L2 Communication

Question 1

What is the traditional model of communication, and what are the central assumptions?

Answer 1

Linear relationship, focus on mass media: sender (message)–> receiver (effect)

Central assumptions:

• Mass media reaches everyone
• 1-way flow of information
• Direct relation between message - effect
• Receiver is able and willing to process information
• Receiver is passive and uncritical

Question 2

Who belongs to what?

Who:

• Laswell (1948)
• Shannon-Weaver (1949)
• Berelson (1949)
• Berlo (1960)

What:

• Subjectivity is noise
• SMCR model of communication
• More nuance; importance of context
• Who says what to whom through what channel with what effect?

Answer 2

Laswell - Who says what to whom through what channel with what effect?

Shannon-Weaver: Subjectivity is noise

Berelson - More nuance; importance of context

Berlo - SMCR model of communication

Question 3

Who do linear models not work?

Answer 3

• Mass media do not reach everyone
• Communication is not a one-way flow
• No direct relation message-effect
• Receivers not always able and willing
• Receivers filter information according to own preferences

Question 4

How does the public consist of active participants in the communication process?

Answer 4

• They select and modify content based on information needs and preferences
• They actively make sense and meaning by filtering information on the basis of perceptions, assumptions, and judgements
• They interpret and shape messages depending on the context of experience, beliefs, traits, and worldview

Question 5

How is scientific knowledge constructed?

Answer 5

• Active construction: people do not draw on models, text-book accounts of scientific knowledge, but filter and supplement scientific representations with others
• Contextual use: people select, construct, and use knowledge according to their situation, interest, and involvement
• Credibility: people do not accept knowledge passively, credibility depends on perceived interests
• Sense-making: people integrate scientific elements with ethical views and tact understandings to form a personal position on controversial matters

Question 6

What are Paul Watzlawick’s (1967) axioms of communication?

Answer 6

• Impossible to not communicate
• Content and relationship levels (how I see you)
• The punctuation of events–> structuring and organizing a sequence of events and behviours (what you’re used to)
• Digital & analogic communication–> digital meaning coded (language etc.), analogic meaning uncoded (non-verbal etc.)
• Symmetrical and complementary interaction (sender and receiver are equal/unequal)

Question 7

Describe the translational model of communication

Answer 7

• Communication process, senders, and receivers keep changing
• Share a field of experience

Question 8

What is communication?

Answer 8

• A continuous, transactional process, involving participants operating is specific contexts
• Creating a relationship by simultaneously sending and receiving messages through channels, often distorted by noise
• (Un)intentional, contextual
• Irreversable, unrepeatable

Question 9

What is framing?

Answer 9

The process by which we make sense of a complex reality based on our exprience and perspective.

It’s how an individual sees and interprets an object on basis of visual data, experience, and worldview. It is a process of selection - organisation - intepretation.

“We see things as we are”.

Question 10

Why does framing matter in science communication?

Answer 10

• Facts don’t speak for themselves
• Actors rely on frames to make sense of complex phenomena
• Frames are embedded in institutions, practices, values, and interests