Social Theory and Communication Technology by Terje Rasmussen

Author:Terje Rasmussen [Rasmussen, Terje]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781351723572
Google: MwadDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-11T03:47:47+00:00

Objectivation, distanciation and conservation

Information and communication relate to the meaningful, extended spatio-temporal characteristics of digitally mediated communication. Communication technologies usually involve three ‘actual’ processes which translate knowledge into information and communication in time and space. The three processes are a) objectivation of knowledge into information, b) distanciation in space, and c) conservation in time. I will comment on them briefly.

a) Objectivation refers to the process of transformation of knowledge to information, the inscription of ideas of the mind into the world. To speak of information, knowledge must be objectified; extended from the mind, and thereby acquire an external form outside the individual or collective authors. Speaking, print, broadcasting, databases, writing etc. are all forms of objectivation. Objectivation, as I have noted earlier, is an absolute condition for sharing of knowledge. Information is objectivated knowledge. Conversely, knowledge is dependent on subjectivation (interpretation) of information (see Berger and Luckmann, 1967). Communication among agents, therefore, always involves the processes of objectivation and subjectivation. Note also that oral language is here considered as a ‘special’ kind of objectivation.

b) When information moves, multiplies or extends geographically, the process of distanciation occurs. I shall briefly consider Ricoeur’s concept of ‘distanciation’ (Ricoeur, 1981; Thompson, 1981). Among other approaches, Ricoeur considers action hermeneutically, as a ‘text’, which then can be objectivated in various ways. He divides ‘distanciation’ into four principal forms (Ricoeur, 1981). First, meaning is surpassed by the moment or the event of the production of the message. Second, unlike in oral conversation, the distanciated message escapes the finite horizon of the agent, and becomes identified more as an autonomous event or object. Third, the audience and its receiving context is unidentifiable. The text detaches itself from the context of production, and becomes an object for perhaps unlimited series of interpretations. Fourth, the non-oral message may import all kinds of reference, beyond the ostensive ones appearing in verbal conversation. The world of references is brought in with greater power, transcending the locale and immediate. Distanciation means that compared to verbal dialogue, intentional meaning is severed from the immediate time and place, and the psychological presence of the agent. The context of production may no longer resemble the context of reception and ostensive references become transgressed by other non-ostensive distanciated messages (Ricoeur, 1981).

While Ricoeur may not have provided a convincing defence of the notion that action may be seen analogous to the text (Thompson, 1981: 126), he certainly provides valuable insights to a conception of communicative processes in extended time and space. What is important with Ricoeur’ term, is that first, it points to the cultural importance of objectivation of ‘texts’ in time and space, which may relativise (and even produce) contexts, create groups of participants/audiences of varying sizes and compositions according to the nature of the objectivation, and that production may be severed from reception. Second, it suggests (although with insufficient clarity) that texts are produced and reproduced through human action. As ‘structure’, distanciations are internal to action. Distanciation enables action at a distance. Third, it points

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