We have provided concepts relevant to this chapter so that you can check your understanding. These concepts are worth dissecting in more detail. As a research option, examine one concept. Use our citations as a starting point for your study. We recommend that you search for refereed articles in an online database. Find at least three solid references you can read. Summarize, scrutinize, and present your analysis to other people in your course.

Questions to stimulate your inquiry: Do you agree with the ideas as we presented them? What other points of view should be considered? What details need to be added to fully understand the concept? What can you contribute through your personal analysis of the concept? What more do scholars need to know about the topic?

30-year rule. Saffo said that 30 years is about how long people take to completely embrace and use a new technology.

Association is a link or coordination of a behavior which is paired with something else. For example, violent video game is associated with violent behavior. In other words, association is a relationship between Internet use and various activities, behaviors, and experiences. Associations are not necessarily effects.

Attributing meaning refers to giving or assigning meaning to something, understanding it a certain way.

Channels are our senses and provide the ways through which we send the message. We convey a message through sound, sight, smell, touch, taste.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is human interaction through computer technology.

Consciousness is awareness and perceptual understanding.

Context is the situated meaning, environment, timing, occasion, physical place-that affects the way communication happens-the way meaning is assigned. The Internet alters the context. In some ways, but not all ways, the Internet transcends the time and place of communication. Cyberliteracy is having knowledge and expertise to effectively use and understand the Internet.

Decoding is the process of analyzing a message in order to obtain meaning from it. In other words, decoding is when the individual makes sense out of the message by attending to, processing, analyzing, remembering the message.

Discourse is the process of conversing, interacting, and talking.

Effects are direct results of mediated communication.

Encoding is putting a message into language and other symbols so that it can be sent to another person (or even to one's self). Encoding is the process of translating an idea into language, and therefore, a message.

Feedback is the communication response. As a public speaker, you'll want to observe audience reaction, facial expressions, head nodding or shaking, restlessness, and any cues that give you information about their response to your message.

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is communication between a person and a computer (the software, a computer robot).

Intensification is the ability of the Internet to enhance, deepen, or increase elements of communication. Walther (1996), for example, calls communication on the Internet "hyperpersonal."

Internet--also called the Net--is an electronic communications system that connects computer networks and organizational computer facilities around the globe.

Intervening variables are variables that operate between what seems to be the cause and effect. In a sense, they challenge the researcher/theoretician to understand how a phenomenon works.

Medium is the way communication is conveyed-e.g. computer, television-which affects the way we communicate, sometimes improving our ability to communicate in certain ways and sometimes making the communication more difficult.

Message is the encoded idea or understanding that the speaker shares with the audience. Metamorphosis is an evolutionary change. When a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, for example, there is a metamorphosis of form. In observing the Internet, we have observed more than just change, we have observed evolutionary change. The Internet causes metamorphosis: of information, of people, of behaviors, of media, of society (Fidler, 1997).

Noise is a distraction during a communication situation. Noise can be actual noise, a thought, a visual distraction, or other influences that break your focus. Noise is anything that interferes with transmission and can include internal and external influences.

Receiver is the one who is given a message, such as the individual who receives an email.

Sender is the source of a message, the person who sends an email for example.

Syntax is how language fits together: structure of utterances in terms of nouns and verbs, clauses, interrogatives, imperatives, and grammar.

System is an integrated, interactive, working structure, such as a computer network or the interpersonal organization of a particular family.

Technological determinism is the idea that the technology is the primary force that controls how individuals and society change (Winston, 1995).

World Wide Web--also called the Web or WWW-is a part of the Internet designed to provide easier navigation of that network.