins when a message
is conceived by a sender. It is then encoded –
translated into a signal or sequence of signals - and transmitted via a particular medium or
channel to a receiver,who then decodes it