Messages between the Lions: The Dominance of the Transmission Paradigm in Student Interpretations of the Lion King

Abstract

Student interpretations of the film The Lion King reflect a linear, behaviorist understanding of communication, which Carey has called the transmission paradigm. The ways in which the students' discourse reflected the assumptions of the transmission paradigm can be divided into three categories: (1) responses that reflected the assumption that a message must reflect the sender's intentions, (2) responses that reflected the assumption that messages are concrete things that are “inside” of a text, and (3) responses that reflected the assumption that a message can be effectively or ineffectively interpreted by a receiver, who must be cognizant of the message if it is to have an effect.