Broadcast and network systems differ structurally in direction of information flow

Evidence

With the radio system, the central transmitter is connected in a single (‘univocal’) direction to a multiplicity of peripheral receivers. The communicational process is ‘discourse’. In a network system, multiple participants are connected among themselves in a (‘biunivocal’) way that enables them all to transmit and receive; the process of communication is ‘dialogue’. The aim of the first system is to broadcast pre-existing information; […] the aim of the second system is to synthesize pre-existing partial information; […] in the second, the level of information is raised; in the first, information is simply stored up. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 250

Categorization

• DEFINE: Flusser’s broadcast-vs-network distinction is the conceptual hinge the whole section leans on.
• XREF: Connects to earlier communication-theory material contrasting monologic broadcast with dialogic networks. — connects to: The networked audience differs from broadcast audiences in enabling active participation — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 593; The networked audience differs from broadcast audience by being connected. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 550