In which field was the telephone model of communication first developed?

Concept

Linear transmission models represent communication as the movement of a signal from a source, through a channel, to a destination.

Information theory formalizes this process by studying information, encoding, channel capacity, transmission, reception, and noise.

Application

In the telephone model, a message source sends a signal through a transmitter and a potentially noisy channel to a receiver and destination. This source–transmitter–channel–receiver arrangement is associated with the Shannon–Weaver model, which grew out of information theory.

Contrast

• Technological theory examines how communication technologies influence media practices and social organization.

• Dispersion theory describes how wave components spread at different rates while traveling through a medium.

• Minimal effects theory studies conditions under which mass media exert limited influence on audiences.

• Information theory studies the quantification, encoding, transmission, and recovery of information across noisy channels.

Result

Therefore, the telephone model of communication was first developed in the field of information theory.