Mediated communication
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mediated communication or mediated interaction (less often, mediated discourse) refers to communication carried out by the use of information communication technology and can be contrasted to face-to-face communication.[1] While nowadays the technology we use is often related to computers, giving rise to the popular term computer-mediated communication, mediated technology need not be computerized as writing a letter using a pen and a piece of paper is also using mediated communication.[2] Thus, Davis defines mediated communication as the use of any technical medium for transmission across time and space.[2]
This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. (December 2019) |
Historically, mediated communication was much rarer than the face-to-face method.[3] Even though humans possessed the technology to communicate in space and time for millennia, the majority of the world's population lacked skills such as literacy to use them.[3] This began to change in Europe with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg that led to the spread of printed texts and rising literacy from the 15th century.[3] Separately, the first print culture was Chinese in origin.[4] Whatever the tradition, face-to-face interaction has begun to steadily lose ground to mediated communication.[3]
Compared to face-to-face communication, mediated communication engages fewer senses, transmits fewer symbolic cues (most mediated communication does not transmit facial expressions) and is seen as more private.[5][6] Parties usually require some technical expertise to operate the mediating technologies.[7] New computerized media, such as mobile telephones or instant messaging, allow mediated communication to transmit more oral and nonverbal symbols than the older generation of tools.[7]
The type of mediated technology used can also influence its meaning.[7] This is most famously rendered in Marshall McLuhan's maxim "the medium is the message".[8]
Lundby (2009) distinguished between three forms of mediated communication: mediated interpersonal communication, interactive communication, and mass communication.[9] Thompson (1995), however, treated mass communication not as a part of mediated communication, but on par with mediated and face-to-face communication, terming it "mediated quasi-interaction".[6]