Notes on digital communication modi

Editorial
Authors:
Abstract:

The present paper draws a sketch of modern understanding of communication in internet/digital space. The point of departure is the assumption about the communicative channel or the medium used as one of the crucial constituents of meaning making process in communication. Based on this assumption, the paper follows the main trajectories and research trends in looking at modi of production and circulating of texts and meanings in digital space. It shows that there are several foci in analyzing the network communication – that on shared knowledge and social practices of sharing knowledge and values within and across internet space; on new approaches to identity construction in new media; on wider range of semiotic resources for constructing and translating identities and meanings. The network communication gives also a special perspective on multimodality as the co-presence of various semiotic modes in a given text/message. It provides multimodality as a technique and a competence which guarantees communication intelligibility. In conclusion, it is stressed that the view to internet (digital) communication is not to be restricted to its technical standards and technical breakthroughs but suggests a more general reflection of its social framework. There is no ‘digital economics’ or ‘digital education’ as offline, stand-alone projects, they have socially embedded and socially sensitive dimensions.