Linear and Interactive Models of Communication

Linear communication was the first model of interpersonal communication. Linear, meaning one way, is the process in which a person acts upon another person. It is a verbal model that consisted of five questions describing a sequence of acts that make up communication. The sequence goes as follows: who? Says what? In what channel? to whom? and with what effect? An example of linear communication would be to attend a lecture from a university professor because there is no interaction what so ever.  This model of communication flows in only one direction from a sender to a passive receiver. Interactive models portray communication as a process in which listeners give feedback in response to a certain message. In this model one person is the sender and one is the receiver there is no actual conversation it’s just a response to a message. An example of this model would be a professor asking a question to a student in class and the student responding. The major difference between the two is that in linear communication only one person is participating and in interactive two parties are speaking.