SenderThe person who creates and sends the message. Some models call this the source.
ReceiverThe person the message is sent to. The receiver takes it in and interprets it.
MessageThe content passed from sender to receiver, in words or without them.
ChannelThe way the message travels: speech, writing, a phone call, a text.
EncodingTurning thoughts into communication. The sender chooses the words and signals.
DecodingTurning the communication back into thoughts. The receiver makes meaning of it.
NoiseAnything that interferes with the message on its way. Also called interference.
FeedbackA message sent back in response to the first one.
ContextThe setting that surrounds the exchange, physical and psychological.
How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-10-01 in all three of these. (1) Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies, section 1.2, The Communication Process, an openly licensed textbook read in the LibreTexts copy (the transmission and interaction models include participants, messages, encoding, decoding and channels; the sender puts a message into a code and passes it along a channel, and the receiver decodes it; to encode is to turn a thought into communication, and to decode is to turn it back into a thought; noise is whatever gets in the way of a message; feedback is any message sent in reply to another; the interaction model also counts the physical and psychological context). (2) Business Communication for Success, section 1.2, What Is Communication?, an openly licensed textbook (eight elements: source, message, channel, receiver, feedback, environment, context and interference; the channel is the way in which a message travels between source and receiver; interference, also called noise; noise disturbs how the message in the channel is encoded and decoded). (3) Wikipedia, Models of communication, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Models_of_communication (the sender encodes a message and sends it by a channel to the receiver; noise may distort it on the way; the receiver decodes it and gives feedback of some form; some theorists say source for sender; context, physical and psychological, in interaction models). Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01 from plain geometry. Own original chart; nothing traced or copied. Licence: own work
How it works
This communication model diagram has nine parts to label: a sender encodes a message, a channel carries it, and a receiver decodes it. Noise can distort it, feedback returns, and context surrounds it all.
Read the full guide
Follow the message from left to right
The sender has a thought and encodes it: turns it into words, gestures or writing. That is the message. It travels through a channel, such as speech, a letter or a phone call, and the receiver decodes it back into a thought. Noise is anything that interferes on the way, from a loud room to a word the receiver takes differently.
Then follow it back
The arrow along the bottom is feedback: a nod, a question, a reply. With it the two people trade places, and the receiver becomes the sender. The dashed frame is the context, the place and the mood the exchange happens in.
Models differ in the boxes they draw. The simplest, linear ones stop at the receiver and have no feedback arrow.
Questions and answers
What are the parts of the sender-receiver model?
A sender, a message, a channel and a receiver, with encoding before the channel and decoding after it. Most classroom versions add noise, which can distort the message, feedback from the receiver, and the context around the exchange.
What is the difference between encoding and decoding?
Encoding is the sender's step: turning thoughts into communication, such as words or gestures. Decoding is the receiver's step: turning that communication back into thoughts to make meaning of it.
What counts as noise in communication?
Whatever gets in the way of sending or understanding a message. It can be sound in the room, but also a word with two meanings, or thoughts that pull the receiver's attention away.
Is a source the same as a sender?
Yes. Some textbooks call the person who creates and sends the message the source, and others the sender. Likewise some say interference for noise and medium for channel. The quiz accepts either word.
What is the difference between a linear model and an interaction model?
A linear, or transmission, model shows communication as one-way: a sender transmits a message to a receiver. An interaction model adds feedback, so the two people alternate as sender and receiver, and it takes the context into account.