[Air-l] is Internet a '"source" or a "medium"? - ignorant's question

[Aristides Emmanuel Pereira]

Hello Maciej,

I would also add:

"Internet itself is not one single medium but an agglomerate of different 
methods and technologies working to create what can be considered a 
hyper-media, or a channel used by many other media to transmit messages or 
simulated the most diverse communication processes...

Internet can be considered the newspaper without the press and paper, the 
Television without the TV set, the radio without waves, and the face-to-face 
interaction without the ‘real’ and physical encounter between two or more 
parts. Internet is its own thesis and antithesis, without fully presenting a 
synthesis, as the Hegelian dialectic would expect. The synthesis is only 
reached by the direct intervention of the social actor – the audience – and 
it will produce not just one final outcome but diverse results according to 
different inputs and stimulus. Take for instance the use of electronic mail 
(e-mail). It communicates something, what can be concretely represented by a 
written message between two or more people. The same message could also be 
transmitted by other method such as an online discussion board, however the 
e-mail and the discussion board methods would have totally different outputs 
for the same transmitted message, including privacy issues, response time, 
objectivity, context, etc." - Journal of International Cultural Studies 
N.13, Tohoku University, Japan (p.312 and 313)

Aristides





>From: "Maciej Kos" <kos at gnu.univ.gda.pl>
>Reply-To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>Subject: [Air-l] is Internet a '"source" or a "medium"? - ignorant's 
>question
>Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 11:06:09 +0100
>
>
>Dear All,
>
>Please excuse my ignorant question about the difference in meanings between 
>a
>"source" and a "medium". Even though I would really like to study 
>Information
>science or Communications [and with God's help I will], I haven't yet had 
>any
>opportunity to do so and what I know is based on papers freely available
>online as well as in Elsevier's database. My background is Economics. To 
>make
>things worst, I am not a native speaker.
>
>I was reading a paper written by a colleague of mine and noticed that she 
>uses
>two words: a "medium" and a "source" as synonyms. For her the Internet is 
>both
>a source and a medium of information.
>
>According to the Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science a
>"medium" is
>
>"information storage and retrieval, the physical substance or material on
>which data is recorded (parchment, paper, film, magnetic tape or disk, 
>optical
>disk, etc.) or through which data is transmitted (optical fiber, coaxial
>cable, twisted pair, etc.). In a more general sense, the material or 
>technical
>means by which any creative work is expressed or communicated, in print or
>nonprint format (...)".
>http://lu.com/odlis/odlis_m.cfm
>
>while a "source" is
>
>"Any document that provides information sought by a writer, researcher,
>library user, or person searching an online catalog or bibliographic 
>database.
>Also refers to a document that provides information copied or reproduced in
>another document, for example, a quotation or excerpt."
>http://lu.com/odlis/odlis_s.cfm
>
>The same dictionary states that the "Internet" is a
>"The high-speed fiber-optic network of networks"; so it is not a "document
>that provides information (...)"
>
>However, I came across a lot of publications where the authors seem not to
>distinguish between "medium" and "source".
>
>As I said, I am not a native speaker - could you tell, if these two 
>meanings
>have merged and I am simply pedantic or shall I follow the above 
>definitions?
>Or perhaps there is a reason for using these to words as synonyms? Could 
>you
>explain it to me, please ?
>
>Kind regards,
>Maciej
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>____________________________________
>I am looking for an academic mentor.
>_______________________________________________
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