Towards a New Communications Model

Over the past few years, I have watched and participated in the changes confronting communications practitioners due to the Internet, the web, mobility etc. -- all of the new networked communications tools.  I think something more is going on here than just a bunch of new tools added to our professional communicator's tool kits (this is a shift in thinking for me, as originally I just saw the tools that needed to be used correctly).  I believe a fundamental shift in the entire model of communications (under which I include marketing, PR, advertising, etc.) is now possible.

I am talking about moving from the old command/control, uni-directional, war-metaphor driven practices of the past to a cooperative, multi-directional model a la the Cluetrain.

I have written a lot about how I think communications is changing, and others have as well.  But this information is currently fragmented, anecdotal and spread all over the place.  What I decided I wanted to do was to synthesize this information with theories from communications studies, media ecology, philosophy and science and technology studies, and come up with a new model that people can use, test, improve, etc.

I will be leading a blog week at the International Association of Online Communicators blog in January on this topic.  I am currently looking for a few people to join me.  Richard Bailey has already said he'd like to, and I need at least three other folks.  This will be a very academic, research-oriented discussion, which I hope will offer fruitful paths forward to the creation of such a model.

I am working on a framework definition of the model, but briefly, I am trying to re-read Marshall McLuhan, taking his idea of "implosion" and combining that with Donna Haraway's idea of "situated knowledge", plus work from Jurgen Habermas on communicative rationality, Bruno Latour on Actor Network Theory and Richard Rorty on neopragmatic conversation, and many others.

While McLuhan was a technological determinist at heart, I am not, and I believe Haraway's work on embodied knowledge is a hopeful path forward.  We need such a path if we are to fight the forces of censorship and control.

I would love your thoughts, ideas on sources, etc.  If you are reading and thinking along these lines, and want to be an author for a day on the blog in January, please let me know.

 

Comments

[Charles Lunan]

Where do you suggest I read up on the use of communications to change corporate culture and engineering corporate culture in general?

[Elizabeth]

I'd suggest reading Neville Hobson's blog: NevOn (see sidebar), Shel Holtz's blog: a Shel of my former self (see sidebar), and the others as well. I'd also check out the New PR wiki (www.thenewpr.com).

I'd suggest also that you read the Cluetrain Manifesto.

[Ray Daly]

Interesting research. Don't know how much I could contribute.

You stated that "McLuhan was a technological determinist at heart" and I too thought so. But time and again McLuhan argues that he is not. I think his belief was that by understanding our technology that we could avoid being ruled by it.

Personally, I'm interested in working with McLuhan's tetrads and Laws of Media. Trying to work on an internet community using hyperlinked tetrads.

[Robin Stavisky]

Hi Elizabeth,
I really enjoy your site and the questions you raise. In my experience, the "new model" is really an integration of old and new approaches. Successful companies don’t simply throw out the old in favor of the new, but rather integrate them into their total marketing mix.

The same applies to marketing tools and practices. Traditional techniques, such as advertising, PR, and direct mail, have not been replaced, but they sure have been impacted. I've written in more length on the subject in a recent post on my own site under Convergence Marketing and would welcome the opportunity to write more on the subject in January.