Hello, dear person! Do you already understand everything about the hypodermic theory of communication? No?
So, go watch the video that I explained in detail. It is important for you to know this theory because the Lasswell model emerged from it. It was one of the first communication models to be put on paper, so to speak.
And the one who did it was Harold Harold Dwight Lasswell. But before I explain it to you, leave your like on the video and subscribe to the channel! This video is part of the series I created to explain each of the communication theories.
Check them all out, just access the playlist link that I'll leave below. And I also want to take this opportunity to invite you to sign up for my newsletter. Every week hundreds of people receive valuable tips and information that I share with great care about the wonderful universe of communication.
Now let's go! To give just some basic background, Harold Lasswell was a famous political scientist and communication theorist. He was born in 1902 and died in 1978.
He is especially famous for his theory of propaganda and political propaganda. This theory became known as the Lasswell Model. He believed that understanding who says what, through what channel, to whom, and with what effect was fundamental to understanding communication.
And look at the stark difference between the Lasswell Model and the Hypodermic Theory. . .
The hypodermic theory argues that the media influences people equally. Laswell has already begun to observe what different effects the media can have on people. He also thought about how the media influence politics and society.
And his ideas are still studied and debated today. In short, Harold Lasswell was an important scholar who helped shape our understanding of communication and its relationship to politics. Now, how does the Lasswell Model work?
This model was created in the 1940s as a way of understanding communication. It's based on five key questions that I just talked about here. Who says what?
Through which channel? For whom? With what effect?
'Who' refers to the sender of the message which is the person or group transmitting the information. 'What' is the content of the message or what is being communicated. 'Through which channel' is the medium or platform used to convey the message.
Like TV, radio, the internet and so on. 'To whom' are the recipients of the message, the target audience or the receiver. And 'with what effect' refers to the consequences of the communication; how to persuade, inform, entertain, etc.
So, the Lasswell model helps to analyze communication, considering all these variables. Just carry out the analysis within this structure, answering five questions. But over the years, communication studies have become much more complex than that, and with good reason.
Throughout the videos in this series you will understand better. Another important thing for you to know is that the Lasswell Model has three different functions. Do you know when you hear the latest news on television or on your cell phone?
This is what Lasswell calls environmental surveillance. Communication keeps us informed about what is happening around us, such as important events and changes in society. And when different groups come together to solve problems and work together, it is the correlation between components of society, as communication helps to connect these groups and facilitates the exchange of information and also cooperation.
And he also talks about those traditions and values that pass from one generation to another, which is cultural transmission between generations. After all, communication preserves and shares our culture over time. In other words, for Lasswell, communication is only efficient with these three things: environmental surveillance, correlation of components of society and cultural transmission between generations and it makes total sense to this day, do not you think?
This is why the Lasswell Model is so important. He helped understand how mass communication works and why it is so essential to our society. Now pay attention here, pay attention.
Look at me in my eye. I haven't written in a single book about this communication model. He produced several works and publications throughout his career and his ideas were disseminated there in the academic context.
So, you won't find a book by him about this, okay? It is very difficult to find organized records of these early theories right there. It's part of it.
And an extra curiosity is how this model fits into the functionalist perspective. Have you ever seen a gear in a machine? Each little part has a specific function to make the machine work correctly.
This is similar to the functionalist perspective on communication. In functionalist communication, society is seen as a great machine and communication is one of the gears that makes it work. The idea is that communication plays important roles there to keep society in harmony and functioning well.
For example, communication can help transmit cultural values, it can solve social and political problems, it can keep people informed about what is happening around them. So, when we look at communication from a functionalist perspective, the objective is to understand how it contributes to the stable functioning of society. And the Lasswell Model was a way of seeing communication as an essential part of life in society.
Therefore, some scholars like to associate this model with the Functionalist Theory of communication. And I think maybe you want to understand this Functionalist Theory better, right? So, this is the subject of an upcoming video here in the Communication Theories series.
But first, I will also explain the Theory of Limited Effects and I am sure you will enjoy learning it. Thank you very much for watching this far. A kiss and see you in the next video!
