Week 2: First Lecture & Tutorial & Theoretical Contexts

Attended the first lesson for Public Relation and lecturer, Ms. Tanya did an introduction to Public Relations with the class. Personally, it is in contrast to my knowledge of public relations. I am looking forward to the rest of the lessons.

A key concept to public relations is communication hence, communication theories play a significant role in the history of its development. The link between communication theories and PR can be studied in this information transmission model.

According to Shannon and Weaver's model (as seen above), a message begins at an information source, which is relayed through a transmitter, and then sent via a signal towards the receiver. But before it reaches the receiver, the message must go through noise (sources of interference). Finally, the receiver must convey the message to its destination.

From my understanding, this model of transmission fixes and separates the roles of 'sender' and 'receiver'. However, communication between 2 persons involves simultaneous 'sending' and 'receiving' - not based on talking alone, including body language. In Shannon and Weaver's model the source is seen as the active decision-maker who determines the meaning of the message; the destination is the passive target.It is a linear, one-way model, ascribing a secondary role to the 'receiver', who is seen as absorbing information. However, communication is not a one-way street. Even when we are simply reading a book or watching the television, we are far more interpretively active than we normally realize.There was no provision in the original model for feedback (reaction from the receiver). Feedback enables speakers to adjust their performance to the needs and responses of their audience. A 'feedback loop' was added by later theorists, but the model remains linear.

Relating this communication model to public relations, In this linear transmission model, both participants are treated as isolated individuals. However, contemporary communication theorists treat communication as a shared social system. I agree with this statement. We are all social beings, and our communicative acts cannot be represented simply by the expression of purely individual thoughts and feelings. Such thoughts and feelings are socio-culturally patterned & enacted. Even what we call 'our' language (i.e. Singlish) doesn't solely belong to us. In fact, we are born into the culture, Singapore's culture. Hence, we can't change the rules. Words have connotations which we didn't choose for them. An emphasis on creative individuality is itself a culturally-shaped myth which had a historically 'modern' origin in the West. Transmission models of communication reduce human communication to the transmission of messages, whereas, many literature texts, linguists and communication theorists tell us, there is more to communication than this. For instance, phatic communication, which is a way of maintaining relationships. Research shows that in United Kingdom, talking about the weather is a simple matter of phatic communication than just purely transmitting information. No allowance is made in the transmission model for differing purposes. The same images of a football match telecasted on the television would have very different meanings for the fans of opposing sides. Hence, in models such as Shannon and Weaver's, no allowance is made for relationships between people as communicators (e.g. differences in power). Messages are framed differently, according to the roles in which we communicate. For instance, if a friend asks me about my thoughts on a certain lecture topic, I would most likely answer in a somewhat different way from the way others answer the same question. Interviews are a very good example of the unequal power relationship in a communicative situation. Many people in society do not all have the same social roles or the same rights. And, not all values, norms and meanings are accorded equal value. It makes a huge difference on whether the participants are of the same social class, gender, age group, ethnicity or profession. In addition, it is known that certain voices carries more authority than others. I feel that the dominant directionality involved in communication cannot be fixed in a model instead, it is closely related to the situational distribution of power.