18. The interactive model

This model stresses the need to pay attention to the context and silent messages. The interactive model of communication springs out of the criticism of the linear model of communication. While the linear model assumes that the message is passed unscathed from the sender, via the channel, to the recipient, the interactive model argues that in practice the message will never remain exactly the same. Firstly, the context of the message will to a large degree determine how it is interpreted. People in different cultural contexts and different political climates will view the message through different lenses, and will extrapolate different meanings from it. Secondly, the message itself is accompanied by a number of ‘silent messages’ – e.g. the implicit understandings of linguistic codes, time, ways of relating, ways of expressing agreement or disagreement, and ways of interpreting understatement or phrases that are left out. In other words, the recipients receive a message that has several added dimensions and gaps in it, and they will (consciously or subconsciously) interpret these and fill in the gaps themselves. In this way the original meaning of the message can quickly be altered. Based on these insights, the interactive model of communication would suggest that if communication is to be successful, it is not enough to ‘send off’ a message and assume that it will automatically be understood by the recipient. Rather, communication is a more demanding process, where the sender needs to communicate the message, then find ways of checking with the recipient how the message has been interpreted, and, based on this feedback, re-communicate the message. According to this model, such continuous interaction leads to greater chances of successful communication than the linear approach.

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