Communication Theory

IS146:
Foundations of New Media

Prof. Marc Davis & Prof. Peter Lyman

UC Berkeley SIMS
Tuesday and Thursday 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Spring 2005

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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?

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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.

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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.

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Old Media vs. New Media
• “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
IS146 - Spring 2005
• “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)
2005.01.25 - SLIDE 5
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)

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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]

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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)

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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)

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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.

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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

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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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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.

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Metaphor of/in Communication

• It's hard to get that idea across to him.

• I gave you that idea.
• It's difficult to put my ideas into words.
• The meaning is right there in the words.
• His words carry little meaning.
• That's not what I got out of what he said.

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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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Comparing Models
• 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
IS146 - Spring 2005
• 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
2005.01.25 - SLIDE 23
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)?

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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?)

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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?

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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?

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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.

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

Concept

Sound-Image

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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)
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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

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The Sign

Signified

Signifier

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The Linguistic Sign

“dog”

dog

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The Visual Sign

“dog”

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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?

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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)

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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).

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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).

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Syntagmatic and Associative Relations

Associative (Paradigmatic) Axis

C’’’

C’’

C’

A B C D E Syntagmatic
Axis

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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.

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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.

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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.
IS146 - Spring 2005 2005.01.25 - SLIDE 43
Video Example

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Video Example

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Video Example

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Video Example (Take II)

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Video Example

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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?

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Michael Reddy Reading Questions

• What is the “Conduit Metaphor”?

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Michael Reddy Reading Questions

• What is the “Toolmakers Paradigm”?

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Michael Reddy Reading Questions

• 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?

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John Fiske Reading Questions
• What are the signifier, the signified, and the
sign?
• What are the similarities and differences
between linguistic signs and visual signs?

Signified “dog” “dog”

Signifier dog

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John Fiske Reading Questions

• What are the

Paradigmatic Axis paradigmatic and
syntagmatic axes and
how do they differ?
C’’’ • How do they relate to
New Media production
C’’ and reception?
C’

A B C D E Syntagmatic
Axis

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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.

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Question 1 Culture
1. The 4th sentence in the Hall reading says:
“Representation connects meaning and
language to culture.” After reading the first
section (#1) ask yourself: what (now in the light
of this argument) do we mean by culture?
• First, definitely do “Activity 1”
• Second, meditate the Inuit terms for snow and
ice, then see if you can come up the difference
between parents & kids about terms for music.
• Third, figure out how it works, by pondering the
analysis of how traffic lights work to connect
representation to culture.
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Review Saussure: Take 2
2. Use section 2 to review today’s lecture
on Saussure – it’s always helpful to get a
second version of the meaning of key
terms and concepts – especially the
discussion of “language is a system of
signs.” We need to understand signs to
begin applying this methodology to
interpreting culture which is most of the
class on Thursday.

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3. Popular Culture as ‘Mythology’

3. How is professional wrestling a mythology?

Roland Barthes offers an example of how to
interpret images in popular culture. Check out
Wrestling Mania (see
http://www.wrestlinginc.com/) and come up
with an interpretation of the key signs in the
performance of wrestling as a culture.
Look also at some examples of images from
ads – if you come across a great image and an
interpretation, please send it to us – the iPod is
pretty much my all time favorite mythology. But
– be sure to use the key terms: signs,
signifiers, signifieds, myths.
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Power & Hegemony
4.How do images control the way we think
about public events? The Foucault
discussion talks about how cultural signs
are used to manipulate consciousness,
therefore create new systems of
domination. This is very helpful in thinking
about the signs, signifiers and signified in
the new. I recommend evening TV news,
or Newspapers, especially images. Think
also about the last election
advertisements.
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Reading for Next Time
• Stuart Hall. Representation, meaning and
language. In: Representation: Cultural
Representations and Signifying Practices,
edited by Stuart Hall, London: Sage
Publications Ltd, 1997, p. 15-63.
– Discussion Questions
• Ella Vivirito
• Nick Reid

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