New Media Technologies: Communication Theories COM 300 Kathy E. Gill 23 January 2006

Agenda  Recap Last Week  Technology Adoption  (More) Characteristics of New Media  Friday ’ s Assignment

Recap Last Week  We define (or frame) new media in comparison to old media  Technology shapes society and society shapes technology Technology is only a Tool!

Technology Adoption  Define  Why, How Do We Use Technology?  Why Adopt?

First, what is “technology”?  tech-nol-o-gy 1: technical language; 2a: applied science b: a technical method of achieving a practical purpose 3: a totality of the means employed to provide objects necessary for human sustenance and comfort

Technology, Simply Put  Knowledge used to solve problems and extend human potential  Technology is about enabling change and amplifying its direction.  Think of it as facilitating the journey not (necessarily) setting the destination.

Why Use a Technology?  Availability  Cost  Network effects  Buzz/coolness factor  Makes something easier to do  ??

Question:  What factors affect your acceptance (or rejection) of new communication channel, new product? Jot down Pair and share

Technology and Communication Media  Caves in France  Paper and charcoal/ink  Printing Press  Telegraph et al (radio, television)  Computer mediated communications Internet: , IM, web sites, BBs, usenet, Skype (VoIP)

Quotable 1 “ This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. ” -- Western Union internal memo, 1876

Quotable 2 “ Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? ” -- H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

Quotable 3 “ I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. ” -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

Quotable 4 “ Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons. ” -- Popular Mechanics, 1949

What leads to adoption?  Winston: supervening social necessity More than “build a better mousetrap”  Advertising One goal is to build “need”  FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt)

Rogers (1995) - Diffusion Theory  Identified four main elements of an innovation-diffusion process Innovation Social system Time Communications channels

Linear innovation-diffusion  The process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. (Rogers, 1995, p.5).  Innovation: An idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption

Communication  A process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach mutual understanding (Rogers, 1995)

Time  The adoption model follows an “s” shape curve over time  For example …

Forecast: US Household Technology Adoption, Forrester Reports. July 2005, Data Overview “The State Of Consumers And Technology: Benchmark 2005”

Innovation-Decision Process  The mental process through which an individual passes : from knowledge to forming an attitude toward the innovation (adopt, reject)

Five steps  Knowledge  Persuasion  Decision (adopt or reject)  Implementation  Confirmation

Social System  A set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem-solving to accomplish a common goal.  Members or units of a social system may be individuals, informal groups, organizations, and/or subsystems.

Critical mass (1/2)  Rogers (1995) : "the critical mass occurs at the point at which enough individuals have adopted an innovation so that the innovation's further rate of adoption becomes self- sustaining.” (network effects)

Critical mass (2/2)  The critical mass theory is a social system perspective, not a technology perspective.  The irreversible phase may take place when not only the critical mass point is overcome but also the dominant design is brought about at least in terms of the technological innovation. Examples?

Adopter categories  Innovators  Early adopters  Early majority  Late majority  Laggards

Technological Innovations  Hardware - the tool that embodies the technology as a material or physical object.  Software - the knowledge base for the tool

Summary Adoption  What are some of the reasons we adopt a new product?  What are the five stages of adoption?  What is Critical Mass?

More New Media Theory  Marshall McLuhan: Canadian, author of Understanding Media (1964) and The Medium is the Massage (1967)  Lev Manovich: professor, UCSD, author of The Language of New Media (2001) and Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database (2005)

McLuhan (1/3)  Believes media (technologies) affect cultural (social) change Differentiates between a medium and its content Same content (words) is a different message when delivered in print, face- to-face, or on television – what is less important than how “We shape our tools, and they in turn shape us."

McLuhan (2/3)  Historical Construct Tribal Age (oral culture – intuitive) Age of Literacy (invention of phonetic alphabet – emergence of logic) Print Age (invention of printing press – linear thinking – science – individualism) Electronic Age (ushered in with telegraph, poster child: TV – global village – decline of logic and linearity)

McLuhan (3/3)  Compare our immediate knowledge of the 2004 December Tsunami with the 1556 Chinese earthquake that killed 830,000  If, as he suggests, print created individualism and nationalism … what might networked communication create? Will familiarity breed contempt or collaboration?

Manovich’s Five (1/6)  Numerical Representation  Modularity  Automation  Variability  Transcoding

Manovich’s Five (2/6)  Numerical representation “zero’s and one’s” Vector graphics v Bitmaps Analog v Digital  Early complaints about CD v LP

Manovich’s Five (3/6)  Modularity The “whole” consists of many “objects”  Example from blog: Google Images  PPT and Excel  HTML page (javascript, JPGs, etc)  Individual blog posts

Manovich’s Five (4/6)  Automation What computers do best! From blog post: “Apple’s new OS X Tiger… and Automator” Photoshop automation; running “Cron” jobs; database driven websites RSS readers Object management and search (Google)

Manovich’s Five (5/6)  Variability Website customization possible by automation Presenting data (shaping appearance) based on output device: monitor, PDA, cellphone Scaling (zoom – Google Maps)Google Maps

Manovich’s Five (6/6)  Transcoding Two distinct layers: cultural layer and technology layer … the intersection is a field called Human-Computer Interaction

HCI (1/3)  Norman: “The real problem with being digital is that it implies a kind of slavery to accuracy, a requirement that is most unlike the natural workings of the person. People are analog, insensitive to noise, insensitive to error. People extract meanings, and as long as the meanings are unchanged, the details of the signals do not matter.”

HCI (2/3)  The world is complex: computer systems seek to render that complexity into something “simple” Yes/No (zero/one) Linear v Pattern Seeking Human Error – preventable? Whose fault? CHI or HCI – false dichotomy?  “People excel at qualitative considerations, machines at quantitative ones.”

Internet Technologies  Efficiency IP v Telephony  Medium Independence Medium in this case is the communication medium : telephone wire, cable wire, wireless, cell telephony, satellite, ??

Zuckerman and McLaughlin, linklink

Domain Name System (DNS)  Analogous to the address used by a postal worker to deliver mail  Domain Names Original:.com,.gov,.mil,.net,.edu,.org Countries:.us to.za New:.biz,.info…  Works because of standardization

HCI (3/3) 1.How does the internet play a vital role in how man and machine interact? 2.What are some misconceptions about our relationship to machines? 3.How much must we understand computers in order to function in our society? In the future, will we be more or less dependent on computers? Is this good? 4.Will computers ever reach the level of sophistication illustrated by the Noah/Moses example? Explain. 5.The machine-centered view is precise, orderly and logical, while people are distractible, creative and illogical. The public education system seems to be modeled more on the machine-centered view. How might this model affect students’ view of themselves?

Summary  There is an intrinsic relationship between content and technology: both contribute to meaning  Tension between humans and machines  Internet Technology is application independent, agnostic

Assignments  Discussion Leaders Process, expectations  Journalistic or Scholarly Article  PPT  Post to web site  Assignment 1 Due Friday!