Roles In Media

Davis Foulger
Visiting Associate Professor
Oswego State University

Presented at DIAC-02
Shaping the Network Society
May 18, 2002

Extended Abstract

Communities and Media

A Medium of Communication is:

A system that enables the creation and consumption of messages

A process that is negotiated by its users

A time, space, and scale machine

There are hundreds of media, most of which fall into groupings:

Propinquitous Interactive

Live Presentational

Correspondence

Telephonic

Networked Computer

Static Art

Broadcast

Publication

Dynamic Art

Communities are, at one level, a product of Media Use

a set of conversations

a collection of relationships

a text of shared solutions and values

all enacted through various systems of message creation and consumption:

The Variety of Media

It is useful, in general, to describe media in three dimensions:

Time

over a million year history

synchrony versus asynchrony

networks enable new variations

Space

beginning with commerce

at least an 8000 year history

Scale

at least a 5000 year history

manufactured media

tokens

blown glass

manufactured paper

correspondence

print

electronic media

broadcast media

Characteristics of Media

Media are invented in five spheres of invention

An invention quintet in which the invention is

continuously negotiated and evolving

simultaneously enacted in all five spheres

We invent our media in the ways we use them

We invent our communities in the media we choose

Mediators, Characteristics, Uses, Effects, and Practices

Characteristics are a compact statement of possible uses

Set up possible uses

It is possible to identify hundreds of characteristics of media

Look for Characteristics of Media: The Message Beneath

from Scarecrow Press

One interesting set of characteristics:

a medium's characteristic participants: its roles

Roles IN media are not the "roles OF media"

Roles In Media: Power Participants

Creators	Senders/creators of messages
Consumers	Receivers/audiences of messages

The inescapable participants

Every medium entails

people who create messages for others ...

... and others who consume their messages

Even true for media in which participants take on both roles

Interactive Media

where creation is a continuous activity (non-verbal feedback)

and consumption is continuous

Captured in early models of the communication process

Shannon's Information Model:

Saussure's Linguistic Model

Bell's diagram of "telephone"

Roles In Media: Message Intermediaries

Participants who transport, reproduce, and otherwise process the content of messages

Until advent of electric carriers, usually added time

Selector/Gatekeepers	Content selectors who make decisions about what content will flow through the medium
Directors	Organisers of content and content producers who guide a variety of people in other roles through the process of producing messages and performances
Performers	Senders of messages who perform or recreate messages that have been created by others.
Transcriber/Recorders	Recorders of messages who, through the action of transcription/recording, enable messages to be preserved over time, distributed multiple times, and/or transmitted across space.
Content Editors	Content intermediaries who seek to "improve" messages within, in general, the scope of an editorial guideline.
Content Integrators	Content intermediaries who organize a variety of messages into an integrated "performance".
Reproducers	Content intermediaties who reproduce messages that have been created by others
Distributor/Carriers	Content intermediaties who transport, transmit, and/or deliver messages that have been created by others.

Roles In Media: System Support

Participants who enable complex systems of communication

Often with the effect of increasing a medium's scale

Publishers/Producers	Organizers of media instances who enable the creation, production, and distribution of messages.
Advertisers	Supporters of message production whose "return" on investment is the addition of promotional content that accompanies the message or performance.
Retailers	Content or service intermedaries who provide access to either message content or the medium in exchange for a fee.
Representative/Advocates	Intermediaries who act on behalf of other participants (agents, lawyers, etc).
Regulators	Content or service intermediaries who attempt to regulate the content within a medium.
Critics	Creators of messages (often within a different medium) who critique content within a medium.
Investors	Individuals or organization that finance the creation, performance, packaging, distribution of messages or the operation of a medium, generally with an expectation of a direct financial return on the investment.
Financial Management	Individuals who track and/or manage financial and other resources associated within a media instance or production.
Production Support	Others who act in support of a media instance or production. Other generic roles may be hidden within this general category.

Distribution of Roles Among Clusters of Media

Each role occurs for at least half of the media in cluster

Propinquitous Interactive	Director, Production Support
Correspondence	Transcriber/Recorder, Distributor/Carrier, Production Support
Telephonic	Distributor/Carrier, Retailer, Critic
Static Art	Selector/Gatekeeper, Publisher/Producer, Reproducer, Representative/Advocate, Critic, Production Support
Networked Computer	Publisher/Producer, Advertiser, Content Integrator, Distributor/Carrier, Critic, Financial Management, Production Support
Live Presentational	Selector/Gatekeeper, Publisher/Producer, Director, Performer, Content Integrator, Critic, Financial Management, Production Support
Publication	Selector/Gatekeeper, Publisher/Producer, Director, Content Editor, Advertiser, Content Integrator, Reproducer, Distributor/Carrier, Retailer, Investor, Financial Management, Production Support
Dynamic Art	Selector/Gatekeeper, Publisher/Producer, Director, Performer, Transcriber/Recorder, Content Editor, Advertiser, Content Integrator, Reproducer, Distributor/Carrier, Retailer, Representative/Advocate, Critic, Investor, Financial Management, Production Support
Broadcast	Selector/Gatekeeper, Publisher/Producer, Director, Performer, Transcriber/Recorder, Content Editor, Advertiser, Content Integrator, Reproducer, Distributor/Carrier, Retailer, Representative/Advocate, Regulator, Critic, Investor, Financial Management, Production Support

Implications of the "Roles in Media"

Generic Roles are a fundamental pattern underlying media

Complex media require "producers", "investors", "financial management", and "production support"

Coordination of parallel message work requires "directors"

Preservation of messages across time and space will often entail "transcriber/recorders" and "performers"

Movement of messages across large distances most often entails "distributor/carriers"

Scaling messages to large audiences entails some combination of "reproducers", "content integrators", "advertizers", and "retailers"

Maintaining quality often entails "selector/gatekeepers" and "content editors"

Understanding roles in media

provides a better understanding of the complexity of media

and the ways in which we structure media

to manipulate time, space, and scale

provides a path to optimizing education across media

and understanding the social systems and communities

that are built with our use of those media

References

Foulger, Davis. (1992). Computers and Human Communication. In Pickover, Cliff (Ed). Visions of the Future.

Foulger, Davis. (1992). Building Time Machines: thinking about the future of interpersonal communication. SUNY Oswego Cognitive Science Series. http://www.oswego.edu/~dfoulger/research/timeInMedia2.

Foulger, Davis. (1992). Community equals sum media. DIAC-02 Patterns.

Foulger, Davis. (1992). Community Equals Sum Media. MediaSpace Wiki: May 17, 2002.

Foulger, Davis. (In preparation). Characteristics of Media: the message beneath. Scarecrow Press.

Foulger, Davis. (In preparation). Roles in Media. Draft paper in progress.