Communications models.
Was doing some research and came across this resource which I though that you all might appreciate. It explains quite clearly the state of communications theory today and shows why there is little if any agreement on how communications actually work. Indeed some of the most recent thinking on communications comes from Robert Craig out of the University of Colorado who posits a Constitutive Metamodel(pdf), which (if I am understanding it properly) basically says that communicating about communications is paradoxical and therefore can’t be separated from the theory.
What I like most is if you skim through the document and just look at the pictures you can see this confusion developing over time:
Here’s how Aristotle thought of comms:
With the advent of TV and radio it got a bit more complicated:
And it’s just gotten worse since then:
Ah ha! People talk back. Brilliant!
All clear now?