SLIDE 1IS246 - SPRING 2003 Lecture 02: Communications Theory IS246 Multimedia Information (FILM 240, Section 4) Prof. Marc Davis UC Berkeley SIMS Monday and Wednesday 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Spring

SLIDE 2IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 3IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 4IS246 - SPRING 2003 Course Materials Purchase Course Reader at Copy Central on Bancroft –Corrected Course Readers available since Thursday 01/23 Purchase Course Textbook –David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction. 6 th Edition. McGraw Hill, New York, –Course Textbook Web Site: film/bordwell_6_filmart/index.mhtml

SLIDE 5IS246 - SPRING 2003 Computer Orientation Wednesday 01/22 –Filled out SIMS/CIS Account Request Form Thursday 01/23 –Saw Kevin Heard and his staff on the second floor of South Hall for access to SIMS computing resources

SLIDE 6IS246 - SPRING 2003 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

SLIDE 7IS246 - SPRING 2003 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

SLIDE 8IS246 - SPRING 2003 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

SLIDE 9IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 10IS246 - SPRING 2003 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 doesn’t –How to improve communication

SLIDE 11IS246 - SPRING 2003 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

SLIDE 12IS246 - SPRING 2003 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.

SLIDE 13IS246 - SPRING 2003 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)?

SLIDE 14IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 15IS246 - SPRING 2003 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”

SLIDE 16IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 17IS246 - SPRING 2003 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

SLIDE 18IS246 - SPRING 2003 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

SLIDE 19IS246 - SPRING 2003 Toolmakers’ Paradigm

SLIDE 20IS246 - SPRING 2003 Technical Communication Theory Claude Shannon, 1940’s, studying communication Ways to measure information –Communication: reproducing the same message at its destination as that originating at its source –Problem: a “noisy channel” can distort the signal Between transmitter and receiver, the signal must be encoded and decoded Source Desti- nation Receiver Trans- mitter Noise Channel

SLIDE 21IS246 - SPRING 2003 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)?

SLIDE 22IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 23IS246 - SPRING 2003 Iser on the Literary Work Literary work has two poles –Artistic Text created by the author (Reddy’s signals) –Esthetic Realization accomplished by the reader (Reddy’s Repertoire Members) Literary work comes to life in the interaction between text reader –Virtual dimension –Gaps

SLIDE 24IS246 - SPRING 2003 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)

SLIDE 25IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 26IS246 - SPRING 2003 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

SLIDE 27IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 28IS246 - SPRING 2003 Discussion Questions Reddy “The Conduit Metaphor” –Atiba Phillips –Rachna Dhamija

SLIDE 29IS246 - SPRING 2003 Discussion Questions (Reddy) Reddy “The Conduit Metaphor” (Atiba Phillips) –How does adherence to one framework or the other affect the way we value media reviews or criticism; i.e. do we place more value on statements made by the “author” of the text / media, or are responses from the community of receivers more valuable? –How do frame orientations affect our behavior, understandings of blame and possible avenues of resolution, when there is miscommunication or when communication breaks down? –What implications does alternative models of communication have on the way we preserve culture? –In person to person communication; is speech enough?

SLIDE 30IS246 - SPRING 2003 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?

SLIDE 31IS246 - SPRING 2003 Today’s 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” Action Items for Next Time

SLIDE 32IS246 - SPRING 2003 Sign Up for Office Hours Tuesday, January 28 (This Week Only) –2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Thursday, January 30 (Regular Time) –2:00 pm – 4:00 pm 314 South Hall

SLIDE 33IS246 - SPRING 2003 Readings for Next Time Wednesday 01/29 –Ferdinand de Saussure: Course in General Linguistics”