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 to analyze 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.
Lasswell’s model: what does communication consist of?
In the 1940s, American sociologist Harold Lasswell developed a model that allowed us to understand the communication process in a way that was innovative for the first half of the 20th century.
Very broadly, he analyzed the channels through which communication occurs, and realizes that the transmission of any message flows through different devices, since They are immersed in a plural society with multiple audiences.
Furthermore, he notes that, although mass communication occurred unidirectionally in most channels; Audiences can also play an active role in the process which implies that it is possible to close communication cycles that seem to be unilateral.
When Lasswell studied the messages exchanged in different communication channels, he asked “who said what, on what channel, to whom, and with what effect?”, “who gets what and how?”
Beginnings and background
Although he did not patent it or claim it as his own, the model obtained his surname after becoming popular in 1948 following the publication of an article titled “The structure and function of communication in society.” For the same reason it is usually thought that this text founded the model. In fact, Laswell He is considered one of the fathers of political psychology and, among other things, helped consolidate mass communication studies, as well as its dissemination.
However, the publications that preceded it are those that really allowed it 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 sciences, communication, law, philosophy, psychology, economics, anthropology. Specifically, it was possible to consolidate the objective of mass communication research, 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 to reduce communication gaps between civil society and government. This could be possible through an alternative channel that would not only serve to inform unilaterally, but would also be useful to establish reciprocal communication.
But what were the communication channels available? Prints, cinema, television, radio. In short, channels that establish unilateral communication, which were non-closed cycles. The idea then arises that a new one can be promoted: academic research; that could serve as a means or a communicative platform for society.
During the Second World War, Laswell participated in a communications project in which he was responsible for studying 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 communicative process: through their studies, the speech began to be seen not as a monologue, but as an act in which those who listen They 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 goes further. Among its purposes are:
Communication components and levels of analysis
In the area of mass communication, it is common for phenomena to be analyzed based on a series of questions that refer to different levels of analysis with communicative components for one; and that arose precisely from Laswell’s model. Furthermore, 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. These are the communicative stimuli that arise from the person who issues said message.
The level of control analysis corresponds to the communicative component “who?” In other words, it is the sender: the person who generates a message or communicative stimulus, and who waits for a response from the receiver.
3. Analysis of the environment (how?)
The communicative component “how?” can be analyzed from the medium or channel, through which the message is transmitted. It is the way in which content travels from sender to receiver.
4. Audience analysis (to whom?)
The dimension of audience analysis allows us to answer the question about who the recipient is; that is, the person who is expected to receive the message from the sender. This question and dimension of analysis are fundamental in studies on mass communication, since both the message and the channel depend largely on what the recipient is like.
5. Analysis of the effects (for what?)
In analysis of the effects or results of communication, research is carried out through the question: why? 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.
