Linear Communication
The concept of linear communication was mentioned in the book, and my first thought was in what way is communication every linear? Sure there is face-to-face communication, but in today's world I think communication is hardly linear at all.
In my experience I get a lot of my information that at one point in time would have been communicated by family members to me personally, through facebook or twitter. I see an announcement or a status change or something and I will "Like" it or say congrats, but this is a rather indirect form of communication. When someone becomes engaged there is no longer a phone call letting everyone know, your status changes on facebook and it is assumed that everyone knows.
Information as a commodity
In some ways yes, information is a commodity. It can be bought and sold. However I agree that this analogy is "insuffient because it assumes use." Commodities are used, they are (for the most part) considered useful. In many cases information isn't used. It isn't read, understood, or if it is read or understood then it isn't applied. It is rather dangerous to assume that the information sent out to people in the community via fliers, door to door visits, emails, mailings, or other things are read, understood, and used.
The census is an example of this. We are trying to bring together our entire "imagined community" the United States of America in order to find out just how many of us there are. WE have seen advertisement after advertisements on TV on the internet, in the paper, on the bus. Everywhere. But half of Americans (people in our community) didn't know when the census was coming, what it was used for, what questions are on there, or when it was supposed to be mailed back. The information was presented to them, but it wasn't read, understood, or used.
Community Change
Documents or writing pieces that promote community change or cause change are mundane pieces of work. I don't have much to say about this concept because I feel that it alone says it all. I just felt it was worth mentioning because it is so true.
It reminds me of why I want to be a grant writer. Grant proposals don't get awards. They are read once and filed away. (in some cases they are used later for other things). They are not applauded for the wonderful prose and excellent use of imagery. They will not be found in text books or taught in classrooms. But they MAKE a difference in the world, in the country, in the community in which their plans are implemented. That is why I want to write them. To make a difference. :)
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I really like your point about information as a commodity, and I had the same thought you did - only I related it to books in our library, for example. There are millions of books in the library, and they are all filled with tons and tons of information. However, many of the books just sit there. I've been checking out some books for my end-of-the-semester projects, and I'm the first person to have checked some of these books out in 10 years! All those commodities just sit there unused until some grad student needs to read Foucault.
ReplyDeleteSo are the books the commodity or is the information within them? Information is a non-rival good. Meaning that once information is created there is no need to create the same information again. The Marginal cost is zero. But, there is cost in reprinting. I will make the argument that information is a commodity in the sense that it costs something to create and has economic impact upon its creation. In this sense, information influences markets.
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