Transcript Communications Theory

Lecture 02: Communications Theory
IS246
Multimedia Information
Prof. Marc Davis
UC Berkeley SIMS
Monday and Wednesday 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Fall 2003
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/academics/courses/is246/f03/
IS246 - FALL 2003
2003.08.27 - SLIDE 1
Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
2003.08.27 - SLIDE 2
Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
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The Media Problem
• Vastly more media will be produced
• Without ways to manage it (metadata
creation and use) we lose the advantages
of digital media
• Most current approaches are insufficient
and perhaps misguided
• Great opportunity for innovation and
invention
• Need interdisciplinary approaches to the
problem
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Goals of the Course
• Acquire theoretical and practical foundations to
analyze, design, and produce multimedia
information systems
– Media theory
– Media practice
– Current and future media systems and applications
• Learn to apply media theory to media design
• Gain further experience in project-based
learning and teamwork
• Develop an enduring framework and
methodology for media analysis and design
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Course Overview
• Course phases
– Theoretical and practical foundations
– Current issues and methods
– The future of multimedia
• Course assignments
– Theory application
– Short media production
– Final project
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Course Materials
• Purchase Course Reader at Copy Central on
Bancroft
– Course Readers should be available by Thursday
after 4:00 pm
• Purchase Course Textbooks
– David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An
Introduction. 7th Edition. McGraw Hill, New York,
2003. (Available now at CAL Bookstore)
– W. Daniel Hillis. The Pattern on the Stone: The
Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work (Science
Masters Series). Perseus Books Group, New York,
1999. (Available in a few weeks at CAL Bookstore)
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
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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
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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
IS246 - FALL 2003
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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.
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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)?
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Beyond the Conduit Metaphor
• Reddy
– Identification of the Conduit Metaphor
– Suggestion of alternate Toolmakers’ Paradigm
• Iser
– The reading process as a primary example of
the Toolmakers’ Paradigm
– Phenomenology of the reading process
• Barthes
– New conceptions of “author” and “text”
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
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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
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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
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Toolmakers’ Paradigm
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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)?
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Iser on the Literary Work
• Literary work has two poles
– Artistic
• Text created by the author
• Reddy’s signals – Text (1)
• Metaphor of “stars”
– Esthetic
• Realization accomplished by the reader
• Reddy’s Repertoire Members – Text (2)
• Metaphor of “constellations”
• Literary work comes to life in the interaction
between text and reader
– Virtual dimension
– Gaps
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Iser on the Reading Process
• Phenomenology of reading process similar
to phenomenology of perception
– Anticipation
– Retrospection
– Gestalt
– Illusion-building/Illusion-breaking
• Interaction with repertoire (familiar)
• Alien associations (unfamiliar)
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
2003.08.27 - SLIDE 23
Roland Barthes
• Death of the Author
– Who is the “I” that writes?
– The reader constructs the author by means of the text
• From Work to Text
– Method: “The text is experienced only in an activity of
production.”
– Plurality: “The text is plural.”
– Filiation: The author returns to his/her text as a guest
– Text is a social space which coincides only with a
practice of writing
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
2003.08.27 - SLIDE 25
Discussion Questions (Reddy)
• Ryan Shaw on Michael Reddy
– The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which Reddy alludes to
early in the essay, can be summarized by two
principles: 1) our thinking is determined by the
language we speak, and 2) people who speak
different languages perceive and think about the
world differently. To what extent does Reddy agree
with these principles?
– In September MIT will officially launch
OpenCourseWare, a free, open publication of MIT
course materials. Wired magazine gushes that OCW
is “an MIT education, open-source style.” What might
Reddy have to say about OCW?
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Discussion Questions (Iser)
• Dan Perkel on Wolfgang Iser
– If you agree with Iser that there is a process of
anticipation and retrospection while reading or that
the reader is constantly making decision while
reading that lead to a realization of alternatives, do
you think that this is occurs in the conscious or
subconscious of the reader? Does it matter with
regards to Iser's main argument on these processes?
– What does Iser mean by the term “illusion” (1st used
on page 284)? What does he mean by the borrowed
term “alien associations?” What is the relationship
between the two is the reading process according to
Iser?
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Discussion Questions (Iser)
• Dan Perkel on Wolfgang Iser
– Near the end of the reading (1st main paragraph on
page 292) in a discussion of the subject-object
division, Iser suggests that the removal of this division
“puts reading in an apparently unique position as
regards the possible absorption of new experiences.”
In regards to what is reading “unique?”
– To what activities is Iser comparing reading? Do you
agree? Are there other activities which leads to
similar experiences?
– Would it have been helpful or even feasible for Iser to
have included examples from literature in support of
his main arguments? If so, what types of examples
would have worked?
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Discussion Questions (Barthes)
• Melanie Feinberg on Roland Barthes
– How is Barthes' conception of the author-reader
relationship similar to Reddy's toolmaker's paradigm?
– Is it significant that Reddy's examples focus on
dialogues between two people, while Barthes'
examples focus on written texts, for which the author
is not physically present (even through an
intermediary, as Reddy describes)?
– Does the type of media affect the author-reader
relationship?
– How does Barthes differentiate Work and Text?
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Discussion Questions (Barthes)
• Melanie Feinberg on Roland Barthes
– If a Text is dependent on a reader's active
construction of interpretation, what implications does
this have for creating metadata in a standard way?
– Barthes talks about the tendency to reduce reading to
the level of consumption, where the reader does not
actively participate in the construction of the text.
Certainly there is a popular conception that audio and
visual media, in contrast to writing, are more
“consumptive.” (Barthes gives the example of avantgarde film and art, which, he says, people find
“boring,” because they are not prepared to engage
with it.) Does this indicate that the conduit metaphor
is even stronger in relationship to multimedia than
writing? How does this affect our understanding of
multimedia?
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Discussion Questions (Reddy)
• Prof. Davis on Michael Reddy
– How can an implicit theory of communication
affect our analysis and design of multimedia
information systems?
– What are some examples of multimedia
information systems that embody the Conduit
Metaphor or the Toolmakers’ Paradigm theory
of communication? How might they be
redesigned?
IS246 - FALL 2003
2003.08.27 - SLIDE 31
Today’s Agenda
• Review of Last Time
• Why Study Communication Theory?
• Towards a New Understanding of
Communication
– Reddy on The Conduit Metaphor
– Iser on The Reading Process
– Barthes on “Author” and “Text”
• Discussion Questions
• Action Items for Next Time
IS246 - FALL 2003
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Sign Up for Office Hours
• Prof. Marc Davis
– Thursdays 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
– 314 South Hall
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Readings for Next Time
• Wednesday 09/03
– Ferdinand de Saussure: Course in General
Linguistics”
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