References of research papers on the characteristics of network communication

This paper first reviews the history of human communication, and points out that the development of information technology plays a historical lever role. With the rapid development of Internet and network media, the new characteristics of network communication make it difficult for traditional communication theory to reasonably explain the phenomenon of network communication, which makes the establishment of network communication necessary. This paper discusses the tasks, research objects, subject attributes and related disciplines of network communication, summarizes the research status of network communication and looks forward to it.

[Keywords:] Internet/Internet communication/Internet media

Abstract: This paper discusses the characteristics of network communication. The author points out that the traditional communication theory can not explain the phenomenon of network communication well, so a new network communication must be established. This paper discusses the research object, research status and future of network communication theory.

Keywords: network communication, Internet

I. Development of information technology and information dissemination

Looking back at the history of human communication, it is not difficult to find that the development of information technology has played a historic leverage role. Every innovation in information technology has brought about a great revolution in information dissemination, which has brought immeasurable influence on human politics, economy, culture and social life and pushed human civilization to a higher level. Information technology has effectively changed the face of human production and life, and the symbol reflected by information technology is the change of information dissemination mode. Up to now, human information communication can be divided into five stages (oral communication stage, written communication stage, printing communication stage, electronic communication stage and network communication stage), and the leap from the previous stage to the next stage is based on the revolutionary progress of information technology.

With the rapid development of the Internet, network communication has also developed rapidly. As a brand-new modern mode of communication, network communication has new characteristics completely different from the media. Network communication provides the fastest and most convenient way of communication for our time, which makes people even more powerful. Network communication is the fastest growing mode of communication in human history. The emergence of network communication in China and its significance to Chinese civilization are no less than the significance of China people inventing paper.

The influence of network communication on society is all-round, not only affecting politics and economy, but also affecting our way of life and way of thinking. Network communication is rapidly infiltrating into many fields of politics, economy, ideology and culture all over the world with irresistible momentum, changing people's lives and changing the face of the world.

However, the characteristics of network communication determine that it is completely different from the traditional mass communication mode, which inevitably brings a series of negative effects, such as ideological and cultural infiltration, false news and false information dissemination, pornography flooding, infringement of personal privacy, infringement of intellectual property rights and so on. These are all waiting for us to study and discuss.

Therefore, it is of great significance and value to establish a theoretical system of network communication and speed up the training of network communication talents for speeding up the development of China's network communication industry.

Second, it is difficult for traditional communication theory to reasonably explain the phenomenon of network communication, which makes the establishment of network communication necessary.

The emergence and development of network communication has broadened the breadth and depth of communication and broken the boundaries of various forms of information communication in the past. Both face-to-face communication and point-to-point communication can be realized. When information is spread to multiple Internet users, network communication can be described as a mass communication tool, while communication between individual independent Internet users can be described as peer-to-peer interpersonal communication. Network communication combines interpersonal communication and mass communication. This new and special mode of communication challenges the traditional theory of mass communication.

Network communication combines the information communication characteristics of mass communication (one-way) and interpersonal communication (two-way), and generally forms a distributed network communication structure. In this communication structure, any node can generate and publish information, and all information generated and published by nodes can flow into the network in a nonlinear way. Network communication combines interpersonal communication and mass communication. Network communication has the advantages of interpersonal communication and mass communication, but it also breaks through the limitations of interpersonal communication and mass communication

Network communication is interactive with interpersonal communication, and the audience can directly and quickly feedback information and express their opinions. At the same time, in network communication, the audience has great freedom of choice when receiving information, and can actively choose the content they are interested in. At the same time, network communication has broken through the limitations of one-to-one or one-to-many interpersonal communication, and is generally a multi-to-many network communication mode.

In the study of communication, it is an important research field to investigate and analyze the functions of various systems and institutional factors in mass communication activities, which is called "control research". It includes two aspects: one is to investigate the control and influence of external systems on media organizations and their activities, and the other is to investigate the restriction of internal systems of media organizations on information production, processing and dissemination.

For traditional mass media, social control is not difficult to implement. The state and government stipulate the mass communication system and formulate relevant laws, regulations and policies to ensure that media activities serve the national system, ideology and the realization of various national goals. Including legal and administrative management of media activities, approval and registration of media establishment; Restrict or prohibit the dissemination of certain information content; Allocate communication resources and so on.

For the endless network world, this real social control is almost impossible. Because of the infinity of network communication ability and the invisibility of material carrier, it is impossible to control network communication only from the technical point of view. There are hundreds of new websites appearing on the Internet every day, and it is totally utopian to control the information dissemination of each website. The state cannot approve and register it, nor can it control it with economic power (the funds for establishing websites are very small), or even restrict or prohibit the dissemination of certain information. Social control, for the network, is very weak.

As we all know, in the traditional "hourglass" communication mode, journalists and editors, as gatekeepers, control the production and dissemination of news information and determine the fate of news from all directions: which news is allowed to spread through this narrow "loophole"; News that cannot be spread is "sealed" on the spot. It is not only cited, but also bears the responsibility of "agenda setting", that is, where to put a certain information (program), how to design a large layout (program time) for release and broadcast, how to organize reports and so on.

In the Internet age, the audience has unprecedented power: not only can they freely choose the information they are interested in, but they can also freely publish information on the Internet; The importance of information is no longer entirely determined by the communicator, but by the audience themselves. Although in many occasions, such as well-known news websites, they still have the right to edit online news, and online journalists and editors still play the role of "gatekeepers", because the audience enjoys great choice and initiative, the status of news communicators is weakened and the power is tilted towards the audience. All these will weaken social control.

In network communication, the audience can freely choose information, including the content of information, the form of receiving information, the time and order of receiving information. Network media use multimedia technology to publish information to the Internet, not only publishing the text about the information, but also displaying images and sounds for the audience to choose freely. In the arrangement of information, except for a few major news events, online media simultaneously spread most of the information, spread all kinds of information online and update it at any time, so that recipients can "order" at any time and browse or download news information in their favorite order.

In network communication, qualified audiences can directly participate in the process of information production and dissemination and become veritable communicators. In network communication, the audience and the news disseminator can have direct two-way communication to a certain extent. Due to the differences in communication attributes between online news communication and traditional news media, in the field of internet news communication, the boundaries between some traditional news theories and news practices are becoming blurred or even disappeared:

The first is the geographical boundaries of news dissemination. Once news information is online, it can immediately cover the whole world in space and become information all over the world.

The second is the time limit for releasing information. A network news media can publish information according to different time gradients, and instant updates, daily updates, weekly updates and monthly updates will coexist in a news website. In the past, the distribution boundary of news media, especially newspapers and periodicals, has begun to disappear in the dissemination of information on the Internet.

The third is the boundary of various media information dissemination methods. Network news communication can mobilize words, pictures, sounds and images at the same time to enhance the communication effect. At the same time, you can also run various information databases with rich contents on the Internet. In the past, the unique advantages of newspapers, radio, television and other news media have begun to be integrated in Internet news communication. In addition, the information dissemination advantages that traditional media have never possessed have also been integrated into a brand-new way of information dissemination in human history.

In a word, network communication has had a great impact on the traditional communication theory, which makes the traditional communication theory face challenges, weakens social control, and faces new topics in the study of communication effect, thus making the establishment of network communication necessary.

Third, what is network communication?

What is network communication? This is the primary problem related to the task and research object of network communication.

Before answering what is network communication, we need to discuss what is communication. Many scholars have described and explained communication. Some describe it as "information * * *", some as "persuasion influence" and some as "stimulus response". Others think that communication is a social behavior of human beings to transmit or exchange information. Wait a minute. Professor Guo holds that "the so-called communication is the transmission of social information or the operation of social information system" in his new book A Course in Communication.

So what is network communication?

Shi Lan, executive deputy director of China Modern Media Committee, believes that network communication has three basic characteristics: global, interactive and hypertext link. Therefore, its definition of network communication is: with the global mass information as the background and a large number of participants as the object, the participants are also the recipients and publishers of information and can feedback information at any time. Its text formation and reading are completed in hypertext, and there are random links between various texts and different education levels (International Press, No.6, 2000, p. 49).

Others believe that "network communication" is a new term widely used in communication science in recent years. It is relative to newspapers, radio and television. Network communication refers to the Internet with multimedia, network and digital technology as its core, also known as network communication, which is the product of modern information revolution (International Press, No.6, 2000, p. 49).

We believe that the so-called network communication actually refers to the dissemination of human information (including news, knowledge and other information) through computer networks. The information spread in the network is stored in digital form on optical, magnetic and other storage media, spread at high speed through the computer network, and read and used by computers or similar devices. Network communication is based on computer communication network to transmit, exchange and utilize information, so as to achieve the purpose of social and cultural communication. There are a large number of readers on the network, which can spread at high speed through the network.

Fourth, the research object of network communication

We have just defined the definition of network communication in Network Communication, and clearly established the research object of network communication-human network communication activities.

Network communication is a branch of communication and a branch of communication. Communication, also known as "communication", is a new discipline that studies the occurrence and development of all human information exchange behaviors and communication processes, as well as the relationship between people and society. Communication studies the concept and essence of communication, the law of interaction between information and objects, the generation and acquisition, processing and transmission, efficiency and reflection of information, the formation of various symbol systems and their functions in communication, the status and functions of various media themselves, and the relationship between communication and various social fields and systems. Communication studies divide communication into four levels: (1) inward communication of people. For example, talking to yourself, touching the scene, and exchanging information by yourself. (2) interpersonal communication. That is, the behavior of symbol communication between individuals. (3) Organize communication. That is, the behavior of symbol communication between group members or between groups. (4) mass communication. That is to say, symbols communicate with printed or electronic media, which is purposefully aimed at many people. In the 1930s, it developed in the United States, spread to Western Europe and Japan after World War II, and gradually attracted the attention of many countries in the world. UNESCO has set up an international communication research committee to exchange the research results of scholars from all over the world on a regular basis.

Network communication is a two-way communication of information based on network. Information is actually the reduction or elimination of uncertainty. Network communication is the research object of human network communication activities. As the content of human network communication, information can reduce or eliminate uncertainty.

The appearance of network communication has greatly changed the way of information dissemination, affected the organization, transmission and acquisition of human knowledge, and had a far-reaching impact on human culture and government policies. As the central link of information production, accumulation and acquisition, communication plays a connecting role. As an important channel of information exchange and dissemination, network communication enables information to be widely disseminated, absorbed and utilized. Network communication will play an important role in the process of human information circulation, and the change of information technology and means will profoundly affect the way of human information circulation activities.

Fifth, the main attribute of network communication.

We believe that network communication belongs to social science. There are two main reasons.

1. The research object of network communication We can draw the conclusion that network communication belongs to social science. Because the research object of network communication is human network communication activities, and human network communication activities are undoubtedly a social phenomenon. Although the research of network communication involves a lot of technical problems, it cannot change the social science nature of network communication.

2. Network communication is a branch of communication and a branch of communication. Communication belongs to social science. We can also draw the conclusion that network communication belongs to social science.

Sixth, related disciplines of network communication.

The related disciplines of network communication mainly include: communication, politics, sociology, psychology, journalism, economics, computer science and so on.

Network communication is a branch of communication and a branch of communication. However, there are a lot of political issues involved in network communication activities. For example, international political struggles are often fully reflected in online communication. For example, some western countries use the Internet for political subversion. The research object of network communication is human network communication activities, which is a social phenomenon, and the principles and methods of sociology should be used in the research. Network communication activities are human activities, and psychological methods and theories should be used to study the psychological activities of network communicators and audiences. In the process of network communication, economic input and output should be involved, and low cost and high income should be studied by using economic principles. Network communication is the product of the high development of computer technology, which inevitably involves a lot of technical problems in the research.

Seven, the research status and prospect of network communication.

In the mid-1990s, the Internet expanded rapidly and became the largest and most popular computer information network in the world. It breaks the traditional concepts of geopolitics, geo-economy and geo-culture, and forms a virtual new space with information as the mainstay, which is cross-border, cross-cultural and cross-language. In this context, academic circles at home and abroad immediately formed an upsurge of comments and research on the Internet, and journalists and communicators also paid full attention to the revolutionary influence of the Internet in the field of information dissemination.

According to the definition of American communication scholars, a media can only be called mass media if its users reach one fifth of the national population. In the United States, it took 38 years for mass media to reach the threshold of 50 million people, 13 years for TV, 10 years for cable TV and 5 years for Internet. By the end of 1998, the number of Internet users in the United States had reached 62 million. Therefore, the concept of Internet as the fourth largest media after newspapers, radio and television was put forward. Since 1995, domestic newspapers, radio stations and TV stations have established websites on the Internet. In this context, journalists and communicators began to pay attention to the role of the Internet.

19971June16-17 China Newspaper Monthly, Institute of Journalism and Communication of China Academy of Social Sciences, and CCTV Research Consulting Co., Ltd. jointly sponsored the "National Seminar on the Present Situation and Development Trend of Electronic Newspapers" in Beijing. More than 30 China news organizations attended the meeting. This is the first theoretical seminar in the field of network information dissemination conducted by China online news media. At that time, only a few China news organizations, such as the online edition of People's Daily and the electronic edition of Huasheng Daily, made introductory speeches at the meeting. The meeting invited the director of the online edition of The Wall Street Journal to introduce their experiences to the China press.

199 On July 1-2, China Journalists Association hosted the' 99 National Network News Media Theory Seminar in Hangzhou. More than 50 online directors of China news organizations attended the meeting. More than 30 news organizations submitted papers to the conference. 10 Representatives of more than 0 news organizations spoke at the meeting, and the participants widely exchanged their views on various fields of network information dissemination based on their own practice of network news dissemination in recent years.

1. Foreign research

Many representative foreign-related works have great influence at home and abroad, and most of these works have been translated into Chinese. Among them are Negroponte's Digital Survival (translated by Hu Yong et al., published by Hainan Publishing House199665438+February), Bill Gates' Road to the Future (translated by Gu, published by Peking University Publishing House199665438+1October) and Future Speed. NFDA 1？ , translated by Jiang Ming, published by Peking University Publishing House in April, 1999), Ethel Dyson's Life Design in the Digital Age (translated by Hu Yong and Fan Haiyan, published by Hainan Publishing House in August, 1998), and Digital Crime (translated by Hao Haiyang, published by Liaoning Education Publishing House,/kloc-.

Although these translated works can't be regarded as network communication works, they can only be said to be related works, but they have opened the eyes of people from all walks of life in China and called on Chinese people to pay attention to the coming information age, network age and digital age. Among them, Digital Survival (1998) was rated as one of the 20 most influential books in the past 20 years by the 53rd issue of New Weekly.

2. Domestic works

In recent years, domestic scholars have written various monographs on information expressway and Internet. For example, The Internet is King, co-authored by Hu Yong and Fan Haiyan (published by Hainan Publishing House 1997 65438+ 10), is the first book in China that comprehensively introduces the birth, development, present situation and future trend of the Internet. Followed by Roy's No Net (published by Ordnance Industry Press in September, 1997). Guo Liang's Network Culture Series (published by China Renmin University,1997,65438+February) consists of seven books written by eight young scholars, trying to examine the network from the perspective of China people. As the original works written by China scholars for the Internet age, Global Network Economy edited by Xiao Chen (published by Huaxia Publishing House in September, 1998), Internet Changing China edited by Chen Yan (published by Peking University Publishing House in June, 1999) and Perspective Network Age Series edited by Geng Yan (Beijing Publishing House 1999).

3. Research status of network communication

The study of network communication has become a new field for journalists at home and abroad. In recent years, the breadth and depth of research have been expanding, and even the research itself is closely integrated with the network, including obtaining information from the internet, online interviews, online surveys and so on.

A large number of articles and papers written by news communicators and those directly engaged in online communication can be divided into the following aspects: discussing the influence of online communication on mass communication theory, discussing the relationship between online communication and traditional news media, discussing the construction and operation of news media websites, commenting on foreign online communication laws and regulations, investigating journalists' use of the Internet, and master's and doctoral dissertations.

Generally speaking, the research of network communication is still in its infancy. Therefore, there are many descriptive, countermeasure and explanatory achievements at this stage.

4. Prospect of network communication research

After entering 2000, with the vigorous development of network communication industry, it laid a solid practical foundation for the in-depth study of network communication. At the same time, relevant foreign research results have also been introduced into China through various forms, especially the Internet, which has broadened the horizons of network communication researchers. The development of network communication industry urges colleges and universities of journalism and communication to plan how to train high-level professionals in network news or network communication, and encourages colleges and research institutions of journalism and communication to deeply study the principles and methods of network communication. It can be predicted that network communication will inevitably set off a new research upsurge in the 2 1 century.