Communication modeling: considering complexity in digital technology policies

Abstract

Policies related to digital technologies tend to scarcely consider comprehensive communication models and the way information is actually generated and assimilated in a communicational process. Typically, models that describe communication is completely circumscribed by the technical dimension. In technology-mediated interaction, the effectiveness between the intention of a message and how it is received and understood by a user is fundamental to knowledge creation and the construction of intersubjectivity, and can be decisive in ICT policies. Interactivity, multiple contexts and subjectivity are conditioning factors of this complex process. This paper presents a reflection on how communication models including these factors can contribute to a phenomenological understanding of communication and how such understanding may support the formulation of digital technology policies.