Abstract

Relationships in communication by sight, by sound, and by sound-plus-sight as a complex are presented in a three-part tree which specifies how technology is used in processes of imparting information. Applications of technology in making direct communication are indicated; the re-presentation of direct communications is shown as a set of technological processes (e.g., storage and play-back, or transmission and reception) with ideological reinforcement, and so is the reproduction of communications thus transformed or reconstituted (e.g. production of photographic, electronic, typeset, or coded copies). Storage and retrieval of reproduced copies are shown together, without methodological detail, as a separate, major aspect of communication, although they are considered to be part of the technological and ideological applications of re-presentation and reproduction. The tree was prepared for a technology forecasting project.