This course is about communication on various levels. Over these 9 weeks we will cover a number of theories, cases and applications in the field of communication science. We will start with the foundational concepts of communication theory, defining what the theory is and going through a number of approaches to communication itself. Each week you will have a test to check on your progress and understanding. We also have a final text in the end of the course and a little bit of writing. As Oscar Wilde said, if you cannot write, you cannot think. If you cannot think, others will do thinking for you. So we find writing and reflecting pretty important for our classes. Along the course we provide you with in-class materials: lecture presentations, articles and additional readings. If you really want to get into the topic, don’t avoid this extra work. Although a substantial part of this course is theory-based, communication theory has a very practical application. Communication is an underlying process which creates and develops relationships, communities, societies. We communicative on a daily basis via a variety of means and channels. In our globalised and increasingly interconnected world, communication skills are essential in both the personal and professional spheres. It is our goal to leave you with a contextualisation and conceptualisation of communicative processes that will poise you to hone your own communicative skills — in other words, to put theory into practice.
Networked: How Do We Approach Social Interactions
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来自 National Research University Higher School of Economics 的课程
Communication theory: bridging academia and practice
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National Research University Higher School of Economics
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从本节课中
Social Media
Social media in general can be considered as a quite new phenomenon. In this lecture we discuss the way how emergence of social media influences the society and the social order, go through the main characteristics of social media and distinguish what makes it popular among the larger audiences.
与讲师见面
Olga SolovyevaLecturer
Integrated Communications Department, Faculty of Communication, Media and Design
Maria MordvinovaHead of BA Program in PR and Advertising
Integrated Communications Department, Faculty of Communication, Media and Design
So, as we already discussed,
there are a few very big perspectives on
the way how we can understand and perceive social media.
But as we already mentioned here,
that social media are influencing us,
in the way how do we interact with
other individuals and the way how our social reality is structured.
One of the big theoretical frameworks is the theory of networks.
Let's take a closer look at what networks are,
and how these networks are appearing in our everyday lives.
Even if the metaphor of networks is quite common nowadays,
it's pretty young as a concept and science,
describing the way of social organization.
Yet, the social networks of the individuals are as old as mankind and
probably people existing before the social networks appeared actually,
somehow constructed their own networks as they
needed some sort of people for different purposes.
And in the 18th century the metaphor of
the nervous system was applied to the social structures.
Nowadays, these networks appear at every level of our existence.
The first, at the individual level as the individual is a center of the network,
combines different people around him in order to make
his existence easier and
this individual would address different people for different purposes.
Organizational networks, when the big company
are somehow integrated into the common activities and they
try to see what others are doing and at the same time they are making big big projects.
Our society as a society level can be seen as a network as well,
as a number of different structures are operating at the same time.
Well, this network approach was driven mostly by
the emergence of information communication technology
as we moved from the industrial age,
with the focus on the production of services,
to the information age,
when we focus on the information distribution and exchange.
You know already a little bit about the systems theory from the presentation number
four in our four lecture on public relations theories,
and I am sure that you are more than familiar with the social networks as an active user.
So this chapter won't be very difficult and it would go smooth and easy.
A Spanish sociologist, Manuel Castells,
introduced the new approach to the society and this is a network approach.
He claims this to be a new form of social architecture.
For Castells, network is a system of nodes through which communication occurs,
which altogether forms an open system.
Why is it an open system?
Well, first of all, it's open for the new members of this network and as well
as it can be seen as a very flexible organization which can expand and shrink in time.
This organizational system is driven by
the emergence of information communication technologies.
First of all, it's internet.
Secondly, social networks which can be seen as a product of
our overall organize a network structure and mobile technology,
which allows us to communicate with different people,
in different places, in different time,
regardless this place and time.
Overall, all these things would imply some structural changes on our social structure.
The network society has no center and it does not have the hierarchy,
which is applicable for the old fashioned societies.
It also follows the binary logic of inclusion or exclusion.
So, the node within the system can be easily substituted.
It can be rejected or it can be included in order to system operate itself overall.
Castells assumes, that technological development is one of
the most important individual preconditions for
the structure of these networks to be appearing and emerging in the society,
as he's actually very positive about this network structure.
He says, that social organization in
a networked way would share the features of flexibility,
scalability, and survivability, which will bring us to
the more open minded society and for more resilient society as well.
So, what is this flexibility?
Well, first of all, networks can reconfigurate according
to the changing environments and at the same time they will maintain their goal.
So for example, if something happens in the surrounding,
system can easily adapt this network by just changing the component of the network.
So basically, it stands for the claim that there are
no people who cannot be substituted for somebody else.
Scalability is another important feature.
This network systems can expand and shrink in size with little disruption.
So system itself, would operate on a certain level,
and with appropriate tasks,
it can just add some new elements which would allow to
duplicate or multiply a number of tasks which have to be maintained.
Survivability, again, if we speak about the resilience of
the network system would be more effective to solve different problems,
as with the emergent risks from the environment.
It will adapt, and it will continue operating with
a different configuration and those nodes and
codes which are distributed within the system can be
reproduced with certain instructions in different place,
or in a different time,
or on a different scale.
So basically, if a hierarchical structure keeps the way it is,
the network structure is flexible, scalable,
and surviving over the emerging attacks of the unfriendly environment.
When Manuel Castells introduces us to this network society,
he claims the main thing here is that there is no attachment to
the geographical location and we actually do
exist in the timeless time and space of flow.
Let's take a look at this and try to understand what does he mean here.
Well first of all,
there is no attachment to this geographical location and person can be simultaneously
in different places and the linear time makes no sense anymore,
because we can do several functions at the same time,
so time becomes timeless.
And during this lecture,
you probably have already checked your mobile phone and
reply to messages which means that you're, first of all,
a very multitasking person,
but secondly, your destruction,
this hierarchical structure of the linear process of education.
So you can do few things at the same time.
But the most important for you here is to get into this space of flow,
when the project can be done and can be maintain,
through the network structure within
the distinction of the geographical location of the person,
or the time zones which used to be quite important for people back centuries ago.
So, where can we find these networks?
As Castells claims, they exist on each and every level and we
can find these networks from the very first level of the individual,
coming up to the bigger perspectives and bigger networks.
Well first of all, it's urban networks,
we take a look at the way how our city constructed.
It's quite a complex process to maintain all the services and distribute all the goods,
and make an arrangement between people.
So, urban networks must be seen as like a primary for our urban age network society.
The global networks will have within their nodes as the centers,
which are connected with each other larger scale organizations.
It can be governmental bodies,
it can be countries,
it can be unions of countries.
Organizational networks can be found within the organization.
It can be the case of multinational companies,
which connect different countries with the same business interests,
or it can be networks of the same company,
located in the same country,
but distributed unevenly within different places, civic networks.
With this changing approach to the social reality,
people understand that the network structure is much more
flexible to organize civic action and increase the engagement.
The hierarchical structures as we mentioned already not on top of the rating anymore,
because they cannot adapt to the changing environments.
So, civic networks and the structures can respond
very quickly to what is happening in the country.
For example, with the recent hurricanes,
or the recent events,
some natural disasters which happened in the country.
Civic society would mobilize and provide people with the necessary services and goods,
upon the request rather than they would collect it in a centralized way somewhere.
Individual networks.
This is about us,
this is about us maintaining our own network,
which allows us to not just survive,
but to live a happy and easy life within the new social structure.
This is us, trying to find the people we need
for different purposes in maintaining this networks,
so we can respond to the tasks that we get from the environment quite fast.
So, as I mentioned the level of an individual here.
Let's move on to the concept of networked individualism introduced by Barry Wellman,
who says that societies must be seen as networks,
and the networks of the networks.
The networked individualism as
an operating system they describe the ways in which people connect,
communicate and exchange information,
exist on different levels.
But in essential, this is us
maintaining our own personal networks in order to achieve our needs.
So basically, what happens at the personal level?
There is a human who wants to achieve his or her goals,
and this person would modify during his life,
the network of other people and groups to whom this person would be linked individually,
in order to feed his or her social reality at this point.
Basically, if you are changing your job,
for example, you might change the number of people who are you contacted with.
If you are dramatically changes here, for example,
you firing and you become an artist after being a scientist for a long time,
then your personal network will be changed as well,
in order to be adapted to what you need and what you want from these people.
This network would exist for multiple users
as you operate with different people at the same time.
So it doesn't have to feed into one precondition.
There are people who are linked to each other,
and these people can be linked to each other too.
Sounds like quite a complex system,
but this is networked individualism.
This system is multithreaded and multitasking at the same time.
So, maintaining your personal network
would affect on how you see your own social reality.
The concept of networked individualism is used widely in the urban research,
for example, as you want to understand how people are communicated with whom,
and what would be communicative ecology of the people living in certain areas,
how we can enhance this communicative systems,
and how we can make the living of the certain person better?
This is a very good question of the research.
So during this section,
we discussed two approaches,
which both have the network as a center,
as a new way which is structuring our social reality.
As we are changing and moving from the hierarchical structures to a more mobile,
flexible, and interesting, from the point of view of the scientists network structures.
Let's take a look what happens in the very center of the systems in this notes.
