Communication and mediation - article ; n°1 ; vol.2, pg 71-90

Josiane Jouët, Liz Libbrecht

Description

Réseaux. The French journal of communication - Année 1994 - Volume 2 - Numéro 1 - Pages 71-90
Summary: Throughout the Cold War two types of radio stations broadcast to the Communist countries: 'sovereign' radio (e.g. BBC, RFI) and 'substitute' radio (e.g. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty). They developed, from the same sources of information, two distinct styles of production and relations with listeners. These radio stations were both a political instrument and a cultural vector, a link with the West and a medium for local communications, until broadcasting finally gained its freedom through political change.
20 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: RESEAUX-_THE_FRENCH_JOURNAL_OF_COMMUNICATION
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1994
• Nombre de lectures: 56
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Josiane Jouët
Liz Libbrecht
Communication and mediation
In: Réseaux, 1994, volume 2 n°1. pp. 71-90.
Abstract
Summary: Throughout the Cold War two types of radio stations broadcast to the Communist countries: 'sovereign' radio (e.g.
BBC, RFI) and 'substitute' radio (e.g. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty). They developed, from the same sources of information,
two distinct styles of production and relations with listeners. These radio stations were both a political instrument and a cultural
vector, a link with the West and a medium for local communications, until broadcasting finally gained its freedom through political
change.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Jouët Josiane, Libbrecht Liz. Communication and mediation. In: Réseaux, 1994, volume 2 n°1. pp. 71-90.
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/reso_0969-9864_1994_num_2_1_3261AND COMMUNICATION
MEDIATION
JosianeJOUËT
Translated by Liz Libbrecht
Summary: How can communication practices, transformed by
the emergence of computerized technologies and the evolution of
the televisual system, be analysed? This article considers both
technical and social mediation. The influence of technology is
manifest in the modelling of practices on its logic and
performance and in the increasing technicality of the
communication process. That of society is seen in an
individualization and personalization of uses, a combination of
technical rationality and subjectivity. Yet the social link remains
of the framework of reference which gives meaning to practices.
71 AND MEDIATION COMMUNICATION
devices, but their functioning is often
4 COMMUNICATION based on numeric commands. The term
'computer-based technologies' has been
chosen here to denote all of these new
AND communication tools.
The evolution of communication practices
cannot however be limited to the use of MEDIATION
such devices, for it is also reaching the
sphere of traditional mass media. Telev
ision-viewing is undergoing profound
change due to the use of peripheral equip
ment such as video-cassette recorders or
remote control devices, but also as a re
sult of technical changes in the televisual
system and the proliferation of the choice
of programmes offered over the past de
cade.
Communication practices are often ana
JosianeJOUËT lysed as being the product of changes in
communication systems and equipment,
which are thought to define de facto the
way in which individuals use them. Such
The centrality of mediatized com technical determinism, however, should
munication tools, which have be avoided. The same can be said of the
become standard in all aspects of limiting model of social determinism
daily life, is one of the most signi which ignores the role of technical objects
ficant features of social change in ad and rather sees social change as the prin
vanced industrial societies. The use of cipal factor determining usage.
these devices extends from leisure-
oriented activities to the working environ Nowadays communication practices in
volve dual mediation which is both techment and daily tasks. Concurrently, all
uses of the media are proliferating forms nical and social, since the device used
structures the practice and since the of new 'communicationaT behaviour are
emerging. practice structures itself through the
rules, meanings and motives found in the
social environment. Technical develop
The extended use of communication tools ments and social change meet, and these
has coincided with the arrival in the typi practices provide a highly favourable field
cal home, of a new range of equipment, for observing and defining this conver
commonly referred to as 'new information gence. and communication technologies' (NICT),
This article examines first those social including microcomputers, the Minitel,
facts which bear witness to the signifivideo games, VCRs, CD players, tel
ephones with a memory and special func cance of technology, and secondly those
which demonstrate social dynamics. The tions, answering machines and faxes.
infiltration of technological and social These technologies vary considerably
both in their technical components and in mediation into the formation of communic
their functions. Some are computer- ation practices is then defined through
based, such as microcomputers or the changes in the lifestyle and discourse of
Minitel, whereas others remain analogue users.
73 Josiane JOUĚT
tivity influences the construction of use Technical mediation
for it requires the continuing and active
presence of the user if the machine is to Man-machine dialogue has become com
function. mon in this latter part of our century as
homes are filled with communication de
The interactive situation is therefore very vices used to converse in natural or coded different from the use of 'digital' devices
language. The drop in prices, miniaturi which carry out their 'programme' alone zation of equipment and simplification of at the touch of one or two buttons (e.g. their use have popularized such devices
VCRs or CD players). These electronic and made the most advanced technol
non-computer-based devices function in ogies available to the uninitiated. Their the analogue mode but do nevertheless role in daily life raises a series of questions
include a numeric component (e.g. for on the evolution of the communication
display or programming), which directs process and on its social impact. It in fact the use of the machine. Users must accreates a link between the architecture of cept the machine's logic and follow the technical objects on the one hand and the
operating order if their instructions are to construction of social practices on the be carried out. other. Computer-based tools are leading
to an evolution in communication which 'Digital technologies' are in fact signif
is also seen in the use of established icantly different from former household
media such as television. appliances. They often offer a wide range
of uses which, because of their complexi
ty, require a certain degree of know-how.
An increasingly technical Users, put off by the difficulty of operating communication process instructions, only rarely use all the
possible functions. However, they have Today's computer-based communication
the possibility of programming their macdevices can be operated only if the archi
hines, for example the VCR to record tecture of the technology is respected. An
selected TV programmes, or of selecting increasingly technical
specific information such as a sequence process is therefore being combined with
of a film or a message on the answering the computer paradigm and being inte
machine. The principles of programming grated into daily life.
and sequential logic are henceforth in
The relationship between users and com scribed in the operation of everyday ap
munication tools functions in different pliances and have become, through
ways, depending on the technical makeup experience, an integral part of the mental
of the devices and their level of inter schema of a large number of users (Jouet,
activity. Whereas microcomputers are the 1990).
most interactive domestic machines, the
Minitel is less interactive, and other Traditional mass media are also gradually
household communication technologies moving towards interactivity even if inter
such as VCRs even less so. It is therefore active television remains experimental.
more appropriate to talk of interaction Cable is making money out of
than of interactivity as such. Interactivity the pay-per-view system, and viewers can
is, in effect, man-machine dialogue which react directly by means of telematic polls
is not only based on a continuing ex during the broadcasting of programmes.
change of commands and replies, but With the development of video games, the
which also gives users the possibility of status of television sets is changing
intervening in natural or coded language rapidly. P. Chambat and A. Ehrenberg
in the contents of this exchange. announce the emergence of a screen cul-
74 COMMUNICATION AND MEDIATION
ture based on new ways of consuming do not of course constitute a technical
television, such as the transformation of culture as such, but which are gradually
TV screens Into display terminals for in permeating people's habitual frameworks
teractive processes (Chambat & Ehren- of reference.
berg, 1988). Interactivity thus appears to
If the use of computer-based technologies be one of the future dimensions of the
is becoming unavoidably 'technical', that television set. of any other media also requires famil
iarity with the codes and language of the The dominance of the computer-based
technology. Thus the subjective construcmodel is not therefore bound to the use of
tion of meaning in televisual reception the computer alone, but permeates the
does not exclude the 'technical' interpre'digital technologies' that surround every
tation of the contents even if the latter are body. Users of NICT develop a new rela
finally reinterpreted in relation to the sotionship with communication tools and
acquire, in an informal way, computer- cial, cultural and personal references