Icons rely on resemblance, indices on actual connection, and symbols on rules or habits. Real artifacts can combine these relations. The distinction clarifies what supports a representation and what depends on learned convention, rather than assigning each medium one exclusive type or treating an indicator as self-validating evidence.
- FamilyModel
- Category of its source unitTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainMeaning & Clarity
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.