ABSTRACT
Developments in communication technologies are raising new questions and resurrecting old questions about the interplay of interpersonal, mass, and peer communication. Questions about the interplay of mass media and interpersonal processes are not altogether new. Yet new communication technologies demand a revised view of mass and interpersonal processes. New technologies blur the boundaries between interpersonal and mass communication events and/or the roles that communicators take on using new systems. Arguments have been made that the “convergence” of old and new media demands new and unified perspectives on traditionally segregated processes. Some of the questions about the convergence of communication sources deserve reconsideration in light of recent technological developments, many of which were unforeseen when previous pronouncements were articulated, that change relationships of mass and interpersonal sources. More specifically, some new communication technologies are changing the manner of reception by which individuals acquire information from institutional, interpersonal, and peer information sources. Technology changes the temporal and contiguous presentations of these sources, and may in fact change the information processing and social influence dynamics among these sources; that is, the sequence with which sources are sampled or the simultaneousness with which they appear may have potent effects on the information processing filters and biases. “Media convergence” is a term that has been used to connote several phenomena that are brought about by advancements in telecommunication technology that may change some aspect of the communication process. Sometimes the term refers to the blending of previously individuated mass media: One can watch movies on one’s computer, for example. We wish to discuss
another kind of convergence: The potential for simultaneous communication via computers of both conceptually mass and interpersonal channels. For example, one can examine the NYTimes.com while chatting about its content with a friend via Instant Messenger; one can draw political news from a blogger, and post an individual reaction on that blog as a comment. Moreover, in addition to mass and interpersonal sources, new communication technology has made incredibly salient another information source, virtual communities and other forms of peer-generated information, which is accessible at a previously impossible level. This addition may further affect the balance of sources of social influence in several settings. How these information streams influence individuals, of course, is not a magic bullet. We believe that in many cases a deeper understanding of the use and influence of these sources may be derived through a renewed focus on the interpersonal goals that may drive users’ information-seeking and processing. How these new juxtapositions of institutional, peer, and interpersonal sources may change information-processing patterns, and effects of information consumption will have much to do with the interplay of motives that drive particular interactions. Technology has also generated new forms of communication, in social networking sites and other systems, which bridge the structural and functional characteristics of mass/interpersonal/peer communication. Such technologies invite research that will advance understanding of how individuals conceptualize communication, instantiate communication strategies, and interpret new mediated message forms and content. The purposes of the present work are several. First, we revisit approaches to the division and interaction of mass and interpersonal communication processes, to see what questions and assertions have been raised that may continue to guide understanding of these processes as they unfold via new technologies. Second, we will attempt to articulate an expanded perspective on the interplay of institutional, peer, and interpersonal sources through contemporary communication technologies, and to articulate research agendas that can help in understanding of the information-processing patterns that such convergent forms make likely. Third, we identify new forms and functions of mediated communication that challenge previous classifications, in order to invoke principles that may focus research to help explain these new phenomena.
