Communication Theory Media, Technology and Society

form of interaction, according to Thompson, because it ‘links people’

together (84).

As per the summary of Thompson in Table 5.2, the two forms of

extended interaction are significant in the way they correspond to inter-

active versus broadcast communication. The quasi-interactive quality of

broadcast is precisely the feature that second media age thinkers are crit-

ical of. Second media age thinkers are critical of the fact that there are

agents who stand between a sender and receiver of messages. The now

fashionable concept of ‘disintermediation’ that has emerged in recent

literature is entirely circumscribed by this rejection of mediation-by-agents

(see Dominick, 2001; Flew, 2002). This concept is primarily confined to

describing the economic functions of media in connecting buyers and sellers

(the removal of the ‘middleperson’), but has also broadened out to the cul-

tural functions of media. Somehow, the heightened dependence on CMC

which replaces such mediation-by-agents isn’t also seen to be a form of

mediation (as Thompson’s model proffers). Disintermediation only refers

to the removal of human agents in the media process.

Oddly, machine-assisted or electronic means of communication are

somehow exempt from the mediation process, as if they are transparently

a means of rescuing the face-to-face from the way it suffers at the hands

of mass media. However, what can be noted in Thompson’s typology is

Interaction versus Integration 137

Table 5.2 John B. Thompson’s instrumental/mediation

paradigm

Types of interaction Qualities

Face-to-face interaction (mutually embodied Dialogic

presence) Mutual presence

A high degree of contextual infomation

(body language, gestures, symbolic

cues, deictic expressions: ‘here’, ‘this’)

Reciprocal

Interpersonal specificity

Mediated interaction (technical mediums Dialogic

like writing, telephoning) Extended/not mutual

Restricted degree of contextual

information (letterhead, signature,

date placed on communication)

Reciprocal

Interpersonal specificity

Mediated quasi-interaction (books, Monological

newspapers, radio, TV) Extended

Produced for an indefinite range of

recipients by a small number of media

producers

Senders and receivers of messages

nevertheless form bonds

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