MODULE 1:

MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

INTRODUCTION:

Humans are social beings. Despite the few occasions of solitude, chatting with friends,
either face to face, through a telephone, or online seems to be a more likeable situation to be in.
people value the simplest opportunities to communicate not just with themselves, but most
especially with other people.

Communication is a natural and inescapable fact of life. Every individual is born with it.
This is precisely the reason why you are taught to learn how to speak, read, write or use
communication gadgets at an early age. Communication is all about these skills your parents
would like you to learn when you were younger.

DEFINING COMMUNICATION

Littlejohn and Foss (2008), who are scholars and experts in the field, regard
communication as “one of those everyday activities that is intertwined with all of human life so
completely that we sometimes overlook its pervasiveness, importance, and complexity.” They
suggest that communicating feels so natural to people that oftentimes the act itself is taken for
granted.

Whether it is through verbal or nonverbal, or at this day and age, digital, humans are
creatures of expression. This is so, by necessity and desire. People communicate to be more
closely integrated with and to the society they belong to. You communicate because expressing
yourself means contributing ideas for whatever purpose or cause; but first, you must understand
the concept of communication. Perhaps one good way to do so is by looking at the origin of the
word.

ORIGIN OF THE WORD COMMUNICATION

Communication is from the Latin term communicare, which means “to share”. It may also
be thought to originate from another Latin word communis, which roughly means “working
together”.

As explained by Bulan and de Leon (2002) in their book Practical Speech Fundamentals,
“without speech or oral communication, societies could not attain levels of civilization;
communities could not organize into living and working groups, mark and ritualize practices
and traditions, debate and decide difficult issues, and transform society for its good.”
Essentially, what they tell you is that communication functions in more ways than you can
imagine.

COMMUNICATION PROCESS THROUGH MODELS

To understand better the process of communication, here are some models as discussed
by communication scholar Denis McQuail (2005) in his book McQuail’s Mass Communication
Theory.

1. TRANSMISSION MODELS
Perhaps the most popular among these is Harold Laswell’s representation of
communication as an attempt to answer the question “Who says what to whom, through what
medium and with what effect?”
 through what with what
who says what
medium
to whom
result
SENDER MESSAGE RECEIVER EFFECT
CHANNEL

Fig 1. Laswell’s Communication Model

The model is relatively straightforward and tells you that communication originates from
someone and their message flows through a channel, either through sound waves or light waves,
and that someone on the other end receives the message with a corresponding effect.

SHANNON AND WEAVER’S COMMUNICATION MODEL

One such revision is a model by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver which incorporates
the concept of noise that refers to anything that interferes with the message. The model is more
mechanical look at communication.

WESTLEY AND MACLEAN MODEL OF COMMUNICATION

Another transmission model is by Bruce Westley and Malcolm Maclean Jr. where they argued that
instead of having a sender merely relaying messages, you have a communicator who relays his or
her account of a selection of events or views/voices in society. Westley and Maclean Jr. also said
that communication is “guided by interests and demands of an audience that is known only by its
selections and responses to what is offered (McQuail, 2005).”
2. RITUAL OR EXPRESSIVE MODEL
This is an alternative way of looking at how communication works. In the expressive
model, communication happens due to the need to share understanding and models.
Communication has an integrative consequence in the society – it is done to build social
relationships.

An example would be when you use certain symbolisms to indirectly refer to certain
things, but you are sure that your audience still understands what you are trying to say.
The communication is ritualized because the meaning is suggested more than explicitly
stated and the understanding of it, though connotative, is mutual.

3. PUBLICITY MODEL
This model explains that communication involves audiences as “spectators rather
than participants or information receivers (McQuail, 2005).” Attention is important
because it is a measure of how successful the communication has transpired.

Imagine yourself telling a friend about a potentially boring story but you tell it in a
compelling and animated manner to keep his interest and attention.

Another example is how television commercials aggressively convince the audience

to buy the products that they advertise.

4. RECEPTION MODEL
In this model, you come to understand communication as an open process, which
means that messages sent and received are open to various interpretations based on
context and the culture of the receiver. In other words, there might be various meanings
to a single statement that is communicated. One such model illustrating this is Wilbur
Schramm’s depiction of cyclical communication where the sender and receiver have
alternating roles in the loop. A communicator who produces and sends the message is
called an “encoder” and the one who receives and interprets is the “decoder”.

Schramm’s model

Decoder
Message Interpreter
Encoder

Decoder
Interpreter Message
Encoder

BERLO’S MODEL

Another reception model is the one by David Berlo that accounted for factors that affect
how communicators are influenced when they send and receive a message. These factors include
the following:

 Communication skills such as reading, writing, speaking, listening and watching

 Knowledge about a subject or topic

  Attitude toward the topic and the audience

 Social and Cultural aspects that influence the content of the message and the manner
by which it is sent

The reception models show that it is not just about saying the message but also considering how
the message may be received because of factors that may influence reception. That is why when someone
breaks a bad news to someone else, he or she will have to consider how the other person will react to the
news or what possible interpretations the other person might have about the news.

Reference: Diwa Senior High School Series, Media and Information Literacy, p. 3-7