Overheads and Additional Notes
for RTF/Com 309 (Fall 1996)
and RTF 309 (Extension)

This section will include many of the class overheads. As with any note or overhead, you can't really tell what was stressed without coming to class (or at least talking with people who were in class that day). One overhead might have multiple uses, and may be used in several different classes. The development of this section obviously will be ongoing.

• Frameworks
• The Six-Fold Analytic- My rules of thumb about the important questions to ask of new communication technologies.
• Technology- What do we mean by technology, by communication technology?
• Techno-Utopians and Techno-Pessimists- How can they draw such different conclusions about that they claim is the same transformation?
• History
• Eras of Media History- Remember, change doesn't occur at the same rate everwhere.
• Orality- What characterizes the organization of oral discourse? Remember primary and secondary orality?
• Commnication Prior to the Invention of Printing- Again we are not looking at the only forms of communication during these eras, but at how the dominating medium that serves to organize the others.
• From Classical/Medieval World to Early Modern- Key points about the transition.
• Impact of Printing- Using Eisenstein, we examine the impact which involves much more that the introduction of a few more books than before.
• Printing Revolution as Several Revolutions- not just one, but several impacting on one another.
• Communication Freedoms and Restraints- The freedom of speech had to theorized and promoted. Intellectual Property had to be re/defined.
• Mail to Newspapers- I point to the driving demand for more up to date information by business (and govt). And from newspapers to the telegraph.
• Impact of Telegraph- Using Carey, Postman, and others, I posit that this is where the Phase I of the Electronic Era begins.
• Imagining the Photograph- From the newspaper and on to the movie, the photograph redefines privacy and access, and the way we imagine our world.
• The Radio- Listening to Unheard Voices- More than a wireless telegraph.
• Some Impact of the Radio- Massification on an intimate scale. We will leave much of the content issues to other courses.
• Communication Policy
• Policy Overview- What is policy about?
• Policy Goals- they can conflict with one another
• Policy Models- Three Fundamental Models- Print, Broadcast, and Common Carrier. Oops, where do Cable or the Internet Fit? (Different Overheads combined)
• Regulation: How much?- Some think much less is better, some worry about 'market failures.
• Policy Oversight- Who does it? (overhead a late addition)
• Digital Era
• Rise of the Telephone Industry- From "Bell's Plaything" to monopoly to breakup.
• Digital / Analog - More fundamental categories than many realize.
• There were also graphic overheads to illustrate such things as the discrete sampling of the continuous wave.
• Packet (Digital) Switching- What is it?
• Reasons for Packet Switching- Capacity and Survivability
• Results of Packet (Digital) Switching- An Intelligent Network with Bypass
• New Transmission Pathways- Alternatives provide new access and bypass
• Rise of the Computer Industry- Switches become more and more intelligent
• The Information Age- What is it? What is the relation of 'geodesics' and the collapse of traditional 'hierarchy'
• For those who want some extra reading and a summary of these points, consider this paper under review at the The Information Society: An International Journal.
• New Communities
• Proto, Counter, and Mainstream- Innovation and Critique from the fringe
• New communities online- Muds and New Identities [see reading]
• New Interfaces- Getting access by improving the interface- Searches to V.R. [see reading]
• The Business of Information- Management and Expansion
• Inter-Relationships of Business, States, & Computers- Some Terms and Concepts [Kyle]
• The New Workplace- Who benefits? [Kyle]
• Telecommuting- Kyle's look. Sounds convenient but will you get paid adequately?
• Information Technology Enhanced Business [Willard for Extension]
• New Managment Structures- Extension Class Version [Willard for extension]
• The value of information- All of us will produce information
• If you collect information, who collects information about you?
• Privacy and the Ownership of Information- So what is information, anyway?
• Privacy and Access 1- So what information is being collected about you?
• Privacy and Access 2- Controlling information, and losing it.
• Cyber-law- What will the ruling metaphor be?
• Enforcers- The problem of enforcement
• Citizen Oversight- The problem of enforcement
• Conflicts between public and private access to information
• Libraries and the Public Access to Information- If you want libraries then you'll have to make an argument how and why to preserve them
• The Electronic Library- What are the benefits and drawbacks
• Education- Enchanced by new communication & info technology?
• Computer Assisted Instruction and Distance Education- extending reach, but to enhance centralization or decentralization?
• Impacts on Group and Personal Identity
• Social Groups- how are information technologies changing access, boundaries, and their identity?
• Personal Identity- what is the personal impact?
• Globalization
• Examples- Increasing World Wide Production and Distribution
• Modernization Programs- A view at early communication research
• Cultural Imperialism Thesis- Is production and distribution becoming more centralized?
• Global Cultural Flows- Disjunctive global movements of people, finance, media, technology, and shared goals... and a rethinking of the meaning of the nation-state?
• Final, Tues. Dec 17th, 9-12 am. Bring ID, please.
• Historical Overview 2- Another time line of communication tech. history

RTF/Com 309 Homepage and RTF309x Homepage (each of which use overheads differently and are in different places in the course)