Todd,
I like where you're headed with a theoretical model. You're right: we need to be clear about what we mean by "model" and we need to look at both the communication paradigm and the theory.

Don Dunnington

You are absolutely correct that our use of the term "model" is less than accurate for what we have been writing about, although it is the goal. (I have billed this as "towards" a model not the model itself.) Yes, paradigm is probably better, but that word is so overused, I shied away from it.

I look forward to reading your posts and links and will be back to comment next week.