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@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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