from text to hypertext week 3

1
from text to hypertext week 3
2

• http//homepages.uel.ac.uk/T.D.Sampson/
• http//ms1304.blogspot.com/

3

senders
receivers
Senders and Receivers an overviewof
communication science
4
Aims of this lecture

• to look at communication theory and its relevance
  to new media
• to look at communication as a subject of academic
  study  

• To consider how theory can inform the practical
  assessment 1
• Creative Interactivity
• Student reps for IM MM

5
Communication theory its relevance to new media
6
Lecture QuestionDoes New Media Change the
Relationship Between Senders and Receivers?
7
Simple model of communicationThe lecture

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vlLl1RWlgw7o

8
The rapid transmission of small blocks of data
over a channel dedicated to the connection only
for the duration of one packet's transmission.
Each packet can take a different path from sender
to receiver.
9
Network Communicationnew cognitive and sensory
connections
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
Pierre Levys Collective Intelligence

• 1998 pp. 140-141
• Charts the role of information communication
  technology

• Its effect on communities and social processes of
  sharing knowledge
• Transformation
• ONE-TO-MANY
• MANY-TO- MANY

13
Interactive media as a transformation in
communication

• one-to-many

• many-to-many

Linear movement of message from sender to passive
receiver
Non-linear movement between responsive sender(s)
and receivers
14
Levys transformation

• one-to-many
• Separation between sender and receivers

• many-to many
• We all have potential to be senders and receivers

15
EchoesMarshall McLuhans Understanding Media
(1964)Global Village Thesis

• We are
• nomadic gatherers of knowledgenomadic as
  ever before, free from fragmentary specialism
  involved in the total social process as never
  before since with electricity we extend our
  central nervous system globally, instantly
  interrelating every human experience.
• See McLuhan on Automationp.358

16
Power

• In the communication process, power belongs to
  those who send messages and to whom no return can
  be made
• Baudrillard, J. (1988). Selected Writings. Ed. M.
  Poster. Tr. J. Benedict. Oxford Polity Press.

• Both McLuhan (1964) and Levy (1998) infer that a
  
• transformation in communication empowers us
• Communication process is democratised???

17
Communication as a subject of academic study
18
Origins of the word(etymology)

• Communication comes from the Latin communis,
  "common."
• establish a "commonness" with someone
• share information, an idea or an attitude

19
Human need to communicate

• Dimbleby and Burton (1994) identify reasons why
  we need to communicate

• Power
• Survival
• Co-operation
• Personal needs
• Relationships
• Persuasion
• Social needs
• Economic
• Information
• Making sense of the world
• Decision making
• Self expression

20
McQuail 0n communication and meaning
Society Wide Mass Media
'consider it as the sending from one person to
another of meaningful messages'. Denis McQuail
(1975)
Institutional and Organisational political and
business
Intergroup association-local community
Intragroup family
Interpersonal dyad-couple
Intrapersonal processing information
21
Fields of study

• Group Communication
• Group norms
• Formal and informal groups
• Mass Communication
• The development of mass communication
• Media analysis
• Semiotics
• Violence in the media
• Advertising

• Intrapersonal Communications
• Self image
• Self Esteem
• Perception
• Interpersonal Communication
• Social roles
• Non-verbal communication
• Language and meaning
• Institutional

22
Models of Communication

• Aristotle
• Lasswell
• Shannon and Weaver
• Schramm
• Interactivity Feedback

23
models of communication

• 2, 300 years ago Aristotle's model of human
  communication

• Rhetoric
• Study of oral communication

subject
person addressed
speaker
24
1900s
25
Lasswell and Mass Media Research
Harold Lasswell (1948). "The Structure and
Function of Communication in Society." In Lyman
Bryson (ed.), The Communication of Ideas. Harper
and Row.
26
The Shannon-Weaver Model (1948)
27
noise
28
Shannon-Weaver error checking noise

• Concerned with the transmission of messages over
  noisy analogue channels
• Noise increases over distance
• Analogue solution Amplifiers

• Shannons new approach - 3 levels of
  communication problem
• Technical (code)
• Semantic (symbols)
• Effectiveness (effects)

29
technical error checking noise

• Shannons formula established that, despite high
  levels of channel noise, any message could be
  encoded at the source so that it is received
  error free at its destination

• Established information theory
• Use of binary system (1 0) in the coding of
  information

30
The Shannon-Weaver Model updated by Schramm
(1965) communication includes five elements
Shannons model adapted for the study of mass
human communication
31
The Encoder

• Source expresses purpose in the form of a message

• Message formulated in code
• This requires an encoder

32
The Encoder

• When you communicate, you have a particular
  purpose in mind

• you want to sell something
• you want to provide information
• you want to convince somebody
• you want to persuade

33
The Decoder

• The source needs an encoder to translate
• The receiver needs a decoder to retranslate

• Introduces coding dilemmas

34
Shannon like a Physicist
35
Shannons communication complicates issue of
meaning

• Technically messages are not measured in terms of
  meaning
• Information measured in amount of possible
  messages
• Certainty (order)
• Uncertainty (disorder)

• In Shannon's formula
• Meaning and information are opposites
• More new information means less meaning

36
Contemporary communication is problematic

• We live in a world where there is more and more
  information, and less and less meaning.
  (Baudrillard,1994 p. 79)

37
senders and receivers must use similar systems Or
else information is without meaning
38
Feedback
39
Evolving communication models feedback
Osgood and Schramm 1954
40
Examples of social feedback

• Telephone feedback
• 'mmmm
• 'aaah
• 'yes, I see'

• face-to-face NVC communication feedback
• head nods
• smiles
• frowns
• changes in posture and orientation
• gaze

41
feedback

• We are little switchboard centres handling and
  rerouting the great endless current of
  information....
• Schramm W. (1954) quoted in McQuail Windahl
  (1981)
• We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing
  water
• (Norbert Weiner, 1948 p. 96)

42
Weiner, 1948 Cybernetics the study
of control and communication in animals and
machines
43
Homeostasis

• Feedback Loop
• information about the result of a transformation
  or an action is sent back to the input of the
  system in the form of input data
• Results in stability

44

• How important is feedback to new media
  communication?

45
Computer game scores reduce if sound is turned
off
46
Question

• Is feedback the same as interaction?

47
Feedback versus InteractionThacker and Galloway
2007 pp. 122-124

• Evolution in two-way communication
• Two models
• Feedback
• Interaction

48
Feedback in Market Research

• Information flows in one direction, from the
  viewing public to the monitoring institutions
• A method of cybernetic control one party always
  controlling the other mass media follow this
  pattern

49
Interaction

• Distributed Networks (Baran in 1964)
• The protocol suite (1983)
• P2P protocols Gnutella (2000)

50
Interactivity about freedom?

• New media supposed to equate to new freedoms
  (???)
• Technologies of control on the wane more
  communication, more democratic (???)
• Not so say Galloway and Thacker (2007)
• Networked model of control
• More communication means more control
• More monitoring, surveillance, and biometics

51
The lecture

• The main issues from the lecture
• Why study communication?
• How effective/relevant are models of
  communication? - consider areas of significance
  in new media
• What is the relevance of the Shannon and Weaver
  model
• How have models changed linearity, feedback and
  interactivity
• What role does technology play in (re)shaping the
  communication process?
• Freedom or control?

52
What is our relation to the network?
53
Seminar

• Choose a student rep for IM MM

54
Seminar

• Introduction to New Media_at_UEL social network
• Media by Invitation
• Groups organized
• Students to join up and form groups online
• Seminar groups arranged

55
Assessment quick guide

56

• ASSIGNMENT MS1304A (40)
• Group project using online resources
• Project Title Creative Interactivity
• DEADLINE 1 12th Nov -08
• The most important factor in our assessment of
  your work is how you perform as a group and how
  creative your ideas are.

57
ASSIGNMENT MS1304A

• Component one
• The Written Proposal (350 words max)
• Being creative and original with ideas is an
  important work-based skill in the interactive
  media and multimedia industries.
• In this assignment we ask you to come up with an
  idea for an interactive commercial or arts based
  product/project. This may include one of the
  following
• The main idea is to think of new ways to connect
  users to services or products.
• Look here for inspiration
• http//www.btween.co.uk/branding-talent

58
Ideas

• An original website service
• An interactive piece of public art. A sculpture
  or screen-based exhibit
• A website service associated with another media
  product. A television programme for example
• An interactive toy
• An interactive TV programme
• A web-based soap opera or documentary
• An art installation
• A simple interactive game
• An interactive method for advertising another
  product
• You are encouraged to discuss possible approaches
  to the assignment with your seminar leader.
• What you submit 350-word proposal (marks will
  be awarded for good communication, creativity,
  group effort and attention to spelling and
  grammar)

59
ASSIGNMENT MS1304A

• Component two Presenting your work on the
  NewMedia_at_UEL social network
• Each student will be invited to join the
  NewMedia_at_UEL social network
• Each student will therefore have an individual
  page and be able to use the Groups feature to
  present their projects to the rest of the
  network. Follow these simple steps.

60
Tasks

• Join social network
• Select groups
• Create group
• Invite members of your group to join
• Edit the text box so as to creatively present
  your idea to the rest of the network
• Use good layout, text formatting, interesting
  images (original images, drawings etc will
  attract higher marks) and make sure the written
  English is perfect (marks will be lowered
  considerably for sloppy spelling and grammar)
• What you submit one member of the group will
  email the module leader - t.d.sampson_at_uel.ac.uk
  with the following details
• Group member names
• Name of social network group

61
Evaluating Website Ideas

• Fix my street
• http//www.fixmystreet.com/
• Intelligent Givinghttp//www.intelligentgiving.co
  m
• Create an M-scape
• http//www.createascape.org.uk/
• Petitions 10 Downing Street
• http//petitions.number10.gov.uk/
• Stop the traffic
• http//www.stopthetraffik.org/default.aspx
• The School of Everything
• http//schoolofeverything.com/index.php
• Patient Opinion
• http//www.patientopinion.org.uk/
• Big Green Switch
• http//www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/
• What do they know?
• http//www.whatdotheyknow.com/

• Discuss
• The purpose
• The audience
• The creative use of interactivity

62
For following week

• Reading and viewing the Global Village
• Marshall McLuhan's 'Global Village By Benjamin
  Symes
• McLuhan on YouTube
• McLuhans poetic viewpoint
• A rosy picture
• A more realistic view from McLuhan
• McLuhan on YouTube
• McLuhan on YouTube
• McLuhan on YouTube
• YouTube alternative to the Global Village