{"id":91,"date":"2017-12-03T21:54:54","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T21:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com743\/chapter\/mediated-communication-3\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:59:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:59:54","slug":"mediated-communication-3","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com743\/chapter\/mediated-communication-3\/","title":{"raw":"Mediated Communication","rendered":"Mediated Communication"},"content":{"raw":"
\"...put simply, the importance of interface design revolves around this apparent paradox: we live in a society that is increasingly shaped by events in cyberspace, and yet cyberspace remains, for all practical purposes, invisible, outside our perceptual grasp. Our only access to this parallel universe of zeros and ones runs through the conduit of the computer interface<\/strong>, which means that the most dynamic and innovative region of the modern world reveals itself to us through the anonymous middlemen of interface design.\"<\/em> - Steven Johnson, Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate<\/em>\u00a0(1997).<\/span>\r\n\r\n\"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.\"<\/em> - <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Mark Weiser<\/a>, Chief Technologist, Xerox PARC<\/span><\/blockquote>\r\n

Overview<\/h2>\r\nWhat does it mean to say that our everyday lives are mediated<\/em>?\r\n\r\nOur initial focus is upon the work of Couldry & Hepp's The Mediated Construction of Reality<\/em> where you will be introduced to the concepts and principles of communication in the contemporary age: the Internet, artificial intelligence, mobile devices, social media, the datafication of everything, the privatizing of public discourse, the Internet of Things, and so on.\r\n\r\nYou may have already studied information literacy or critical thinking where you practiced evaluating information based on its provenance, reliability, validity, and so on. However, the purpose of this section of study is less about evaluating the product<\/em> of communication. It is about the flow of information<\/em> in a media ecology, which suggests that there is more to know about media than its quality. Here, we are interested in how<\/em> information appears to users, the algorithms that determines which<\/em> information appears, and the context<\/em> under which that particular information appears at that moment in time.\r\n\r\nIn short, this area of study is focused on a process model that explains why<\/em> we encounter information and in what ways it influences the formation of our worldview. Couldry & Hepp's model helps us to visualize our media ecology so that we can scrutinize its components, its producers, and the invisible code that serves as its engine.\r\n

Key Terms<\/h2>\r\nMediated<\/b> \u2013 Refers to an arrangement between you and other people where the interplay occurs \"non-face-to-face\" through a device, network, platform, or system that is situated in between.\r\n\r\nMediatized or Mediatization<\/b> \u2013 Refers to a phenomenological change in the way humans communicate when there is less direct communication (such as face-to-face) and more mediated communication (such as social media). Schulz (2004) summarizes mediatization as follows:\r\n
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  1. Extension<\/strong>: Media technologies serve as extensions of the human capacity to communicate, such as in surmounting the limitations of time, space, and clarity.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Substitution:<\/strong> Media serve as \"media events\" that serve as a substitute for in-person social activities. Examples include the use of television broadcasts to replace in-person attendance, texting and email systems to replace in-person conversation, and print media replacing in-person speech.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Amalgamation<\/strong>: Media are interwoven into the everyday real world. Examples include listening to a podcast while running or driving, watching videos on YouTube while eating, socializing while at the movies.<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Accommodation<\/strong>: Media serve social, public, and commercial interests which, in turn, influences how humans construct their lives around media to accommodate receiving the benefits of its affordances. An example would be how parenting behavior has changed to accommodate the affordances of smartphones to instantly track and contact their children.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n
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    What should you be focusing on?<\/h2>\r\nYour objective in this module is:\r\n