Papers in PDF format

the Internet, in terms of information traffic patterns, can be considered quite a unique medium in that it undoubtedly
constitutes the most complex ‘multipattern service’ in the contemporary media landscape.
Even if we focus on the individual Internet services or applications, the boundaries between information
patterns are not necessarily razor sharp. A given homepage on the World Wide Web can present both
consultative characteristics (homepages are selected for visits by the individual consumer), registration
characteristics (counting of visitors), conversational characteristics (forms for direct e-mail contact with the
homepage owner), and possibly transmission characteristics (if the homepage is constantly updated such as the
Trojan Room Coffee Machine). In this case too, the specific services and applications are best described as
‘multipattern services’, where the idealized information traffic pat terns are only building blocks.
From this point of view, as ‘multipattern services’, the matrix opposes itself to a certain extent. The very
construction of the matrix and its application to current media phenomena like the Internet, demonstrates that
the characteristic patterns and the sharp distinctions disintegrate in favor of more complex and hybrid
information patterns and media forms. The typology, nevertheless, offers a suitable description tool, in that the
different new media and services can be significantly described as a combination of several information
patterns.
There are several further points to be made from this matrix typology. For reasons of space, however, I
will only be able to give a few brief indications (see [Jensen 1996c] for a more complete study). If we consider
education within the framework of the two dimensional matrix it appears that all four traffic patterns are
represented, although on a different scale: the transmission mode when the teacher is lecturing, the consultation
mode when the pupils study their books or ask questions, the registration mode when the teacher subjects
pupils to examination, and the conversation mode when pupils (and the teacher) discuss the subject matter. It
can be inferred from this, among other things, that systems for distance learning must provide possibilities for
all four information patterns. This is one of the reasons why, contrary to expectation, education through
transmitting media like TV always has been a failure, and conversely, why multi-pattern networks now offer a
more promising possibility [see Bordewijk & Kaam 1986]. Similar considerations can be made in relation to
other spheres of application.
Regarding legal issues, it can be said that because the eight patterns refer to eight mutually exclusive
social power relations, similar regulatory aspects can be considered relevant for all services that follow one and
the same information traffic pattern. The three dimensional pattern matrix can thus serve as a basis for drawing
up a legal framework: the left column of the matrix emphasizes copyright issues, responsible press laws,
censorship, content regulation (e.g. the Communications Decency Act); the right column emphasizes civil
liberties, freedom of speech, security, protection of privacy, including issues such as encryption, secrecy of the
mails; the top column emphasizes public access and control procedures; the bottom column emphasizes access
to public information, the free flow of information versus state interference; the front column emphasizes
market regulation and regulation of monopolization; and the back column emphasizes issues relating to public
service. Each information pattern thus lies at the intersection of three lines of regulatory concerns. In this way
the matrix provides us with a map of the social and legal position of new information services and computer
networks (which makes it clear that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ standard will not do in this case). In similar ways
several other inferences concerning regulatory aspects can be drawn from the matrix.
The Internet is undoubtedly on its way to becoming the new socially influential medium, and a medium–
or a complex of media–of a hitherto unprecedented complexity, flexibility and power. I believe that the
theoretical approaches and frameworks presented here are relevant for analyzing (and designing) computer
networks, services and applications, and that their relevance will increase in the years to come. And I believe
that they will particularly prove indispensable for the understanding of the Internet as media–and hence for the
conceptual mapping of the Web.
References
[Andersen, Holmqvist & Jensen 1993] Andersen, P. B., Holmqvist B. & Jensen, J. F. (eds.) (1993).
The Computer as medium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[Bordewijk & Kaam 1986] Bordewijk, J. L. & van Kaam, B. (1986). Towards a new classification of Tele-Information
services. Intermedia, 14 (1).
[Jantzen & Jensen 1993] Jantzen, G. & Jensen, J. F. (1993). Powerplay. Power, Violence and Gender in Video Games. AI
& SOCIETY. The Journal of Human-Centred Systems and Machine Intelligence , 7 (4), 368-385.
[Jensen 1993] Jensen, J. F. (1993). Computer Culture: The meaning of technology and the technology of meaning. A triadic
essay on the semiotics of technology, in [Andersen, Holmqvist & Jensen 1993]
[Jensen 1995] Jensen, J. F. (1995). Multimedier og Teknologiudvikling. Rapport udarbejdet for Statsministeriets
Medieudvalg 1995. (MultiMedia and technological development. A Report to the Media Commission under the danish
Department of State), Copenhagen: Medieudvalget, Statsministeriet.
[Jensen 1996a] Jensen, J. F. (1996). Interactive Television: ‘Coming soon at a screen near you’. K&K, 80, 27-66.