IS246 FALL 2004

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Lecture 02 Communications Theory
IS246Multimedia Information
Prof. Marc Davis UC Berkeley SIMS Monday and
Wednesday 200 pm 330 pm Spring
2003 http//www.sims.berkeley.edu/academics/cours
es/is246/s03/
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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Purchase Course Textbooks

• David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Film Art An
  Introduction. 7th Edition. McGraw Hill, New York,
  2004.
• Web Site
• http//highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072484551/i
  nformation_center_view0/
• Special Edition with CD-ROM
• ISBN 0072975687

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Course Textbooks

• W. Daniel Hillis. The Pattern on the Stone The
  Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work. Perseus
  Books Group, New York, 1999.
• Web Site
• http//www.perseusbooksgroup.com/perseus-cgi-bin/d
  isplay/0-465-02596-X

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Goals of the Course

• Acquire theoretical and practical foundations to
  analyze, design, and produce multimedia
  information systems
• Media theory
• Media practice
• Current and future media systems and applications
• Learn to apply media theory to media design
• Gain further experience in project-based learning
  and teamwork
• Develop an enduring framework and methodology for
  media analysis and design

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Course Overview

• Course phases
• Theoretical and practical foundations
• Current issues and methods
• The future of multimedia
• Course assignments
• Theory application
• Short media production
• Final project

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The Media Problem

• Vastly more media will be produced
• Without ways to manage it (metadata creation and
  use) we lose the advantages of digital media
• Most current approaches are insufficient are
  perhaps misguided
• Great opportunity for innovation and invention
• Need interdisciplinary approaches to the problem

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Communication Theory

• Encompasses a vast array of disciplines
• Mass communications, literary and media theory,
  rhetoric, sociology, psychology, linguistics,
  law, cognitive science, information science,
  engineering, etc.
• Questions
• What and how we communicate
• Why we communicate
• What happens when communication works and when
  it doesnt
• How to improve communication

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Why Study Communication Theory?

• Our understanding of what, how, and why we
  communicate informs our
• Theory of media and practice of media production
• Analysis, design, and evaluation of multimedia
  information system and applications
• How we work together in teams
• How we read texts and talk with one another in
  this course
• Law and public policy

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Etymology of Communication

• Communication - c.1384, from O.Fr. communicacion,
  from L. communicationem (nom. communicatio), from
  communicare "to impart, share," lit. "to make
  common," from communis (see common).
• Common - 13c., from O.Fr. comun, from L. communis
  "shared by all or many," from L. com- "together"
  munia "public duties," those related to munia
  "office." Alternate etymology is that Fr. got it
  from P.Gmc. gamainiz (cf. O.E. gemæne), from PIE
  kom-moini "shared by all," from base moi-,
  mei- "change, exchange."
• Remuneration - c.1400, from L. remunerationem,
  from remunerari "to reward," from re- "back"
  munerari "to give," from munus (gen. muneris)
  "gift, office, duty." Remunerative is from 1677.

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What and How Do We Communicate?

• What gifts do we give each other?
• What do we do with these gifts?
• How does this gift exchange bring us together (or
  not)?

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Beyond the Conduit Metaphor

• Reddy
• Identification of the Conduit Metaphor
• Suggestion of alternate Toolmakers Paradigm
• Iser
• The reading process as a primary example of the
  Toolmakers Paradigm
• Phenomenology of the reading process
• Barthes
• New conceptions of author and text

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Metaphor of/in Communication

• It's hard to get that idea across to him.
• I gave you that idea.
• It's difficult to put my ideas into words.
• The meaning is right there in the words.
• His words carry little meaning.
• That's not what I got out of what he said.

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The Conduit Metaphor

• Language functions like a conduit, transferring
  thoughts bodily from one person to another
• In writing and speaking, people insert their
  thoughts or feelings in the words
• Words accomplish the transfer by containing the
  thoughts or feelings and conveying them to others
• In listening or reading, people extract the
  thoughts and feelings once again from the words

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Conduit Metaphor Minor Frameworks

• Thoughts and feelings are ejected by speaking or
  writing into an external idea space
• Thoughts and feelings are reified in this
  external space, so they exist independent of any
  need for living beings to think or feel them
• These reified thoughts and feelings may, or may
  not, find their way back into the heads of living
  humans

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Toolmakers Paradigm
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Comparing Models

• Conduit Metaphor
• Repertoire Members (i.e., perceptions, thoughts,
  or feelings) can migrate from one mind to another
• Communication is a largely effort free act of
  unpacking the meaning in words (i.e., the
  senders RMs in the Signals)
• Communication does not involve the RMs of the
  receiver of the message

• Toolmakers Paradigm
• Only Signals can pass between human beings, not
  RMs
• Communication requires active engagement of both
  parties and often breaks down and needs repair
• The meanings of signals are not contained within
  them, but made out of the constructive
  interaction between the signals and the RMs of
  the receiver

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Semantic Pathology

• Semantic Pathology
• Whenever two or more incompatible senses capable
  of figuring meaningfully in the same context
  develop around the same name
• Example
• This text is confusing.
• Text(1) The layout/font of the text is
  confusing.
• Text(2) The argument of the text is confusing.
• Question Where is Text(2)?

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Phenomenology of Experience

• Computational model of time
• Linear, discrete model of time as series of
  instants
• Phenomenology of time
• Anticipation of what will be
• Retrospection of what has been

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Iser on the Literary Work

• Literary work has two poles
• Artistic
• Text created by the author
• Reddys signals Text (1)
• Metaphor of stars
• Esthetic
• Realization accomplished by the reader
• Reddys Repertoire Members Text (2)
• Metaphor of constellations
• Literary work comes to life in the interaction
  between text and reader
• Virtual dimension
• Gaps

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Iser on the Reading Process

• Phenomenology of reading process similar to
  phenomenology of perception
• Anticipation
• Retrospection
• Gestalt
• Illusion-building/Illusion-breaking
• Interaction with repertoire (familiar)
• Alien associations (unfamiliar)
• Text(1) and Text(2)

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Roland Barthes

• Death of the Author
• Who is the I that writes?
• The reader constructs the author by means of the
  text
• From Work to Text
• Method The text is experienced only in an
  activity of production.
• Plurality The text is plural.
• Filiation The author returns to his/her text as
  a guest
• Text is a social space which coincides only with
  a practice of writing

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Discussion Questions (Reddy)

• Reddy The Conduit Metaphor (Brooke Maury)
• In Reddys conduit metaphor, words are
  envisioned as packages of information transmitted
  from one person to another. The role of the
  sender and receiver is mainly to package and
  unpackage the content of the words they are
  sending and receiving. Is this really a useful
  metaphor for human communication?

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Discussion Questions (Reddy)

• Reddy The Conduit Metaphor (Brooke Maury)
• The toolmakers paradigm, wherein actors must
  work hard and engage in ongoing negotiation to
  gain a clearer understanding of instructions
  they have received, seems to better simulate the
  communication process, and takes into account
  context and many of the nuances of communication
  lacking in the conduit analogy (as discussed
  below). Which analogy is a closer approximation
  of the communication process? Is the conduit
  metaphor a straw man, valuable only as a means to
  illustrate the intricate semantics of
  communication?

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Discussion Questions (Reddy)

• Reddy The Conduit Metaphor (Brooke Maury)
• The conduit metaphor seems to ignore or conflict
  with the concept of information feedback and
  Goffmans assertion that people (and animals)
  engage in constant impression management and
  unintentionally give-off information about their
  meaning that can shed light on their explicit
  giving of information. Moreover, this metaphor
  suggests that context has no role in
  communication. If all we are doing as
  receivers of information is unpacking words to
  reveal their content or meaning, then the fact
  that the sender was crying or yelling when she
  sent the words would have no value. Is the
  conduit metaphor a gross over-simplification of
  the communication process? Does is leave out
  critical details?

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Discussion Questions (Reddy)

• Reddy The Conduit Metaphor (Brooke Maury)
• Reddy illustrates his conduit metaphor by citing
  several common phrases in the English language,
  and his analysis of communication is heavily
  focused on written texts (e.g. poems, books,
  etc.). Is the conduit metaphor useful in
  studying communication in other languages? What
  about languages in which the written text is
  symbolic (i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Heiroglyphics)?
  What about computer language and communication?
  Is the conduit metaphor useful in understanding
  face-to-face interaction, the visual image or
  film?

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Discussion Questions (Reddy)

• Reddy The Conduit Metaphor (Brooke Maury)
• Reddy suggests that we do not preserve ideas by
  building libraries and recording voices. The only
  way to preserve culture is to train people the
  rebuild it, to regrow it within themselves
  (p.187). Yet a library often contains large
  amounts of feedback and metadata about a specific
  piece of culture. For example a library might
  contain an original work by Aristotle in the
  original text and translated texts, as well as
  an array of history books describing Greece in
  Aristotles time, responses from Aristotles
  peers and students, as well analyses from
  scholars of philosophy. To put it simply,
  libraries may contain sufficient (if
  impenetrable) metadata about a particular
  element of culture to achieve a certain degree of
  posterity. If there is enough metadata about the
  content being transmitted, is the problem of
  the conduit metaphor solved?

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Discussion Questions (Reddy)

• Reddy The Conduit Metaphor (Prof. Davis)
• How can an implicit theory of communication
  affect our analysis and design of multimedia
  information systems?
• What are some examples of multimedia information
  systems that embody the Conduit Metaphor or the
  Toolmakers Paradigm theory of communication?
  How might they be redesigned?

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Discussion Questions (Iser)

• Iser The Reading Process (Jeff Heer)
• What is phenomenology? What presuppositions
  should we expect in this piece? (And are they met
  or are they negated?)
• What does Iser mean by the following terms or
  contrasts
• written / unwritten text
• configurative meaning
• illusion-forming / illusion-breaking
• anticipation and retrospection
• continual modification
• evocation and subsequent negation of the familiar

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Discussion Questions (Iser)

• Iser The Reading Process (Jeff Heer)
• What is a literary gestalt? How is it created?
  Why the reliance on visual metaphor? (Is this
  avoidable or inevitable?)
• Do what degree do we see the conduit metaphor at
  work in Iser's writing, despite his
  "recreationist" stance? What effect, if any, does
  this have on his "message"?

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Discussion Questions (Iser)

• Iser The Reading Process (Jeff Heer)
• If through reading a reader constructs "a reality
  different from his her own", what is the nature
  and constituents of this construction? (e.g. is
  it different from his own, yet constructed from
  his own? an intellectual bricolage?)

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Discussion Questions (Iser)

• Iser The Reading Process (Jeff Heer)
• Is there an inherent value system at play here
  with respect to conscious versus unconscious
  recreative acts? (This has echoes of art
  criticism, such as art vs. non-art, or the
  avant-garde vs. kitsch.) If so, should we
  challenge that system?

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Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Barthes The Death of the Author (Rebecca
  Shapley)
• Describe the Author? What/who is said to be
  dying?
• How does the concept of literature as an
  author-free performance-in-the-moment, perhaps
  captured in static form, translate to other forms
  of art? Painting, movies, music? Does this
  transfer support or complexify the thesis of the
  essay?

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Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Barthes The Death of the Author (Rebecca
  Shapley)
• Do you know anyone or have you yourself written a
  published work? If the role of Author is not
  allowed, what role is left for the person(s) who
  take the time to write, edit, review, revise
  literary works? How do you feel about that?

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Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Barthes The Death of the Author (Rebecca
  Shapley)
• If a particular person is good at generating text
  or artwork that is said to be good, how would
  we explain the repeated success, given the
  perspective of the essay? That is, does the death
  of the Author still provide for some assessment
  of quality in literature? How?

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Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Barthes The Death of the Author (Rebecca
  Shapley)
• Building on Reddys comments about the importance
  of people educated to interact meaningfully with
  cultural objects (as opposed to simply storing
  them), does the quality of a literary work change
  with the readership? Take for example a book by
  Zora Neale Hurston, a black woman whose work was
  obviously not part of the white cannon of
  literature at the time she wrote it. Since then,
  her work has been appreciated and an enthusiastic
  readership has developed she is now considered
  an important writer. Does Barthes essay imply
  that the quality of the work has therefore
  changed? If so, what implications does this have
  for information management?

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Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Barthes From Work to Text (Sarah Ellinger)
• Barthes comments, The reduction of reading to a
  consumption is clearly responsible for the
  boredom experienced by many in the face of the
  modern (unreadable) text . . .To be bored means
  that one cannot produce the text, (163). But
  only one page earlier he suggests that The Text
  (if only by its frequent unreadability) decants
  the work (the work permitting) from its
  consumption and gathers it up as play, activity,
  production, practice, (162). When is a work
  unreadable as a text? And how might that apply to
  multimedia works?

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Discussion Questions (Barthes)

• Barthes From Work to Text (Sarah Ellinger)
• Barthes claims that it is one of the social
  functions of the Text to pose problems of
  classification (157). What does that mean and
  what are its implications for metadata and
  organization? He also says that The metaphor of
  the text is that of the network. (161). What are
  some approaches to organizing something best
  represented as a network rather than a point? And
  should we be aiming to organize the work or the
  Text?

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Todays Agenda

• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of Communication
• Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
• Iser on The Reading Process
• Barthes on Author and Text
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time

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Sign Up for Office Hours

• Wednesday, September 8
• 400 pm 600 pm
• Tuesday, September 14
• 200 pm 400 pm
• 314 South Hall

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Readings for Next Time

• Wednesday 09/08
• Ferdinand de Saussure Course in General
  Linguistics (Gokce, Nick, Alison)