New Media Technologies: Communication Theories

COM 300

Kathy E. Gill23 Jan 2007

Agenda

Recap Last Week Characteristics of New Media Managing Overload Technology Adoption Lab

New Media

Typically nonlinear Dynamic “Live” (maybe) Multi-media (visual, auditory) Relies on hypertext User controls pace and direction Transient audience

Source: http://www.mala.bc.ca/~soules/CMC290/290wk5.htm

One new technology

Hypertext

Presents information as linked nodes Breaks the linear narrative

Envisioned by Vannevar Bush (1945) Coined by Ted Nelson Apple : Hypercard Online (software) Help systems Tim Berners-Lee

Networks of Remediation (1/3)

“A medium is that which remediates” … and it is measured “against” other media (like we just did)

New media in turn change the “older” media TV … tickertape Print … adopting web design conventions

Networks of Remediation (2/3)

Economic success depends on supplanting a pre-existing medium Conflict: newspaper websites v paper Conflict: CDs v downloadable (sharable)

songs Hypermediacy

Survivor… The Apprentice… mediated or authentic?

Networks of Remediation (3/3)

How do we separate technology from its social use? Can we? Technological determinism : says

technology causes social change … Social determinism is the converse Corollary: “nature versus nurture” …

“'technology-push” v “demand-pull” Can new media technology offer us

transparent democracy? Howard Rheingold, John Perry Barrow

Why Use a Technology? Cognitive Needs – Desire (demand) for information,

knowledge, understanding Affective Needs – Aesthetic, pleasurable, and

emotional experiences Personal Integrative Needs – Inner-directed, deal with

credibility, confidence, stability, and status Social Integrative Needs – Outer-directed,

strengthening relationships with family, friends, the world

Escapist Needs – Desire for tension release or diversion

- Katz, Gurevitch, and Haas

Question:

What factors affect your acceptance (or rejection) of new communication channel, new product? Jot down Pair and share

Technology and Communication Media

Caves in France Paper and charcoal/ink Printing Press Telegraph et al (radio, television) Computer mediated communications

Internet: e-mail, IM, web sites, BBs, usenet, Skype (VoIP)

Quotable 1

“This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” -- Western Union internal memo, 1876

Quotable 2

“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” -- H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

Quotable 3

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

Quotable 4

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” -- Popular Mechanics, 1949

HCI (1/3)

Norman: “The real problem with being digital is that it implies a kind of slavery to accuracy, a requirement that is most unlike the natural workings of the person. People are analog, insensitive to noise, insensitive to error. People extract meanings, and as long as the meanings are unchanged, the details of the signals do not matter.”

HCI (2/3)

The world is complex: computer systems seek to render that complexity into something “simple” Yes/No (zero/one) Linear v Pattern Seeking Human Error – preventable? Whose

fault? CHI or HCI – false dichotomy?

“People excel at qualitative considerations, machines at quantitative ones.”

Internet Technologies

Efficiency IP v Telephony

Medium Independence Medium in this case is the

communication medium : telephone wire, cable wire, wireless, cell telephony, satellite, ??

Zuckerman and McLaughlin, link

Domain Name System (DNS)

Analogous to the address used by a postal worker to deliver mail

Domain Names Original: .com, .gov, .mil, .net, .edu, .org Countries: .us to .za New: .biz, .info…

Works because of standardization

HCI (3/3)

1. How does the internet play a vital role in how man and machine interact?

2. What are some misconceptions about our relationship to machines?

3. How much must we understand computers in order to function in our society? In the future, will we be more or less dependent on computers? Is this good?

4. The machine-centered view is precise, orderly and logical, while people are distractible, creative and illogical. The public education system seems to be modeled more on the machine-centered view. How might this model affect students’ view of themselves?

5. Do we as a human race really think that machines, that one day could be more intelligent than us, could successfully join us in our society? How would this happen?

Summary

There is an intrinsic relationship between content and technology: both contribute to meaning

Tension between humans and machines

Internet Technology is application independent, agnostic

What leads to adoption?

Winston: supervening social necessity More than “build a better mousetrap”

Advertising One goal is to build “need”

FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt)

Rogers (1995) - Diffusion Theory

Identified four main elements of an innovation-diffusion process Innovation Social system Time Communications channels

Linear innovation-diffusion

The process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. (Rogers, 1995, p.5).

Innovation: An idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption

Communication

A process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach mutual understanding (Rogers, 1995)

Time

The adoption model follows an “s” shape curve over time

For example …

Forecast: US Household Technology Adoption, 2005-2010Forrester Reports. July 2005, Data Overview “The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2005”

Innovation-Decision Process

The mental process through which an individual passes : from knowledge to forming an attitude toward the innovation (adopt, reject)

Five steps

Knowledge Persuasion Decision (adopt or reject) Implementation Confirmation

Social System

A set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem-solving to accomplish a common goal.

Members or units of a social system may be individuals, informal groups, organizations, and/or subsystems.

Critical mass (1/2)

Rogers (1995) : "the critical mass occurs at the point at which enough individuals have adopted an innovation so that the innovation's further rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining.” (network effects)

Critical mass (2/2) The critical mass theory is a social

system perspective, not a technology perspective.

The irreversible phase may take place when not only the critical mass point is overcome but also the dominant design is brought about at least in terms of the technological innovation. Examples?

Adopter categories

Innovators Early adopters Early majority Late majority Laggards

Technological Innovations

Hardware - the tool that embodies the technology as a material or physical object.

Software - the knowledge base for the tool

Summary Adoption

What are some of the reasons we adopt a new product?

What are the five stages of adoption? What is Critical Mass?

More New Media Theory

Marshall McLuhan: Canadian, author of Understanding Media (1964) and The Medium is the Massage (1967)

Lev Manovich: professor, UCSD, author of The Language of New Media (2001) and Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database (2005)

McLuhan (1/3)

Believes media (technologies) affect cultural (social) change Differentiates between a medium and its

content Same content (words) is a different

message when delivered in print, face-to-face, or on television – what is less important than how

“We shape our tools, and they in turn shape us."

McLuhan (2/3)

Historical Construct Tribal Age (oral culture – intuitive) Age of Literacy (invention of phonetic

alphabet – emergence of logic) Print Age (invention of printing press –

linear thinking – science – individualism) Electronic Age (ushered in with

telegraph, poster child: TV – global village – decline of logic and linearity)

McLuhan (3/3)

Compare our immediate knowledge of the 2004 December Tsunami with the 1556 Chinese earthquake that killed 830,000

If, as he suggests, print created individualism and nationalism … what might networked communication create? Will familiarity breed contempt or collaboration?

Manovich’s Five (1/6)

Numerical Representation Modularity Automation Variability Transcoding

Manovich’s Five (2/6)

Numerical representation “zero’s and one’s” Vector graphics v Bitmaps Analog v Digital

Early complaints about CD v LP

Manovich’s Five (3/6)

Modularity The “whole” consists of many “objects”

Example from blog: Google Images PPT and Excel HTML page (javascript, JPGs, etc) Individual blog posts

Manovich’s Five (4/6)

Automation What computers do best! From blog post: “Apple’s new OS X

Tiger… and Automator” Photoshop automation; running “Cron”

jobs; database driven websites RSS readers Object management and search (Google)

Manovich’s Five (5/6)

Variability Website customization possible by

automation Presenting data (shaping appearance)

based on output device: monitor, PDA, cellphone

Scaling (zoom – Google Maps)

Manovich’s Five (6/6)

Transcoding Two distinct layers: cultural layer and

technology layer … the intersection is a field called Human-Computer Interaction

Assignments

Discussion Leaders Process, expectations

Journalistic or Scholarly Article PPT Post to web site

Assignment 1 Due Friday!

Diffusion Theory Rogers (1995) outlined four parts:

Innovation Social system Time Communications channels

And five steps: Knowledge Persuasion Decision (adopt or reject) Implementation Confirmation

Summary

We define (or frame) new media in comparison to old media

There is an intrinsic relationship between content and technology: both contribute to meaning

Churchill : “we shape our buildings and then our buildings shape us”

Empowerment means responsibility

Lab

Proposals – break into peer groups Feedback in person, online Discuss final proposal – due Friday via

eSubmit Next Assignment (distribute) Discussion Leaders

Process, expectations

Resources Effects of Four CMC Channels on Trust Glossary of Internet Terms Hypertext Terms (W3C) JCMC Patterns of Hypertext Semantic Web: Intro