Communications

Friday, September 17, 2010

Note:

Journal entries due, Sept 27th and Oct 18th

New media “are technologies, practices and institution designed to encourage

public participation in information creation, production and exchanged (ie,
communication) on mass scale”

Note the changes to who creates content and how it is delivered (carriage)

Mass and new media:

1. are distinct set of activities (communication is a large enterprise, helps us
understand the world we live in)

2. Involving particular technological configurations.

3. Associated to some degree, with formally constituted institutions (involvement of

private corporation, government agencies)

4. Acting within certain laws, rules and understandings. (laws around the media are
still developing, issue of intellectual property, issues or piracy, freedom of
expression, privacy laws.. law can not keep up with the pace of media
development, the laws applied in the media are more complex than simple
constraints)

5. Carried out by persons occupying certain roles

6. Which, together, convey information, entertainment, images, and symbols and

may facilitate communicative interaction

7. To or among members of society.

Dimension of Communication:
From the MacBride report:
• Social (it connects people in a community) –everyone knitted in a national
fabric- cbc is the most success in this aspect..
• Political (mouthpiece for the government- partisan – Toronto star is news
paper of left wing political figures- fox news is more republican inclined)
Comrad black founded National post, as he thought the media was too liberal
in Canada.. Watergate in States, 1970- media cracked open the story.. for us to
feel protected.. strong political dimension

• Economic- Job creation- media convergence helps economy— publically

available stocks market
• Educational- distance educatioin.. information available online..
• Cultural- communicatin has also become cultural threats.. one hand we use
communication we use to compliment as an electronic railroad that brought
everyone together, we are greately influenced by American culture.. the
exposure is very hard to avoid.
• Technological- ties in whatever we have been talking about.. it evolves as
technology evolves.. Technology has a specific dimension when we talk about
technology.

Additional Dimension:
From Lorimer, Gasher and Skinner.

Familial – families are transformed…

Individual- identity, they help to create some sort of identity… affects what books we
read, what we like etc—

Different Mode of communication:

• Oral – pass it on through story telling as means of transmitting information.. oral
communication is associated with like minded population, with similar ideas.
• Literate.. written communication, writing in terms of poetry.. etc… it has more
consistency..linear.. more logical.. relies of logic. Its more philosophical
• Electronic communication – radio might go back and associate with oral.. may
also be different from what we understand from traditional oral dimension.
• Electronic digital communication
Next class:

Empahison this oral / written split.

Dvelopment of the printing press.

Time space bias in socities.

Readings: from LGS chapter 3

From introduction to commutation, reading by Harold innis, “minerva’s owl”