Chapter 11, Questions 1-4

1. What is a formula? Is it different from a model? If so, how?
A formula is a statement expressing a fundamental truth or principle and a model is an abstract representation of processes that occur in the world, they have value and their limitations. A formula is different from a model in that the formula is a concrete truth that contains all the necessary ideas and a model simplifies things and does not contain all the facts like a formula does.

2. What is the Lasswell formula? How does it relate to Jakobson's model?
The Lasswell formula is:
Who?
Says what?
In which channel?
To whom?
With what effect?

This formula relates to Jakobson's model, Jakobson asks the same ideas but in other words:

(Jakobson's model is on the left)
An addresser or sender of a message: WHO is saying the message
The message or content: WHAT the person's message is saying.
The medium or contact: IN WHICH CHANNEL the person is saying the message
The addressee or receiver of the message: TO WHOM the person is saying the message to
The functions of the message: WITH WHAT EFFECT the person is saying the message.

3. Some communications scholars have attacked it. Why did they do so?
Many scholars have attacked Lasswell's formula because the formula makes the assumption that communications is always based on influencing receivers and having certain desired effects. Many different scholars believe that there can be communication that is not just based on persuading. There is phatic communication, for example, that is used to express emotion and not persuade.

4. Define "phatic" communication and give some examples of it.
Phatic communication is when people communicate their emotions rather than information. One example could be the sounds people make when they are eating something that they really enjoy, they make "mmm" sounds to express the emotion that they feel towards that food. Another example is the sounds people make on a rollarcoaster, they scream to show their excitement or fear. They do not use their scream intentionally for persuasion purposes.