UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

The Osgood–Schramm model proposes that communication is a circular process in which each participant alternately encodes,decodes and interprets messages. This means every participant is both sender and receiver. The stem clearly refers to this dual role.

Option A:
Seeing each person as both sender and receiver highlights the mutual nature of communication. It emphasises that meaning is constantly negotiated. This description aligns perfectly with the Osgood–Schramm view.

Option B:
Channel is the medium through which messages pass and cannot be a role played by a person.

Option C:
Noise source refers to elements that interfere with messages,not to participants in the interaction.

Option D:
Gatekeeper is a role in mass communication where someone controls message flow,which is not the focus of this interpersonal model.

Teaching involves transmitting ideas, feelings and information from teacher to students and receiving responses from students back to the teacher. This two-way flow of messages, with encoding, decoding and feedback, is the essence of communication. If messages are not clearly conveyed or understood, teaching fails. Hence, seeing teaching as sending and interpreting messages correctly identifies it as a form of communication.

Option A:
Evaluation is one component of teaching in which student performance is judged, but it does not encompass the full ongoing exchange of messages described in the stem.

Option B:
Instruction refers to organised teaching activity and includes planning and management functions in addition to communication. While related, the stem focuses specifically on the messaging aspect.

Option C:
Motivation is a psychological process that energises and directs behaviour, including learning behaviour. Although communication can influence motivation, motivation itself is not the process of sending and interpreting messages.

Option D:
Communication captures the coding of ideas into language or other symbols, transmission through channels, reception and decoding by students and feedback. These elements align precisely with the description in the stem, making communication the correct answer.

The Osgood–Schramm model introduces a circular representation in which participants continuously encode,decode and interpret messages. Each person alternates roles as sender and receiver,so communication is not one directional. The stem emphasises this mutual role sharing,so circular is the right term.

Option A:
Linear models show messages flowing in a straight line from sender to receiver without returning.

Option B:
Circular communication highlights ongoing exchanges and adjustments,making this option appropriate.

Option C:
One step refers to one step flow in media effects (direct influence),not to the cyclical sender receiver role switching described in this model.

Option D:
Vertical communication describes direction in hierarchies (top down/bottom up),not the circular encoding decoding process in Osgood–Schramm.

The reception approach treats audiences as active interpreters who decode media texts based on their social position,culture and experiences. As a result,the same programme or article can generate multiple meanings in different groups. The stem describes this variation in interpretation,so reception is the appropriate term.

Option A:
Reception studies often examine how class,gender and culture influence reading of media texts and emphasise negotiated or oppositional readings. This focus on audience meaning making clearly aligns with Option C.

Option B:
Transmission approaches emphasise sending information from A to B and often assume a single preferred meaning,which does not capture diverse audience interpretations.

Option C:
Functionalist views focus on the roles media play in maintaining social order rather than detailed decoding practices.

Option D:
Behaviourist perspectives emphasise observable stimulus response patterns and downplay complex symbolic interpretation.