Lasswell's model: the elements of communication

The Laswell model is a construct that has allowed the study of mass communication, as well as its components and effects on different audiences. Initially, the model was intended to be offered as a tool to classify studies in mass communication, as well as to analyze the variables that determine the transmission of a message. However, this model has generated a series of very useful concepts for analyzing communicative acts in general, beyond mass communication.

In this article We will see what the Laswell model is, how it came about and what are some of its main elements.

• Related article: "The 28 types of communication and their characteristics"

Lasswell's model: what does communication consist of?

In the 1940s, American sociologist Harold Lasswell he developed a model that allowed understanding the communication process in a way that was innovative for the first half of the 20th century.

In very broad strokes, he analyzed the channels through which communication occurs, and realizes that the transmission of any message flows through different devices, since

are immersed in a plural society with multiple audiences.

Furthermore, he notes that although mass communication occurred in a one-way fashion in most channels; audiences can also play an active role in the process, which implies that it is possible to close the communicative cycles that seem to be unilateral.

When Lasswell studied the messages that are exchanged in the different communication channels, wondered “who said what, on which channel, to whom, and with what effect?”, “who gets what and as?".

• You may be interested in: "Active listening: the key to communicating with others"

Beginnings and background

Although he did not patent it or claim it as his own, the model got his last name after becoming popular in the year of 1948 as a result of the publication of an article entitled "The structure and function of communication in society”. For the same reason it is often thought that this text founded the model. In fact, Laswell he is considered one of the fathers of political psychology and, among other things, it helped to consolidate the studies of mass communication, as well as its diffusion.

However, the publications that preceded it are the ones that really made it possible to lay its foundations. Likewise, there are different opinions about who or who developed this model. For example, some authors attribute it to John Marshall; other authors attribute it to both Lasswell and Marshall.

In any case, and both at a theoretical and methodological level, this model had an important impact on different disciplines: communication studies, political science, communication, law, philosophy, psychology, economics, anthropology. Specifically, it was possible to consolidate the objective of research in mass communication, which is to determine who and with what intentions has said what, to whom, and with what effects.

The elements and the communication process

One of the contextual elements around which this model becomes popular is the intention of reduce communication gaps between civil society and government. This could be possible through an alternative channel that would not only serve to report unilaterally, but would also be useful for reciprocal communication.

But what were the communication channels available? Prints, cinema, television, radio. In short, channels that establish unilateral communication, with which it was about non-closed cycles. The idea then arises that a new one can be promoted: academic research; that could serve as a medium or a communicative platform for society.

During World War II, Laswell participated in a communication project in which he was commissioned to study Hitler's speeches in relation to his audience. This study was carried out paying attention both verbal and non-verbal communicative elements, following the line of questions of what, who, how, and with what effect.

For the first time the audience had an active role in the analysis of the communication process: through his studies, the speech began to be seen not as a monologue, but as an act where those who they listen also produce an effect in the same speech.

According to Lasswell, mass communication not only has the objective of faithfully and objectively transmitting a fact, but it goes further. Among its purposes are:

• Report on the latest global and local events.
• Interpret these events through a particular ideology.
• Impact on the interpretation of the world of the spectators.

Components of communication and levels of analysis

In the area of ​​mass communication, it is common for phenomena to be analyzed from a series of questions that refer to different levels of analysis with communicative components to one; and that they arose precisely from Laswell's model. In addition, based on these, Laswell stated that every communicative process has different elements: sender, content, channel, receiver, effect.

1. Content analysis (what?)

Content analysis corresponds to the communicative component of the content or message. It is about the communicative stimuli that arise from the person who issues said message.

2. Control analysis (who?)

The control analysis level corresponds to the communicative component “who?”. In other words, it is the sender: the person who generates a message or communicative stimulus, and who expects a response from the receiver.

3. Analysis of the medium (how?)

The communicative component “how?” can be parsed from the medium or channel, through which the message is transmitted. It is the way in which the content travels from sender to receiver.

4. Audience analysis (who?)

The audience analysis dimension allows answering the question about who is the receiver; that is, the person who is expected to receive the sender's message. This question and dimension of analysis are fundamental in studies on mass communication, since both the message and the channel depend to a great extent on how the receiver is.

5. Analysis of the effects (for what?)

In the analysis of the effects or the results of the communication, the question is investigated, for what? It is about analyzing whether the objectives of transmitting a certain message have been met or not; and if not, then the effect that said transmission has created is studied. For Lasswell, all communication has an effect, whether or not it was originally planned, and it is what determines the structure of mass communication.

Bibliographic references:

• Rodriguez, A. (2018) Lasswell's model: what it consists of, elements, advantages and disadvantages. Retrieved July 24, 2018. Available in https://www.lifeder.com/modelo-lasswell/.
• Sapienza, Z., Iyer, N. & Veenstra, A. (2015). Reading Lasswell's Model of Communication Backward: Three Scholarly Misconceptions. Mass Communication and Society, 18:5, 559-622.
• Narula, U. (2006). Communication Models. Atlantic: India.