ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a model of communication behavior in specific social contexts that has theoretical implications for telecommunications systems. Three primary dimensions common to all communication behavior are proposed: temporality, involvement, and control. The chapter deals with implications of the model in several traditional areas of communication research. It examines the rich variety of human communication across the diverse systems and to derive a number of common dimensions shared by all communication behavior. The chapter introduces certain essential elements of a model of communication which have strong implications for the study of telecommunications systems. It explores the issue of mediation as it pertains to several traditional areas of communication research, in order to consider whether the mediation concept has been theoretically as useful as is generally assumed. The chapter discusses the special case of electronically mediated communication systems and reviews some of the efforts that have been made to conceptually organize the work in the area.
