Abstract
In 2005, I taught my first course in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). The text I used was a relatively new one, Human Communication on the Internet (Shedletsky & Aitken, 2004). Prior to that, most of the available texts that might work for a class had been collected into cyberculture/online life collections or published in the journals—often examining either identity construction or interactions among users within chat rooms, MUDS (Multi-User Dungeon), MOOS (MUD, Object-Oriented), and the like. Human Communication was focused on the communication discipline, taking specifically a Communication Studies approach to the topic at hand. Oddly enough, that text has been (until quite recently) one of the only textbooks to cover such a wide topic. Now, 17 years later, my how things have changed.
Farman, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, offers a chronological examination of how one aspect of CMC study, regardless of discipline, has evolved along with the technology. More than a collection of seminal essays, Farman has curated materials here that will serve researchers, instructors, and definitely students. Often, as instructors, we are under massive pressure to find the most recent materials so the class seems relevant. What I appreciate here is that Farman took a moment to take a step back and consider what pieces help us understand where the work into the intersection of technology and society has been and where it is going.
The ability to strictly focus on mobile media studies offers both limitations and opportunities. In particular, Farman illuminates the interdisciplinarity of the work: Here, readers will notice that those who come from vastly different disciplinary backgrounds . . . are still very much in conversation with those in other fields . . . I hope that in each of these chapters readers will be able to identify the range of conversations that have been taking place over the past two decades. (p. xiv)
By reading through and exploring these chapters, we are able to see how the study of “communication and technology” (and its intersection with “communication technology”) has progressed. The book offers essays that interrogate and examine of technologies such as the telegraph, mobile phones, the camera, and video games. Each chapter asks “what are these technologies” and “how have they influenced who we are.” As mobile technology has definitely become the primary technology utilized by the majority of digital technology users, this conversation is important—if not essential. Farman’s text provides the space for this to occur.
I can easily see this book used in several classes—from a foundations course for a graduate program to a topic-specific course exploring CMC, social media, and the like. It would definitely offer various historical and topical perspectives to the technologies and the ways these have changed how we interact with one another. One element I would have liked to have seen for each of the chapters, or as an epilogue, is a discussion or listing of additional works, perhaps even where these works have been cited and used. This would work both to demonstrate how the arguments still hold true and how new arguments are being made and still need to be developed. I find that these sort of closing chapters always help, both pedagogically and in my own research.
Overall, Foundations is well worth examining for use, either as a resource or as a pedagogical tool. As it is an edited volume, use it any way you like. The chapters flow in a relatively chronological progression with regard to the technology examined, so you could easily use the text in as formatted. Explore it, check it out, and add it to your own libraries.