Week 1 Lecture Summary

Week1; Post 2


This weeks lecture...

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" 

- TS Eliot : The Rock

Communication technology has advanced dramatically over the past millennium. Looking back we realise how far we have progressed from oral to graphic, then finally to written, to then make way for electronic forms of communication such as the telephone and the Television. However we have, even in the past decade developed further, making way for mobile smartphones, super slim laptops, high speed and national coverage internet, instant messaging and a wide range of online methods of communication.

However, with such an abundance of methods, issues with each are often large and extremely detrimental, such as hacktivism, fraud & privacy. One example of the privacy issue is the recent Derryn Hinch story. After releasing the name of an alleged sex offender, Hinch was banned from any form of social media throughout his house arrest. 

Communication is fundamental to human interaction and always involves a wide range of factors, it is not simply what we speak or draw. Communication involves the way we look (facial expressions) the way we stand, the way we walk. in general, communication is any process that transfers, transmits or lets information be known to others.

Within the process of communication there are two implications, 

Intersubjectivity: The listener interprets the message and changes it as they send it along. Communication is between people and they always want to argue about things, interpreting them in the light of their own experience. The active audience produces feedback.

and

intertextuality: No message is ever complete. Any message gains its meaning (for a particular person) from all the other messages that person has previously received and sent.

Technology:

When looking at technology it can be argued that technology is merely an extension of the human body, such as a wheel is simply an extension of the foot.

Predominantly there is two separate kinds of technology:

Analog and digital (which relies on binary)

It can be argued that although digital may offer more specific and quality results, analog provides to the user more options, such as a car radio that in analog would merely require a small turn of the dial, whereas today pressing the button may miss the station that you were looking for.

Media

The word media is simply the plural for the word medium, as in medium (channel) for communication. However when we speak of Media we often refer to it as the 'news' such as through a television or the newspaper. For example when we speak about the news industry we often say the media. 

Convergence

Convergence has been introduced throughout the past decade as more and more options of technology become readily available, such as mobile phones and the internet UI's. With this kind of technology available and in high demand technology firms seek to find ways to bring the most uses to a single device. Such as cars, containing GPS, radios, internet, DVD players, Television, fridges, iPhone and iPod docks, bluetooth, air-conditioners etc.

Also there is the concept of intangible object converging, such as the media converging to bring multiple forms of interactivity to the audience and businesses are converging to provide new forms of vertical and horizontal integration.