Task Three: "Essay-in-lieu-of-examination"

'The term communication can be defined in a wide sense and a strict sense. The wide sense is: a process by which a system is changed by another system'

(Vilém Flusser, Writings, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, p. 8)

Distribution has arguably always been about communication systems that bring other systems into contact. Which systems are today being brought into contact? Which systems are changing other systems? What has changed, in comparison to the past?

Aggregation and Distribution

in

Communication Systems

'The term communication can be defined in a wide sense and a strict sense. The wide sense is: a process by which a system is changed by another system.'

- Vilém Flusser, Writings, University of Minnesota Press, p. 8

                                               

Aggregation is combining things and distribution is dispersing the produced compound. I say aggregation and distribution because things must first be aggregated for there to be something to distribute. This blog post will explore aggregation and distribution in terms of communication systems that bring other systems into contact.

Aggregation and Distribution and The Actor-Network Theory

It is useful to apply principles in Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to clarify the structure of aggregation and distribution I will be using. ANT states all human and non-human actants or factors have relatively equal influence on the assemblage they are part of (Banks, 2011).

ANT's actants are the initial systems brought together in aggregation. These initial systems are combined to form ANT assemblages or what we'll call produced systems. These produced systems are then distributed and affect their governing communication system. The difference is while ANT focuses on the relationships between actants that form assemblages, this essay will be exploring how these assemblages or produced systems affect the larger systems they are part of.

Aggregation and Distribution in Newspapers

Newspapers are literally communication systems, being the primary news source before internet became commonplace. They are also communication systems because they aggregate news stories, opinions from community members who have written to columns, company agendas, political agendas, and ideas.

Multiple layers of produced systems and distribution occur:

Produced System 1 – Selected Works: The first aspect of production is the articles, opinions, and ideas that have been selected and edited for publication.

Distribution 1 - Structure: This distribution concerns how these articles and opinions are positioned in the newspaper layout. This leads to the second produced systems aspect.

Produced System 2 – Archived Content: Articles are created anew when collated alongside each other and placed in a different context to how they were initially produced. This concept is supported by Jacques Derrida's archive theory (1995). Archive theory states that the form of archive dictates what content can be included and how (Derrida 1995, p. 17). Therefore logging data in specific archives creates the content while it records it (Derrida 1995, p. 17). This alters context of the content based on what is included and excluded, and how this is presented, therefore changing the value of things. When applied to newspapers as archives, they can only contain news articles, opinions, image, and advertisements. Absent are news articles that don't satisfy agendas, opinions that are disinteresting, blurry images, novels, video, sound, etc. What is included and excluded changes context and meaning of everything in the newspaper, therefore creating this content anew.

Produced System 3 – Published Newspaper: This concerns the physical newspaper that encompasses all agendas and ideas the company wants to see published.

Distribution 2 – Circulation: Physical newspapers are distributed among the community. However what are really distributed are all the articles, opinions, agendas, and ideas which change all the systems that come into contact with this newspaper.

Changed System 1 – People:  Systems of people are changed as articles influence what they discuss, fear, support, and learn. Published individuals ascend in the community hierarchy being admired but also scrutinised. Published journalists see more career opportunities. Aspiring journalists apply to work for the company. Relationships among all these people are fostered, broken, changed, or maintained as they read, think, discuss, or don't discuss content in the newspaper.

Changed System 2 – Companies: Newspaper stockists sell more successful newspapers and potentially other products. Stores get more business due to success of their advertisement, or less if their competitors placed an advertisement. The newspaper company receives greater or less revenue depending on how well that particular issue achieves all of the above.

Changed System 3 – External: The success of the newspaper changes systems of the logging industry that sees increased orders for paper, and systems of environment are changed as more trees are cut down. The technology industry receives demand for newer products, and competitors in the news industry pressure their journalists to produce more exclusive content.

Aggregation and Distribution in Facebook

Facebook is more accurately a communication platform because it allows ordinary people to connect across it.

As a communication system that brings other systems into contact, Facebook aggregates people as networks. It aggregates relationships, degrees of separation, emotions, ideas, opinions, and all things on the internet that people want to share, discuss, and use to bond with each other, be it scientific articles or cat videos.

Derrida's archive theory is applicable here because Facebook is also an archive. It is more open and flexible than newspapers to include profiles, relationships, unfiltered opinion, internet content, emotions, etc. However its form prevents such things as business communication, trust of authenticity, and restricts what profiles can express - for example multiple romantic relationships. Therefore Facebook as an archive dictates what can be produced.

Produced System 1 – Your Profile: All personal details, friends, liked pages, groups, blocked people, un-friended people, make up the created virtual profile. The online self is a produced system by being virtually reproduced and created anew, and the Newsfeed is a produced system displaying content according to the personal filters set up.

Produced System 2 – Relationships: Facebook adds a digital dimension to relationships, clarifies relationships through defining people as "Facebook friends" or "real friends", creates Facebook families, creates new relationships via shared interests and potential offline relationships, and creates negative relationships through Facebook 'drama'.

Produced System 3 – Content: Emotions, new ideas, and new opinions are formed from sharing, discussing or encountering new content. New content is produced from 'selfies', discussions, desire to entertain and/or desire to make something and publish it on the internet for people to see and critique. This tendency is defined in David Gauntlett's theory of Making is Connecting. Gauntlett sees people making things as a desire to creatively contribute to the world, be a part of conversation, and be recognised for their creations (2013).

Distribution in Facebook occurs with produced systems as they work together in a feedback loop.

Distribution 1 – People and Content Distributed by Facebook: Facebook coding distributes advertising, people, and pages on Newsfeeds. The platform's algorithms decide what appears on Newsfeeds within the constraints of every account's filtering system. It distributes people to a certain extent by displaying 'people you may know' or groups you may be interested in joining based on friends or liked pages.

Distribution 2 – People and Content distributed by Ourselves: People on Facebook distribute ideas, opinions, discussions, and internet or created content. They distribute themselves into groups and social circles based on their friends and interests, and this similarly occurs offline when friends or potential friends meet.

Changed System 1 – People:  Naturally, systems of people are changed. Friends accounts are changed due to the presence of your account, relationships are changed by being on Facebook, social hierarchies are changed due to popularity on Facebook, and behaviour and opinions change depending on those of others online.

Changed System 2 – Digital Culture: Societal conventions are different with the advent of the 'selfie', the concept of 'liking' something which has changed cultural meaning of the word, sharing and liking becoming the new internet currency, acronyms such as 'LOL' which has been added to the Oxford dictionary as of 2011, and etiquette on the internet.

Changed System 3 – Organisations: Companies and celebrities have their digital systems changed when their pages receive or lose likes, and when their content is shared. Success of internet content relies on people reading, sharing, and discussing. It is online users that decide what information becomes widely known and what becomes irrelevant.

Aggregation and Distribution of Newspapers and Facebook

The Internet is where I bring these two systems of people and newspapers together. The Internet is an infinite communication system with millions of processes of aggregation and distribution occurring simultaneously.

This section will explore one aspect of how the Internet as a communication system brought newspapers and Facebook in contact.

As people became regular internet and Facebook users, newspapers were forced to be digitally accessible to avoid becoming obsolete. However digital newspapers are struggling to accumulate attention and traffic to their sites due to the combination of:

     - the booming Internet culture of sharing content,

     - Facebook making URLs accessible by giving previews and allowing videos to be played

       within the platform,

     - the Newsfeed algorithm displaying news relevant to users,

     - and most recently, a display of 'Trending' news within Facebook.

Facebook is a major player in the rise of citizen journalism by allowing users to curate their own form of a newspaper, aggregating people and news sources of their own choice instead of consuming newspapers in their entirety.

In this way, Facebook changed newspapers within the domain of the Internet system. It is interesting to note that newspapers in their prime could influence systems of people, however digital technology has now afforded people the power to change systems of news.

Relevance of Aggregation and Distribution

This post has explored three communication systems of newspapers, Facebook, and briefly the Internet, but in reality processes of aggregation, distribution, and systems are widely applicable.

It is useful in breaking processes down into comprehensive stages within a larger process and accounts for concerns of the people, things, industries, social concerns, cultures, etc. that are affected, and all relationships between these systems. As shown with Facebook and newspapers, this breakdown is useful in order to compare different systems, observe their interactions, and trace their development over time influenced by each other.

The process of aggregation and distribution can also integrate multiple theories as shown by applications of archive theory, Actor-Network Theory, and Making is Connecting. However it is less able to be included back into those theories save ANT, which is similar in its considerations. The main difference being, aggregation and distribution categorise systems according to what happens, and ANT structures actants in networks according to their relationships.

Regarding media it has been found that concerns of aggregation are more important and distribution is often a bi-product. In 2002 Mohr and Thomas believed content aggregation to be the second most important function after content production (p. 10). However by 2013, similar writings by Friedrichsen and Mühl-Benninghaus found aggregation is the most important function in media systems in order to justify distribution (p. 219). This is evidenced in the success of media aggregation giants, Google, Amazon, iTunes, Facebook, etc. that are worth millions but have low-cost concepts. Newspapers are aggregators of journalism and advertisements, and Facebook is an aggregator of networked people. Newspapers' function of distribution was to get readers and maintain attention however in present day Facebook stays in the one place. In the rise of the Internet, people are distributing themselves as they flock to media aggregators, a similar concept to citizen journalism where users are curating their own content and creating it where they find lacking.

Drawbacks of aggregation and distribution in communication systems include:

     - Breaking systems down becomes complicated especially when dealing
       with produced systems and distribution.

     - Aggregation and distribution is all encompassing and therefore broad. The
       above discussions attempted to be quite thorough however it is unlikely all aspects
       were accounted for. They were also broken down according to stages that seemed
       suitable however there is no official scaffold.

Suggestions for improvement:

     - Drawing visuals of aggregation and distribution are useful in considering the multiple
       factors at play.

     - Aggregation and distribution worked well with principles of ANT. Accounting for
       relationships of production between human and non-human systems helped structure
       the analysis of aggregation and distribution within communication systems.

All images are self-produced. Credit: Yijun Jiang 2014

References

Banks, D. 2011, A brief summary of Actor Network Theory, The Society Pages - Cyborgology, W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., Accessed 5 November 2014,
<< http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/12/02/a-brief-summary-of-actor-network-theory/ >>.

Derrida, J. 1995, 'Archive fever: A Freudian impression', Diacritics, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 9 – 63.

Flusser, V. 2002, Writings, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

Friedrichsen, M. & Mühl-Benninghaus, W. 2013, Handbook of social media management: Value chain and business models in changing media markets, Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin.

Gauntlett, D. 2013, David Gauntlett on making at Maker Faire Rome, October 2013, online video, Accessed 5 November 2014,
<< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjU_ZbpzLAo >>.

Mohr, N. & Thomas, G. P. 2002, Interactive broadband media: A guide for a successful take-off, Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin.

Wikipedia. 2014, LOL, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Accessed 5 November 2014,
<< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOL >>.