A multidisciplinary approach of communication

Each form of communication has its specific feature which helps, in turn in creating unique designs. There are also designs which go beyond a certain format and that can be adapted to all situations, for any of the types of communication. The use of models allows the interpretation of phenomena using certain structures that link the elements and relationships that can exist between these elements. The roles that can be performed by a certain model are heuristic (to explain), organizational (to order) and forecasting (to make assumptions). Mc Quail D. and S. Windahl (Mc Quail and Windahl, 2004) state that a model is valid only to its degree of probability: it remains valid as long as it is not refuted by experience. As Yves C. shows, we must emphasize the fact that the use of a model can sometimes stop the development of a science, through the lack of feed-back or even by not considering the context that may influence the communication process modeling. The twentieth century was the promoter of new theoretical models of the communication process inspired by the various schools (the process school, the semiotic school, the Palo Alto school, the Oxford school, etc.) or sciences (mathematics, informatics, cybernetics, linguistics, semiotics, psychology, physics, sociology, etc.). In order to propose a universal model of communication, we highlight a few models that have influenced researchers for decades. Next, we will proceed in analyzing these general models based on an evolutionary principle, from the simplest to the most complex.