Lasswells Model of

Communication
Presented by: Dahmani kahina and Toumi Sabrina
University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-ouzou
Year:2014/2015

Outline

Introduction
Biography of Harold Lasswell
Lasswells Contribution to Information and Communication
Theory
His Model of Communication
Advantages of Lasswells Model
Weaknesses of Lasswells Model
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction
Nowadays, a great deal of people do not apprehend
the importance of communication. Notwithstanding,
communication is like breathing it is inevitable as it is the
core element of every exchange and interaction with
people. In fact, communication requires being familiar and
aware about the different factors that intervene in the
process of communication. These factors can help people
to better communicate hence be good communicators.
The process of communication has been theorized by
means of diagrams of diverse forms, they vary from the
simplest one to the complex mathematical one. It is crucial
to cite one of the principal models that is Lasswell s.

Biography

Harold Dwight Lasswell, an American political scientist born in

Donnellson, Illinois, USA on February 13 th, 1902
Lasswell was a prominent scholar in the area of Propaganda Research, his
dissertation Propaganda Technique in the World War (1927) is
recognized as a leading study on communication theory. He defined
propaganda as being a control of opinion by significant symbols, by
stories, rumours, reports, pictures, and other form of social communication
(Lasswell, 1927), also he defined it to be a technique of influencing human
action by the manipulation of representationwhich can be spoken, written,
pictorial or musical(Lasswell, 1927).

He was interested in studying the use of propaganda communication

through the media during the Second World War; he began with the
principle that mass communication is something that does
something to another person
In 1948, Lasswell developed his communication model in his article
entitled The Structure and Function of Communication in
Society.

Lasswells Contribution to Information

and Communication Theory

His model of Communication:

Harold Lasswell was mainly concerned with Mass
Communication (media) and Propaganda. The former is a
process in which a person or a group of people or an organization
sends a message through a channel of communication (including TV
broadcast, radio, social networks and print) to a large group of
anonymous and heterogeneous people. Advertising, journalism (such
as news) and politics are types of mass communication. The latter
refers to information spread in order to gain support for a political
leader, party, etc.
In fact, mass communication research was always concerned with
political influence over the mass media that is one of the primary
devices of influencing people.
The Lasswell Formula (1948) is a typical model of what are
referred to as Transmission Models of Communication because
communication is reduced to transmission of information.

In his 1948 article The Structure and Function of Communication

in Society, Lasswell stated:
A convenient way to describe an act of communication is to
answer the following questions or what is referred to as the
Principle of 5Ws:

who?

Says what?

In which channel?

To whom?

With what effect?

In fact, the Lasswells Formula consists of five major components
as illustrated in the figure below.

Figure: The Lasswells Model of

Communication

Example:
CNN News: The Tokyo Electric Power Company Operator announced
that a water leak from Japans tsunami crippled nuclear power
station resulted in about 100 times the permitted level of radioactive material flowing into the sea.

Who: The Tokyo Electric Power Company Operator

What: Radio-active material flowing into the sea

Channel: CNN News (TV medium)

Whom: Public

Effect: To alert people of Japan from radiation

(communicationtheory.org)
Lasswell defined each of the five elements representing his
model and the areas of research that investigate each of them:
Who refers to the research area called Control Analysis.
Says what refers to Content Analysis
In which channel refers to Media Analysis
To whom refers to Audience Analysis
With what effect refers to Effect Analysis

1. Who:
It refers to the communicator or the person who formulates the
message. Many communication specialists refer to the
communicator as source or transmitter or the sender of the
message.
.Control Analysis:
This element of communication has to be studied through control
analysis. It investigates things such as:
-Which company owns a certain TV channel or
newspaper?
is political
its ideology?
Its aims?
-What-What
are its
allegiances?

2. What:
It refers to the content of the message.
Content Analysis:
Being concerned with the mass media, Lasswell was particularly
interested in the messages present in the media. It is related to an
area of study known as content research that takes in charge
counting the number of occurrences of a particular representation
of concrete persons or situations in the media and comparing that
with some kind of objective measure like official statistics.
E.g:
-How are Blacks represented in TV?
-How is a given society represented in the movies?
-How are women represented in TV?
If one common representation of women is the housewives that
clean the house and take care of children, we would have to
compare the percentage of that kind of women in TV to the real or
objective percentage.
3. Channel:
It is the medium by which the message is being communicated/
transmitted or what carries the message. Messages can be sent in
channels corresponding to humans five senses.

. E.g: When a person speaks, his/her words are carried via the channel
of air waves auditory channel.
The radio news is carried by both air waves radio waves. A message
tapped out on the back of ones head in Morse code tactile channel.

Media Analysis:
Media Analysis investigates the choice of the suitable channel
or medium , among other possibilities, to use to carry a particular
message, depending on the content, the purpose of the message,
the target audience, etc. It asks questions such as:
-Is the medium appropriate to the message/audience?
-Can it explain what we want to explain?
E.g: Advertising agencies decide what is the most appropriate
magazine, newspaper or TV channel to reach their audience.
4.Whom:
It refers to the person(s) who receive the message or the
audience or the readership of mass communication. This
element of audience is of vital importance for a communication
situation to be successful .

 Audience Analysis:
Audience Analysis attempts to know everything about the
target public of a given message, from gender and age to social
status and tastes. The mass media find it crucial to know as much
as possible about their audiences
E.g: In the USA, advertisers in the print media use information from
the Gallup organization to know what their audiences are like.

5.Effects:
Lasswell was especially concerned by the outcomes or
consequences of messages by mass communication on people. He
says that people do not communicate in a vacuum rather so as to
achieve something.
Effect Analysis:
It endeavours to know whether the media (mass communication)
have any effect or not, if so, how they affect their audiences.

Advantages of Lasswells Model:

It is useful, easy and simple.
.
It suits for almost all types of communication.
Although Lasswells model was intended to deal with mass
communication, it is suitable and useful for different categories of
communication including Interpersonal Communication that
is everyday communication/interaction with family, friends, etc.
The concept of effect.
The model supposes that messages always have effects.

 Weaknesses of Lasswells Model:

The model is linear and unidirectional.
It represents a one-way flow of communication.
It does not mention the element of feedback.
To find out what kind of impact a communication has, some kind
of feedback is needed yet this is not shown in Lasswells model.
While the communicator is central in the process of
communication, the audience members are passive receivers of
messages.
The model assumes that the intention of the communication is to
influence the receiver since for Lasswell the primary function of
communication is influence and persuasion.
The model exaggerates and puts much emphasis on the effects of
mass communication.
This explains the models propaganda usage in political
communication.

Conclusion
To conclude, Lasswells model represents the earliest
and the simplest diagram in communication theory. Yet, it
has been criticized for its weaknesses, and this pushed
scholars afterwards to bring changes to this model and thus
creating their owns.

Bibliography
Books:
Almond, G. (1987) Harold Dwight Lasswell.
Washington: National Academy of Science
Lasswell, Harold D. (1927) Propaganda Technique in
the World War. New York
Lasswell, Harold D. (1948) The Structure and Function
of Communication in Society.
http://www.themedfomscu.org/media/elip/The%20struc
ture%20and%20function%20of.pdf
Websites:
www.britannica.com
www.encyclopedia.com
www.communicationtheory.org