Communicatiopn Theorist

Shannon and Weaver’s theory has great historical significance. Their model helped search for other physical representations of communication. Most people working in the field of human communication had trouble following the mathematics of Shannon’s theory, but Weaver’s translation and commentary were easy to understand. Since the discipline was ripe for a model of communication and information theory was there to fill the need, its source-channel-receiver diagram quickly became the standard description of what happens when one person talks to another. Many of the terms we use today originated with Shannon and Weaver—message fidelity, multiple channels, information loss, source credibility, and feedback. (Griffin, 1997).