[Air-l] Internet as medium with different sub-media or channels?

[Mark D. Johns]

elw at stderr.org wrote:
> there are certainly a lot of layers to this.
> 
> some packets [s/packets/communicative acts] are, by their very existence, 
> messages.  (e.g., ping packets or ICMP packets or syn/ack packets...)

Quite literally! The computer scientists conceive the whole internet as 
a layered entity (the physical layer, data link layer, network layer, 
transportation layer, etc.). Is it possible that we in internet research 
need to likewise formulate a layered conception of "medium?"

In a sense, there are many who only see the hardware, not 
differentiating between, for example, web surfing or IMing -- it's all 
just "stuff on the computer." For others, finer distinctions become 
important. Etc. Perhaps our difficulty in determining where the "medium" 
exists is our confusion over which layer of the thing on which we ought 
to focus???
-- 
Mark D. Johns, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa
http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/
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"Get the facts first. You can distort them later."
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