Mediated Communication Systems Research Articles

Towards a multiscale QoE assessment of mediated social communication

Modern immersive multisensory communication systems can provide compelling mediated social communication experiences that approach face-to-facecommunication. Existing methods to assess the quality of mediated social communication experiences are typically targeted at specific tasks or communication technologies. As a result, they do not address all relevant aspects of social presence (i.e., the feeling of being in the presence of, and having an affective and intellectual connection with, other persons). Also, they are typically unsuitable for application to social communication in virtual (VR), augmented (AR), or mixed (MR) reality. We propose a comprehensive, general, and holistic multi-scale (questionnaire-based) approach, based on an established conceptual framework for multisensory perception, to measure the quality of mediated social communication experiences. Our holistic approach to mediated social communication (H-MSC) assessment comprises both the experience of Spatial Presence (i.e., the perceived fidelity, internal and external plausibility, and cognitive, reasoning, and behavioral affordances of an environment) and the experience of Social Presence (i.e., perceived mutual proximity, intimacy, credibility, reasoning, and behavior of the communication partners). Since social presence is inherently bidirectional (involving a sense of mutual awareness) the multiscale approach measures both the internal (‘own’) and external (‘the other’) assessment perspectives. We also suggest how an associated multiscale questionnaire (the Holistic Mediated Social Communication Questionnaire or H-MSC-Q) could be formulated in an efficient and parsimonious way, using only a single item to tap into each of the relevant processing levels in the human brain: sensory, emotional, cognitive, reasoning, and behavioral. The H-MSC-Q can be sufficiently general to measure social presence experienced with any (including VR, AR, and MR) multi-sensory (visual, auditory, haptic, and olfactory) mediated communication system. Preliminary validation studies confirm the content and face validity of the H-MSC-Q. In this paper, we focus on the underlying concepts of the H-MSC-Q. We make the initial draft questionnaire available to the community for further review, development, and validation. We hope it may contribute to the unification of quality measures for mediated social communication.

Effect of Computer-Mediated Communication System on Job Satisfaction of Employees in Transmission Division of Ceylon Electricity Board, Sri Lanka

This study aims to investigate how computer mediated communication (CMC) system have impacted on employee’s job satisfaction of Ceylon Electricity Board, Sri Lanka to fill the gaps in the computer mediated communication literature and provide useful information on interpersonal relationships within an organization. The sample of the study consisted of 400 respondents representing executive and medium level technical service (MLTS) staff of the transmission division of Ceylon Electricity Board in Sri Lanka. Self-administered questionnaire and the web-based questionnaire was used to collect primary data while data were analyzed with Partial Least Squares path modeling (PLS). The research findings indicated that computerized maintenance management is the most significant factor impacting on the employees’ job satisfaction and it also identified that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of instant messaging and electronic mails on employees’ job satisfaction. The results provide valuable input regarding the instant messaging and job satisfaction.

Employee’s Job Satisfaction with Computer Mediated Communication System

To fill the gaps in the computer mediated communication literature and provide useful information on interpersonal relationships within an organization, this study aims to investigate how computer mediated communication (CMC) system have impacted on employee’s job satisfaction of Ceylon Electricity Board, Sri Lanka. An empirical research was conducted to test the hypothesized relationships based on a conceptual framework developed through a comprehensive literature review on CMC and job satisfaction. Through a literature support this model consisted of three independent variables (i.e., electronic mails, instant messaging and computerized maintenance management) in computer mediated communication system and a dependent variable which is job satisfaction. The sample of the study consisted of 100 respondents representing executive and medium level technical service (MLTS) staff of the transmission division of Ceylon Electricity Board in Sri Lanka. Self-administered questionnaire and the web-based questionnaire was used to collect primary data. The data were analyzed with Partial Least Squares path modeling (PLS) to test the hypotheses of the study. The research findings indicated that computerized maintenance management is the most significant factor impacting on the employees’ job satisfaction. Moreover, it also identified that there is a positive and statistically significant impact of instant messaging and electronic mails on employees’ job satisfaction. The results provide valuable input regarding the instant messaging and job satisfaction. Therefore, managers should have to pay their more and more attention in order to improve instant messaging as one of the communication media in an organization. In this research considered only three CMC dimensions which influence the job satisfaction. But there are more CMC dimensions used as organizational communication in future studies.

Distance Learning with Video Mediated Communication Systems and its Effects on a Follow-up Face-to-Face Meeting

Distance Learning with Video Mediated Communication Systems and its Effects on a Follow-up Face-to-Face Meeting

Emotional Awareness: An Enhanced Computer Mediated Communication Using Facial Expressions

This paper describes the design of a prototype for an emotionally enhanced computer mediated communication system which is aimed at compensating for the emotional distance between communicators. The prototype system encourages the sender to take the emotional perspective of the message receiver by giving the sender a sense of how his message may affect the intended receiver, and by allowing the sender to reconsider sending the message or revise it. The objective of an emotionally enhanced communication system is to raise awareness to the ease in which a written word might be misinterpreted since emotions are too often unseen due to the nature of lean communication media. In order to show the receiver’s assumed emotion, the written text would be parsed before sending the message. An algorithm, for demonstrating the prediction of the emotion a written message might evoke, will choose a facial expression from a pool of 7 expressions, according to the words and phrases inserted in the message. We conducted a user test to evaluate the acceptance and attitudes toward such an emotionally enhanced communication system and received a high level of acceptance and favorable attitudes towards using it.

El contrato de confianza con la información televisiva

The work focuses on the trust that society places on the Spanish television news. From the relative fidelity to the various news programs of the respective television networks, it can be supposed the domain of the trust in television networks above the trust in its programmes and professionals. Based on the relative limitations of luhmanian approach to account for the trust with regard to organized mediated communication system, it is made an empirical approach to the perception of the public television news. The main empirical sources are various surveys of Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas and six focus groups among the middle class, with different ages. They were held in Madrid and focused on information in television.

Short message service or disService: Issues with text messaging in a complex medical environment

BackgroundHospitals today are experiencing major changes in their clinical communication workflows as conventional numeric paging and face-to-face verbal conversations are being replaced by computer mediated communication systems. In this paper, we highlight the importance of understanding this transition and discuss some of the impacts that may emerge when verbal clinical conversations are replaced by short text messages. MethodsIn-depth interviews (n=108) and non-participatory observation sessions (n=260h) were conducted on the General Internal Medicine wards at five academic teaching hospitals in Toronto, Canada. ResultsFrom our analysis of the qualitative data, we identified two major themes. De-contextualization of complex issues led to an increase in misinterpretation and an increase in back and forth messaging for clarification. Depersonalization of communication was due to less verbal conversations and face-to-face interactions and led to a negative impact on work relationships. ConclusionsText-based communication in hospital settings led to the oversimplification of messages and the depersonalization of communication. It is important to recognize and understand these unintended consequences of new technology to avoid the negative impacts to patient care and work relationships.

Designing for Interpersonal Trust – The Power of Trust Tokens

Computer mediated communication systems (CMCSs) are increasingly being used to support activities of virtual teams, improving information exchange and capacity of these teams. However, the technology that enables these teams to benefit from effective and timely information exchange suffers from constraints of media richness, limiting the amount of social information that can be transmitted. This missing information can affect the formation of trust between members of these teams. In this paper, we conducted an ethnographic study to identify behaviors that facilitate the development of trust within face-to-face teams as an opportunity to design interface design objects with similar effects. A key observation was trust tokening, where trust is conveyed through social referents. Trust tokening has the potential to be adapted for use in computer support systems where establishing interpersonal trust is just as important as face-to-face collaborations.

Design on Monitoring and Evaluation Methods for CSCL System

The problem of capitalizing on experience of how to track and analyze the learning processes is of particular interest in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments, where learning is usually based on the interactions occurring among peers. This paper provides some examples of DPs addressing tracking problems in CSCL environments. Our DPs have been elaborated with a twofold aim to contribute to the field by proposing possible solutions to tracking problems frequently faced in CSCL; on the other hand, by using DPs as a tool for sharing experience, we hope to inform the development of functions that could be integrated in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) systems in order to support the monitoring, evaluation and assessment of the learning experience and therefore augment its effectiveness.

Mitochondrial-Nuclear DNA Interactions Contribute to the Regulation of Nuclear Transcript Levels as Part of the Inter-Organelle Communication System

Nuclear and mitochondrial organelles must maintain a communication system. Loci on the mitochondrial genome were recently reported to interact with nuclear loci. To determine whether this is part of a DNA based communication system we used genome conformation capture to map the global network of DNA-DNA interactions between the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes (Mito-nDNA) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells grown under three different metabolic conditions. The interactions that form between mitochondrial and nuclear loci are dependent on the metabolic state of the yeast. Moreover, the frequency of specific mitochondrial - nuclear interactions (i.e. COX1-MSY1 and Q0182-RSM7) showed significant reductions in the absence of mitochondrial encoded reverse transcriptase machinery. Furthermore, these reductions correlated with increases in the transcript levels of the nuclear loci (MSY1 and RSM7). We propose that these interactions represent an inter-organelle DNA mediated communication system and that reverse transcription of mitochondrial RNA plays a role in this process.

Analysis of Communication Barriers to Distance Education: A Review Study

Now that the technology is changing fast and due to the multitude of people demands and conditions, traditional educational systems and institutions have to provide additional educational alternatives. There are some educational establishments contributing to these conditions and demands by developing and offering distance education programs. In such programs, teachers and the students do not establish a face to face communication thus creating difficulties and are separated by physical distance and time. As a result alternate media sources are used to deal with these difficulties. That is to say, different delivery systems such as computer mediated communication systems, video tapes, printed material, cassettes and instructional television are used to deliver instructions from tutor to students. Moreover, the universities have the advantage of using World Wide Web to deliver the instruction to nearly any node in the world, regardless of the physical distance and time because of the developments in the Internet and the global network systems, Almost all institutions which are offering distance education should try and find the most effective program and make sure that it is a sufficient replacement for face-to-face education. Its effectiveness of course is dependent on how interactive the process is and how it overcomes the communication barriers among the members involved. Communication barriers, on the other hand, as in any communication process, also exist in distance education because of such reasons as the physical distance between members, the difficulties of dealing with new media, having time constraints and restrictions, background knowledge of distance education, incompetence in skills of using technology, and the interactivity level of the process. Put all together, effective distance education process becomes almost impossible. The levels of these barriers are different in different institutions or in different programs and in different delivery systems used.

音声駆動型身体引き込みキャラクタに眼球動作モデルを付与した身体的コミュニケーションシステム(機械力学,計測,自動制御)

In this paper, we analyze human eyeball movement through their avatars, by using an embodied virtual communication system with a line-of-sight measurement device. On the basis of this analysis, we propose an eyeball movement model, which consists of an eyeball delay movement model and a gaze withdrawal model. Then, we develop an advanced communication system in which the proposed eyeball movement model is applied to speech-driven embodied entrainment characters called InterActors. The communication system generates the eyeball movement on the basis of model, and it generates the head and body entrained motions of InterActors by using the speech input alone. The effectiveness of the proposed eyeball movement model and the developed communication system is demonstrated by means of sensory evaluations in an avatar mediated communication system.

Synthetic Economies and the Social Question

The Social Question, formulated originally by German thinkers such as Gustav von Schmoller, asks what should be done about those who receive relatively fewer material benefits from the current set of economic institutions in society. The answer to the Social Question seems to have been, broadly speaking, social insurance and limited redistribution by the state. And yet a new technology has emerged that may change things. Avatar–mediated communication systems do not actually alter anything fundamental in the way human material inequality is constructed, but they do make certain powers of construction substantially more accessible and easier to see. In almost all multi–user environments on the Internet, ordinary users already create much of the entertainment that is consumed, but there are two types of inequality: First, the total wealth held by users is dramatically, almost breathtakingly unequal. Some users have millions and millions of gold pieces and gear that shines like chrome. Other users have no money at all and gear made of old rags. Second, the users’ rate of wealth increment per hour or unit of effort is also unequal, though less dramatically so. This article explores the opportunities for experimenting with new ways of addressing the Social Question in virtual worlds. Such experimentation can, in turn, provide models for policy–making by geopolitical governments

Learning through synchronous electronic discussion

This article reports a study examining university student pairs carrying out an electronic discussion task in a synchronous computer mediated communication (CMC) system (NetMeeting). The purpose of the assignment was to raise students’ awareness concerning conceptions that characterise effective pedagogical interactions, by collaboratively comparing and discussing their analyses of a dialogue between a tutor and a student. To examine whether the use of synchronous CMC could meet this end, students’ dialogues are characterised in terms of their constructive and argumentative contributions, and by their focus on the meaning of concepts. In addition, a comparison was made with a control group in which no peer coach was available with two forms of peer coaching. Peer coaches were focussed either on structuring arguments or on reflectively checking arguments in terms of strength and relevance. First, the results indicate that the study of students’ learning from electronic discussions requires an analysis of focus in relation to argumentation. Second, the coaching instruction did not fulfil our expectations. In this study, students seem to need support to focus on meaning rather than on argumentation in general, but they may also need support to hold overview, to keep track of their discussion and to organise their interface. Text-based electronic communication seems to be sensitive to such issues that may cause meaningful interaction to be disturbed.

Managing psychological contracts

Employment Relations TodayVolume 24, Issue 2 p. 1-10 New Idea Managing psychological contracts Donna Blancero, Donna Blancero Donna Blancero, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of management at Arizona State University. She has worked as a researcher at the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University and was also a senior sales marketing analyst. Her areas of expertise include psychological contracts, fairness, and alternative dispute-resolution systems.Search for more papers by this authorGeorge Marron, George Marron George Marron, Ph.D., works in human resource management for Federal Communications Group in Tempe, Arizona. He has 16 years of management experience as a multiunit supervisor for CVS Pharmacy. His research areas include core and contingent workers and work and family issues.Search for more papers by this authorTom Keller, Tom Keller Tom Keller, Ed.D., is an associate professor of management at Arizona State University. His teaching, research, and private-sector consulting interests include strategic management, performance measurement, compensation and employee incentive systems, information technology management, ergonomic facilities design, and electronically mediated communication systems. He has coauthored two books and published numerous articles in professional business journals.Search for more papers by this author Donna Blancero, Donna Blancero Donna Blancero, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of management at Arizona State University. She has worked as a researcher at the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University and was also a senior sales marketing analyst. Her areas of expertise include psychological contracts, fairness, and alternative dispute-resolution systems.Search for more papers by this authorGeorge Marron, George Marron George Marron, Ph.D., works in human resource management for Federal Communications Group in Tempe, Arizona. He has 16 years of management experience as a multiunit supervisor for CVS Pharmacy. His research areas include core and contingent workers and work and family issues.Search for more papers by this authorTom Keller, Tom Keller Tom Keller, Ed.D., is an associate professor of management at Arizona State University. His teaching, research, and private-sector consulting interests include strategic management, performance measurement, compensation and employee incentive systems, information technology management, ergonomic facilities design, and electronically mediated communication systems. He has coauthored two books and published numerous articles in professional business journals.Search for more papers by this author First published: 31 January 2011 https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.3910240202Citations: 1 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume24, Issue2Summer 1997Pages 1-10 RelatedInformation

Classifying Mediated Communication Systems

Classifying Mediated Communication Systems

Media Aids to Communication in an Educational System

Abstract The writer argues that the advent of informatics and associated technology has given new relevance to the concept of learner‐centred education. He traces the history of certain elements and artefacts which underpin our core culture and hence our mediated communication systems. He maintains that personal sovereignty over ways of learning helps develop creative thinking and leads to the proper development of a cultivated mind.