1
Topic All Things Media? Emerging communication technologies and their impact on us and
society
Introduction
In only 20 years a lot of communication technologies have emerged without which we think
that we cannot live anymore.
We spend more time online than offline
When we lose our phones or internet we panic
The situation in terms of communication technologies that we face in 2020 is significantly
different than only 20 years ago
Topic is about: the idea that the technologies that have emerged that have changed our
lives.
The changes in technologies that we witnessed in the last 20 years seemed so natural (as
if they had been there all the time).
We see a lot of emerging technologies that is at the beginning of becoming a thing
Niko Mobile phone, paper newspaper, cameras are illustrations of how quickly changes have
happened in only 20 years.
Yes, changes in the media landscape have happened before
But in the last 20 years the speed of the changes in communication technologies have
become much faster
Netflix changed the television completely.
So to judge and contextualize a change, forces us to think more deeply about the underlying
elements and general and lasting factors that drive these developments.
There’s no point in just analyzing the latest gadget/app without understanding the
underlying elements
To understand these underlying elements, we should understand some basis definitions.
It’s interesting to understand in the future why certain things you’d considered important
back then today happened or did not happen and why this was the case
,2
The first concept that is crucial for our understanding emerging communication technologies
is the concept of: Mass communication (RELEVANT TO FINAL EXAM)
Mass Communication
Some scholars decry the concept of mass communication as ‘dead’.
Lecturer doesn’t agree: mass communication has certainly lost the role it played in the
second half 20th century. But it’s still around and important to consider.
This concept is still valid, but it is especially important as a background to understand the
magnitude of the changes in terms of emerging communication technologies
Sometimes certain aspects of masscomm still applies and sometimes not. This shows that
communication has changed and is changing.
Definition based on Maletzke (1963) who came up with 5 characteristics:
1. Public
Communication should be in principle generally accessible / public
And does not have defined group of recipients
The traditional newspaper is in principle accessible for everybody who is willing
to pay for it
Also television (if you want to pay for it of course)
2. Technologically mediated (technological mediation of communication)
Opposite of something that is not mediated: talking directly to each other.
There would be no technological mediation; it’s face to face.
There’s computer in between for example.
3. Indirect
The messages that someone sends (like a journalist; sender) and the reader /
receiver of the message are separated in space and time
The journalist wrote the news yesterday, but the receiver read it today
This is clearly separated by time
The journalist might have wrote the article in Amsterdam, while you read it
somewhere else
This is separated by space
4. One-sided: mass communication is one-sided.
There’s no possibility for the receiver to ask the sender a question
,3
The sender doesn’t answer
This is one-sided: the message flows from the sender to the receiver.
No reciprocity: I talk, you listen
5. Dispersed audience
Mass communication is targeted at an audience that is spread across space and
time
The journalist wrote an article some time ago, that is received by the readers
all over the Netherlands: spread over space and time. The receivers read it
wherever and whenever.
Dispersed audience
Is an online lecture mass communication?
It’s technologically mediated unlike a traditional lecture
It’s indirect
It’s one-sided
Every student watches it on your own time and wherever.
However, it is public?
This aspect clearly separates mass communication with an online lecture
You need to be enrolled to this course to follow the lectures, so you not everyone
has access to this course.
It is not generally accessible to everyone
There’s a clear defined group of recipients
So NO it’s not mass communication.
What is communication anyway? (RELEVANT TO FINAL EXAM)
10 Characteristics to face-to-face communication (e.g. Floyd, 2011; Pearson et al., 2003;
Thurlow et al., 2004).
1. Intentionality / Awareness of all involved persons
All involved persons are aware of the situation
2. Mutual co-orientation
Those who are involved in f2f communication, need to have implicitly a little bit of
, 4
a notion of the other
If you’re talking to a person you need to have a little bit of a notion of the other, so
you at least need to have an orientation that this person speaks the same language.
That it knows of some things that I require important to understand what I’m
talking about (communication).
There needs to be a bit of orientation from both sides.
Direct
It needs to be direct of course otherwise it would be indirect
Negotiation of meaning (encoding and decoding)
Crucial for f2f communication and human communication
In f2f communication there’s a possibility to negotiate meaning by asking: what do
you mean?
This serves the purpose to decode what somebody else (the sender) encoded.
To clarify what a sender wants to say
Use of sarcasm/irony (opposite what you really mean), most people would
understand that you’re being sarcastic.
However, there are more complex situations when the sarcastic message was it
not being understood
The negotiation of meaning is therefore really important to understand what is
meant by just responding: did you really mean that?
The possibility to ask and negotiate is crucial in f2f and human communication
Exchange of communicator and receiver role, reciprocity
F2f: The one who says something and the one who answers, the one who encodes
something and the one who decodes something, one who creates the message and
one who receives the message can be exchanged. This is reciprocity
Person A says something and person B answers and says something in addition to
which Person A responds. Communicator and receiver clearly change. There’s
constantly an exchange going on.
Process (dynamic, changing)
F2f communication is dynamic: it’s constantly changing; there’s constantly
something going on.
Topic All Things Media? Emerging communication technologies and their impact on us and
society
Introduction
In only 20 years a lot of communication technologies have emerged without which we think
that we cannot live anymore.
We spend more time online than offline
When we lose our phones or internet we panic
The situation in terms of communication technologies that we face in 2020 is significantly
different than only 20 years ago
Topic is about: the idea that the technologies that have emerged that have changed our
lives.
The changes in technologies that we witnessed in the last 20 years seemed so natural (as
if they had been there all the time).
We see a lot of emerging technologies that is at the beginning of becoming a thing
Niko Mobile phone, paper newspaper, cameras are illustrations of how quickly changes have
happened in only 20 years.
Yes, changes in the media landscape have happened before
But in the last 20 years the speed of the changes in communication technologies have
become much faster
Netflix changed the television completely.
So to judge and contextualize a change, forces us to think more deeply about the underlying
elements and general and lasting factors that drive these developments.
There’s no point in just analyzing the latest gadget/app without understanding the
underlying elements
To understand these underlying elements, we should understand some basis definitions.
It’s interesting to understand in the future why certain things you’d considered important
back then today happened or did not happen and why this was the case
,2
The first concept that is crucial for our understanding emerging communication technologies
is the concept of: Mass communication (RELEVANT TO FINAL EXAM)
Mass Communication
Some scholars decry the concept of mass communication as ‘dead’.
Lecturer doesn’t agree: mass communication has certainly lost the role it played in the
second half 20th century. But it’s still around and important to consider.
This concept is still valid, but it is especially important as a background to understand the
magnitude of the changes in terms of emerging communication technologies
Sometimes certain aspects of masscomm still applies and sometimes not. This shows that
communication has changed and is changing.
Definition based on Maletzke (1963) who came up with 5 characteristics:
1. Public
Communication should be in principle generally accessible / public
And does not have defined group of recipients
The traditional newspaper is in principle accessible for everybody who is willing
to pay for it
Also television (if you want to pay for it of course)
2. Technologically mediated (technological mediation of communication)
Opposite of something that is not mediated: talking directly to each other.
There would be no technological mediation; it’s face to face.
There’s computer in between for example.
3. Indirect
The messages that someone sends (like a journalist; sender) and the reader /
receiver of the message are separated in space and time
The journalist wrote the news yesterday, but the receiver read it today
This is clearly separated by time
The journalist might have wrote the article in Amsterdam, while you read it
somewhere else
This is separated by space
4. One-sided: mass communication is one-sided.
There’s no possibility for the receiver to ask the sender a question
,3
The sender doesn’t answer
This is one-sided: the message flows from the sender to the receiver.
No reciprocity: I talk, you listen
5. Dispersed audience
Mass communication is targeted at an audience that is spread across space and
time
The journalist wrote an article some time ago, that is received by the readers
all over the Netherlands: spread over space and time. The receivers read it
wherever and whenever.
Dispersed audience
Is an online lecture mass communication?
It’s technologically mediated unlike a traditional lecture
It’s indirect
It’s one-sided
Every student watches it on your own time and wherever.
However, it is public?
This aspect clearly separates mass communication with an online lecture
You need to be enrolled to this course to follow the lectures, so you not everyone
has access to this course.
It is not generally accessible to everyone
There’s a clear defined group of recipients
So NO it’s not mass communication.
What is communication anyway? (RELEVANT TO FINAL EXAM)
10 Characteristics to face-to-face communication (e.g. Floyd, 2011; Pearson et al., 2003;
Thurlow et al., 2004).
1. Intentionality / Awareness of all involved persons
All involved persons are aware of the situation
2. Mutual co-orientation
Those who are involved in f2f communication, need to have implicitly a little bit of
, 4
a notion of the other
If you’re talking to a person you need to have a little bit of a notion of the other, so
you at least need to have an orientation that this person speaks the same language.
That it knows of some things that I require important to understand what I’m
talking about (communication).
There needs to be a bit of orientation from both sides.
Direct
It needs to be direct of course otherwise it would be indirect
Negotiation of meaning (encoding and decoding)
Crucial for f2f communication and human communication
In f2f communication there’s a possibility to negotiate meaning by asking: what do
you mean?
This serves the purpose to decode what somebody else (the sender) encoded.
To clarify what a sender wants to say
Use of sarcasm/irony (opposite what you really mean), most people would
understand that you’re being sarcastic.
However, there are more complex situations when the sarcastic message was it
not being understood
The negotiation of meaning is therefore really important to understand what is
meant by just responding: did you really mean that?
The possibility to ask and negotiate is crucial in f2f and human communication
Exchange of communicator and receiver role, reciprocity
F2f: The one who says something and the one who answers, the one who encodes
something and the one who decodes something, one who creates the message and
one who receives the message can be exchanged. This is reciprocity
Person A says something and person B answers and says something in addition to
which Person A responds. Communicator and receiver clearly change. There’s
constantly an exchange going on.
Process (dynamic, changing)
F2f communication is dynamic: it’s constantly changing; there’s constantly
something going on.
