Communication Theory Media, Technology and Society

FIVE

INTERACTION VERSUS INTEGRATION

In this chapter I will explore the difference between modern, extended

forms of communication as forms of ‘social interaction’ and as forms of

‘social integration’. To do this it is necessary to also distinguish between

‘transport’ views of communication, whose interest is in interaction, and

‘ritual’ views of communication, which are interested in communication

as the basis of a form of community or social integration such as a virtual

(Internet) or audience (broadcast) community.

The philosophy of communication which underwrites the transport

view will be assessed and the range of kinds of interaction which this

view conjectures will be surveyed. Thereafter, the idea of ‘mediation’ –

that media are distinguishable by the fact that they are said to mediate

interaction– is investigated. This view, which is a sophisticated extension

of the ‘transport’ view, is finally shown to be limited in that it does not

account for the fact that, as argued, some functions of communication do

not require ‘interaction’ in the transport sense, but have the function,

which defines them, of maintaining some or other level of social integra-

tion without interaction in any form.

The important sociological difference between interaction and integra-

tion is, at this point, delineated by showing that in media/information soci-

eties there are levels of integration in which ‘interaction’ does not always

presuppose the mutual engagement of social actors, such as ‘interaction’

with communication technologies themselves, or ‘interaction’ with medi-

ums. The abstract forms of such levels of social integration are then related

to the foundational distinction between broadcast and interactivity as

forms of integration which enable two distinct kinds of telecommunity, one

based on community as practice, and another on community as recognition.

The strength of the integration model of understanding communica-

tion will be tested through a critique of some recent discourses surround-

ing cyberspace and virtual community.

Transmission versus ritual views of communication

The renewed interest in medium theory since the inception of Internet com-

munication has come to challenge predominant transmission or ‘transport’

models of communication as applied to communication relationships

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