Communication according to Professor Osmo A. Wiio

I just yesterday got a nice reminder from a Twitter conversation about the Wiio’s laws. These laws describe the communication through seven laws that have been created through observations during the 1970s.

So here’s some food for thought for the weekend:

Wiio’s Laws of Communication

I Communication usually fails, except by accident.
- If communication can fail, it will
- If communication cannot fail, it still most usually fails
- If communication seems to succeed in the intended way, there’s a misunderstanding
- If you are content with your message, communication certainly fails

II If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage

III There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message

IV The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds
- The more we communicate, the faster misunderstandings propagate

V In mass communication, the important thing is not how things are but how they seem to be

VI The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of the distance

VII The more important the situation is, the more probably you forget an essential thing that you remembered a moment ago

Quite insightful…