Digitized Voices: A Handbook for the Criticism and Strategic Application of Digital Media
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2022
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Each new era of communication technologies has impacted our civilization, our lives, and our world. Each new technology created a new interface between people, between a person and information, and between a person and reality. The trajectory of these technologies spans the artificial that requires new literacies to the natural that replicates biological human interactions with reality. Digitized Voices: A Handbook for the Criticism and Strategic Application of Digital Media looks at this trajectory to discuss the technologies, how those technologies were shaped by us, and how we have been shaped by them. We visit each era of communication technologies as well as consider the quickly emerging future. For each era, we consider what the technology is and how it works, how its design affords and constraints communication, and our hopes and fears for those technologies in our lives, civilization, and world.
Digitized Voices: A Handbook for the Criticism and Strategic Application of Digital Media helps people understand the role communication technologies have had, do have, and will continue to have in shaping each of us. I hope that by reading this book, each reader will gain a new perspective on their daily communication habits, and to start developing a communication literacy by critically appraising those habits and possibly improving upon them. By understanding what the communication technologies do and do to us, then we can do better with how use them. By understanding the role of communication technologies in our lives and world, we can develop a communication literacy that aids in the creation and understanding of content, each other, and reality.
Chapter 1: From Cave Painting to Machine Learning
Always Already Cyborgs
Structure of This Book
Defining Communication
Interpersonal versus Mass Communication
Enter Social Communication
Media as Communication Technologies
Medium, Mediums, Media
Adaptation
Mediation
Communication Ecology
Media and Communication Ecologies
Technological Determinism
Sociocultural Determinism
Reciprocal Determinism
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones of communication research
Chapter 2: Digitization, Interactivity, and Naturalization
Not New Media
Importance of Interactivity
Defining the Digital
Digital Foundation
The Digital Brain
Interfaces
Computer Networks
Internet Infrastructure
Internet Architecture
Digital Divide
WWW as Internet Interface
World Wide Web History
World Wide Web Infrastructure
Regulating Computer Networks
The Internet of Things
Mobile Computing
Smart Everything?
The Goal of Automation
Robots and Artificial Life
Artificial Intelligence and Communication
Natural Interfaces and Anthropomorphism
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones of interactivity
Chapter 3: Social Media and Power
Putting the Social in Social Media
Communication as Interactivity
Interactive Communication
Interactivity and Power
The Importance of Social Networks
Defining Social Media
Web 2.0
The 5Cs
Constant Connectivity and Curation
Constant Connectivity
Folksonomy and Expert Amateurs
Social Capital and Collaboration
Network Ties and Social Capital
Opinion Leaders and Influencers
Power to the People?
Profiting Platforms
Anonymity and Diffused Responsibility
Free Speech and Regulation
Redefining Social Media
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones of social communication technologies
Chapter 4: Images Then and Now
Hands Across Time
Visual Primacy
Representation, Reality, and Power
Representing Reality
Representation and Power
Photography and Reality
Early Photography
From Kodak to Polaroid
Digital Photography
Pictographs and Heuristics
Photoshopping Reality
Empowering Representation
Reshaping Representation
Informing Reality
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones of imagery technologies
Chapter 5: Print Then and Now
Recording Symbolic Language
Early Analog Print
Early Media
Literacy and Power
The Printing Press Revolutions
Mass Publishing
Printing Revolutions
The Fourth Estate
Checks on Power
First Amendment Rights
Wired Print and World Peace
Distribution Issues
Digital Print and Self-Publishing
Personal Printing
Long Formats
Short Formats
Digital Print and Democracy
Democracy and Public Discourse
Fractured Public Discourses
New Literacies
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones in print technologies
Chapter 6: Sound Then and Now
Complicated Oral Communication
The Physicality of Sound Waves
The AC/DB Model
On Vinyl
Affordances and Constraints
Magnetic Music
Affordances and Constraints
Digitizing Music
Optic Discs
Affordances and Constraints
Digital Audio Files
Streaming and Downloading
Affordances and Constraints
Landline Telephones
Affordances and Constraints
Mobile Phones
G is for Generation
Rise of Voice Interfaces
Affordances and Constraints
Radio Days
Affordances and Constraints
Radio in TV Land
Regulating Radio Waves
In Orbit and Online
Satellite
Affordances and Constraints
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones of sound technologies
Chapter 7: Motion Then and Now
Capturing Reality as Lived
Illusions of Motion
Cinema
Defining Film
Early History
From Talkies to Television
Digital Inventions
Television Sets
Defining Television
The Tube
High Definition
Interactive Television?
Television Infrastructure
Analog Broadcasting
Digital Broadcasting
Home Theater
Analog Home Theater
Digital Home Theater
TV Set Not Needed
Digital Video Recorders
Streaming Apps
The Ubiquity of Video Cameras
Constant Surveillance
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones of moving images technologies
Chapter 8: Immersion Then and Now
Immersion as Communication
Presence, Flow, and Immersion
Gaming in Digital Environments
Generations of Digital Gaming
1G 1972–1977
2G 1977–1981
3G 1981–1984
4G 1984–1989
5G 1989–1995
6G 1995–2004
7G 2004–2011
8G 2011–2016
9G 2016-present
Virtual Worlds, Virtual Lives
Immersive Digital Realities
Holography
360 Video
Virtual Reality
Digitizing Reality and Humanity
Augmented Reality
Cybernetics
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones of immersion technologies
Chapter 9: Convergence, Social Communication, and Empowerment
Introducing Convergence
Technological Convergence
Economic Convergence
Sociocultural Convergence
Content Convergence
Scanning and Clicking
Narrowing Focus
Backpacking 24/7
Surrounding with Transmedia
Exploiting Empowering
Activities
Additional Readings
Timeline: Milestones in convergence culture
Chapter 10: Strategic Communication Campaigns
Communicating for a More Just and Humane World
Strategic Communication
Branded Communication Campaigns
Branding
Imaging the Brand
Audience-Centered Communication Campaigns
Targeted Audience
Ethical Issues with Segmenting
User-Centered Design
Social Communication Campaigns
Community Minded
Respectfully Dialogic
Emotionally Genuine
Finalizing Campaign Plans
Activities
Additional Readings
Checklists
Steps for Strategizing Communication Campaigns
Steps for Following Social Communication Principles
Steps for Developing Social Media Plans
Chapter 11: Technologies for Strategic Communication Campaigns
Communicating through Social Media
Websites
3D Documents
Online Home
Affordances and Constraints
Blogs
Online and Public Journaling
Goal-Directed Blogging
Affordances and Constraints
Social Networking Sites
Being Intimate and Communal
Fitting In Online
Affordances and Constraints
Podcasts
Audio-Only
Central or Supplemental?
Affordances and Constraints
Vodcast
Video Podcasting and Vlogging
Community-Minded Content
Affordances and Constraints
Campaign Assessment
Analytics for Engagement
Issues with Engagement
Activities
Additional Readings
Checklists
Design Considerations Per Social Media Technology
Chapter 12: Creating Campaign Content
Multimodal, Multimedia Production
Print
Rhetoric Basics
Professionalism for Stickiness
Still Images
Composition
Lighting
Shot Style
Resolution
Sound
Public Speaking
Recording Audio
Editing Audio
Moving Images
Cinematic Language
Prepping Video
Continuity Recording and Editing
Video Technologies
Immersion
Interface Design
Flow Design
Activities
Additional Readings
Production Resources
APPENDIX 1: AC DB Worksheet
APPENDIX 2: Reading Guides