ABSTRACT
Although the Internet is generally considered to be a technology of communication, computer networks have not always been interpreted and understood in this manner. As its name indicates, the computer was initially designed to provide for rapid and automatic computation. The transmission view of communication, James Carey argues, is derived from a metaphor of geography or transportation that is rooted in an original identification between two forms of interchange. The ritual view of communication, although articulated and addressed subsequently, actually predates the dominant understanding of communication as the transportation of information. Although the study of computer-mediated communication (CMC) can be traced back to J. C. R. Licklider and Robert W. Taylor, their unique approach to the subject matter has been either forgotten, misunderstood, or simply ignored. Consequently, research in CMC has taken rather predictable forms that have been simply appropriated, with little or no critical self-reflection, from the traditions of communication studies.
