Introduction to human communication:
Metaphysics
Epistemology is the study of how we come to know:
semioticians to stress that the relationship between thesignifier and the signified is conventional – dependent onsocial and cultural conventions
Ontology is the study of what it means to be or study
What makes a human, human? Sex, carnivore, meaning
What makes an interface useful? Does it conform to
Communication Models
Phonemes or MorphemesWordsSentencesGrammar and SyntaxSemanticsDiscoursePragmaticsStory Grammar
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), founder of semiotics (in
Dissemination of Innovation
Diffusion is the process by which an innovation
is communicated through certain channels overtime among the members of a social system
The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory
are varied and span multiple disciplines.
Trademarks is a word, name, symbol or device
which is used in trade with goods to indicate the
source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others.
Patents for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office.
Copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject matter of the writing
Adoption of Innovation Theory the relative speed with which members of a social system adopt an
Adopter categories
Innovators Early adopters Early majority Late majority Laggards
Consequences of Adoption
(Rogers)
Desirable (benefit) vs. undesirable (cost) Direct vs indirect (Ex. direct cost: related to financial
uncertainty and the economic state of the actor;indirect cost: need to buy a new kind of pesticide to use innovative seeds)
Anticipated vs. Unanticipated
(Wejnert) Public vs.Private:
Early Communication Systems (Nonwritten):
Smoke Signals
Indian non-verbal communication
Each tribe had their own unique language
Oral Traditions
Cultures that are entirely dependent on oral traditions with limited histories of record keeping are generally undeveloped as in the case o the Philippine and African oramedias discussed in class.
Drums (not elaborated on in class)
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic’
The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest
Mycenaean writing datesto about 1450 BC
It is descended from the older Linear A, an undeciphered earlier script
used forwriting the Minoan language
Found mainly in the palace archives and disappeared with the fall of
Mycenaean civilization during the BronzeAge Collapse
Consistsof around 87 syllabicsigns and over 100 ideographicsigns
Early 2oth century
developed incrementally by numerousinventors
1575 – A machine to impress letters in
papers by an Italian printmaker
By mid-19C, the increasing business
communications created a need formechanization of the writing process
1855 – Italian Ravizza created a prototype
enabling the user see the writing as it wastyped
1867 – Fully functioning prototype
1829 to 1870 – Many patented but no
commercial production
1895 – Brief production of the Ford type
by the Universal Stock Ticker, invented by Thomas Edison
1902 – The first electric typewriter1914 – The first practical power-operated typewriter
1925 – Remington Electric typewriters powered by
1933 – IBM spent $1 million on a redesign of the Electromatic
Typewriter, launching the IBM Electric Typewriter Model 01
1941 – IBM announced the Electromatic Model 04, featuring
the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing
- Roosevelt – Day that will live in infamy 60 million listeners
- Hertz – invented an oscillator which could send and receive electrical waves equivalent to what we understand to be a radio transmission.
- Marconni – develops antena to increase distance of radio transmissions.
- Fezandun palys music over radio xmas w/ alexanderson alternator —brodcast am radio
- sarnoff- business outlinig radio future to commercialize it and advertise it as a household item
- ww1 armstrong superhederodyne modern radio with simplied controls
- kdka – advertising
- 1927 west to east broadcast
HR: In-Class Powerpoint lecturesj=
HR: In-Class Powerpoint lectures


