A Choice of Futures
Published in October 1976
Book
Hardback
212 pages
978-90-207-0635-2 (ISBN)
Description
Exploration of the nature of human communication and the media is a pre- requisite to any assessment of the likely future role of communications . . We cannot assume that the nature of these things is transparently obvious to everyone and therefore commonly understood. Three developments in recent decades should adequately warn against such an assumption. First, we had the fiasco of social scientists trying to apply Shannon's mathematical theory of information as if it were a theory of human communication. 'In Shannon's use of information we cannot speak of how much information a person has only how much a message has. ' (Ackoff and Emery, 1972, p. 145). They would not have wandered into that blind alley if they had stopped to think about the nature of human communication. Second was the belated but wholehearted acceptance of the Heider theory of balance and its subse- quent wane. Its wane had nothing to do with its inherent merits. It waned because it could not survive on the Procrustean bed of the psychologists' theory of choice.
It did not occur to the psychologists to question their as- sumptions about how people made the choices that lead to purposeful com- munication (Ackoff and Emery, 1972, p. 58). The last example has been the bitter and unended furore about McLuhan. This time the psychologists and sociologists haye been strangely quiet but we can be sure this does not imply acquiescence in McLuhan's views.
Exploration of the nature of human communication and the media is a pre- requisite to any assessment of the likely future role of communications . . We cannot assume that the nature of these things is transparently obvious to everyone and therefore commonly understood. Three developments in recent decades should adequately warn against such an assumption. First, we had the fiasco of social scientists trying to apply Shannon's mathematical theory of information as if it were a theory of human communication. 'In Shannon's use of information we cannot speak of how much information a person has only how much a message has. ' (Ackoff and Emery, 1972, p. 145). They would not have wandered into that blind alley if they had stopped to think about the nature of human communication. Second was the belated but wholehearted acceptance of the Heider theory of balance and its subse- quent wane. Its wane had nothing to do with its inherent merits. It waned because it could not survive on the Procrustean bed of the psychologists' theory of choice.
It did not occur to the psychologists to question their as- sumptions about how people made the choices that lead to purposeful com- munication (Ackoff and Emery, 1972, p. 58). The last example has been the bitter and unended furore about McLuhan. This time the psychologists and sociologists haye been strangely quiet but we can be sure this does not imply acquiescence in McLuhan's views.
It did not occur to the psychologists to question their as- sumptions about how people made the choices that lead to purposeful com- munication (Ackoff and Emery, 1972, p. 58). The last example has been the bitter and unended furore about McLuhan. This time the psychologists and sociologists haye been strangely quiet but we can be sure this does not imply acquiescence in McLuhan's views.
Exploration of the nature of human communication and the media is a pre- requisite to any assessment of the likely future role of communications . . We cannot assume that the nature of these things is transparently obvious to everyone and therefore commonly understood. Three developments in recent decades should adequately warn against such an assumption. First, we had the fiasco of social scientists trying to apply Shannon's mathematical theory of information as if it were a theory of human communication. 'In Shannon's use of information we cannot speak of how much information a person has only how much a message has. ' (Ackoff and Emery, 1972, p. 145). They would not have wandered into that blind alley if they had stopped to think about the nature of human communication. Second was the belated but wholehearted acceptance of the Heider theory of balance and its subse- quent wane. Its wane had nothing to do with its inherent merits. It waned because it could not survive on the Procrustean bed of the psychologists' theory of choice.
It did not occur to the psychologists to question their as- sumptions about how people made the choices that lead to purposeful com- munication (Ackoff and Emery, 1972, p. 58). The last example has been the bitter and unended furore about McLuhan. This time the psychologists and sociologists haye been strangely quiet but we can be sure this does not imply acquiescence in McLuhan's views.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Dordrecht
Netherlands
Publishing group
Kluwer Academic Publishers Group
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
biography
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 150 mm
Weight
460 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-207-0635-2 (9789020706352)
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Content
I A model of man as communicator, Introduction.- 1. Persuasion and communication.- 2. Informational structure of the physical world.- 3. Assumptions relating an individual to the informational structure of his environment.- 4. Basic characteristics of interpersonal situations.- 4.1. A question of notation.- 4.2. General properties of the ABX model.- 5. Awareness, images (symbolization) and psycho-logic.- 5.1. Consciousness of thinking.- 5.2. Information handling and the affect system.- 5.3. Psycho-logics.- 6. The extended social field and its informational structure.- 6.1. The assumption of an extended social field.- 6.2. Other social forms.- 6.3. Extended social field as dilemma of man.- II The modern media and man.- 7. Differences between the communication functions of the mass media, for individuals.- 7.1. The functions of the different mass media.- 7.2. Evidence of general differences between mass media.- 7.3. Media and persuasion.- 8. Television and maladaptation.- 8.1. Introduction.- 8.2. The most probable of the negative scenarios - a continuation of the present.- 9. Television is a dissociative medium OR tele turns you off.- 9.1. Vigilance and attention.- 9.2. Visual stimuli and the left cortex.- 9.3. Diencephalic and mesencephalic functions.- 9.4. The characteristic mode of response to television..- 9.5. Old brain function.- 9.6. Black and white versus colour.- 9.7. TV is inherently rewarding.- 9.8. Effects on the motor system.- 9.9. A note on motivation.- 10. The long term consequences of regular viewing.- 10.1. Dream deprivation and its effects.- 10.2. Television and the young.- 10.3. Some speculations back into reality.- 10.4. Television and education.- 11. Further notes on maladaptive strategies.- 11.1. Organizational consequences of dissociation: laissez-faire..- 11.2. Two other negative scenarios.- 11.2.1. Segmentation.- 11.2.2. Cycles of superficiality.- 12. Taking stock of McLuhan.- 12.1. The key McLuhan metaphors.- 12.2. The missing link: the face and shame.- 12.3. Summary.- III Human communication and the adaptive response, Introduction.- 13. Communication requirements in an adaptive society.- 13.1. Social design theory.- 13.2. Communication in a social system based on redundancy of its parts i.e. bureaucratically arranged.- 13.3. Communication in a society based on the multifunctioning of its parts i.e. democratized.- 14. Human communications in work.- 14.1. The world of work.- 14.2. Matrix organizations and organizational values.- 15. Human communication and community life.- 15.1. Revival of community life.- 15.2. Development in rural communities.- 16. Leisure: recreation or the pursuit of beauty?.- Epilogue.- Appendix A. War and the stability of Australia's future.- Appendix B. Computers and communication.- Appendix C. Computers, communications and containerization.