Communication is a broad area with a lot to offer in terms of career fields and specialization. One area that interests me is communication and new media, which focuses on technological advancements and digital media. New media is crucial because technologies cause significant social change, and societies adapt to innovations (Hauer, 2017). Modern telecommunications such as interactive media and language translation devices enhance message delivery. Some of the key thinkers in this area include Shannon Claude Elwood, Turkle Sherry, and Weaver Warren.
- Claude Shannon Elwood: Claude falls under mathematical communication, and he is credited as the founder of information theory, where he analyzed the combination of Boolean algebra and switching circuits. His work on Shannon entropy established the foundation for the efficient packaging and transmission of electronic data. It also formed the basis for the digital circuit design that is essential to most modern devices. Shannon’s theory applies to statistical interference, lossless data compression, machine learning, and cryptography (Peng, Yang, Cao, Yu, & Xie, 2017). This model provided the specification for the critical communication components and how they are used to convey messages efficiently.
- Weaver Warren: Weaver’s work can be categorized into the broader field of communication of speech. He is considered the pioneer of machine translation because he was the first to propose computers for translation in 1949 (Kharb, Kumar, Kumar, & Chaturvedi, 2017). Warren argued that for the translated message to retain its intended meaning, the translator must understand the context by analyzing other words in the statement. Warren also worked with Shannon Elwood in creating the Shannon Weaver model of communication.
- Turkle Sherry: Turkle is in the social studies school of communication and media category. She is known for exploring the effects of digital devices on relationships and social life (Raman, 2016). Turkle notes that while technology is essential in communication, it isolates and creates an environment without empathy.
Technological advancements allow people to communicate conveniently using the wide range of available innovative devices. New media explores various innovations and how they are used for communication. The three selected key thinkers in this field conducted research that defined the future of digital communication and how it affects society. Warren and Shannon created research papers that formed the foundation for communication models, machine translation, and information encoding and transmission. Turkle also researched how the continued dependence on new media affects society.
References
Hauer, T. (2017). Technological determinism and new media. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2(2), 1-4.
Kharb, S., Kumar, H., Kumar, M., & Chaturvedi, A. K. (2017). Efficiency of a machine translation system. 2017 International conference of Electronics, Communication and Aerospace Technology (ICECA), 1(1), 140-148.
Peng, S., Yang, A., Cao, L., Yu, S., & Xie, D. (2017). Social influence modeling using information theory in mobile social networks. Information Sciences, 379, 146-159.
Raman U. (2016). Talking to Sherry Turkle about relational communication and the digital media. The Wire.