The focus is on the intention of the sender. This diagram provides the base formula for many communication models. There have been many models developed over the last fifty years to explain the communication process in all its forms. It is important to remember that a communication model is only a simplified representation of some feature of communication. No model can represent all the features of the process.
Models simplify but also omit or distort the rich complexities of meaning.
The receiver is passive in their reception of the message The transmission model is sometimes referred to as the 'hypodermic model' because, metaphorically, meaning is 'injected' into the passive body of the receiver. Another metaphor we could use for the transmission model posits the message as a 'parcel'. The parcel is transported to the receiver and should arrive intact. That is, the message should arrive at its destination in the same state as it left its original source. Transmission models of communication are more appropriate for considering the efficiency of data flow than for studying human communication, for which meaning based studies offer richer fields of enquiry.