David Paterno

Completed 2014: PhD

Thesis Title:

Technology translated: the communication facilitation of medium

Thesis Abstract:

Drawing upon and synthesizing findings established in select areas of social and medium ecological approaches to the study of human communication, this project advances and tests the utility of a reformed, processual model of communication. This model conceptualises a medium as a coordinated moment forged within the process of communicating. Rather than viewing communication as a process which merely transpires within and through preformed conduits - media - the research presented here suggests that communication itself provides for the functional context into which the built-in features of a technology are placed and organised. Accordingly, it is this organisation - or translation - which is seen to create and manage a technology's semantic potential. The translated form of technology is what we commonly call a medium.
Ethnographic data are used to illustrate the means by which one specific social group participates in communicative patterns and how these behaviours support the translation of a simple technology into a socially significant medium. The social group itself includes members between the ages of eighteen and eighty two. Most of these are younger than twenty years of age and reside within the physical setting of a university residential hall. Other members of the college, though not currently in residence, represent the community's past residents as well as its academic and social visitors. However diverse the members of this community may be, study of their patterns of communication suggests that they form a fairly uniform culture through their reliance on the media uniquely configured within the confines of the hall in which most of their shared activities take place.
The thesis argues for the importance of approaching communication as a process patterned by the functioning of three unique yet co-produced orders. In doing so, it reconvenes and underscores basic work in communication theory scholarship which has not yet been significantly reworked over the past forty years. In sum, this thesis presents a novel and potentially useful means by which to resolve some of the current indeterminism extant in the literature about how a technology becomes a medium by illuminating the processes tied to the instantiation of a medium. In this way, the thesis contributes fresh insight into how the primary social activity of human communication leads to the creation and organisation of a medium.

Supervisors:

Dr Michael Bourk

Associate Professor Ruth Fitzgerald (Department of Anthropology and Archaeology)

Personal Information:

David has spent the past twenty years teaching Communication Studies in the United States. Institutions include Rutgers University, The University at Albany (SUNY), Montclair State University, The City University of New York (BMCC), and the County College of Morris. For the past twelve years, he was a tenured member of the faculty at Delaware County Community College in Media, PA. His research and teaching interests are at the intersection of Interpersonal and Tele-mediated Communication as joined in Communication Theory. He is a distance student and resides in Wellington.

Teaching and Tutoring:

Associate Professor, Delaware County Community College (2006-2013)
MFCO305: Communication Research Practice (2011)
Senior Tutor, Knox College, Dunedin (2011-2012)
Assistant Professor, Delaware County Community College (2001-2006)
Lecturer, City University of New York (2001)
Lecturer, Montclair State University (2001)
Instructor, County College of Morris (2001)
Lecturer, Rutgers University (2000)
Lecturer, University at Albany, State University of New York (1996-2000)

Teaching Awards: Graduate Educator Award, International Communication Association (2000), James Richard McNally Award, University at Albany, State University of New York (1998)

Conferences:

Paterno, D. (2013). Joining (or constrained between) Technology and Medium. Presented to the Department of Media, Film and Communication Studies: University of Otago. Presented at the Annual Postgraduate Research Day (October).
Paterno, D. (2013). A Bridge to Communication Island: Rediscovering Our Unique Perspective. Presented to the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association. ANZCA Annual Convention (July).
Paterno, D. (2012). At the Crossroads of Two Words: Human and Communication. How does a Technology become a Medium? Media Ecology Association. Presented to the MEA Annual Convention (June).
Paterno, D. (2012). Conversations Outside the Convention: Brokering the Discovery of Media Ecology with Contemporary Students. Presentation on the panel On Doing Teaching Media Ecology: Reports from the Classroom. Media Ecology Association. Presented to the MEA Annual Convention (June).
Paterno, D. (2012). Understanding Media in Context: The Renewed Relevance of Multilevel, Multichannel Communication Research. Presented to the Australia and New Zealand Communication Association. ANZCA Annual Convention (July).
Paterno, D. (2011). Of Tail Hooks and Arresting Wires: Coordinating Communication Discoveries in the Classroom. Presented to the Australia and New Zealand Communication Association. ANZCA Annual Convention (July).
Paterno, D. (2011). Privacy 3.0: We're here, we're public, get used to it. Presented to the Internet Research Group of Otago. 2nd Annual unconference (January).
Paterno, D. (2007). Reflections of a Medium Past: Projections of a Medium Future. Presented to the National Communication Association. NCA Annual Convention (November).
Paterno, D. (2006). A Primer in Media Literacy: Practice and Pedagogy. Presented to the Eastern Communication Association. ECA Annual Convention (April).
Paterno, D. (2004). Understanding Listening Post or New Media as Pathway to the Global Village. Presented at the Eastern Communication Association. ECA Annual Convention (April).
Paterno, D. (2003). Making the connection: Using technology to coordinate student learning across the semester. Presented to the National Communication Association. NCA Annual Convention (November).
Paterno, D. (2000) Art as Architecture, Architecture as Medium. Paper presented to the Eastern Communication Association Annual Convention (April).
Paterno, D. (2000) Using Contemporary Art to Teach Media and Communication Studies. Short Course sponsored by the Eastern Communication Association Annual Convention (April).
Paterno, D. (1999) Contemporary Art and Communication Studies. Tour and Lecture at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Sponsored by the National Communication Association. NCA Annual Convention (November).
Paterno, D. (1998) Making Sense of the American Family: Audience Constructions of Social Realities. Presented to the Eastern Communication Association Annual Convention (April).
Paterno, D. (1998) Understanding the Medium: The Artwork of Bruce Nauman and McLuhan's Theory of Mediated Communication. Paper presented to the Northeast Graduate Student Conference, Ithaca College(April).
Paterno, D. (1997) Global Communication: The Current State of the Global Village. Paper presented to the Northeast Graduate Student Conference, Cornell University (April).
Paterno, D. (1996) International Communication: A call for new inquiry. Paper presented to the Northeast Graduate Student Conference, Central Connecticut State University (November).

Publications:

Paterno, D. (2012). Understanding Media in Context: The Renewed Relevance of Multilevel, Multichannel Communication Research. In C. Anyanwu, K. Green, J. Sykes (Eds), Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association conference: Communicating Change and Changing Communication in the 21st Century, ISSN 1448-4331
Paterno, D. (2011). The New Media Ecology. Essay published in the programme guide for the play The Truth Game. Fortune Theatre, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Paterno, D. (2011). Of Tail Hooks and Arresting Wires: Coordinating Communication Discoveries in the Classroom. In A. Henderson (Ed.), Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association conference: Communication on the Edge, ISSN 1448-4331
Sterin, C., Paterno, D., Jones, D. R., and Weiss, D (2011). Instructor's Manual and Test Bank for Mass Media Revolution: Sterin, 1st Edition. Pearson Education Press.
Paterno, D. (2002). Outsider on the Inside/Insider on the Outside: The Changing Role of the Audiences in Contemporary Sculpture. Proceedings of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. Pueblo Colorado, University of Southern Colorado
Paterno, D. (2000) The Image of Humanity as seen through Contemporary American Art: Bringing Postmodern Visions to a New Public. Proceedings of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. Pueblo Colorado, University of Southern Colorado
Paterno, D. (1998) Making Sense of the American Family: Audience Constructions of Social Realities. US Department of Education ERIC Database Monograph #_ED42460