The New Medium Process

What other medium does email re-mediate? Like we discussed in class the obvious answer would be writing letters. But writing a letter and sending it in the mail is a form of contrast to what we now know as e-mail. In Judith Lee’s chapter she states that email re-mediates a simpler format for communication within the organization, known as memorandums or popularly known as memos. In memos you don’t need the whole address, you just need the: to, from, and subject line. She says that the email format copies the memo rather than letter writing. The memo became the major medium in inter-organizational communication. Lee goes on to explain e-mail as a new medium. She says that email is a lot less formal than other mediums; in that sense, it’s compared to conversational speech. She says it has elements of both written and oral conversation. Part of the difference between written and oral communication is that in writing we are much more tolerant, but at the same time you can’t always tell the boundaries. She also points out part of the problem with this mode of communication is the general tendency to be much less formal with email. The difficulties people face with it is that in oral communication your engaged, with writing you tend to take more time, edit even if you want, because of this it becomes more informal. She also mentions that email is a hybrid medium; the tendency to use abbreviations goes along with American culture. This emerges because it is a fast medium. Although Lee has made strong points that are very true at the same time but getting a new medium and the idea of remediation is only part of the point. On top of everything that Lee has stated, a new medium is created and with time it is inevitable for it to start to develop codes that didn’t exist before. I find that the changes that come along with new mediums should not be consider in-formalities as much as they should be considered a part of the new medium process. Part of the convenience with internet access is the speed in which words can travel. With that being said, it is only necessary to use this medium as much as we can to its advantage and part of that is discovering new forms of communication. This is not just the case for e-mail. This idea has continued even to this day with the many different forms of communication continuing to develop.