Communication historically meant community-sustaining ritual, not mere information delivery

Evidence

“Digital communication,” Han argues, “is increasingly developing into communication without community.” What might this mean? History generally follows two ways of understanding communication, the first of which relies on a transportation metaphor. Communication is the movement of information, of “content,” of data, from one place to another. The second, which can be found in the history of religious thought, pragmatist philosophy, and even descending from Kantian aesthetics, is that communication sustains a community in time. Communication is a ritual that perpetually reperforms social relation. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 99

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets up the two competing models of communication (transport vs. ritual) drawn from Carey, relevant to understanding what influencer ‘audiences’ actually lack.
• XREF: Echoes James Carey’s communication-as-culture thesis already in the reader’s notes; Han’s point complements it.