What recreational telephone conferencing can teach us about the future of mass communications

The types of interaction referred to in the policies are not specific to one interface; they could be applied to any form of mass communication. However, the inclusive policy is better to suited to an interface in which contributing is simple, and the authoritative interface requires, at a minimum, select and search mechanisms and a good reading interface. Ann Light is a journalist and communications specialist and publishes on digital media and interaction design as a visiting researcher at the University of Sussex. Her interests include how education might be made to respond to technological developments in society; and designing qualitative research methods that draw on the arts and humanities for inspiration. She has a doctorate in interaction design research, focusing upon building relationships through Web sites; a master's in Knowledge-Based Systems; and a first degree in English. A Web Site Credible? A Report on a Large Quantitative Study ". i n t e r a c t i o n s / m a r c h + a p r i l 2 0 0 4 >> By paying attention to the relationship between communication technology and meaningful everyday behavior, we can present valuable lessons for those developing communication media. Specifically, we present a moment of co-evolution of the telephone and its purposeful use, in the development of the recreational telephone conference, made possible by the everyday per-vasiveness of the telephone. When thinking about the future of the mass media we tend to imagine its constituent elements as print, radio, and television, forgetting all about the telephone. Arguably the truest communication medium, the telephone is less easily incorporated into the mix. When the telephone is viewed as an instrument of mass communication, it is difficult to talk about content, and there seems little chance of understanding what gets communicated to whom. The discussion here is based on a small-scale interview and observation-based study of a recreational telephone conference scheme that provides support for isolated elderly individuals. The findings are understood in relation to the notion of " associational telel-ogic " communication and the uses and gratifications theory of mass media consumption. Ball-Rokeach and Reardon [2] proposed a three-part model of mass communication that emphasizes communicative rather than technological form: monologic, dia-logic, and telelogic communication. The last of these, unlimited by time or geography, involves message interchange over great distances. The authors point out e-mail as the prototypical form …