Secondary sources link Gorden to four communication functions: social, expressive, ritual, and instrumental.
The Claim
According to Gorden, there are four functions of communication: social communication, expressive communication, ritual communication, and instrumental communication, with instrumental communication being the formal function that includes providing information, education, persuasion, and entertainment, as supported by Wright (1986) and Effendy (2017).
NOT BSTOTAL BS
MOSTLY BS — Verdict: Mostly False
Verified by Lenz ·
The Short Version
The claim stitches together a real but poorly sourced Gorden taxonomy with unsubstantiated scholarly attributions. While several secondary sources do associate four communication functions (social, expressive, ritual, instrumental) with William I. Gorden, the assertion that Wright (1986) and Effendy (2017) support this framework is not demonstrated by the evidence. Wright's 1986 work addresses a distinct mass communication model, and no Effendy (2017) source is available for verification. The "formal function" label for instrumental communication is also unverified.
Caveats
Wright's 1986 work concerns Lasswell-derived mass communication functions (surveillance, correlation, cultural transmission, entertainment), which is structurally distinct from Gorden's social/expressive/ritual/instrumental taxonomy — the claim conflates these frameworks.
No Effendy (2017) source is present in the evidence pool, making the attribution to Effendy entirely unverifiable.
The Gorden four-function model is documented only in derivative, low-authority Indonesian-language web pages and student repositories — no primary source by Gorden has been identified to confirm the original framework or the 'formal function' label.