UNDERSTANDING

COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY
SSK 3054

Information
- Information can be defined as a

collection of symbols that, when

combined, communicates a
message or intelligence (Mirabito
& Morgenstern, 2004).
- The information can be relayed
through communication channel
(telephone, satellite, etc.).
- The information then being
decoded by the receiver
- Just like Shannon and Weaver
Model (sender receiver)

Information Society
Some technological developments

+ notion that information can be

equated with power, contributed to
the creation of an information
society
The information society is driven
by information, created new job
categories (web designers, etc.)
You have to pay to read article on
website

What is communication technology?

Communication technology

technology used for

communicating
also storing, retrieving, and
packaging (manipulating)
information
such technologies include
pencil, telephone,
computer, and satellite
(Green, 1993)

Internet
What is the Internet? The Internet is the largest

computer network in the world, carrying information from

one continent to another in the blink of an eye
The Web is a collection of linked and cross-referenced
information available for public access.
This information is accessible from Web sites located on
millions of computers.
The information is displayed as a series of screens called
Web pages (Parsons & Oja, 2012)

A Brief History of Internet

1969 - the ARPANET was built - linking together 4
computers - 4 universities - the University of
California in Los Angeles, Stanford University, the
University of California in Santa Barbara, and the
University of Utah. 50 Kbps (Kilo bytes per second)

circuits connected these 4 networks.

Penetration in Malaysia
YEAR

Users

Population

% Pen.

Usage Source

2000

3,700,000

24,645,600

15.0 %

ITU

2005

10,040,000

26,500,699

37.9 %

C.I.Almanac

2006

11,016,000

28,294,120

38.9 %

ITU

2007

13,528,200

28,294,120

47.8 %

MCMC

2008

15,868,000

25,274,133

62.8 %

MCMC

2009

16,902,600

25,715,819

65.7 %

ITU

2010

16,902,600

26,160,256

64.6 %

ITU

http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/my.htm

New Media?
What is new?

New Media = Internet?

Common alternative terms: Digital media & online media

Digital Media
Lister et al. (2009): 4 attributes
1) Media texts become de-linked from particular media.
- read books on the net.
2) Information can be compressed and fit in every small spaces.
- USB flash drive (1 Gig = 4,500 books [200 pages], 1 terabyte = 4.5
million books!)
3) Access to the data can be very fast and also that it does not have to
be linear.
4) Data can be manipulated in unimaginably ways in the analogue
media age.

Online Media
Is a direct reference to the Internet.
Priotizes the element of connectivity, or the ways in which they

connect with other media (computer, mobile telephones).

It introduces, or perhaps continues and accelerates, shifts in the
relatively separate and distinct socio-cultural and polico-economic
organization of the nation-state.

New Media
NEW signifies the openness & struggle between ideas, users,

logics and so on.

From this point of view, NEW MEDIA constructs them as novel,

innovative and dynamic.

(Siapera, 2012)

Communication Technology:
Its Implications
Speed developments like email, cell phones, social networking
sites, video conferencing have allowed us to connect with each
other at breakneck speeds.
Accessibility with technology, messages can literally be
transmitted anywhere at any time.
Efficiency tehcnology has greatly impacted the efficiency of our
communicative acts.

Implications
Creating a possibilities for nonphysical human

interaction
Isolation vs connectedness hyphothesis

Isolation
- Kraut et al. (1998) Internet might be a social
technology that reduces social involvement and
psychological well-being (p. 1017)

Implications..
Connectedness
- Franzen
(2007)

research in Switzerland
suggest that internet use
does not decrease social
involvement.
- Internet is an effective
tool to mobilize people in
social
movement
(Brunsting & Postmes,
2002)

How important is technology?

Marshall McLuhan (1969)
- All media are extensions of man that

cause deep and lasting changes in him and

transform his environment
Technology and media cause and
determine the changes and directions of
human activity; socially, politically or
economically
The current human condition is seen as the
effect of media and technology
We become unaware of this effect, like fish
that unaware of the water in which they
swim
The motor of human history - media and
technological evolution
So, who/what leads technological change?

The End