Congratulations to Dr. Lane Grafton on his latest publication, “The Bias of Mediation: How Communication Technologies Transform Social Relations,” which will be published in Explorations in Media Ecology this spring.
Dr. Grafton is a faculty member in the department who currently teaches Argument, Public Speaking, Rhetoric & Society, and Communication & Society. His scholarship focuses on the effect that technology has on individuals as well as society.
His latest publication utilizes the work of Marshall McLuhan and Walter J. Ong to explore the biases and effects of unmediated and mediated communication, asserting that unmediated, in-person, communication creates social unity while mediated, technologically assisted communication, promotes connectivity. Overall, his analysis considers the evolution from unmediated to mediated forms of communication on a societal basis, and considers the effects this evolution has had and will continue to have on the self and social relations.