Computer+Mediated+Communication

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Computer Mediated Communication refers to the use of computers and computer related technology like the internet for interaction between people. The internet is the best known and most used form of computer mediated communication. The internet related activities that involve interaction between people include communication over e-mail, video conferencing, audio and text chat; Wikis, web logs, bulletin boards and multi-player online and video games.

As Manuel Castells outlined in his essay on The Information Age, The network society exists because of Information Technology. He elaborates on the “culture of real virtuality” where flexible, instant communication revolves around electronic media and that one-way communication does not define a network society.

=Degrees of CMC=

Computer Mediated Communication helps in linking up people around the globe through interactive technology by using text, images and sounds. This communication could be used for personal interaction through the use of chat rooms or email. It can be notably used for business transactions by using video conferencing or conducting business through real time financial markets and indexes.

An important concept of Computer Mediated Communication is its social presence, which is the degree to which an electronic medium replicates the features of actual human interaction. An e-mail is said to have low social presence as it consists of mainly text. A two-way video conference comparatively is said to be of high social presence because we can see live interaction along with a person’s facial and audio characteristics.

Computer Mediated Communication is also indicative of how technologically advanced a society is in terms of its use. In the Information Age, the fastest growing economies are those who adapt to and use in their daily functions information technology as their means of innovation and production. Media usage in organizations is explained through the social influence model, where firms learn what tasks are better performed through what kind of technology. Thus it can also be used as a means of assessment and control.

=Limitations=

It has drawbacks in the sense that one loses the sense of personal communication as an e-mail or chat is over a computer screen lacking the information that we normally have from a face to face conversation. Nonverbal message such as body movements, facial, eye, space, touch and smell communication are all absent (DeVito, 2003). Use of a web camera ([|webcam]) can provide some of the information that was once absent but it is never provided in full.

Also it can lead to dangers of cyber stalking and misleading, which can lead to cyber crimes for which governments need to stay one step ahead of technology in order to curb it. Privacy can become an issue especially in the age of the World Wide Web where endless databases of information exist containing information about pretty much anything.

Another drawback is the gap of access or the digital divide that exists. While computer mediated communication refers to the interaction between man and computer orientated innovations, there is an unfortunate disadvantage that exists commonly in under developed countries all across the globe. These disadvantaged individuals are in most cases deprived of the opportunity to experience the interaction between themselves and computer orientated innovations such as the Internet. Therefore the deprivation of interaction among theses individuals may result in the development of pessimistic views common among cyberpessimists who consider such technological innovations as the Internet as detrimental to society. Others who may have access but still engage in their pessimistic views may use these idividuals in third world countries who dont have access and have grown to dislike the innovations not available to them as fine examples to support their idea of how computer mediated communication widens the digital divide and hurts society overall.

=See Also=

Digital Divide Network Society

=Works Cited=

Devito, Joseph A. //Human Communication: The Basic Course.// 9th Edition. New York, Allyn and Bacvon.

Straubhaar and LaRose. Media Now. U.S.A: Thomson Wadsworth 2004.

Webster, Frank. The Information Society Reader. London: Routledge 2004.

Gauntlett, David and Ross Horsley. __"The Digital Divide"__ Web.Studies. 2nd Ed. London: Hodder Headline Group, 2004. pp.185-194