De Fleur Model of Communication

 History:

Melvin Lawrence De Fleur (born April 27, 1923 in Portland, Oregon) is a professor and

scholar in the field of communications and Social Psychology. In 1954, University of

Washington gave a Ph.D in Social psychology for his experimental study “Experimental

studies of stimulus response relationships in leaflet communication” based on American

Communities how information diffused by them. He taught very universities from 1954 to

till today. Now he is working as a Professor and head in the Department of communication

and Advertising and Public Relations in the University of Boston.

Background of the theory:

The theory De fleur model of communication is expanded version of Shannon and weaver

model of communication. And also based on the “Westley & Maclean model of

communication” describes the circular process of communication with feedback from the

receiver. Shannon and Weaver model is a one way communication and they explain the role

of noise in the communication process. Westley & Maclean model is a two way

communication and for first time they introduced the important component called “Linear

Feedback” in the communication model. De fleur combine these two models and creates

new one called “De Fleur Model of Communication”.

Theory:

De Fleur simply expands the Shannon & weaver model of communication by inserting the

Mass Media device and suggested the communication process is circular as well as it gives

possible two way feedback. In this whole communication process, noise may occur at any

stages. Defleur pictures the source, transmitter, receiver and destination as separate phases

of mass communication.

Defleur’s another important suggestion in this model is “Feedback Device”. This feedback

device is helps to analyse the target audience (as separate from the receivers). Here, all these

receivers are not considering as a target audience because the target audience will make

some kind of feedback which will helps to find the target audience by using feedback device.

One of the important aspect of the communication model is two way communication

process which is recommended by Defleur. And also this model is the first one which

introduce both two way feedback and targeted audience in the communication process.

Example:

De Fleur’s model can be well explained with the help of advertisings. Say let’s assume source

as the advertising strategy or simply the information about the product which the company

intends to tell to its audience. This is then converted into message as ad film and then

transmitted by a mass communicating channel. At the other end the receiver (TV set or

radio) decodes the information as message and finally it is being transformed to the

destination (the target audience). Now comes the feedback aspect. The feedback acts as a

message – an information source and the same process continues where the message

reaches back the advertising company. (Feedback may happen through emails, social

networks).

Through feedback, the company can know whether their intended message has reached the

target audience and if not they can modify their message and once again involve in

communication process.