[Air-l] we need a new word?

[Lauren Squires]

I am definitely looking forward to this discussion. I've 
rather liked "CMC" but you're right Barry, no one wants to 
have to explain that acronym - it's such a workout.  But I 
think you have to specify the breadth of applications you 
want the term to cover - I like "CTs"/"ICTs", but to me 
that also includes phones/cell phones, which if you're 
strictly talking about internet/online media you'll have 
to qualify yet again: "internet/online CTs."  Explaining 
the CTs/ICTs acronym is also a bit cumbersome. [Though 
this seems the be the case with all of the basic 
descriptive terms - "electronic," "technology," 
"communication," etc. Start putting any of them together 
and you get a mouth/screenful. Not that this has been a 
problem for scholarship before...e.g., whoever coined 
"PoMo" was a genius...] I also realize the lines between 
such technologies are blurry-blurring, which makes this 
task really difficult.  But if you're talking about the 
internet(s), I'm inclined to work "online" into it 
somehow, at the risk of invoking a dubious 
"online-offline" distinction.

LS

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:45:48 -0500
  jeremy hunsinger <jhuns at vt.edu> wrote:
>I'm inclined to call these communications technologies, 
>just that ICT's, sometimes when I am a bit adventurous, I 
>might venture social media, sociable media or network 
>technologies.  but.. they certainly aren't new media 
>anymore, though the genre of new media still exists. 
> e-media would just be electronic media, which is more or 
>less all media in some respects.
>On Mar 19, 2005, at 10:44 AM, Barry Wellman wrote:
>
>> I was speaking at a seminar for non-techies at MIT 
>>yesterday (not a
>> contradiction, as these were community development folks 
>>from across 
>> the
>> USofA).
>>
>> And I found myself saying -- and my PPTs reading -- 
>>"Internet" -- but 
>> then
>> verbally qualifying by saying, "well I really don't mean 
>>the 
>> traditional
>> email Internet, but also IM, chat, lists, video, etc." 
>>(add your 
>> favorite
>> including Usenet and BBS).
>>
>> What to call it? "Computer mediated communication" is a 
>>mouthful, 
>> jargony
>> and chews up PPT space. "New media" is too indistinct 
>>and PoMo: 
>> moreover,
>> is email "new media" any more? We should focus on the 
>>affordances of
>> the media and not on the newness.
>>
>> So what to call it. My first thought at the breakfast 
>>table was 
>> "e-media",
>> but I am open to other suggestions. I also am putting it 
>>on the list,
>> because I am confident that others have had similar 
>>dilemmas, and that 
>> it
>> would be best if we had a standard word.
>>
>>  Barry
>>  _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>   Barry Wellman         Professor of Sociology 
>>       NetLab Director
>>   wellman at chass.utoronto.ca 
>> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
>>
>>   Centre for Urban & Community Studies 
>>         University of Toronto
>>   455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 
>>   fax:+1-416-978-7162
>> 	     To network is to live; to live is to network
>>  _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
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>jeremy hunsinger
>jhuns at vt.edu
>www.cddc.vt.edu
>jeremy.tmttlt.com
>www.tmttlt.com
>
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----
Lauren Squires
Linguistics Program
University of Virginia
***
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