Communication Theory

Prof. Marc Davis & Prof. Peter Lyman UC Berkeley SIMS Tuesday and Thursday 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Spring 2005 Communication Theory IS146: Foundations of New Media

Announcements • Peter Lyman’s NEW Office Hours • Wednesdays 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm in 303A South Hall. • “Make your Group Web Page” Assignment starts Thursday • Any questions about administrivia?

Lecture Overview • Review of Last Time • What are New Media? • Representation • Communication Theory • Models of Communication • Semiotics and Sign Systems • Preview of Next Time • Applying Semiology Theory to New Media – TV, Advertisements, Film, etc.

“Old Media” Authorship Based on the romantic idea of authorship that assumes a single author making something from nothing Object The notion of a “one of a kind” art object Work has an “aura” (cf. Benjamin) Distribution Control over the distribution of such objects takes place through a set of exclusive places “New Media” Authorship Collective and collaborative authorship of media from media The user can change the work through interactivity Object Potentially infinite copies Many different possible states of the same work Distribution Network distribution (which bypasses the art system distribution channel) Old Media vs. New Media

What Are New Media: Reprise • Programmable = (soon we’ll investigate computation and programming) • “The greatest hypertext is the Web itself…the greatest interactive work is the interactive human-computer interface itself: the fact that the user can easily change everything which appears on her screen…”(Manovich 15) • “…Image is represented as a matrix of numbers that can be manipulated or generated automatically by running various algorithms; computers model reality through data structures and algorithms…” (Manovich 17)

Programmability: More • “A modern digital computer is a programmable machine. This simply means that the same computer can execute different algorithms…”(20) • “The abilities to interact with or control remotely located data in real time, to communicate with other human beings in real time…constitute the very foundation of our information society – phone communications, Internet, financial networking, industrial control, the use of microcontrollers in numerous modern machines and devices, and so on.” [Manovich 21]

New Media #2 • “The logic of new media…privileges the existence of potentially numerous copies; infinitely many different states of the same work; author-user symbiosis; the collective; collaborative authorship; and network distribution…” (Manovich 14)

New Media #3 • “I would define cyberculture as the study of various social phenomena associated with the Internet and other new forms of network communications….cyberculture studies are online communities, online multi-player gaming, the issue of online identity, the sociology and the ethnography of email usage; cell phone usage in various communities…Notice that the emphasis is on the social phenomena; cyberculture does not directly deal with the cultural objects enabled by network communication technologies. The study of these objects is the domain of new media.” (Manovich 16)

Questions For Today • What is the “Conduit Metaphor”? • What is the “Toolmakers Paradigm”? • How are the Conduit Metaphor and the Toolmakers Paradigm different in their models of communication? • What implications do the different models have for how we analyze and design New Media?

Questions For Today • What are the signifier, the signified, and the sign? • What are the similarities and differences between linguistic signs and visual signs? • What are the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes and how do they differ? • How do they relate to New Media production and reception?

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

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

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.

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)?

Metaphor of/in Communication • It's hard to getthat idea across tohim. • I gave you that idea. • It's difficult to putmy ideas intowords. • The meaning is right there in the words. • His words carrylittle meaning. • That's not what I got out of what he said.

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

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

Toolmakers’ Paradigm

Conduit Metaphor Repertoire Members (i.e., perceptions, thoughts, or feelings) can migrate from one mind to another Communication is a largely effort free act of unpacking the meaning in words (i.e., the sender’s RMs in the Signals) Communication does not involve the RMs of the receiver of the message Toolmakers Paradigm Only Signals can pass between human beings, not RMs Communication requires active engagement of both parties and often breaks down and needs repair The meanings of signals are not contained within them, but made out of the constructive interaction between the signals and the RMs of the receiver Comparing Models

Semantic Pathology • 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)?

Discussion Questions • Phoebe de la Cruz on Michael Reddy • Reddy says that "success [in communication] appears to be automatic" in the conduit metaphor whereas "continuous effort" and "large amounts of verbal interaction" are needed to communicate successfully in the toolmakers paradigm. Does either of these models of communication appeal to you more than another? (I.e., which would you choose if you could live in a world of one or the other?)

Discussion Questions • Phoebe de la Cruz on Michael Reddy • Who bears more responsibility for successful communication in the toolmakers paradigm and the postulate of radical subjectivity, the sender or receiver, or is it shared equally? Does this responsibility shift in terms of the conduit metaphor and, if so, how?

Discussion Questions • Phoebe de la Cruz on Michael Reddy • What do our current methods of preserving culture say about our overall belief in the conduit metaphor? Are we truly preserving culture with books, tapes, films, photographs, and so on?

Foundations of Semiotics • Ferdinand de Saussure Course in General Linguistics (1906-1911) • One of the founders of modern linguistics • Established the structural study of language, emphasizing the arbitrary relationship of the signifier to signified and the diacritical nature of signs • Distinguished synchronic linguistics (studying language at a given moment) from diachronic linguistics (studying the changing state of a language over time) • Creation of “semiology” the study of sign systems • Hugely influential on modern literary and media theory

Linguistic Sign Concept Sound-Image • Sign, Signified, Signifier • The linguistic sign is the unity of the signifier (a sound-image) and the signified (a concept)

Linguistic Sign • “The linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not the material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression that it makes on our senses. The sound-image is sensory, and if I happen to call it "material," it is only in that sense, and by way of opposing it to the other term of the association, the concept, which is generally more abstract.” (p. 66)

Linguistic Signs and Language • The sign is arbitrary • A multiplicity of signs is necessary to form any language • Language exhibits a collective inertia toward innovation

The Sign Signified Signifier

The Linguistic Sign “dog” dog

The Visual Sign “dog”

Arbitrariness of the Video Sign • Theories of video denotation • Iconic (i.e., onomatopoetic) • Video is a mechanical replication of what it represents • Arbitrary • Video constructs an arbitrary relationship between signifier and signified • Motivated • The relationship between the signifier and signified is motivated, but by what? • A “natural” analogy between video and the world? • By the conventions of cinematic language?

From Signification to Values • “[...] to consider a term as simply the union of a certain sound with a certain concept is grossly misleading. To define it in this way would isolate the term from its system; it would mean assuming that one can start from the terms and construct the system by adding them together when, on the contrary, it is from the interdependent whole that one must start and through analysis obtain its elements.” (p. 113). • “Language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of the others [...].” (p. 114)

Differences • “Everything that has been said up to this point boils down to this: in language there are only differences. Even more important: a difference generally implies positive terms between which the difference is set up; but in language there are only differences without positive terms.” (p. 120). • “In reality the idea evokes not a form but a whole latent system that makes possible the oppositions necessary for the formation of the sign. By itself the sign would have no signification.” (p. 130).

Syntagmatic and Associative Relations • “In discourse, on the one hand, words acquire relations based on the linear nature of language because they are chained together. [...] Combinations supported by linearity are syntagms. The syntagm is always composed of two or more consecutive units [...]. In the syntagm a term acquires its value only because it stands in opposition to everything that precedes or follows it, or to both. Outside discourse, on the other hand, words acquire relations of a different kind. Those that have something in common are associated in memory, resulting groups are marked by diverse relations. [...] We see that the co-ordinations formed outside discourse differ strikingly from those formed inside discourse. Those formed outside discourse are not supported by linearity. Their seat is in the brain; they are a part of the inner storehouse that makes up the language of each speaker. They are associative relations.” (p. 123).

Syntagmatic and Associative Relations Associative (Paradigmatic) Axis C’’’ C’’ C’ Syntagmatic Axis A B C D E

IS146 Description • This course is based upon the premise that New Media — a spectrum of technologies for representation and communication based on the paradigm of computation — represents a once in several century innovation in the representation of knowledge and culture. The goal of the course is to prepare you to participate in this process of innovation by analyzing the emerging genres of New Media and their history, and by designing New Media.

IS146 Description MadLib • This course is based upon the [NOUN] that New Media — a [NOUN] of technologies for [NOUN-TION] and [NOUN-TION] based on the paradigm of [NOUN-TION] — represents a once in several [UNIT OF TIME] innovation in the [NOUN-TION] of [NOUN] and [NOUN]. The goal of the course is to [VERB] you to [VERB] in this process of innovation by [VERB-ING] the [VERB-ING] genres of New Media and their [NOUN], and by [VERB-ING] New Media.

IS146 Description MadLib • This course is based upon the [forest] that New Media — a [dog] of technologies for [nation] and [faction] based on the paradigm of [infection] — represents a once in several [eon] innovation in the [domination] of [hair] and [cat]. The goal of the course is to [run] you to [fornicate] in this process of innovation by [vomiting] the [dogging] genres of New Media and their [rickshaw], and by [juggling and hunting] New Media.

Video Example

Video Example (Take II)

Video Example

Discussion Questions • Ashley Olivieri on John Fiske and John Hartley • What are the two central concerns of semiotics? • What is paradigmatic analysis? What is syntagmatic analysis? Do they work to achieve similar or different means? • How is intersubjectivity culturally determined and is it important to consider? • Why, or why not, is semiotic theory essential to advertising?

Michael Reddy Reading Questions • What is the “Conduit Metaphor”?

Communication Theory