Fundamentals Of Communication

Fundamentals Of Communication

Chapter 9: Media

Conclusion

While Communication Media has revolutionized and created the Information Era...

We CREATE and CONSTRUCT the VALUE of our Communication Experiences.

Media and Their Functions

- Tools like telephones, pencils, CD players, answering machines, and computers extend our ability to engage in human communication.

- Media extend human communication by enhancing:

1. Message productions and distributions

2. Information reception, storage and retrieval

Media Functions: Implications and Applications

Has communication media improved our quality of life?

Communication Media has:

~enabled to us to overcome the limitations of time and space.

~Expanded our ability to store, arrange and retrieve information.

BUT....

More news sources, channels, watts, remote controls, CDs, video games and websites do not result in our being better informed, better entertained, happier or more successful.

Media and the Quality of Life

Media Forms

Nicholas Negroponte noted that the following changes will result from new media in the Information Age:

~Place without Space

~Being Asynchronous

~Demanding on Demand

Mediated Communication... A Mixed Blessing

Mediated communication enhances and enlarges the potential of message sending and receiving, however it is limiting and constraining the communication of the human experience.

Limited Communication Modes: Communication media limit the use of various modalities (tactile, gustatory, olfactory, visual and auditory).

Decreased Control : In mediated communication, the receiver or audience member has much less influence over the content and direction of interactions.

Decreased Sense of Place: Communication media and portable technology allow the user to be physically in one place or time, but from a communication perspective, in another place or time. Communication technology magnify possibilities and limit possibility of unpredictable experiences.

Decreased Responsibility and Accountability: Mediated communication can create a sense of detachment and increased passivity.

Anonymity and Depersonalization: In mediated communication, interactants have no direct knowledge of one another

Low Social Presence vs.

High Social Presence

High Social Presence: A sense that a communication event is personal, social and warm.

Low Social Presence: A sense that the communication process is impersonal , unsociable and cold

Low Interactivity -

High Interactivity

Communication media vary in the extent to which the message content and timing are controlled by the source rather than by the user

Communication researcher Carrie Heeter provides dimensions of interactivity to classify media:

~Complexity of choices available

~Effort users must exert

~Responsiveness to users

~Monitoring information use

~Ease of adding information

~Facilitation of interpersonal communication

Media Characteristics:

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous

Asynchronous: the creation and transmission of messages is not synchronized with the message reception and use

Synchronous: Verbal and nonverbal behaviors create messages that may instantly be attended to by other interactants

Increasing Value of Information as a Commodity

Contemporary forms of communication are expensive and many people cannot afford them

Because resources are unevenly distributed- advanced media in the Information Age may further increase the gap between the rich and the poor

Production and Distribution

Substituting Communication for Transportation

Moving messages across space and time can be an efficient, effective and economical alternative to travel

Evolving Concepts of Office and Home

James Katz notes that converging technology will affect people's work life.

1st, 2nd, 3rd order-effects

Increasing number of Messages and Media

Information overload: that availability of more messages than can be effectively utilized.

New human competencies are needed to deal with increasing number of media and messages:

1. Identifying available media and their attributes

2. Diagnosing information needs

3. Accessing and retrieving useful and valid information

4. Organizing, classifying, and managing information

Edwin Parker observed that convergence of communication media would lead to:

1. Increased amount of information available to public and increased efficiency.

2. Greater variety in the ways information packages can be constructed.

3.Reciever selection of information (content and timing)

4. Improved Feedback

5. Greater convenience to the user.

Technological Convergence

At the heart of all technological advancements, the convergence of media has revolutionized communication

The convergence of cameras, computers, printers and cell phones has created limitless options

Impact of Media on Contemporary Life

We are living in an information age- an era when communication media have become central to everything that we do

- Communication media extends our ability to produce and distribute information at great distance in space or time.

- Production- involves the creation of messages using communication media.

- Distribution- involves three components:

1. Transmission: Moving messages.

2. Reproduction and amplification: Duplicating, amplifying, or multiplying messages.

3. Display: Making messages physically available once they arrive at their destination.

Hardware: Physical tools

Software: CDs, DVDs, Computer programs and magazines and books that relate to the use of this media

Evolution of Communication Media:

From Smoke Signals to the Internet

20,000 BC- Drums, Smoke, Cave Paintings

1000 BC- Hieroglyphic , Pictograph, Alphabet

1500- Gutenberg- Movable Type

1600's- Newspapers and Mail Service

1700's- Postal Service

1800's- Telegraph/ Morse Code

1800-1866- Telephone, Cable laid across Atlantic Seabed

1895- Marconi- wireless telegraph- radio

1930's- T.V.

1960's-Communication Satelites

1970's- Transistor Radio's, Cassette Recorders, Photocopiers

1980's- 2000- Cell Phones, Internet, Computers

Types of Media

~ Mass Media

~ Group and Organizational media

~ Interpersonal Media

~Intrapersonal communication media

The Tool Making Animal

Reception, Storage and Retrieval

- One of our basic human skills is our ability to make tools.

- Our ability to make tools has created the capability for humans to make communication media.

- Communication Media- technological devices that extend our natural ability to create, transmit, receive, and process visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory or tactile messages.

- Media that aids in production, distribution, reproduction, and/or amplification also play an important role in reception in that they serve to make messages accessible.

- Example: TV receivers, magnifying glasses, radar and telescopes assist with reception of visual information, while earphones and hearing aids enhance capabilities for receiving auditory messages.