week 2 : 10 october
communication theory
Highlights From Student Posts[back to week 2]
- Barrie
- Reading the 1994 article "Social Aspects of New Media Technologies," I
was reminded of a tedious family issue I had long since forgotten. My parents
were the canonical POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) customers for a decade
after most of their friends and neighbors had moved on to tone dialing,
and no amount of arguing made them believe that there was any real point
in changing a system that worked for them.
In about 1990, annoyed by the inconvenience of pulse-dialing long-distance numbers while visiting them, I called Southwestern Bell (pretending to be my mother) to see if I could change their service, and was told that there would be a monthly surcharge for tone service. I no longer remember what the (small) surcharge was, but what mattered was the breathtaking backasswards illogicality of the fact that Bell was still supporting two systems when it could simply have offered the recalcitrant old-timers a nice crisp $5 bill and a free phone to switch to tone dialing.Instead, it had given them every incentive to sit tight, one hand on that heavy black receiver, the other index finger in the dial.
- Reading the 1994 article "Social Aspects of New Media Technologies," I
was reminded of a tedious family issue I had long since forgotten. My parents
were the canonical POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) customers for a decade
after most of their friends and neighbors had moved on to tone dialing,
and no amount of arguing made them believe that there was any real point
in changing a system that worked for them.
- Belle
- All changes make magical differences. Since my family had faced the situation,
especially when the telephone bill getting higher and higher, we finally
figured out the solution—teach my parents use the Skype software.
It’s an amazing process to let elder people accept new technology,
especially if they have mental fear to use computers. Fortunately, After
practicing several times, we can successfully talk via Skype.
Through the Skype system, the first advantage is that the cost of telephone reduced fatefully. Secondly, the function of “conference” overcame the obstacle of traditional telephone, and let my family can talk in the some time from four pats of the world. Even more, we could see each other face to face with webcams.
- All changes make magical differences. Since my family had faced the situation,
especially when the telephone bill getting higher and higher, we finally
figured out the solution—teach my parents use the Skype software.
It’s an amazing process to let elder people accept new technology,
especially if they have mental fear to use computers. Fortunately, After
practicing several times, we can successfully talk via Skype.
- Chloe
- Because of my research paper “Social network analysis on web log-by
case of wretchblog” in T.Y class, I’m very interested in Uses
and Gratifications theory.
I would like to use this theory to find out why some people are willing to show their emotion and diary to the public. Will they get gratification by doing this? Also, some people extremely like to see other’s blog. What kind of blog is their favorite? Is it relative their life style or their personality? Thanks for this article. I have more ideas about my research paper.
- Because of my research paper “Social network analysis on web log-by
case of wretchblog” in T.Y class, I’m very interested in Uses
and Gratifications theory.
- Elina
- Human and social factors mold the new communication technology advances, and choice of viewing media content. In the early 20th century, researchers and end users could not have thought communication systems (VCR, cable T.V., and PC) able to converge as one media center seen today. The PC hardrive is now the VCR to play DVDs/VCDs, the T.V. screen is the PC screen, and the PC is the media center to do multiple tasks at once (watch movie/show, send e-mail, VOIP, AIM, fax, and compose a letter document). So how can the researchers' theories apply to the constant modifications and changes in the new media today? What social or economic ideas and theories will VOIP impact professionals in the U.S. business communities, particularly as business relations and products/services are at constant increase globally?
- Jeanne
- It is clear to me that if a new technology can improve an existing technology that companies providing that technology need to embrace and experiment with the improvements or be left behind. To fight the improvements would be foolish, but even more foolish may be putting TOO MUCH into the new. There needs to be a balance and an incorporation as not to alienate the current clients.
- Kai-Chen
- After reading “How the internet killed the phone business” and the introduction of the text book, I have an idea coming up. Will Wifi cell phone replace cell phone?
- Kevin
- In that context, the telephone/telecomm industry actually expanded
and overbuilt its capacity, particularly in fiber optic networks set
to connect the world. One of two major fiber-optic links to Asia terminates
in my hometown of Mukilteo where Global Crossings - a darling of the
dot.com era - located the end point to one of its major underseas routes
to Asia. Telecom boomed even as the Internet blossomed - packet switching
became the order of the day. Bigger and fatter pipes had to be constructed
to ensure the channels of commerce could continue unfettered.
So, when the Economist - along with trend spotters like Tim O'Reilly http://radar.oreilly.com/tim/- posit that the Internet has killed the telephone business - well, that's a resounding yes and no ...
The notion that as technologies emerge, social intervention in the form of a need and suppression in the sense of those who have a vested interest in the technology can substantially impact the diffusion and rate of adoption is on point. Social policy or business need often can dictate the development and evolution of emerging technologies. An obvious point, but an important one to be aware of. . . cloning and nanotechnology are examples of social policy (cloning) and business need (nanotechnology) strongly influencing the outcome and direction of the diffusion of these inventions.
- In that context, the telephone/telecomm industry actually expanded
and overbuilt its capacity, particularly in fiber optic networks set
to connect the world. One of two major fiber-optic links to Asia terminates
in my hometown of Mukilteo where Global Crossings - a darling of the
dot.com era - located the end point to one of its major underseas routes
to Asia. Telecom boomed even as the Internet blossomed - packet switching
became the order of the day. Bigger and fatter pipes had to be constructed
to ensure the channels of commerce could continue unfettered.
- Kristina
- A recent example of a technology that filled this social necessity is the flash or USB drive. Numerous inventions have tried to replace the floppy disk as an electronic storage space. Zip disks held much more, but were expensive and somewhat balky. CDs can hold a large amount of data and are inexpensive, but not everyone has the technology to burn CDs. Another drawback of CDs is that most cannot be reused. The durable flash drive uses a USB port, which all computers now come with, and can hold 1, 2 or even more gigs of data. Flash drives seem to be catching on quickly for their economical and technological value.
- Luke
- Necessity prompts invention. The railways, and the danger involved in sending communication, prompted the telegraph? Maybe this section sets the precedent for patterns of invention. Widespread need + available technology + existing infrastructure = invention. [KEG: I'd say ... = adoption.]
- Mini
- The last part I want to mention is you still have to pay the internet fee for the cable company. In other words, this service is not for free. But the more services offer via internet, the easier internet oriented businesses start. That is why I am pretty optimistic for VOIP service.
- Nancy
- So I think my first “a-ha” from the Media & Technology
book is that it’s getting harder for me to read “real” books,
especially those with dense content, without my trusty computer as a sidekick.
First thing I wanted to do was Google Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus...
Something I'm troubled by with much of the technology we're currently surrounded by is the increasing speed of obsolescence. (Is there a companion graph to level of diffusion called level of dissolution?) ... The entired lifespan of VHS was about 25 years; recently I went through our family's collection of home movies and Disney tapes. The home movies will need to be recorded to a newer media; the Disney tapes, which a few years ago were worth as much as $200 each as collector items--well, I'm not sure what to do with them. How about all those digital .jpg pictures we've all been snapping the past few years? All the information in .pdf's?
- So I think my first “a-ha” from the Media & Technology
book is that it’s getting harder for me to read “real” books,
especially those with dense content, without my trusty computer as a sidekick.
First thing I wanted to do was Google Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus...
- Randa
- I note an ongoing tug of war between necessity and political suppression...
- Between basic phone (no long distance), DSL and my cell phone (used for
long distance) I pay too much month for the privilege to communicate s
it is. If I made international calls like a friend of mine, Skype would
save money over cell phone or basic phone. Had I business needs for long
distance calls I expect Skype I would use it there as well.
Someone who would profit from use of Skype, my mother-a technologically challenged senior, is unlikely to do so due to the complicated nuances of its use; internet skills and keeping the list of access numbers straight. So, I'd say there is always the challenge in user simplification.
- Rex
- Winston starts on solid ground. He's two-thirds material determinist
and one-third structuralist. That is, he's a historian who wishes to do
away with the illusions of the now -- the "visions of techno-glory or apocalypse," as
he calls them. But he also seeks to replace these visions with a constructivist
theory of everything.
Thankfully, Winston's theory works most of the time, even if it gets obsessive in its preponderance with inventing elaborate phrases ("supervening social necessities" and "the law of the suppression of radical potential") for simple ideas ("do people want it?" and "new ideas are suppressed"). His system seems capable as a historical model to account for innovation and invention...
Perhaps this is quibbling. Winston and I would agree, for instance, that the iPod did not miraculously appear out of nowhere. We'd also likely agree that the cult of Steve Jobs could use some historical determinism thrown at it. But it seems unwise to understate the disruptive, the seditious, the revolutionary effect of the iPod. If not a revolution in cause, it was certainly one in effect.
- Winston starts on solid ground. He's two-thirds material determinist
and one-third structuralist. That is, he's a historian who wishes to do
away with the illusions of the now -- the "visions of techno-glory or apocalypse," as
he calls them. But he also seeks to replace these visions with a constructivist
theory of everything.
- Steve
- The history of telegraph offers a clear
example of how one technology, in this case the railways, creates a supervening
necessity for another, the telegraph. (Winston 1998: 23)
How many times have we seen something like this occur? Clearly demand is the major factor in all this. I'll be so bold to say that we want the bigger fish to eat the smaller one. Why? That's a question I'm interested in knowing myself.
- The history of telegraph offers a clear
example of how one technology, in this case the railways, creates a supervening
necessity for another, the telegraph. (Winston 1998: 23)
- Tony (Fu-Yuan)
- I think these theories can be used in many fields, not just in the media technologies. Like the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, it's very similar to the product life cycle in the economics which have four periods of introduction, growth, maturity, and decline, too. So I think these theories are general principles of marketing or human behaviors, and they could be very useful.
- Vaun
- By the morning light, however, the fog cleared as I moved on to Winston’s
first chapter about the telegraph. As soon as he started writing about
historical events and actual technology, his abstract theories in the Introduction
began to make sense. His model for how communication technologies develop
and spread could be applied to a lot of inventions:
1. Scientific basis
2. Ideation
3. Prototypes
4. Supervening Social Necessity
5. Invention
6. Supression by various political, commercial and social concerns
7. Diffusion
8. Spinoffs
I don’t know if I will ever get a cell phone. For Christmas I really want to get myself a working reproduction of a 1920s candlestick phone, made out of wood: you know, the kind where you hold one part up to your mouth and the other part to your ear.
- By the morning light, however, the fog cleared as I moved on to Winston’s
first chapter about the telegraph. As soon as he started writing about
historical events and actual technology, his abstract theories in the Introduction
began to make sense. His model for how communication technologies develop
and spread could be applied to a lot of inventions:
- No Post:
- Courtney
- Magnus
- Michelle
- Stephanie
- No Blog Link
- Kristina
- Nika