[Air-L] CMC - mobile phones included?

[Charles Ess]

Thanks for this, Jennifer, Darja -
This helps reinforce my sense that we don't really have an accurate (much
less sexy) term that is both broad enough and precise enough.

I've been objecting to "digital" media for some time now - though not nearly
as long as Brian Massumi (2002) - because while the main processing and
transmission technologies are certainly digital, they operate (necessarily)
with analogue inputs and outputs.  (We remain stubbornly embodied, for
better and for worse, and our senses are analogue, not digitally-based.)

While CMC admittedly seems quaint (I'm sure I do too ...) - it does seem to
me to be accurate: so far as I can tell, everything that we examine in the
various foci and topoi characteristic of AoIR and what some of us simply
call Internet Studies, depends on computer processing, whether within mobile
devices or laptop/desktop computers, along with all of the processing that
takes place in order to facilitate networked communication between these
devices and ultimately those of us using them as communication devices.
I have a vague hunch as to what Jennifer might mean by the term being too
restrictive - perhaps along the lines of my finding "digital media" too
restrictive?  But perhaps you could spell that out a bit just for the sake
of discussion?  (For the record: "quaint" doesn't bother me so much ...
Smile)

In any event, while I don't have a handy scholarly reference or two to
suggest as documentation, I don't think there's any question but that mobile
communication - what some call mobile and mobility communication, others
mobile and locative communication, and so on, all for good reasons -
including
> texting and voice communication on mobile phones
certainly counts as CMC.  (Indeed, the current generation of smart phones
offer more computational processing power and memory than the supercomputers
of the 1970s, FWIW.  Maybe we could call it super-computer mediated
communication, just to gum up the works further?)

Again, many thanks -
- charles


On 16.07.13 04:38, "Jennifer Stromer-Galley" <jstromer at syr.edu> wrote:

> This is a great question. I ponder a lot the terminology we toss about these
> days related to the phenomena we study that has something to do with the
> Internet, but now that the Internet is accessed through so many devices
> "computer-mediated" communication seems too restrictive, maybe even quaint.
> 
> The shift to reference the technologies, such as information and communication
> technologies, or my made-up phrase 'digital communication technologies' (or
> simply digital media) are what I have shifted to using as my covering terms,
> rather than CMC. 
> 
> I don't find those satisfying either. DCT is an unsexy acronym that makes me
> think of bug spray, but I liked it better than ICT for reasons I can't really
> articulate. 
> 
> I personally find 'social media' objectionable, since the telephone and e-mail
> are also social media (strictly speaking), but most mean Facebook or Twitter,
> which is too limiting, so I avoid that phrase as much as possible.
> 
> I would be curious what others think about the jargon and covering terms we
> use these days. 
> 
> ~Jenny
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org]
> On Behalf Of Darja Dayter
> Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 10:24 AM
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] CMC - mobile phones included?
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I am wondering what exactly is included into the term 'CMC' these days.
> Does texting and voice communication on mobile phones count, for instance?
> It would be great if you could point me in the direction of sources that deal
> explicitly with this issue!
> 
> Thanks beforehand,
> Darja
> 
> 
> --
> Darja Dayter, M.A.
> Universität Bayreuth, Englische Sprachwissenschaft Tel. 0921/55-4644
> daria.dayter at uni-bayreuth.de _______________________________________________
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