1. Z514: Social Aspects of Information Technology
Week 9

2. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) model
Lievrouw, L. A. (2009). New media, mediation, and communication study. Information, Communication & Society, 12(3),

3. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
Two-step flow
People’s decision making process during a Presidential campaign
Found far more influence on personal contacts than newspapers or radio
Opinion leaders will distribute the content
as well as their interpretations
Stage 2
Stage 1
Opinion leaders pay attention
to the mass media

4. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
Uses and gratifications theory
Media users have a free will to decide how they use the media and how the media influence them
Media users as rational decision-makers

5. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
Diffusion of innovations theory
“communication and adoption of new practices and ideas through social systems” (pp )
Pro-innovation bias

6. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
The mutual-shaping perspective (STS)
Society and technology are co-determining and articulated in the interactions between people’s practices and the material infrastructure
Computer-mediated communication
Social presence
Media richness theory
Media equation

7. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
Cultural transmission theory
New media can transmit social norms, perceptions, and behaviors (e.g., gender, power structures, and class, and identity)
Re-emphasizing that ‘“mediation” is something the media do’ (p. 313)

8. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
Connected presence
“always-on” technologies connect people via mobile phones, , SMS, and chat
> The Cell Refuseniks (c.f., beatniks)
Digital-cocoon

9. New Media, Mediation, and Communication Study (Lievrouw, 2009)
Domestication theory
How new technologies are being shaped and integrated into everyday lives – across boundary between the private and public spheres
media systems = “commodities in themselves, and their content promotes and reinforces consumption”