International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

G. VICKERS describes three areas in human communication where failure is possible, namely in defining problems, in evaluating programs, and in securing cooperation and concurrence".

He states: "In more static societies the relations to be regulated and the situations which involve them are usually familiar and are often equally visible to all. In our society, the more numerous relations to be regulated combine in subtle and often novel ways and the situations which involve them have to be anticipated by techniques of simulation, often involving the combination of large volumes of information. So the task of defining the problem is by no means simple. Ways of seeing the problem become obsolete, no less than ways of solving it… This need constantly to restructure problems makes novel demands on communication".

As to the evaluation of programs: "The situation to which the policy maker attends is not a datum but a construct, a mental artifact, a collective work of art. It has to be simplified, or it becomes unmanageable.: yet, if it is oversimplified, it will be no guide to action".

This comment makes clear the reason why our over-simplified or distorted media messages are generally so confusing for the public… and even possibly for their own senders.

As to secure cooperation and concurrence: "It has to reflect present and future reality; yet if it departs too sharply from the familiar thinking of the past, it will not be sufficiently shared by those for whom it has to provide a common basis for discussion. It has to be not merely discovered but invented, not merely invented but chosen from among several alternative inventions, each a valid but differently selected view. Most difficult of all, it must not obscure the views which it supersedes" (1967, p.63-65).

There is of course much ground for communication failure. This is why co-participative design seems necessary to obtain and maintain workable consensus.