Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 173
Five fields. No place to hide.
Five analytical fields make source, message, channel, audience, and outcomes independently examinable.
Premise
Statements such as “the organization informed employees” conceal nearly every variable that determines whether communication can work. Lasswell’s five questions convert that claim into an audit: who communicated, what was said, through which channel, to which audience, and with what effect. For leaders, the value lies less in the formula’s simplicity than in its refusal to let authority, content, access, audience differences, and outcomes collapse into one activity metric.
What the model is: Communication Analysis Using Lasswell’s Questions in Knowledge →
Continue in the series
- The essential model
- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
- Selected sources
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- FamilyTool
- CategoryAnalytical Frameworks, Typologies & Heuristics
- DomainEvidence & Evaluation
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Tool
In this series, Tool names the editorial family primarily used to act on, examine, measure or organize communication. It includes instruments, methods, practices, protocols, codes and institutional arrangements. Membership does not certify effectiveness, portability or safe use in every setting.
Editorial orientation · Category
Analytical Frameworks, Typologies & Heuristics
Organizes dimensions, distinctions, types or questions so that a situation can be examined systematically. A framework supplies structure, a typology distinguishes forms, and a heuristic offers a usable way to orient judgment.
- KnowledgeCommunication Analysis Using Lasswell’s Questions
- Related briefLasswell’s Formula: Five Questions That Prevent Communication Blind Spots
- Key conceptAudience