Westley and McLean communication model

In the tradition of gatekeeper research, Westley and MacLean developed a system model to represent the process of message switching as a multiply selective and dynamic feedback process.

• A communicator (K) selects a few from a multitude of events (x) and forms them into a message (x ') . The designation “advocacy role” is intended to indicate that K's communication of messages is definitely determined by his own interests ( gatekeeper ).
• The actual medium (C = channel roles) stands for those technical and human entities that take up the message of K and make it accessible to the public. Here, too, a selection process takes place and the statement x 'becomes x' '.
• The recipients ultimately receive a representation of the event X which, however, no longer has to correspond to the actual initial event, since it has already been processed at least twice.
• Ultimately, feedback processes also figure between all instances (K, C, R).

Westley / MacLean thus illustrate the transmission process of a message on its way to the audience, which can often be difficult.

literature

• Bruce Westley, Malcolm MacLean: A conceptual model for mass communication research . In: Journalism Quarterly , 34th vol., 1957, p. 36.