Communication runs from source through encoder, channel, decoder to receiver, with noise degrading the signal at every stage.
Distinct from Shannon's Law, which quantifies capacity. The model's weakness is that it is linear and one-way — the receiver has no role — which is what later interactive models corrected.
In practice
- A platform announcement is transmitted perfectly and understood by nobody waiting, and the model records a successful transmission.
- A company that treats internal communication as broadcast finds the message received differently in every department, which the model cannot describe.
- Standing
- Distinct from Shannon's Law, which quantifies channel capacity.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- Theories of what stands between an event and its audience