Cyberspace Communication - Essay Example

CYBERSPACE COMMUNICATION What is the meaning of metaphorical concept according to Lakoff and Johnson In the book Metaphors we Live By written byGeorge Lakoff and Mark Johnson, the term metaphorical concept is used to show how the use of metaphor in language structures what we do and how we understand what we are doing.("The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.") 2. Describe an orientational metaphor and provide an example of it that is not in lakoff and Johnson essay.

A metaphor that does not structure one concept in terms of another but instead organizes a whole system of concepts with respect to one another is called an orientational metaphor. Most of these metaphors are centred on spatial orientation like 'up-down', 'front-back' and 'on-off'. These metaphors acquire meaning because we are able to connect and associate even disparate things. For example we can say: 'he was turned off by the behaviour of his boss.' The title of George Orwell's famous book Down and Out in Paris is another good example of an orientational metaphor.3. Provide an example of how language reflects reality, selects reality and deflects reality.

Language is a net cast over the manifold varieties of this world. Viewed thus all nouns are abbreviations: for that steely, bright, dangerous, sharp, pointed thing we simply say 'dagger'.We do not have words to describe everything. The first ray of the sun does not have a word and the first kiss of the lover is still just a kiss. These lapses of language create dents in the perception of reality.4. Using your own words, define any one metaphor for communication discussed in class, except the conduit metaphor.

Then provide an example of it, explaining why you think it is a good example.Personifying metaphors are used to lend spectacle as well as intensity to an act of communication. Abstract entities can be conceived metaphorically in terms of human life and expressed as capable of living and growing. 'Life' of a government, lifeblood, 'economic' growth are good examples. When one says that qualities reside in someone or something lives in memory, the human tendency to equate the inequitable is brought to the fore.

When someone gives me the ghost of a smile, I am compelled to marvel at how the brain googles and establishes links.5. Name a word/term that you think might be a good substitute for the word 'cyberspace' and tell us, in your own words, why this is a good substitute.The word 'etheral' could be a good substitute since it combines 'ether' and 'all'. It is relevant because it makes one remember the aspect of the Universe - that vast domain which we all inhabit and our email address is a strong reminder of where we actually belong.

After all, where is this gmail.com6. Why do Brown and Duguid ask the question "could less be more" What do they mean by it John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid argue that in spite of the increase in information and an apparent ease of living, there is no ground for complacency. According to the writers, the successes of the IT revolution have 'extended its ambition without necessarily broadening its outlook.'Brown and Duguid say that working in the midst of the Internet and the World Wide Web is like 'watching a firefighter attempting to extinguish fire with napalm'.

Difficulty in understanding a web page can only lead one to another web page and one help system can only lead to 'help on using help.' Thus less could be more.7. Describe in a sentence each, each of the 6Ds in Brown and Duguid's 6D Vision. What evidence exists against themThe six Ds are: demassification, decentralisation, denationalisation, despacialisation, disintermediation and disaggregation. These happen because of the Internet and its foray into ordinary lives.Demassification: The end of 'mass media' and the advent of the Internet that would take news and information to the 'individual' much faster than can be done by any other medium.

This also foretells the end of intermediaries or agents through whom we used to procure services.Decentralization: This is an aftermath of the end of intermediaries because things could reach people directly. Bureaucracies also become redundant because decisions can be taken at various levels and not just at one central level.Denationalization: With the advent of what is called 'Windownesia', the concept of nation-states will disappear. Time and distance could become a mere matter of nostalgia.

Despatialisation: This stands for the end of the concept of space because electronic space defies actual space. Equipment like flash drive and caches with space of 10 GB and more are good examples of this novelDisintermediation: This facilitates the individual to approach agencies without intermediaries. Not only agencies, even universities and governments can function more smoothly with just the optimum number of personnel and prime thrust on service.Disaggregation: The possibilities of setting up electronic communities can take away the egregious tendency of human beings to settle in actual 'localities'.8. What are the three key distinctions between information and knowledge according to Brown and DuguidInformation is unsorted, disorganized and decontextualised data.

"It is something that people pick up, possess, pass around, put in a database, lose, find, write down, accumulate, count, compare and so forth" (2) according to Brown and Duguid in The Social Life of Information. Knowledge is ordered information; information that stands in a relatively small quantity. Knowledge is subjective whereas information is not. Information is a kind of abstraction available to everyone and knowledge - making sense of the information that is available - is a gift that is dependent on many factors including social and economic.

Knowledge exists in people's minds, not in databases.9. Why does Burgelman say that we live in a global time and spaceAlthough inventions like the telephone and telegraph have redefined time and space, the recent electronic advances have dramatized them. By throwing overboard the necessity to remain in just one locality, people became confident of going everywhere and still being 'in touch' whenever it was necessary. (Passing on of information became the new age surrogate to a warm hug.) Similarly, people no longer live according to the rhythm of their village but according to the pulse of the world.

One's own space assumes redundancy when on reflects on world space.10. Why does Burgelman say that it is "astonishing that no one ever questions the continual increases in the speed of information processes"According to Jean Claude Burgelman, one of the consequences of living in a single global time and space is the acceleration of political and economic processes which underlie society. But this social speed calls for roads that are straight, thoughts that are cosmopolitan. One also tends to be overcautious and link events in one part of the world with another for no reason.

The obvious example is the fall in share prices when a VIP falls terminally ill. Burgelman is astonished why people do not question this continual increase in the speed of the information process.References1. Brown, John Seely and Paul Druguid. The Social Life of Information. Harvard: Harvard Business school Press, 2000.2. Jean Claude Burgelman. Travelling with Communication Technologies in Space, Time and Everyday life: An Exploration of Their Impact: First Monday, Vol.5, No.

3, March 2000.____________________