Week 1 - Module 1.1.3

Human factors have largely remained the same despite the digital changes. Why is it important to consider the human factors of communication?

The communication goes two-ways.

It’s pretty straight forward: a conversation is a two way street. None of this “talking at someone” mindset, a dated approach reminiscent of mass media days where businesses had the power to choose when, where and how they communicated AT their consumers. The most potent transformation recent technology brings is the power shift it brings to the consumer.

Source: Mung, B 2017, The evolution of business communication, Youandco.com.au, You & Co.

If conversation is two-way, engagement is important. Human engagement. The human dimension of storytelling are fundamental to driving engagement. Emotion and subjectivity have always been an important part of the propagation of meaning and ideas. This was as true of Gutenberg’s innovation as it is of the transmedia landscape of the web now.

How will you keep this in mind during this course?

I think that the corporatisation and narrowing of communication channels and the polarisation of alternative viewpoints is destructive. I am interested in the human dimension of my day job (architecture) and equally of my other day job (communication).

I am less interested in profit (attention, eyeballs, clicks) at the expense of value (slow engagement, quality, inefficiency). The nexus between these things are storytelling, meaning and communication. How, what, where, when and with whom.