Harold Lasswell

A. If you think of this and of the nation instead of a group of social insects a colony of socialist states are heard. And ask what are the specialists. On the surveillance of the environment of the nation. You get some interesting results. There are the the attachés of the diplomatic services. They give the diplomats whose job is to keep their eye on. The top decision makers of other nations and send back a stream of reports that a specialist on military that the military attachés whose job is to keep their focus of attention of military activities and setting back history could indicate that the cultural attache has the labor aspects and so on that are connected with the diplomatic services they represent the specialized performers of the surveillance function for the nation.

Also there are newspaper correspondents stationed abroad. Whose business it is to have a look at the environment in the send back reports that are correspondents for business organizations specialized again to this task. There are. In connection with churches there are many people whose job it is to report on what's happening that affects churches and so on through all of the specialized activities of a given national society like ours. One could locate a whole series of these specialists on surveys of the surroundings who are constantly sending back these streams of information about what's going on in the environment. And.

Then. What happens. Well some of this information goes back to the center and there's a media play a reply initiated without any further involvement of the entire community. This often happens for you and I an incoming message from one of our diplomatic agents abroad. Who've been to. So there you have the communication response. In fluency hitting the environ. But of course the process of integrating a communication response. On the part of the nation may be an enormously intricate process in which the number of interacting leaves.

Becomes prodigious. Just think of what happens if a president gets the message kicked up to it through the channels in the State Department and he's like study it's a good idea to make it available to the cabinet and then to the key leaders of the Senate and the House to. Some influential pressure group leaders. Two selected informants in communities in the network all over the country. And then presently there are linkages. Planned and unplanned. They saw that. Presently the mass media. Five or six hundred pressure organizations are sending out through their trial

versions. Of the message. And those individuals at each step of the line are initiating US series of counter messages the way that may be explicitly related to the emerging response in relation to the environment. Complicated as these processes are they're quite capable of being described as a b c sequences. Through time. And the communication responds. As I've indicated that may. Occur. Having been mediated by a process in which news participants have been implicated.

Not of the nation acting then in relation to its environment it is receiving an inflow of messages understanding them out and in this process of behavior the internal processes of communication. Are preparing and integrating the acts in relation to the environment they wish to consummate. Instead of a nation let the circle represent a metropolitan area or a local municipality or a ham or a far. Family. Or any other. Small nucleus of people interacting with one another. This circle has. Its embossed communication from outside and it.

Furthermore sends out. Communications to its environs and there is some internal process going on which can be followed through in great detail. They community the group then is. Constantly engaged in its life in society and the surveillance of environments in the communication responds to that environment. All of this is part of the whole process of living in society. Well let's suspend that way of looking at the communication process in very general terms. And asked some more pointed questions. About a specialized process of communication are convenient questions to ask about any sequence of

communication that we want to look at. And here I think the formula. That we have found convenient for the last. 15 or 20 years in the examination of communication processes. May be employed with advantage. When you're looking at a stream of communication you can ask who initiates the stream of communication and who can ask who or with what the intention subject to what factors that. Help to explain the intention. Launchers the communication. But I love that this rest of the moment with the question. Who initiated the communication screen.

What is communicated. This is a question of the content of the message. The four words in the case of the talk. The flow of other signs in the case of non-thought communication. This is the content of communication. The message stream flow. Said. Then the third question may be how. Which means in this case you know what channel of communication what medium is used. The medium can't be conveniently described in terms of psycho physical characteristics. Whether Of course it's an auditory specialized in auditory visual etc. medium can also be described not only in terms of those

lack of physical characteristics but in terms of the state of development of various facilities for the transmission. Of these. Messages. Then you can ask to who is this fellow directed. And that's a question of. Describing the audience. And then you can ask what effect. So here are the famous five questions that have Boyd in different communications analyses. Who says quote to whom in what medium or how to whom with what effect and there's no question about the communication process that you can't conveniently put under those far if you want to. If for any reason you want to emphasize some additional point you can stretch out the five and make it longer.

And if for any reason you're not much interested in making all five of these points you can condense this like into 30 and that's just a few questions. But. The WHO and the bottom how and to whom the effect represents one of the ways to characterize a process of communication in any given community through time and if you watch the flow of community activities and ask Who are the people who are controlling most of the communication. Who are the people who are initiating. Arc through whose. Control. Incoming communications pass. Or who occupies the critical. Moments in the communicating process. It's

relevant to ask who. And true in a given period of time you can ask such questions as who with what intentions. In many cases it is easy to see what the intentions are sometimes there to sell goods advertising communication. Sometimes the intentions they are to raise gifts. Sometimes they are to influence folks and so on through the list of varied effects that people can tend to have some sort of control position in the stream of communication. And examination of who these people are. The work to summarize the various intentions and then you will describe what other characteristics these people have that are worth mentioning. Well let's take the educational broadcasting stations for a minute. And subject them to this analysis who are these characters who with

what intention through time. Well. What are these people through any given period trying to get. Well if you see in some cases the answer to that. They're interested in educating people. Yes and then you will say what I would see as evidence by point out what sort of response is supposed to be education. What do these people that intend to accomplish. Well they want more people to hang more goers with the assistance of their family. All right. Matt is fairly specific. You know what they say. They want more people to play the word Bruce refers to an

important person. As distinguished from other objects. I don't mention they want Bach to be oh we're treated with respect. They would even like to have some music by a Bach performer on the basis of the flow of communications over the stage. They want people to be interested in poetry. They want people to contribute to worthy cause. They want people to talk at the dinner table about serious topics occasionally. Not necessarily with morbidity. This over the pulse rate might be affected by this. But there are great many ways to start talking about. Who these characters are called educational broadcasters for instance. And what their

intention list is through many a period of time. And here of course I'm not speaking of what they say their intentions are. Oh right. I'm referring to the kinds of skill interviewing that finds out what words refer to something you know so that you interview people to find out if possible whether they're talking about anything so that you can make gradually arrive at the interviewer a list of probably it was that they thought they were trying to do to an audience. And skillful Interviewing can frequently come up with results so that you can get not only a string of words but you can get a string of words that fairly well that are definite enough so that you can look around and investigate the situation and discover the degree to

which there is a positive negative or zero relationship between the terms and was later alluded to. Certainly they are that you can ask well after you've gone into the intentions what are the factors affecting these people. Well first of all you can start out if you want to be pedantic about it and ask what's culturally belong to that civilization and in the United States if they belong to certain subcultures let's say strongly Germanic in background are strongly Mediterranean those subculture questions may be of some significance and explain the. Sorts of intentions of these people pass through time. Then also there are the class factors upper middle or lower class position. Sometimes the educational broadcasters who perhaps do not

invariably come from the upper class. The group in the community will include some middle class people and with a middle class perspective demands dedication. And expectation. The lower class person of course you see that's not he would long since have been reconfirmed in that the people who were there in the factories convey the culture the class. That organization. Was within different class groups. People have all kinds of organizational affiliations and if you know about those affiliations are you can often. Explain what it is that goes on some people are missing. Some are less Masonic than others and some are going to take it or leave. There are some people who. Are connected

with church organizations. Sometimes the connection is loose and sometimes it's extremely intimate and intense. Sometimes there are organizations. Professional organizations the person belongs to such as the organization of educational broadcasters and trying to explain what the intentions people have through time it may be that you can make some inferences by examining the professional affiliations that lead of course there's the personality factors. You have some people who. Are agitation or characters they do not always last long and educational activities.

But sometimes they gravitate into active education activities where there is high tolerance for their continued help. The agitation of people who survive best who are agitated about non controversy all things that they. Hear for example of bacon got interested in aesthetics rather than in foreign politics. But chances of survival are greatly increased. Also there are if one can get interested in technology and get excited about gadgetry. And about the wonders of the impersonal events of the world. That too is conducive to survival. So there are a number of our

personality characteristics which you happily make good with modes of expression. They lead to survival at any rate they will always help to explain what it is these various people do. Now I've been referring of course to the educational broadcasters as though they had something to do with what went out over their stations. A more comprehensive analysis would of course call for an investigation of from whom these people got their money by whom they are appointed by whom they expect to be fired or promoted and so on. This is the problem Larry with a to ask rule not only in terms of the characteristics of the specialized personnel but of the hiring firing money and with coaching personnel they're part of the coup of educational broadcasting. And of course.

You can sometimes forecast what is going out what the intentions are. Of the operating personnel by investigating the controlling personnel. So the question of who whose intention. Explained by what sorts of factors. May help us to account for what happens in the communication process. The relevance of that is indicated here and that of course is the business of the content summary of. The. Material that transmitted. The power to the summary of. The facilities employed. Who is the audience of course and the effects they range all the way from varying degrees of attention inattention comprehension in comprehension some on

through to various forms of overt activities they engaged in by those exposed. Incidentally one remark yesterday leads me to make one comment. I suppose that if there's anything in modern communication analysis indicates that it is that you're not necessarily interested in the size of your audience or interested in a pivotal position of your own. Now sometimes you've got to have seen to be listened to by a lot of people in order to keep your appropriation. But in addition to those considerations I assume that you want to get some results in addition to continuing your appropriation. Now though I think they may include. Developing a type of program that

the interest of a very small number of key people who have a great deal of influence over the next week a lack. Of communication. And I suppose that all of those of you who are specialized in that most entertaining or modern professions namely the public relations profession they are aware that you very often feel that you have. Been guilty of malpractise and clumsiness. If you talk to more than four people to get your results. It just depends on which to set in motion the sequence of communications that are again directed communications and managerial and Executive Communications as distinct from the miscellaneous kinds of adumbration. So the question of fact

in the end which involves the question of who the key people are. Frequently calls for the same kind of analysis that the. International Communication people discovered was so important in the world. That is if you happen to be communicating to the end of the audiences it may be that you're not interested in the fact you think you can't reach a very large number of enemies but you may be very much concerned about getting a thousand or 2000 key decision makers. Are. 100 or 200 transmitters through their own networks of communication. Consequently although nominally our broadcasts are directed to mass audiences of several hit your target audience is actually. Your one files or your 10.

Now I assume that in broadcasting television in any media communication and a Very often one aims at a very small audience you know the name of a very large audience. But that's again just a point in passing that all of us recognize. These questions can be asked about any channel or process of communication through any time period of any community context. And so far has provided us with a certain way of looking at the problem. It doesn't provide us with the key questions that are a great interest to us which are. What affects show we having identified ourselves in the communication process or the intentions. Often we pursue as a profession rather our working postulates our value go as our

objectives in getting on with the job. In order to lay the foundation for that it may be of some use to call attention to a way of putting. Any communication process. More richly into the context of community activities. And here I make a brief recapitulation I understand was the central topic yesterday morning. I want quickly to indicate. That if we in order to clarify our object through time. Thinking about the whole function of the relevant intelligence for decision making in the community.

And finding our own special artist relation to it we certainly need to look at our activities as part of the continuing community process. I show up very quickly schema ties as a way of looking at the community process. This scheme is usable if you want to play with it for the tiniest amount. Of hard mankind as a whole. You can select any context. And ask. To look at it in terms of certain fundamental questions.