Braddock’s Derivation of Lasswell’s Model

 Harold Lasswell’s Model (1948)

 Harold Dwight Lasswell (1902–1978) was a leading American political scientist and communications theorist. He was the Chief of the Experimental Division for the Study of War Time Communications at the Library of Congress during the Second World War. He analysed Nazi propaganda films to identify mechanisms of persuasion used to secure the acquiescence and support of the German populace for Hitler. He gave verbal models of communication and politics in the same year when Shannon wrote his paper on mathematical theory. 

His model of communication is in the shape of a question containing many more questions. 

Who says

 What to Whom 

in What Channel 

with What effect? 

This linear model enumerates main variables involved in the process of communication. 

The ‘Who’ refers to the identification of the source and

 ‘What’ refers to the analysis of the content of the message. 

The choice of channel is denoted by the question ‘What channel’ and the characteristics of the audience by the question ‘Whom’. 

The main thing about this model is that it makes the end result of communication as the most important aspect of the whole process, when Lasswell asks ‘What effect?’ 

In a way, this model of communication appears to be influenced to a large extent by the behaviourism which was the newly developing trend in America those days. 

Behaviourism is a school of psychology that supports that behaviours can be influenced by conditioning. Laswell’s model takes the psychological conditioning of individuals and society into account. 

His model of communication can also be described as the psycho-sociological model of communication because it deals with the psychological and sociological aspects of communication. It considers what effects communication has on the recipient(s) of the message, and so it enters the domain of psychology as well as sociology.

 Braddock’s Derivation of Lasswell’s Model In 1958,

 Richard Braddock suggested that Lasswell’s model be expanded to consider two additional elements that Braddock argued that Lasswell’s model ignored ‘for what purpose’ and ‘under what circumstances’. 

Braddock’s model is Models of Communication