CMC and Communication Models

   Early communication media models focused on the one-way delivery of messages, rather than the interaction between people. For example, ancient Greek ideas about rhetoric and persuasion described communication as the process of effectively sending a message to a listener. In ancient times, rhetoric was a verbal activity in which a speaker attempted to persuade an audience. Aristotle identified three aspects of the persuasion process: ethos (the source), pathos (audience emotion), and logos (the message). With the introduction of electronic media, rhetorical ideas have now been applied to the analysis of mass media messages, CMC, and Web sites.

   Presently, rhetorical concepts are also being used to develop computer-related technologies. Captology (computers as persuasive technologies) is the study of the design, analysis, and theory of persuasive computing, which is using computers to change people's attitudes and behavior. According to Fogg (1999), "captology focuses on the planned persuasive effects of computer technologies". These include virtual environments designed to motivate responsible drinking, CD-ROMs developed to persuade kids to eat better foods, and computer games that provide seductive experiences. These are software programs created by individuals and organizations to persuade people to alter their attitudes and behavior.

   Persuasive technologies are written by programmers to seduce computer users in three basic steps. First, enticement grabs the user's attention and makes a promise. Second, a relationship is developed between the user and the program by fulfilling part of the promise and making more promises. Finally, fulfillment occurs when the program fulfills the promise in a memorable way. According to Khaslavsky and Shedroff (1999), an example of persuasive technology is the game Tetris, which gained a loyal following and followers who showed an emotional attachment to the software.

   In both human and computer communication, the rhetorical process is often visualized as a linear process.

   Similarly, government officials and industry professionals frequently describe the Internet as linear communication. For instance, the idea of delivering information to individuals and schools through the Internet is a linear view. But, in contrast to delivering information in a single direction, the Internet is an interactive medium that supports two-way communication and feedback. Feedback is a process that enables communicators to regulate the flow of messages. For instance, feedback provides information to the sender about how a message is received. Feedback was added to the Shannon-Weaver model of communication, which uses the following five components to describe the communication process: information source, transmitter, channel, receiver, and destination. In human communication, feedback enables senders and receivers of messages to interactively check to see if a message has been properly understood.

   Interactivity is a central feature of human communication because face-to-face communication is a two-way flow of messages. In contrast to linear models, circular models allow senders and receivers to exchange positions in the communication process. These models more clearly represent reciprocal two-way interactions. Additionally, human communication is transactional, because understanding the meaning of messages depends on the assumptions and foreknowledge of the receiver and the context in which the communication occurs. Communicators need to share common fields of experience. Schramm developed a communication model that introduced the concept of fields of experience as an essential factor in determining whether a message would be received at the destination in the way the sender intended. Without common fields of experience, such as language, common backgrounds, a common culture, and so forth, messages cannot be understood. Fields of experience significantly expand linear models of communication because they add understanding to message delivery.

   Shared experience is an idea that is central to CMC because participants are often geographically dispersed. For successful CMC to occur, correspondents must work to establish commonality. When people come together from around the world, their social, personal, and linguistic experiences are very different, and these differences can interfere with proper message reception. As a result, online correspondents may have to spend more time establishing a shared experience than people talking in face-to-face situations.