Week 1 Lecture Notes

Defining Communication Technology

What is Communication?

• Communication is any process that transfers, transmits or makes information known to other people.
• Basic model of communication explained in the book Rhetoric written by Aristotle about two thousand years ago.
• The speaker produces a message that is heard by the listener.
• The speaker produces an effect on the transmitter which sends a message (which is degraded by the noise of the transmission process) that is intercepted by the reciever which converts it into an effect that is heard by the listener. (Shannon & Weaver - The Mathematical theory of Communication)
• Intersubjectivity - The listener interprets the message and changes it as they send it along.
• the active audience produces feedback
• Intertextuality - any message gains its meaning (for a particular person) from all the other messages person has previously recieved and sent.

What is Technology?

• Technology is the scientific study of mechanical arts and their application to the world.

Convergence

• Information technologies are converging as computer technology provides the means to draw together telephone, radio, television and print so that they can be accessed from the one point.

Old Communication Technology

• Oral (Storytelling)
• Graphic (Cave Drawings)
• Written (Letters, Articles, Books)
• Radio
• Television
• Morse Code

New Communication Technology

• Mobile Phones (SMS/MMS)
• Computers The Internet E-Mail
• Message Boards & Discussion Lists
• IM (MSN Messenger etc)
• Blogging
• YouTube, Flickr & Twitter
• Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace etc)

Convergence in Communication

• Technology's ability to help us communicate in a myriad of ways. (Smartphone Discussion)
• Important thing to understand is that the future of Communication Technologies lies in Convergence.