Our Models: Rogers and Schramm

A brief description of the theories of Schramm and Rogers as they apply to our problem:

As we used Everett Rogersí Model only as a basis to define our populations, we will only briefly touch on those categories here. Rogersí theory states that any new technology or technique will be accepted by the community it affects in stages that are defined by how quickly they adopt it. These categories are:

• The Innovator: the adventurous type, willing to try new things even when they are risky. Often the youngest group, with the highest social status, thus they can afford to take risks (and recover from them).
• The Early Adopter: Often high social status, respected by the community, often a strong influence on local opinions.
• The Early Majority: the Bandwagon, if you will. They will join in once they are sure itís worth the risk. They are above average socially, usually.
• The Late Majority: the skeptics, who wait until itís all proven to be not only useful but necessary. They join in so they wonít fall behind. Usually below average social status, not leaders, so they wonít bring in the last group.
• The Laggards: Traditional, to the point of being nearly inflexible. Little social influence, often limited income, and isolated in many ways. Relies on the same methods always used before, same sources of information- people like them.

Once we have defined the population, and looked carefully at the problem, we see that the patrons who are reluctant to try using the new system are clearly in the Late Majority and Laggard groups. They are afraid of the new technology and they donít see where it could benefit them, since they have no intention of bringing a computer into their homes. They need to be convinced that at least the computer at the library is going to be useful to them and even necessary, and that it is not so difficult to master that they will never be able to use it, so must always rely on the librarian to find information and materials for them. By including both groups in the lessons, it is to be hoped that the Late Majority, who are just waiting to have it proved to them that they need this, will help bring the Laggards to realize that they, too, can benefit from learning a few computer basics.

We used Wilbur Schrammís model for the solution to our problem, as it seemed to us that the field of experience was they key to solving the problem, and the signal/message relationship was also important. We also felt that having a feedback loop was an important element.

Schrammís model is a simple one. Its elements are:

• The Source: Where the message starts, where communication begins. In our case, the library, trying to get its patrons to use the online catalog.
• The Encoder: What/whomever puts the message into a form that can be transmitted and received, and presumably understood, by its intended recipient.
• The Signal: The medium by which the message is transmitted. Here, originally, the message was transmitted via signs, word-of-mouth, email, web page notes, bookmarks with the website printed on them, and other means.
• Message: The information that the source wants the recipient to receive. In our example, the message is ìuse the online catalog, itís simple and user-friendly.î
• Noise: anything that interrupts or distorts the signal. For our example we found that the noise included the fear of technology that many of our problematic recipients felt. It also included distractions, like not having the skills to read a web page or use the mouse. When sending information via email, we found that the message was never received at all, since there was no signal available to the patrons we needed to reach, and the message itself needed to be slightly restated to meet their needs.
• Decoder: the means by which the received message is made understandable to the receiver. For the patrons who used email or picked it up immediately, the computer decoded the message from the email to letters onscreen to be read. For those without email, we had to assume that the decoding process would involve the receiver, literally decoding the message by reading our mailings and signs and listening to us speak.
• Receiver: the person for whom the information contained in the message is intended.

Schramm arranges these elements in a linear way, but then encompasses them all in two overlapping circles which outline a key part of communication: the overlapping fields of experience of the Sender and the Receiver. Within the overlap of these fields the message is relayed from one to the other. If there is no overlap, the message cannot be sent or received (our Late Majority and Laggard patrons have no email and cannot receive the message that way. They have no understanding of the terms we use, so they cannot decode them to make sense of the message). It is as if we are speaking different languages, and neither side can interpret anything the other is intending.

Schramm also incorporates another important feature, one which changes this from a linear, one way model to a flow of communication back and forth. He introduces the feedback function, sometimes called the feedback loop. With feedback, the roles of the sender and the receiver are reversed, allowing for questions to be asked and answers to be given. Most human communication relies on feedback, even if just to acknowledge that a message has been received. Feedback is essential in our problem situation: we identified one of the key problems with the signal when we realized that there had been no feedback from that source, and realized that we had to send the signal via a different medium, one that matched the receiverís field of experience.