Communication Colloquia Series: Klaus Bruhn Jensen
October 21, 2013
Address
Chicago, IL
Calendar
Download iCal FileKlaus Bruhn Jensen
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Klaus Bruhn Jensen is Professor in the Department of Media, Cognition, and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Vice Head of its Center for Communication and Computing. He is a member of the Editorial Boards for Communication Theory; Mobile Media & Communication; the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media; Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism; Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research; Comunicacion y Sociedad (Mexico); and MATRIZes (Brazil); and Corresponding Editor for the European Journal of Communication. Life Member for Service of the Association of Internet Researchers and Fellow of the International Communicology Institute. Recent publications include contributions to the International Encyclopedia of Communication (12 vols, Blackwell, 2008 - http://www.communicationencyclopedia.com/), for which he serves as Area Editor of Communication Theory and Philosophy, Media Convergence: The Three Degrees of Network, Mass, and Interpersonal Communication (Routledge, 2010), and A Handbook of Media and Communication Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies (2nd ed, Routledge, 2012).
How to do things with data:
Meta-data, meta-media, and meta-communication
Moving beyond prevalent technological and commercial notions of big data, this presentation proposes a theoretical approach to the phenomenon. First, I revisit the concept of meta-communication and explore its relevance for the study of online and networked communication. While the bit trails that are accumulated as big data are not normally conceptualized as either communication or meta-communication, they are prime candidates for inclusion in a theory of communication that recognizes more of the distinctive affordances of digital media. Second, I note the status of the digital computer, and of computer-based media, as meta-media – media that potentially reproduce and integrate other types of media, old and new. Meta-media yield new varieties of meta-communication and meta-data. Third, I rearticulate the notion of meta-data in the vocabulary of communication theory, recovering a lineage linking cybernetics and semiotics, and illustrating its significance for future studies of the digital media environment.
Date posted
Jul 30, 2018
Date updated
Aug 1, 2018