Lasswell's Model

Published by Emil Abraham,

Harold Dwight Lasswell, the American political scientist states that a convenient way to describe an act of communication is to answer the following questions
  • Who
  • Says What
  • In Which Channel
  • To Whom
  • With what effect?
This model is about process of communication and its function to society, According to Lasswell there are three functions for communication:
  1. Surveillance of the environment
  2. Correlation of components of society
  3. Cultural transmission between generation
Lasswell model suggests the message flow in a multicultural society with multiple audiences. The flow of message is through various channels. And also this communication model is similar to Aristotle’s communication model. Though Lasswell’s model was developed to analyze mass communication, this model is used for interpersonal communication or group communication to be disseminated message to various groups in various situations.
In this model, the communication component
  • 'Who' refers the research area called "Control Analysis"
    • Control analysis helps the sender to have all the power.
  • 'Says what' refers to "Content Analysis"
    • Content analysis is associated to stereotyping and representation of different groups politically. It is also related to the purpose or the ulterior motives of the message.
  • 'In which channel' refers to "Media Analysis"
    • Media analysis represents which medium should be used to exercise maximum power against the receivers.
  • 'To whom’ refers to "Audience Analysis"
    • Audience analysis shows who are the target population to be manipulated or brain-washed.
  • 'With What Effect' refers to "Effect Analysis"
    • Effect analysis is done before the process starts. It is used to predict the effect of message over the target population to be exploited.
Example:
CNN NEWS – A water leak from Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear power station resulted in about 100 times the permitted level of radioactive material flowing into the sea, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Saturday.
Who – TEPC Operator
What – Radioactive material flowing into sea
Channel – CNN NEWS (Television medium)
Whom – Public
Effect – Alert the people of japan from the radiation.

Advantages of Lasswell's model:
  • It is easy and simple
  • It suits for almost all types of communication
  • The concept of effect (which can be taken as feedback in some cases)
Disadvantages of Lasswell's model:
  • Feedback not mentioned
  • Very simplistic
  • Noise not mentioned
  • Linear Model