[253] Key concepts

[Richard Smith <smith@sfu.ca>]

Dear 253,

One of the suggestions for improving the lectures was that I  
emphasize key concepts. While I hope that part of your university  
education is that you develop your own skills in identifying key  
concepts and don't have to have them pointed out to you, I realize  
that such skills take time to develop and it doesn't hurt for me to  
provide some guidance, at least in the first few lectures. So, with  
that in mind, let me cast my mind back to lecture 1 and lecture 2 and  
see what I would regard as the "key concepts."

Warning: just because I say something is a key concept means that a)  
it really is an important issue for anyone but me, or that b) I won't  
just ignore that and ask you something else on the midterm.  
Everything in the lecture and in the text book is "fair game" for the  
midterm.

So, with that proviso, here are some things that you might want to  
think further about from lectures 1 and 2:

 - the definition of new media and the idea that it is really  
"multiple" media, or "meta" media (see lecture and textbook on this  
topic.

 - following from that, the notion that "new" media, instead of  
being some sort of "wannabe" media, are in fact "Real" media in that  
they allow for more immediate and effective interaction, both between  
the sources of information and the consumers and among the consumers  
themselves. A perfect example of this is the way in which people can  
interact with a blog - both leaving comments for the author but also  
commenting on each others' comments and eventually forming a  
community online. This is not something we expect or see from  
"traditional" media, like radio or television.

 - the definitions and discussions about "information" and  
"technology."

	- see lecture 1 and the prologue chapter to the textbook for more on  
what is "information," and how it compares to "data" and "knowledge"  
and the role of computers in the creation, management, and sharing of  
those things.

	- remember the contention that there are perspectives on technology  
that include: historical (as we find in the textbook), determinist  
(both positive and negative variants), instrumental (again, with  
positive and negative), and moral/ethical/religious. See lecture 2  
for more on these perspectives.

I am sure there are other key concepts buried in there, but that's  
probably enough for now, and really you guys DO have other courses to  
keep track of, so I won't burden you with more e-mails until next  
week...

Have a great weekend!

...r


--
Richard Smith, Associate Professor School of Communication
Simon Fraser University, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, CANADA  
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