Wiio's laws are ''humoristically'' formulated observations about how humans communicate. Wiio's laws are usually summarized with "Human communications usually fail except by accident", which is the main observation made by Professor

Osmo Antero Wiio Osmo Antero Wiio (4 February 1928 – 20 February 2013) was a Finnish academic, journalist, author and member of the Finnish Parliament. He is best known for his somewhat facetious Wiio's laws around communication, succinctly summarized as "C ...

in 1978.

The laws

The fundamental Wiio's law states that "Communication usually fails, except by accident". The full set of laws is as follows: # 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. # If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage. # There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message. # The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds. ## The more we communicate, the faster misunderstandings propagate. # In

mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

, the important thing is not how things are but how they seem to be. # The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. # The more important the situation is, the more probable you had forgotten an essential thing that you remembered a moment ago.

References

{{Reflist Adages Communication theory