SYSTEMS THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION PROCESSES:System

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Theories of Communication MCM 511

LESSON 20

SYSTEMS THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION PROCESSES

Although psychologists led communication researchers to the possibility of individual media effects,

engineers alerted these researcher to the possibility of developing holistic explanations for societal or

system wide effects.

System

System consists of a set of parts that interlinked so that changes in one part induce changes in other

parts. System parts can be directly linked through mechanical connections or can be indirectly linked by

communication technology. Because all parts are linked, the entire system can change as a result of

alterations in only one element.

Systems can be goal directed if there is a long-term objective that they are designed to accomplish.

Some systems are capable of monitoring the environment and altering their operations in response to

environmental changes.

Interest in systems began with electronics engineers who developed systems that could be programmed

to pursue goals, monitor the environment and adjust actions so that the goals were achieved.

These engineers were concerned with designing systems in which communication links functioned

efficiently and transmitted information accurately. Communication was a means to an end, if a

communication link didn't work properly then the solution was obvious. Communication technology

had to be improved so that desired levels of effectiveness and accuracy were achieved.

How it is applied to society?

Thus, in designing and engineering systems of the type, communication problems were solved by

technological change. As a result, during the 1950,s and 1960s there was optimism that important,

societal level communication problems might also be solved by improving the accuracy of message

transmissions.

The rise of systems theory

After World War II social scientists became intrigued by system notions. These models fundamentally

altered how relationships between variables were understood. But most 1960s social systems theorists

acknowledged that the greatest and most recent impetus toward the development of systems theories

came from an engineering subfield known as CYBERNETICS, the study of regulation and control in

complex machines.

Cybernetics investigates how communication links between the various parts of a machine enable it to

perform very complex tasks and adjust to changes taking place in its external environment.

Cybernetics proved especially useful for communications engineering the design of powerful new

communication system for military applications, such as radar. Communication engineers had

abandoned simple, linear model of the communication process by the 1940s. A circular but evolving

communication process was conceptualized in which messages come back from receivers to influence

sources that in turn alter their messages. These circular process were referred to a as feedback loops. In

these systems, an ongoing mutual adjustment is possible that ultimately leads to achieving a long-term

objective or function. Complex machines rely on feedback loops as means of making ongoing

adjustments to changes caused by the environment. Feedback loops enable sources to monitor the

influence of their messages on receivers. But just as important, receivers can in turn influence sources.

If the effects are not what is expected or desired, a source can alter a message until the desired feedback

is obtained. So the machines built in the World War II provided sophisticated means of detecting subtle

changes so that a weapons system could achieve it objective. We refer to these as `communication

systems' if their function is primarily to facilitate communication. By this definition, a guided missile is

not a communication system. It is a weapons system that contains a communication.

Theories of Communication MCM 511

Mathematical theory of communication

Communications engineers also made important breakthrough that is central to the current revolution in

communications technology. Accuracy in message transmission is essential if systems are to operate

effectively and achieve long-term goals. Even minor errors can compound over time and lead to serious

problems. To address this situation, communication engineers developed a very sophisticated system.

The flow was known as a signal and each element in it was labeled an information bit. The ultimate

information bit is a digital bit-one that is either present or absent.

Methods of monitoring the accuracy of transmission of bits were developed. Any difference between the

signal sent and the signal received were viewed as errors or noise. High levels of noise tolerated if a

message is redundant, that is, if it contains many bits that carry the same information. Every

communication link can be seen as a channel, and every channel can be seen as having a certain

capacity to transmit an accurate signal.

Obviously it is better to have channels that can accurately transmit complex signals. When accuracy is a

problem, redundancy can be increased, but this reduces efficiency because the same information is

being sent more than once. E.g. AM radio is static. Static is thousand of erroneous bits of information

that have somehow entered the signal as it moves from the radio transmitter to our receiver. Whereas

FM signals aren't as subject to the introduction of errors as the signals moves from transmitter to

receiver, so you receive a more accurate transmission of the original signal.

Similarly the trend in communication engineering has been to find ways to reduce or even eliminate

noise, improve efficiency and increase channel capacity.

This is the basis for contemporary work on digital high definition television (HDTV). Rather than

transmitting 30 frames a second as does traditional television, HDTV transmits only digital information

about the changes that occur between those frames. E.G newscasters reading the news. The background

does not change only their mouths and facial expressions change. After the initial transmission all that is

sent and received in a digital HDTV system is information about changes in that original scene. Noise is

reduced, efficiency is improved and channel capacity is increased as only necessary information enters

the system.

Notions about signals, noise, bits, efficiency, redundancy and channel capacity have found their way

into mass communication theory through a variety of sources.

Mathematical theory

One of the first and most important books was the Mathematical theory written by Claude Shannon and

Warren Weaver in 1949 .They believed that these new concepts would transform how all forms of

communication were understood, they were optimistic that it might even be possible to remedy

macroscopic, societal-level communication problems using these very microscopic notions. Their ideas

came to be referred to as information theory.

In communications technology and the design of communication systems, the theory has been

enormously successful. Technology based on this theory is providing the building blocks constructing

the Information Superhighways. Information Superhighways means a worldwide system of computer

networks accessible to any user connected to it.

Designers of this super-communications system promised that it would provide us with vast quantities

of information at low cost in convenient, user-friendly format, and that promise seems to have been

fulfilled. But efficient, accurate transmission isn't enough, entry into the information age has been

accompanied by a troubling escalation in social problems.

Only recently have system theorists begun to recognize and try to develop more complex models that

allow ongoing transformation of systems.

Theories of Communication MCM 511

Adoption of system models by Mass communication theorists

Systems models replaced the Transmissional model that was implicit in most of the early effects

research. Lasswell provided a cogent, succinct version of this model when he described the

communication process as who says what to whom through what medium with what effect.

The Transmissional model assumes that a message source dominates the communication process and

the primary outcome of the process is some sort of effect on receivers-usually one intended by the

source .Influence moves or flows in a straight line from source to receivers. The possibility that the

message receivers mighty also influence the source is ignored. Attention is focused on whether a source

brings about intended effects or whether unintended negative effects occur.

Mutual or reciprocal influence is not considered. Communication theorists proposed new models of

communication processes with feedback loops in which receivers could influence sources and mutual

influence was possible. Westley and Maclean in 1957 provided a good example of this type of model.

Most conversations involve mutual influence, participants send out message, obtain feedback, and then

adjust their actions. In overall social environment can be understood as something that is created by

ongoing negotiation between actors.

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